Our ancestors

If we go back far enough in time, at some point almost all life on Earth is related through common ancestors. Even something as different from humans as insects were, at one time, related to us through a commmon ancestor which would have been a type of worm.

I often think about worms. They are such primal creatures. There was a study released recently which found that pesticides and fungicides signiciantly affect worms. They must expend considerable resources to detox if their soil is poisoned with pesticides and fungicides. Worms in such conditions are substantially smaller in size than those not exposed to such toxins.

It is unimaginably cruel to subject a worm to toxins. We as humans have multiple senses including vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell, and feeling. But our relatives worms only have the sense of touch (perhaps they do actually also taste and maybe smell).

While some may argue that, lacking more senses like a human, a worm is therefore a lower life form and harming such an organism is not that bad.

But lately I’ve really thought about this and I believe the opposite is true. Since a worm has only this one sense of feeling, how much more cruel would it be to subject such a being to the exposure and harm of toxic chemicals? It is unimaginably cruel. It is barbaric beyond description.

A worm is the embodiment of a docile, peaceful being. Its existence only brings good things to Earth. As human beings, we have intelligence and should be capable of understanding the role all organisms play in this world and why we should never harm them.

Yet in this time we see that humans continually perpetrate wholly atrocious acts against other organisms as if it were just normal. As if it were simply the right of humans to cause suffering and destruction.

One thing I believe about how karma works is this: I believe that as a being evolves and acquires more responsibility, it is then up to that evolved being to fully accept its responsibility and to live with the wisdom of reverence for all life.

If such responsibility is neglected then why would such a being re-incarnate with such opportunity again? If a being is gifted with a mind to know good from bad, right from wrong, life from death, yet it fails to use its mind to benefit life, then it loses it. It will not have such a responsibility in its future.

Maybe this isn’t exactly how it works. But I think there must be some thing which, over cycles of lifetimes, causes beings to become wiser.

There may be temporary imbalances, sometimes of vast proportions, in which suffering increases, when responsibility is neglected, when beings abdicate their higher responsibility out of ignorance. But eventually the cosmic cycles turn and things change. Sadly it is often suffering which causes such changes.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are those beings in this world which follow a path of transcendence, who shine light into the darkness of ignorance and alleviate suffering in the world.

I hope all people will start thinking deeply about their sacred responsibilities towards all living creatures, towards this wonderful planet which is our mother, to take the utmost care and have the utmost respct.

There is no reason that a lowly worm should not be able to live its life happily in the soil. All creatures are precious in their own way. What we see as their weakness or simplicity might actually be that which we should most cherish about them. When we encounter other life forms more vulnerable than ourselves we shoudl become even more resolved to protect their sensitive lives and allow them the right to live their lives in bliss.

Only then will humans be truly great. If we cannot do that, then humans will fall because they do not then deserve to become great.

Its shocking to me how humans can think and act as if they are so intelligent, yet they do not use their minds to grasp basic wisdom like this. What other use of a mind is there, if it is not used for love, for benefitting all beings, for caring for others?

Imagine being a worm. Imagine the entire world coming through your sense of feeling. The Earth surrounding your body. And the bliss of being in healthy, nourishing, living soil. Why shouldn’t we all be able to feel that way our entire lives?