Animal Wisdom
by Gareth Patterson
 How
we lead our lives is ultimately up to us. Those three words, "up to
us," can be the key, yet at the same time can also be a contradiction. How
we lead our lives is "up to us," but we must ignore the conditioning
that society throws at us. "Bigger," "faster,"
"better," "more," "upgrade," "richer" --
these words and more like them have become the new gods since the latter part of
the last century. We are even conditioned in how we perceive beauty. A tiny
proportion of the world's population are supermodels, yet the media, in all
forms, convince us that theirs is the beauty that all women should try to
attain.
In the modern age, blinders have been placed over our eyes so that we cannot
see the big picture. We see only a narrow view of life. Blindered, we can no
longer understand the humility of our smallness in relation to a sunset, an
ever-flowing waterfall, the changing of the seasons or the majesty of snowcapped
mountains. We have lost touch with the earth and the understanding, the reality,
that man is just a part of life on earth. We have lost touch with our place in
the pyramid of life -- so much so that not only do we view ourselves as being at
the pinnacle of the pyramid but probably, subconsciously, that we created the
pyramid ourselves! We have lost touch with the fact that the pyramid of life,
the soil, the trees, the air we breathe, water, the animals, rain and sunlight
and ourselves are all part of one community.
Fortunately, a visible shift in perceptions is occurring today. We are
letting go of being told what to believe and what not to believe. Today, we are
increasingly empowering ourselves as individuals and within the community. We
are also at last moving forward, evolving morally, extending rights and
considerations to areas beyond our direct self-interest, in issues involving
children, women, non-European races and animals.
We are increasingly focusing on developing a healthier mind, body and spirit,
and from this empowerment our focus will extend to the health of those around
us, the environment-everything around us.
Fundamentally, people do not truly want to harm themselves or others. We all
know what is right and what is wrong. This is a part of us. We know that:
? It is wrong to harm.
? It is wrong to create suffering.
? It is wrong to take that which belongs to another.
? It is wrong to kill something or to cause something to be killed.
We know that a smile is better than a grimace, we know that caring is good
and that selfishness is not. Within us, it feels right to be kind and it feels
wrong to hold anger or malice. We simply know these things. Our being, our inner
self, our inner voice tells us these things. All we have to do is to listen to
that inner voice. At times we are tempted to do something for our own selfish
gain and at the risk of hurting someone or something. At times we are tempted to
lie or to betray someone. We might do such things, but not before the inner
voice tells us not to, that it is wrong. We need to listen to that inner voice
much more. It is our ethical voice.
Just imagine the world we could live in if we made ethical considerations
globally before acting. The rainforests would not be felled, the seas would not
be polluted, we would not inflict the earth with the calamities that we have
created through our actions. By bringing in and acting upon our ethical
considerations, by listening to our inner voice, we would have a calmer, quieter
and ecologically more sound world around us.
I do believe that the inner voice, sometimes just a whisper, sometimes a loud
clarion call, is starting to be heard. Many of us today are at last beginning to
see once more that the inhabitants of the natural world are our fellow
constituents of the only home we all share.
Perceptions about the "beasts" are changing rapidly. The lion is,
for example, tremendously better loved today than it was in the recent past --
and so too is the wolf. These major changes in attitude have occurred in a few
short decades, and I believe, despite what we feel sometimes, that we are
evolving morally. We will continue to head toward increasing spiritual
reawakening as long as we realize that the connection between ourselves and the
natural world is essential to our health and that of the planet. We will go
forward spiritually by reopening ourselves to learning from special beings such
as the lion -- as realized by our ancestors through the ages.
We cannot lose the lion or the other animals of great inspiration, or any
more species on earth. They should be nurtured and protected for their own sake.
We have much to learn from the animals and their wild domains. Our own destiny
on earth is, I believe, reliant on the existence of these ancient and long ago
perfected forms of life. Their existence creates in man a memory of his own
roots in nature, roots that if severed spiritually and forgotten would
inevitably result in the spiritual demise of mankind. We must remember the words
of Credo
Mutwa: "without the lion and other cats, a great spiritual
darkness would descend upon all life." These great beings remind us that we
and all life are born of one mother, the earth, and without them and the wild
places we would suffer from dire loneliness of heart. We would become a lonely
nation of life.
And this is why the seven principles of the lion are so important. [These
are: Self-reliance; Fellowship; Willingness to Care; Affection; Determination;
Courage; Loyalty.] The principles enable us to draw from the lion and nature
essences that can fuel us so that we can grow into the fully alive,
compassionate and selfless beings we really can be. The essence of each of the
principles can fill the voids created within us by modern afflictions such as
low self-esteem, loneliness and a sense of alienation. The seven principles of
the lion bring us closer to the spirit of the earth, closer to our true selves
and closer to true spiritual fulfillment. And closer to the earth's spirit,
closer to our true selves and to our spiritual fulfillment we will be kinder to
the earth, and to ourselves. We can heal the earth.
Women and Men
In this morally evolving world, I feel that women, historically subjugated,
will have an increasingly positive influence upon the earth. I see this very
clearly with regard to wildlife issues in Africa and beyond.
In the past, women were seldom allowed in the environmental field, deterred
from entering the male-dominated realm of animal research and investigation,
seemingly on the grounds that "They feel too much" and would
overidentify with the animal being studied. But in the last three decades some
of the most significant information that we have learned about animals has been
gleaned by women. What they gleaned from their studies has influenced us all.
Through Dian
Fossey's work we think of the gorilla called Digit and thereby
identify and understand the plight of the gorilla. Joy
Adamson brought us a new understanding and positive perception of the
lion through the story of Elsa, the lioness. The list of women who have created
this awareness and influence is long. In the sixties, Rachel Carson, with her
powerful book Silent
Spring, laid the foundation for the green movement, insisting that
every part of the earth is interconnected, organic and endangered. Jane
Goodall with the chimpanzees, Beirute
Galdikas and the orangutans, Joyce
Poole, Daphne
Sheldrick and Kathy Payne with elephants, and many, many other women
worldwide, through empathizing with the animals they study, in turn champion
those animals' cause.
The recent beautiful book Intimate
Nature -- the Bond between Women and Animals abundantly illustrates
this fact. In the introduction the editors say:
These writers and researchers, together with those intellectual and
religious traditions, began to mend what was broken by a system of careless
thought ... What women have brought to the equation is a respect for feeling
and empathy as tools to create intimate bonds of connection ... It has been
women, primarily, who have spoken out most often against the suffering and
pain of animals, and it has mostly been women who have had the courage to
admit their love for the other lives around them. As forbidden a concept as
it has seemed in scientific scrutiny, love for another species must always
be part of that equation.
The women have emerged, but this should not threaten the male. Lion prides
are essentially female societies, made up of interrelated lionesses, mothers,
aunts, sisters, etc. Elephants are also similar in their herd make-up. But the
lion pride is vulnerable without the existence of the pride males. The males
create stability, because they are the ones that can keep hyena clans at bay
after a kill is made. Having a strong pride male means that other males cannot
take over the pride and in turn inflict infanticide upon existing cubs within
the pride.
The modern male should not be threatened by the increasingly empowered woman,
but needs to acknowledge the sacredness of women. Women, nature's nurturers,
reflect the divine earth upon which we stand, Mother Earth. All men were born
from women and are obviously biologically a part of that woman, their mother.
Men need to identify with that part of themselves. By recognizing this fact, men
can begin to identify with Mother Earth. By identifying the earth as female, a
mother, men can identify with all of nature around them. Through this, by seeing
the earth as being a part of us, men would go a long way toward not harming the
earth. With this would come the realization that harming the earth equals
self-destruction.
The earth, men, women, the air, water, the animals, everything is one holy
one. By recognizing this, we can all find wholeness and with wholeness comes
great wonder.
The Reawakening
Increasingly, today we are recognizing and reaffirming our indelible
connection with the earth and nature. We are reaching out to touch the earth and
all that lives upon her. We are recognizing the sacredness of the earth and the
sacredness within each and every one of us. We are learning that by loving the
earth, we can love ourselves. We, after so long, are listening again to the
wisdom of the drumbeat of our ancestors.
We are at a time of rediscovery. It is a very exciting time. We are, in
different ways, reaching out to touch the divine. The old ways were never dead,
but were hidden, quietly waiting for the time when we had reached the stage at
which we said: "Enough, I will no longer be alone, living by dictates
rooted in shallowness and ignorance." The old ways contain such wide
wisdom, for they are of nature and of earth. This wisdom is to be found on the
rough intricate bark of a tree, in a single grass seed, in the flow of a brook,
in the wind beneath an eagle's wings and in a child's smile. It is wide, this
wisdom, all-embracing.
The understanding of how we once used to interrelate with nature, the
environment and the earth, and for so long -- this is beginning to return today.
The sun still rises and it still sets; on cloudless days, the sky is still blue
and the tides advance, then ebb as they have always done. Such phenomena, such
miracles are the inspiration upon which we should build our connection with the
earth. We should do it in the miracle of every breath that we breathe.
The earth speaks to us. It always has. And now, as we did before, we should
listen to the earth. To listen is to begin to understand.
The reawakening is happening and these words emphasize this realization.
Contrary to popular belief, primal religions are today reviving in many
parts of the world. The superior attitude that spread European civilization
over the globe, spurred on by Western Christianity and materialism, has been
discredited in the twentieth century. Native faiths -- ways scorned,
forbidden, almost destroyed -- reached their lowest point at the end of the
nineteenth century. Their flame was extinguished. But today the disregard
for the earth, for community, for spirituality have brought the whole human
enterprise into jeopardy. Arising like a phoenix from the ashes, tribal
peoples are gathering again in their ceremonial circles, remembering
discarded teaching, renewing the ancient ways." [The World's Religions,
J.W.E. Newbery]
Renewing the ancient ways. By renewing the ancient ways, those who will come
after us will look back at the present time and remember it as a portion of
human history when, after so much disconnection, mankind began again to listen
to the truth, when man across the world began slowly listening to the ancient
drumbeat. It will be a time remembered when spiritual strands of connection
began to be built all over the world, touching from continent to continent,
heart to heart and soul to soul. This time in which we live will be remembered
as the "Reawakening."
When a lion calls upon a grassy plain, a bird sings, and within a cat's
contented purrs, energy resonates.
Everything lives; we are all energy, a dynamic pulsating energy called life.
Understanding this, one cannot but feel a unity with all life, a unity with God.
All things live, and knowing this, we know God lives and exists in us and
everything around us. To feel this, to know this, brings celebration to our
spirit. And it is wonderful to be alive, and to see life within all things.
By knowing such things, we can embark upon life renewed, feeling cleansed,
and new lessons and wisdom will come from new life. Together we can go forward
... To walk with lions.
 This
article is excerpted from "To Walk with Lions", ?2001, by Gareth
Patterson. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Seastone, an imprint of
Ulysses Press. http://www.ulyssespress.com
Info/Order
this book.
About the Author
Born
in Britain but raised in Africa, Gareth Patterson has worked with lions in
wildlife reserves in Botswana, Kenya and South Africa. He inherited the mantle
of the "Lion Man of Africa" from George Adamson when, following
Adamson's tragic death in 1989, he helped to save three of Adamson's orphan
cubs, which he rehabilitated back to the wild. Over the years, Gareth has been
involved in many different wildlife projects and campaigns. He has studied lions
in the wild, promoted the need for indigenous environmentalism, investigated and
exposed the sordid practice of "canned" lion hunting in South Africa,
and co-founded of the "Lion Haven," Africa's first natural habitat
sanctuary for orphaned lions. He is the author of several
books.
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