Here is a photo of a rare meeting with nature that took place once to quite a close degree for me. I was sitting in the house when a little bird came to meet me. Sometimes people say “a little bird told me” and in this case it may well be so. This little bird came and asked for a snack and was not afraid to hop up on the table right beside me while I was at my laptop.
It’s easy to befriend such creatures. The secret is simply to feed them. They then grow accustomed to your interaction and start coming for more food. You see this often enough with people feeding pigeons or squirrels or monkeys in the park somewhere. In other words nature is somewhat benign and there is an interaction that can take place between us humans and all of nature’s species.
Nature, in this sense is truly amazing. Since I live in Africa, I have encountered experiences where even lions can be befriended, obviously more so when raised in captivity. In other words the wildest creatures can actually become friendly with us humans if they are treated as friends from the start.
In my case here today, the bird is wild and small, so also vulnerable. However, it loses any fear of me to the point that it is willing to walk about on the living room table inside the house, hoping that I will feed it some crumbs. I’m sure people growing up on farms will have had even more friendly encounters with so-called wildlife over time.
This is just a small experience, yet it reminds me of how beautiful nature and all her species actually are. It reminds me of how consciousness is present in all life, in all sentient beings. The animal may be purely following instinct, and has been labelled by humans over the millennia as dumb or soulless, yet for me anything that has life also has the same animating principle that humans have.
If we have a soul then they have a soul. We are conscious individuals and so are all animals and plants. Therefore a mature realization is that all life is sacred and all conscious creatures deserve similar respect. I do, of course, make some distinctions. My defensive instinct kicks in when confronted by any aggressive creature, like a mosquito or tick, for example. It’s hard to respect them when they’re attacking you. So I’m not a perfect pacifist regrettably.
Yet with this little bird today, it was able to override any fear of me, despite my bigger size, and came closer than a bird normally would, especially inside a closed building with only one open door through which it walked. Similarly wildlife experts are able to override their fear of lions to deal with them hands on, which is truly impressive.
And all of us who come into direct contact with animals will agree that they have a personality. Most of us who engage with our pet dog, cat or bird, all agree that they are like people and we make friends with them. They appear to recognize us and to be highly conscious individuals, like we are.
Therefore I struggle reconciling the idea of loving one animal, and killing another with impunity. That’s why I am a life-long vegetarian who cannot live by killing these friendly conscious beings that our meat-eating culture present to us as food. It does not make logical sense to my compassionate heart or mind. I am very healthy and fit after over 30 years as a vegetarian with no problems, so I am living proof that meat is unnecessary.
Furthermore, entire civilizations like that of ancient India, have been vegetarian for centuries at a time without difficulty. The elephant and the gorilla are pure vegetarians with no need for animal flesh, yet they are the strongest mammals to walk the planet. That is proof enough for me that no violent killing of any sentient mammals is required to life a good life.
I’m sure there are people with choices either way based on upbringing and conditioning as well as their desires to enjoy. Well my desire is to enjoy life too, but I prefer life to be alive while I enjoy it’s company. That’s just my logical moral philosophical realization based on my heart and my intellect. You make your own rational conclusions. The point is that taking a life of an animal is depriving that creature of its conscious existence. If we don’t like to be killed, then why do we expect they will accept it?
So remember these beautiful pets, like your dog or your cat, or this little bird when you next think of eating a dead animal body. It cold have been a creature just like your adorable pet dog or cat. What’s the difference? There is none. Weigh up the moral and ethical response to nature that needs to be equal in all circumstances to all warm blooded life with higher consciousness of pain and pleasure, otherwise your logic, your morality and your mentality is flawed and skew.
That’s just my persona opinion and experience as a lifelong lover of nature and a vegetarian with great health. I also have a clear conscience about my use or exploitation of nature’s living creatures to sustain myself. And such purity and logical equanimity or evenness feels fair to me and it empowers me psychologically as well as physically to feel on top of my game in relation to life on this beautiful planet which is home to every living creature. Think it through.
(photos my own)