Life Verses (Up to Our Ankles in Aphorisms)

Prologue

“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”   Lao Tzu

“Let go busy mind, relax busy body, be still busy heart, that all cycles move to natural rhythms. Life is a dance not a race. The invitation is to be at peace with the movement, now and now and now.”   Eleanor Velarde

(I)

Limitless love unfolds itself, and a universe appears. Life blesses us with love, every one.

Life loves you. If life didn’t love us, went off in a huff, withdrew from us, we’d all be dead. So if you’re alive you know this much for sure, “Life loves me.” Strange though it might sometimes seem, life clearly also loves my neighbour. So when I love my neighbour, I and life are one in love.

Love is the way of the truth of life. Because this is so, love is also the way to the truth of life.

“Seek and ye shall find.” Well, yes, but only if we look in the right place. Nothing can be found where it isn’t.

Which do you think would weigh more, be of more substance, of more effect, of more value – a whole world-full of illusions, or a thimbleful of reality?

In reality, there is only reality. Only in illusion is there illusion. Light shines, darkness vanishes. In life, there is only life.

Consciousness is a matrix, fabric or field of interactive, creative energy. The creative processes of this energy field cause that which is real to appear – in the field of consciousness, in our awareness. That which is real, but invisible, is caused to be visible – is translated into the world of perception, the world of space and time that appears around us, our bodies included. When the creative processes of consciousness are governed by life all that appears in the field of consciousness is alive – is a visible, life-filled representation of the invisible reality of life as it unfolds.

The creative processes of consciousness are also able to cause that which is unreal (illusions and delusions, absences, death and the things of death) to appear in consciousness. So not everything that appears in our consciousness is real. Conflict, wars, hatred, murder, violence, stealing, misery, fear, greed, assault, robbery, vandalism, rape, torture, poverty, powerlessness, starvation, death – these and more like them do appear in consciousness and not one of them is real. Not one of them is of life. Each one is an illusion, an appearance in consciousness of the absence of the presence, the wonder, the beauty, the magnificence and the limitless generosity of life.

When light is present, darkness is gone. When life is present, death is gone. Presence dispels the illusion of absence. The appearance of absence reveals an apparent lack of presence. The appearance of death and the things of death reveals an apparent lack of life. The appearance of hatred and the things of hatred reveals an apparent lack of love. The appearance of dishonesty, lies and deception reveals an apparent lack of the light of true understanding. Under the illusions’ spell, these lacks appear real to us – because they appear in our consciousness. But consciousness doesn’t make things real. It makes them appear, visible, show up in space and time. What is real is real, whether or not it’s visible to us. That holds for the unreal, also.

Clearly life is present on earth, yet death and the things of death are also present on earth. How can this be? After all, life is doing it’s part, doing the best it can to fill the earth with life. The dolphins, the trees, the whales, the vegetables and the birds, they’re all playing their part in life as best they can. It seems we humans have long forgotten our place and function in the planetary ecology, the part we play in replenishing the earth with life. We have been living the ways we have been taught to live, learned to live, following out the many and various ways of the world, of our socialisation. Doing this, we have come out of conscious alignment with life. It is mankind who has temporarily disturbed the fabric of consciousness, allowing death and the things of death to appear on earth – to appear in our consciousness of the earth.

The human consciousness or mind is magnificent, it’s an essential aspect of life’s government of the creative processes of consciousness. But the human mind on its own is neither designed nor able to govern its consciousness, its world, the world that appears in consciousness. For the mind to govern its world intelligently would require the mind know all the relevant factors concerning everything – and that’s just not something a mind can do. Whenever the mind attempts to govern the world around it for its own ends it disconnects itself from life and something that is not of life puts in an appearance – in consciousness, in the world. The revelation of the truth of life is obscured. In this apparent absence that which is not true of life, not real, appears in the field of consciousness.

There is only one solution to the problems of death and the things of death that infest this beautiful world and those who dwell therein. More and better scientific knowledge is not the solution. New or better religions, philosophies, governments or societies are not the answer either. More education, more training, they too won’t do it. Some of these may be useful, may be essential, but life and the things of life are the only answer, the only solution to the problem of death and the things of death.

Only life can do what only life can do. Only life can give life to the earth, and bring the earth to life. We human beings and all other living things are living, visible evidence of this. The earth of our bodies, that atomic substance, that part of the earth of this planet has been bought to life in these human forms.

The more we surrender the government of our lives to life and the things of life, the more life can govern the creative processes of consciousness. Thus is the earth replenished with life.

(II)

Life is magnificent. Maybe that sounds a bit grand? A trifle unrealistic? Some of us have justification for believing it to be utter nonsense. “Magnificent? Life’s a bitch and then you die.” One of many mistakes I’ve made is to confuse my experience of life with life. It’s easily done. Swimming in the sea and having a wonderful time it’s easy to experience the sea as something wonderful. And if we’re having a horrible time in the sea, it’s easy to experience the sea as something horrible. I’ve met people who find wonderful sea that I find horribly cold! The sea is an essential part of the planetary ecology and it continues to play its part in that ecology, in the whole, for the well-being of the whole regardless of whether we think or feel it’s wonderful, horrible or anything else. The sea is magnificent. Likewise life is what it is and does what it does regardless of whether we think or feel it’s wonderful, horrible or anything else. Life is the life-giver, and gives life, and plays its part in the whole for the well-being of the whole. Life is magnificent.

The magic of life is the real magic, the true magic. This magic appears all around us and also within us, unfolding season after season, but how many notice this?

There’s a Zen saying “Don’t push the river.” Why not? Well for starters, we won’t notice that the river of life is always causing all things to work together to perfection. And we won’t notice that “all things” includes our mistakes. And others’ mistakes also.

Life is life-giving. Let us be likewise, that life may do its giving through us. Only as we align with life can we be the channels though which life and the things of life flow through us into the earth, into our world.

Life is always now. Life is always here.

It’s fine to consider them when fitting but whenever we lose ourselves in the past or in the future we deprive ourselves of the present. We deprive ourselves of the life that is present. We also deprive what is present with us of our presence – no one can give what they do not have. Our presence is our most precious gift, uniquely important to the well-being of the planet, even if we have been socialised to ignore or deny this.

It’s not possible to impose peace on anyone. You may have noticed! Peace can be nurtured though, encouraged. How can I make it easier for others to know peace? How can we make it easier for others to know peace?

There is no peace without life. To know peace it is necessary to be alive. To know or experience anything it is necessary to be alive.

Life never makes the same thing twice. Life is always new, perpetually renewing. Everything life creates is new, unique. Every life-form is a unique, one-off dance of life and form, of formless and formed, of heaven and earth. Thus does the earth share in the heaven.

If we stop and look, we all know that it is the presence of life in us that makes us human beings. Death, the absence of life in us, makes us human corpses. This is not rocket science. Death is an absence of life – an absence, a nothing. There is no power in death. All power is in life. So there’s no way death can do or achieve or accomplish anything.

The dead know nothing. I’ve never had the experience of being without life, have you? Is it even possible to experience being without life, dead? Since we have to be alive to experience anything, I guess not. And if it’s not possible to experience being without life, dead, then no one ever has, or will. So there are no dead. Even if in our consciousness, nurturing memorial thoughts and feelings, it appears to us that there are.

We are in fact already aligned with life – if we weren’t, we’d be dead, would not be. No matter how we have lived until this time, no matter our failures, no matter our successes, we are all already whole, human and being, life and form, and the life that is in us is whole, is complete, magnificent, wonderful, beautiful, generous. Always. Let us learn to align with life more fully, more accurately, more awarely, that through us life may more fully, more accurately, more awarely bless the world around us, and all who dwell therein.

There is no love without life, and no life without love. Life is loving, and love is alive.

The most loving thing we can do for our loved ones, for our friends, for our enemies, for our community, for our world is to align ourselves with life, to let ourselves come more fully into alignment with life. This is forgiveness, both received and given; this is love.

One way to align with life is to love our neighbours. We’ve heard this already – “Love one another,” “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” “May all beings be happy and at their ease!” Now we’re hearing it again. Clearly hearing, by itself, is insufficient.

To appreciate is to add or increase in value. Life is value. To bless is to add value. Blessing is adding life, that life might be increased, multiplied, in the earth.

Life’s blessings for you come through other people. Life’s blessings are empowering. They empower us to find and bring forth something of the best of ourselves. Life’s blessings for other people come through you.

If you ever get the idea that magnificence is difficult, arduous, maybe even impossible, go and look at a cat. Spend some time with this being. Really see it – let it be fully in your consciousness. Can you see its easy, relaxed, magnificence, it’s natural state of grace? Go and look at a tree, let it be fully in your consciousness. Then really see some other trees, some flowers, a leaf, some grasses, some more animals. Can you see how common magnificence is? Magnificence is the natural order of things, part of the nature and character of life, part of our nature and character.

It’s not magnificence that’s hard, it’s mediocrity. Mediocrity is hard because it’s not part of our true nature; it’s a process of illusion which deludes us out of the truth of our magnificence. Magnificence? No sweat. Mediocrity – that’s a sweat.

You are, right now, right here, magnificent. You always have been magnificent and you always will be magnificent. Let us try not to lie about it anymore. Practice keeping the truth of yourself safe. Nurture it, both gently and firmly as required. The truth of yourself is the most important, the most valuable, the most precious thing there is on this planet, at least for you. Guard it well, with life, and with love.

In reality, magnificence is nothing special. It’s natural to life, as common as life. And all life is way beyond any human conception of value. All life is priceless, and cannot in any way be bought. Life is a priceless gift, freely given; how much of this gift we receive is to some extent determined by us.

Beauty is in all of us, only how it comes out of us varies with our individuality.

Beauty is all around us, only how we appreciate it varies with our individuality.

(III)

Let the earth be replenished with life, with the presence of life, with the government of life, that the truth of life may be revealed on earth – in the consciousness of mankind.

Important decisions are best made with a clear mind. And sometimes it is the process of making an important decision that clears the mind.

I’ve heard it said, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” What a delight! But if our human experience has us, if we believe it is us, if I believe my human story is my story, not so delightful.

There’s a metaphor, a story that long ago, now gone from all human memory, (a fraction of a cosmic second ago), the mind of mankind caught itself on itself, lost its balance and fell out of the heaven of the earth into the earth. Came to identify with the earth, feel it was of the earth, that earth, physical matter, atomic substance in all it’s wondrous forms, phases and ranges, was all there is. Now mind is remembering, earth is magnificent, and earth is not all there is. Before earth was, life is. Before earth was, I Am.

The earth-identified or earth-bound mind lives in a jungle, a jungle of pasts and futures, of desires and dislikes. He likes to think he is king of this jungle, able to go to and fro and up and down in it as he pleases. (I know!) What the earth-bound mind doesn’t notice is that he creates the jungle, that without him and his noise, there is no jungle. What is the sound of one hand clapping? Stop. Breathe. One hand is clapping. What do you hear? Listen. What sound does a great tree make, falling in a forest, if there’s no one there to hear it? No noisy earth-bound mind, no jungle. Just the wondrous garden of life.

Individually and collectively we humans are in the habit of thinking and feeling that the earth, nature, the environment around us, is rightfully under our control. You could say that we are, rightly, the land-lords of this planet. But not all on our own. Not without our life-lord, the lord of the creative processes of consciousness. If we are the land-lords of the earth, then the life in us is our life-lord, the life-lord of the earth.

Not having what I want makes me unhappy.

Tell me one thing that makes you unhappy because you don’t have it.

Not having a bigger home makes me unhappy.

If you didn’t want a bigger home, would not having it make you unhappy?

Well, no. In fact, if I didn’t want one, I’d probably be quite glad I didn’t have it.

Wanting what isn’t, not wanting what is, neither one is a recipe for happiness. What is, is. Why not be happy anyway, glad with things just as they are? What could it hurt? Would it stop you cleaning your teeth or tying your shoe-laces, doing the shopping? Would it stop you having or enjoying a bigger home?

Abracadabra Algebra

[x + y] = [x] + [y]

[human being] = [human] + [being]

[life form] = [life] + [form]

[human life form] = [life] + [human form]

Therefore it must be at least as valid, accurate and true for us to say “I am the life in this human form” as it is for us to say “I am this human form with life in me.” And it must also be invalid, inaccurate, untrue to say “I am only human.” It might be valid, accurate and true for a corpse to say “I’m only human,” but corpses can’t say anything. I am the life in this human form.

We say we are human beings. If this is true then it must be true that we are beings, not only humans. We are not just human forms of life, we are also the life present within the human form. As human forms we appear, we change, we disappear. As life we are changeless – whole, complete, magnificent, wonderful, beautiful, generous – with or without a human body and human consciousness.

As humans we have much to learn, but there’s no need to panic or hurry. As life we already are and already know all that we are and know. Our joy is in expressing ourselves, in sharing ourselves, in revealing something of the limitless generosity of life. Life gives itself to the earth, and the earth comes to life, and enjoys growing. True magic!

The false magic is the earth-bound mind trying to get life to do what it wants so it can enjoy its desires and avoid its dislikes and go to and fro as it pleases. The ways and means of going about this task are legion, and teachers and instructors are almost everywhere to be found.

Who is beauty? Life is beauty.

Who is life? We are life, being, I Am, in human or other form, or not in form.

There is no freedom without control, no control without discipline, no discipline without responsibility. So “liberty,” freedom without responsibility, is just a myth, a dream, an imagination. No matter. Responsibility is freely available everywhere, anywhere. How might I add value here? So anyone can walk the road of freedom, anytime they choose. But for most of us the open road of freedom is obscured by a veil of illusions, a bit like a sleeping beauty surrounded and hidden from view by a great thicket.

If I’m not responsible for adding value to the world in which I dwell, who is? Exactly who should you be speaking with? If you’re not responsible for adding value to the world in which you dwell, who is? Exactly who should I be speaking with? If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?

Practice develops skill; skill practiced develops mastery.

Sometimes resolute commitment, firmness or hardness can be a blessing. Bones, sinews and teeth, these are all blessings. In supporting a house, hard rock is better than soft sand.

“This is the challenge and invitation of mindfulness, to live life as if each moment is important, as if each moment counted and can be worked with, even if it is a moment of pain, sadness, despair or fear…

Cultivating mindfulness can lead to the discovery of deep realms of relaxation, calmness and insight -- within yourself. It is as if you were to come upon a new territory, previously unknown to you or only vaguely suspected, which contains a veritable well-spring of positive energy for self-understanding and healing.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

(IV)

Like father, like son? It has been said, “Love never fails.” Life gives. Love is the heart, the central essence, of life. Life never fails. Like mother, like daughter?

The world we have around us collectively, the world we live in, is a result of the way we live. We have people who live as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, doctors, criminals, etc, etc. As a result we have in the world Christians, non-Christians and Christianity; Muslims, non-Muslims and Islam; Hindus, non-Hindus and Hinduism. We have doctors and non-doctors and medicine; criminals and non-criminals and crime, etc, etc. If say, no one lived as a Christian, there would be no Christians, no non-Christians and no Christianity. No one is born a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, a doctor, a criminal, an Israeli, an American or an Iranian. We are all born human beings, the rest we learn from the world around us. The world we have around us, the world we live in, is a result of the way we live. We create the world we live in by the way we live. Not just collectively, but individually too. So the only way to change the world is to change the way we live. This is not a change that anyone can impose upon or do for another.

When we don’t see enemies, all we see are friends.

There’s a story about a man who overheard this conversation in a butcher’s shop. Customer: “I want some of your best meat.” Butcher: “Sir, all the meat in my shop is the best meat.” Later the man wrote “If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.”

Many people are hoping for a better life but fortunately for us there is no better life, anywhere. All life is eternal, all life is the best life. The kingdom of heaven is within us all. Seeing this, what is possible to us is a new way of life, a new way of living, a way that’s aligned with life. Out of this new way of living, of thinking, speaking, doing, emerges a new sense of self, a new experience of life, and a new world. Initially the world around us is just the same, the same old earth. But because our way of living is new we see it in a new way, and interact with it in a new way. Because we interact with it in a new way it is no longer the same world, no longer the same old earth. As we live in a new way both we and our worlds are renewed, and the earth is replenished with life.

It has been said, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” In us is life; and the life in us is the light of men. I am the light of men. Not I, Tim, am the light of men. That’s nonsense. I, Life, am the light of men. When Jesus said “Come unto Me” I don’t think he was inviting the then whole population of the world to emigrate to Palestine and form a gargantuan throng around him. He also said “I am the life.” “Come unto Life.” We’re all human beings, all life in human form, so we might all say “I am the life; I am the light of men.” None of us has to say it, I’m not saying anyone should say it, only that we all can say it.

Is there anything you love that you don’t value? Is there anything you value that you don’t love? This is a form of love, one form that love takes, one form of loving – a response to value. We love that which we value, and value that which we love. There is another form of love, a form of love that characterises life – giving value, adding value, creating value. Life gives itself to the earth according to the laws of life, and the earth is brought to life, brought alive. And something magnificent and beautiful appears on earth. To add value, to affirm life in some person or circumstance, this is love of life.

There are no barriers to the road of love but there are barriers to seeing that a life of love is possible. In fact, anyone can choose to love at any time. How might I add value here? That thought, word or act of love may be virtually unnoticeable in the earth, a tiny, seemingly insignificant thing, but it is nevertheless a thing of love, a thing of life, a thing of reality appearing in the world of men.

Complaint, resentment and blame are not of life – life neither complains, resents nor blames. So when we feel these painful things, when these or other dark clouds appear in our awareness, in the heaven of consciousness, don’t be greedy. Don’t say “This pain is mine,” because it isn’t. It’s the pain of the world appearing in your consciousness, or in mine. Maybe some of the suffering of the world is seeking Buddha’s compassion, that it may dissolve and be free of its suffering. Who is Buddha? Look in a mirror. Who is able to meet these dark things with compassion? Look in your own heart. So keep breathing, let the dark clouds be, bless them with your presence maybe, let them pass. All things pass – clouds usually quite quickly. And sometimes, if we treat them right, dark clouds can shower us with soft, sweet rain.

Life does not curse, life doesn’t know how to curse, so life only blesses. Let us be life-like. Our business is not with cursing, resentment, complaint or blame. Our business is with life, with love, with blessing, with adding value, with friendship. These are some of the important things, the real things, the things of life.

Let us replenish the earth with life. Let us be magnificent just as we are, each in his or her own unique way, in the circumstances that are now. Have fun. As Chunyi Lin says “Life is for happiness, life is for love.” Remember the animals and the plants and what they told us about our natural, inbuilt magnificence. Not only in some of us, in all of us.

Life loves you. If life didn’t love us, went off in a huff, withdrew from us, we’d all be dead. So if you’re alive you know this much for sure, “Life loves me.” Strange though it might sometimes seem, life clearly also loves your neighbour. So when you love your neighbour, you and life are one in love.

From limitless love, life flows, and a universe unfolds. Life blesses us with love, every one.

Epilogue

“If there is magic anywhere, it is in you.” Jon Kabat-Zinn

“Rise up, my love, my fair one.” Song of Solomon

If you enjoyed “Life Verses” you might also enjoy “The Symbiosis Code – mankind’s place in nature.” The themes of the aphorisms are explored in the form of an 8 page article. To receive “The Symbiosis Code” please email Tim Richardson at bellingham@onetel.com. It’s one of a collection of eleven essays on personal and collective development, bearing in mind that develop comes from a French word meaning unwrap, uncover, reveal. They will shortly all be available at www.archangelicbody.org

Feedback is welcome. Feedback from an earlier version of Life Verses:

• “Thank you! ‘When we don't see enemies, all we see are friends’ – I especially love this line!” (Kari Bye)

• It clarifies - makes plain and simple - some of those basic "truths", the building blocks upon which other assumptions are made. For me at least! I like the way your mind works and it helps me see things in a particular way that suits the way my mind works. I read and re-read parts until I understand. I also love the way you play with language. Chrissy (Hawkes)

• “I read it today and marvelled again at your very fine articulation of the truth.” (Kristy Clark, KLCLARKCO@MSN.COM )

• “I suggested to Bob that he might like to read it as his bedtime reading! I always read something spiritually uplifting before I go to sleep.” (Nicola Hague, editor@spiritualforum.org.uk)

Reflections on Being 

Human Being

Biologically, we human beings are life-forms, human life-forms, human forms of life, life in human forms. Both individually and collectively we are one life-form among many. Life has many forms, and is in all its forms.

For millennia we human beings have been brought up to believe that we’re “only human.” “I’m human. Life is something I have in me, it’s not who or what I am. ” But our teachers erred and we all got conned, for we are not only human. We are also being, also life. A life form is not only a form, it is also life. What makes us human beings is the presence of life within the human form, and what makes a human corpse is the absence of life within the human form. We’re not human corpses, we’re human beings, so life is certainly part of who we are! Therefore the “I’m only human” experience of identity we are all taught is unwhole, inaccurate, false. It’s a denial of our being, of our life, of our wholeness, now. Whereas “I am (a being or aspect of) life in human form” is an accurate, truthful and whole statement of our identity, right now. If this seed is nurtured, it will grow.

Many people know something of the essential part trees play in the ecology of this planet, or the part earthworms play. If we look deeply into what all symbiotic life forms actually do, we see that they give life to other life forms, just by being themselves. Like plants naturally providing oxygen for all us animal life-forms. If they could talk they could truthfully say, along with Jesus of Nazareth apparently, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

The Logic of Life

Logic is that branch of philosophy that deals with thinking and reasoning, with thinking clearly and well, both inside our heads and in the words we speak. In practice logic is all about discerning how and why certain things fit together. It’s about what fits with what, and how, and why. And what things don’t fit together, and why. “Do these statements fit together with this conclusion? Do they form a valid argument? And why, or why not?” You could say that logic is the study of congruence and incongruence – from the Latin “congruere” meaning “to agree; to come together.”

Congruence is things fitting together. It might also be called agreement, coherence, belonging, harmony, peace, friendship or even intimacy. In some situations congruence, might be called inter-dependence, co-operation, teamwork or symbiosis. Incongruence is things not fitting together – disagreement, disharmony, incoherence, conflict, competition, enmity. When we say of an argument or arrangement or system that it is “logical” we mean that it is congruent, coherent – it all fits together, works together. When we say of an argument or arrangement or system that it is “illogical” we mean that it is incongruent, incoherent – the parts don’t fit together, don’t work together.

The human body is a logical system: all our parts and systems are congruent, coherent. They all fit and work together, all doing what they are designed to do, all in symbiosis, in harmony, cooperating uniquely and together in the well-being of the whole. We might call this logic of living systems “bio-logic” – the logic of life. Harmony and cooperation in the well-being of the whole is clearly the way of health, of wholeness, of life. Not just in our individual bodies but also in our collective body (mankind), and in the planetary body.

Whole and Part

A part is only useful, meaningful, when it is a functioning part of a larger whole. Outside, separated, disconnected from its larger whole the part becomes useless, meaningless. Disconnected from the larger whole of your body your hand, arm, spleen or teeth are useless to you, meaningless. Disconnected from the body of mankind we are useless, meaningless, to the body of mankind. Disconnected from the planetary biology or ecology mankind is useless, meaningless, to the planetary ecology.

Symbiosis within our bodies and minds – all parts harmoniously cooperating in serving the well-being of the whole – is clearly the way of health, of wholeness, of life. This is also true for our collective body or larger whole, mankind, and for the planet. Knowing something of the damage humans do to each other and the planet, some might understandably resist being part of, and serving the well-being of, mankind. Serving mankind is about restoring mankind to the state of well-being where mankind can function in the well-being of the larger whole – the planetary ecology, the planet’s Life. Biologically the salvation of mankind is not mankind escaping to some imagined future heaven, it’s mankind regenerating heaven here, now.

Each of us is a whole human-being, a whole life-form, an aspect or part of larger biological wholes and comprising smaller ones. Human being are life-forms, both human and being, both eternal life and temporary human form, a dance of heaven and earth. As humans we are all aspects of our larger whole, the form-body of mankind. As life, we are also all aspects of our larger whole, what we might call the life-body of mankind – eternal aspects of an eternal whole. Eternal means “always present.” Thus was the life in the life-form known as Jesus of Nazareth able to say “I am with you always.”

Living Together

Human beings are life-forms of this planet. What is the purpose or function of life-forms? Many know something of the essential part trees play in the planetary ecology, or the part earthworms play. If we look deeply into what all symbiotic life-forms actually do we see they in some way give life to neighbouring life-forms, just by being themselves. Like plants naturally providing oxygen for all us animal life-forms. If they could talk, all symbionts could accurately say (along with Jesus of Nazareth) “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Not just the symbiotic plants and animals could say this, but the planet’s water, air, the earth herself, the sun, and even our seemingly dead moon, all could say the same thing. Whereas all parasites could accurately say “I am come that I might have life, and that I might have it more abundantly.”

Human beings are life-forms but we’re not taught to be life-forms, not taught how to give life to our worlds. We’re taught to be Americans, Arabs, Israelis, Asians, Africans, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews, capitalists, communists, whatever. We’re taught to cover up our natural biological identity and purpose by adopting a raft of non-biological identities and purposes. Being neither part of nor contributing to the planetary ecology, non-biological identities always give us the feeling we don’t belong here, and we wonder why. We generally conclude we’re either evolutionary accidents or in transit to a better place.

These learnt non-biological or non-natural identities and purposes are in competition both with life and with each other, causing a huge amount of suffering in the world. All war is between unnatural identities. In our natural biological identity we are all One. One in life – we are all (unique aspects of) life in earthly form. And one in function – in symbiosis, in giving life, in giving love, friendship, peace. In loving all our neighbours!