A Conversation with Evolution

(This blog was originally published at http://www.masterpeace.org/blogs/post/a_conversation_with_evolution)

(Note: The term ‘god’ is used in this article to mean the process of evolution and not the idea of a personal/religious god.)

Me: Why is there so much conflict in the world?

God: Are you not supposed to be the most powerful and intelligent specie on the planet? Perhaps you may want to try answering that question yourself.

Me: I am not so sure about that any more. I mean, we have managed to cause conflicts around the world, crashed a few economies, screwed up the environment, raped and plundered millions and even littered garbage in the little part of outer space we have clambered up to. Is that what our power does?

God: That depends upon what power means to you.

Me: I thought power meant our ability to control things around us.

God: And why is your definition in the past tense?

Me: Because I am not sure any more. We barely have control over anything. If I look around, people are jittery about global warming, they bite nails over volatile stock prices, tear their hair over rising prices and worry about depleting fuel. Sometimes I look at animals and birds around us and wonder – they never seem to have conflicts or worries. Yes, they kill. But they only kill to eat, not to hoard food. They barely compete the way we do. I am not sure if they collaborate, but at least their competition is not cut-throat like ours. So what does our power really account for?

God: Now that you acknowledge that there are other residents on your planet besides you, are you willing to consider the premise that you may have something to learn from them?

Me: Yes, I suppose so.

God: Good. An open mind is the first necessity as well as the outcome of real power. Now, coming to your point about hoarding: all living beings store food when they sense imminent scarcity. Birds store fat in their bodies before long migratory flights. Camels store water when they come across an oasis. Ants store food in their nests for extreme winters. Storage is natural. The difference between animals and birds and you is this: they store. You hoard. They collaborate with nature. You compete with each other.

Me: You mean we are greedy?

God: Evolution does not judge. It merely gives everything in the environment a chance to grow.

Me: So I need to choose a neutral term to describe what we do?

God: This is not about word play. You will progress in your thought process if you find out why you hoard. Other beings store due to instinctive knowledge of and connection with the earth’s natural cycles. You hoard out of fear. What is it that you fear?

Me: I think we fear lack. We fear that there won’t be enough. And therefore those that have hoarded – whether it is money, food, land, homes – will be more powerful in days of scarcity. But there again, do animals not fear? I know animals panic and run when they are chased by predators.

God: The fear of animals is an instinct for survival. Yes, they certainly value and protect their lives. They run when they are chased by hunters or predators. However, when an animal is ultimately killed, it gives up life without the drama that your power play entails. All beings close to nature and its rhythms, including some human communities, are gracious in death. They do not fight it, for they know death is an essential element of life. It allows for evolution and progress by providing a pause – a pause that is like the momentary stillness between an exhalation and the next inhalation of breath. It is crucial. If you start inhaling before you have completely exhaled, you do not have enough space for fresh air to enter the lungs. Beings that are in sync with nature do not erect monuments for their dead. They mourn, and move on. They do not plot to avenge the death of their kin, whether they are killed for food or for fun by you. Of course, a mother tiger will fiercely protect her cubs from intruders. But that is out of respect for life, not out of a need for possession. And that is why she cares and nurtures, but does not resist when the cub grows up and wanders away to find his own territory.

Me: Is our superior intellect and emotional capability not an asset then? What about being humane? Where does that figure? And what about the idea of being civilised as compared to being savage or animal-like?

God: Those are your definitions. Tell me, what is a superior intellect expected to do?

Me: It is supposed to make great decisions.

God: What about your emotional capabilities?

Me: Those make us compassionate and caring.

God: What is being humane about?

Me: It indicates the tenderness and sympathy in our behaviour.

God: And what is civilisation?

Me: It is being orderly and social. It means living in a progressive community and following rules that uphold the safety, dignity and respect of our fellow beings.

God: Impressive traits I must say! What a wonderful world it would be if you used all those traits to create one…

Me: Well, we have advanced technology. Life is infinitely easier than it was a few centuries ago. A lot of us live in comfortable houses. But yes, a lot of us starve. A lot of us are raped. A lot of us live in fear of our fellow humans. And a lot of us seem to hate some fellow humans.

God: Perhaps all those traits you describe can come to your rescue?

Me: It is not that we lack them. But… I don’t know… why do we not display them all the time? Why do we have both peacemakers and warmongers? Why do we have both altruists and hoarders?

God: Yes, you do not lack them. Those wonderful traits are very much present. But what is also present is the fear we spoke about. Humanity as a collective has a fear of lack: lack of power. As your genus evolved, it developed the ability to stand upright on two limbs, as compared to other land animals. This ability gave it an advantage of height. Gradually increasing brain sizes also gave it other mental abilities such as development of complex language patterns and communication within a group. Given that, at that point, the only source of reference and comparison were the other land-based four-legged animals, it was perhaps natural to feel different and marginally superior. However, what your specie seemed to ignore was the biological cost of this evolution: An upright posture also meant a body that gradually evolved to be slender and narrower at the hips, to support the legs. The females in your specie faced the consequences of this: as compared to other animals, the birth canals became very narrow for the size of the baby after a full gestation period. If you observe animals giving birth, their hips are wide enough to facilitate a natural birth without the need for stitches post-labour. However, human females had huge mortality rates due to the mutation of the posture. Latent survival instincts kicked in over a period of time and the body learnt to deliver babies sooner, when their cranial size was just about the size of the opening of the uterus. However, this also meant that human new-borns had very under-developed brains as compared to other mammals. This phenomenon continues today. Consequently, your babies are helpless at birth. They need to be nurtured with great care for a long period of time till they can survive on their own. Look at the young ones of most mammals: they begin to move and eat on their own very soon after birth. Now, the consequence of this biological dependence is this: it gives scope for and promotes psychological dependence and gives rise to conditioning. Therefore, there is a huge probability of inheriting emotional legacy, not all of which is healthy. Over millennia, this inheritance has metamorphosed from an initial sense of being different as compared to land animals into a feeling of superiority and simultaneous frustration at the lack of total control over the environment. And this mixed feeling leads to your fear, for your belief about being superior is challenged by the reality that contradicts it. And it is this collective fear that you act out of, that has led to the world as it is today. The conflict outside is reflective of the conflict inside.

Me: Wow. We are botched up. It seems quite improbable to now stop controlling the environment and give up the technology we have built up. I mean, yes, we release CFCs and destroy the ozone layer, but can we really give up the air conditioners? Yes, we build concrete jungles and destroy forests, but can we give up urban housing? Yes, we deplete the earth of her oil deposits, but can we stop driving cars? And yes, we force the land to yield using chemical fertilizers, but how else do we feed billions of us? Are we doomed? Can we do nothing about the world now?

God: No, you do not have to give up reasonable growth. But you do need to give up the legacy of fear. Yes, you have superior capabilities intellectually, emotionally. But true intellect and courage is when you can acknowledge your power and ability to create and develop your world and yet, choose to exercise that power only and only for inclusive creation and development. Include the planet and all its life in your plans. They are as sacred as you are. Your sense of separation from them due to your perceived superiority has now snowballed into a sense of separation from fellow humans. If you want to heal this conflict between human nations and communities, start healing where it all began. Reconnect with nature and its rhythms. You talk of intellectual superiority – are you superior enough to understand that there won’t be a human race if you destroy the living planet that you need for your sustenance? You talk of emotional superiority – do you have the courage to correct your belief from ‘the world belongs to humans’ to ‘humans belong to the world’? True power is not about proving your superiority. True power is sharing your superior capabilities to uplift an entire world without having to make someone inferior just so that you can feel superior.

Me: Where do we begin now?

God: Begin with yourself. Be the message. And the change will begin. You are only one, but you are one. And enough individuals have changed the world in your history. The only difference is that often, the change was for the world. Now, the change is for you. The suppression of the feminine energy (not the female gender) began biologically with the shift of the human posture. The feminine began disconnecting from the natural rhythms then. The feminine energy is the ability to flow with nature. It is the ability to create and destroy joyously, knowing that all of evolution is cyclical. Like the waxing and waning of the moon, like the alternation of day and night, like the cycle of the seasons. The masculine energy is the ability to enjoy and use these cycles to grow. Through the collective choice of humanity over centuries, the masculine has risen in a manner that has suppressed the feminine. You have tried to conquer death and in the process spurted birth, thus unbalancing the feminine. It is time to right the balance. And it has nothing to do with your biological sex. Each of you contain the masculine and the feminine. Let the feminine rise again, till it is in balance with the masculine. Then you will flow again with the rhythm of life on this planet.

Me: And will we continue to develop as rapidly as we have done in the last few decades?

God: Do you mean develop, or evolve? Development is a human construct. It may not align with the rest of the world at all, as you have experienced already. Evolution is sustainable development. All life forms on this planet are where they are today because they permitted evolution for millennia. Till your specie came along and decided you can take matters into your own hands. In denial of death, you deny evolution. In fighting nature, you stall evolution. Let your superior capabilities choose now between development and evolution. And remember, you choose for an entire world. That is your power.