Catching up with posting online my articles because of being busy with work. I am witting my articles every day as part of my commitment... just posting is lagging...
Today I have been looking at the point of the evolution of my relationship with animals.
For most part of my life I have been looking at animals as animals, as another form of beings who are somehow lesser than humans. Generally I have always respected them and I didn't want to cause any harm to them. The only time when I was harming them was when I was a child and I used to burn the ants by focusing the sunlight on the ants with the magnifying glass. I was doing it because I have seen that my other friends are doing it. I did not even think at that time that I am actually hurting them and killing another form of life and I was thinking that this is fun. I was just doing blindly what others do. I was limited, closed and living in separation. I doesn't matter that I was 4 or 5 years old kid. There is no excuse for doing it and killing other beings for "fun".
It is really fucked up. And now when I write this article I realise and I can see that this is the state of mind of people who are participating in the bullfighting or any kind of fights of animals ( dogs, chickens etc. ). These people just don't see that the bull is a being who is being hurt and suffers excruciating pain when the toreador puts the blades, knifes and swords into its body. They are completely blind at the moment. And if somebody would try to say to them that the animal is suffering they will answer that this just a stupid animal.
It is an animal but it is a being... it is a form of life in the body of animal... equal to human being... but the difference is that it is not the animal who is stupid but on the contrary it is the humans who are stupid and adolescent.
Anyway... when I was around 19 years old I have joined the new age and spirituality movement and I have also become a vegetarian. The ideology and intention behind it was not to harm the animals. I would say this was a part of a process through which I was becoming more aware of the animals as beings who also suffer and thus I have tried to prevent it. And I have stayed without eating meat with some breaks in between for about 10 years.
Another point in regards to the evolution of my relationship with the animals... I remember times when I used to live in the house where there were ants and from time to time they were coming into the bathroom. And they were coming to the sink where I used to wash my hands. I didn't want to kill them thus I was knocking on the sink and blowing them off first before opening the tap. It was kind of annoying but I didn't want to kill them. I have not always succeeded because the bathroom is a place where the bathroom splashes easy and sometimes the water drop got on the ants. And 1 drop of water for an ant is like a tsunami for a human - it is a killer for them. But you know what ?... I was getting the ants out of the water drop and trying to save them. And sometimes I have actually succeeded. And one day I had an interesting experience. I have got one ant out of the water drop and I was observing how it is getting the water out of its body and how it is drying off. The ant is small but still the human is able to see its legs and the trunk. And I have seen how this ant is moving its legs and getting the water out of it. And then I suddenly I have felt something like a gratitude. It was interesting and surprising but then I thought: "why not ?"... "Why can I not feel something like this with an ant ?". And thus this was one interesting point of transcending something and realising something about the animals. Of course here is also the point of going through the transformation of myself from being a coward killing them for fun with the magnifying glass to saving them from the water drop. I only see it now when I write this article... this is another realisation of mine...
This experience with the ant has happened some 10 years ago. Today - thanks to Sunette Spies and Bernard Poolman from Desteni Group - I am opening my eyes further in regards to the world of animals. I start to understand and realise more and more that the animals are not stupid and are not less than humans. As a life form and life essence they are equal to humans but at the same time they are actually even more evolved than the humans. If you observed their life closely and if you got to know them and their life better, you could actually learn a lot from them and you would understand and you would actually realise that the stupid one here is humanity and not the animals.
Anyway this is about my evolution of my relationship with the animals throughout my life. When I was younger an animal was an animal... something that lives... but is in some way lesser than human based on the fact that they cannot do so many things as humans do ( e.g. talking, cooking, watching tv, working etc. ). Now I see and realise at this point that being an animal is not a punishment ( I am referring to the judgment that animal is lesser than human ) as it is believed in some cultures or religions. It is another form of life. It is equal form of life. And the only punishment of being an animal is when this animal is forced to live among the humans who are blind to see this animal as an equal life and who are abusive and violent towards this animal.