Pat LaStrapes

Some religions find their answers in a creator God, scientists in the Unified Field, or Theory of Everything, with a view to unifying quantum mechanics and general relativity, and many spiritual philosophers in the Universal Consciousness. Carl Jung was obsessed with the notion of the Collective Unconscious. Albert Einstein posited that everything is energy. Not surprisingly, he was echoing the most ancient of spiritual and philosophical teachings that align with today’s scientific awakening. Others point to Monism, some to Gestalt, some to perennial philosophy, or universalism, and still others to the unity of all forms with emphasis given to the universe of mutually interdependent relationships established by an innate (inner, or organic) order as opposed to the assemblage of separate and distinct/discrete objects by an omnipotent external intelligence to arrive mechanically at something we'd call a universe. Followers of the Tao look to an invisible pattern which exists both within and without the manifested universe of forms that we experience as consensus reality. Existentialists render a canvas that conveys a sense of disorientation in the face of a meaningless, absurd world. Buddhists, Jains and Hindus, for example, leave us with the notion of karma, in lieu of judgment by an almighty creator God. Let’s consider the notion that there is but one intelligent Universal Consciousness – call it the Universal Mind, or God Principle.

I arrived at the simple notion some time ago that there is but one intelligent Universal Consciousness – the “I am” – a principle that is not only present in each of us but IS us.

The God Principle might also be called the Principle of Reflection. Natural and spiritual phenomena are but reflections of one another. In other words, matter, or the natural world, is a pool of reflection for spirit. Nature reflects all spiritual and scientific truth – i.e., “ ... on earth as it is in Heaven ... ”

Western thinkers would argue that we’re surrounded by evidence of a pitched battle between good and evil in the material world. Yet, good cannot exist but for evil. One cannot choose the head of a coin without the tail. One cannot know darkness without the contrasting light. Yin and yang. Were it not for hatred and suffering, one could not know love and bliss.

Notwithstanding, the food chain, for example, gives me reason for pause. Why must creatures devour other creatures in order to survive? Why do innocents suffer from starvation in the third world? Why are children abducted into slavery? Why are innocents victimized by greed and war? Why are innocent dogs boiled alive by callous humans with a hankering for an animal protein fix? Why are humans allowed to rape, torture, kill and enslave others? By the design of an all powerful, omniscient, loving God? An object lesson in free will, perhaps? I think not. A bit too western of a notion for me. I lean to the east, to the Tao. I also happen to be vegan.

How can a loving God allow a mudslide to kill a busload of school children or allow a terrified child to be eaten by a lion? Why must hawks kill doves? Einstein had obviously considered this paradox when he said, “I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. ” Is a “personal relationship” with such a God even possible? According to Einstein, the answer is no. While he rejected the self-conscious notion of a personal God, he agreed with Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Alan Watts, Will Tuttle, the Dalai Lama and the Beatles that love, the definition of which is beyond the scope of this writing, is a very powerful spiritual and natural force that pervades the universe. He would agree that we are not distinctly separate “selfs” but, rather, we are One with all “ ... Heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen ... ” In other words, we are not discrete units bounded by our skins, but rather, we are all conjoined in relationship with all other aspects of the "I am”. In contrast to the exacting metrics of western concepts, the haunting beauty of Chinese art rests in its vagueness of boundaries, where surfaces, where object and space meet, are only suggestions, and a sharing of reality across those suggested surfaces and the principle of oneness is quite prominent.

While Santa Claus is not inclined to read all the mail received at the North Pole, goodwill, harmony, love and peace are unitive, while, on the other hand, disharmony, hatred and war are disunitive. Moreover, in love, we are all One. John Lennon touched on this in Imagine, “You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as One.”

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ” 1 John 4:16

My notion is that Jesus, through teachings, parables and example, attempted to illuminate his disciples. In many ways, he hinted at the notion that the individual mind is but a part of the one Universal Mind, or Spirit, and that there is one consciousness of which an individual’s consciousness is a part, yet the individual mind may not be in complete harmony with the Universal Mind. Some, connecting the dots, have associated Carl Jung's notion of the Collective Unconscious with the Holy Spirit. Moreover, one’s consciousness is of the same kind and quality as the whole, despite palpable differences between oneself and, say, a tree or an elephant. Suffice it to say that one is tapped into an infinite power. Recognizing this, one is capable of great things. The inscription on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi says, “Know thyself.

At the same time, one creates ripples in the reflection pool. Eastern thought refers to this as karma. Relying on the principle of reflection, one might say that ripples in the spiritual world are manifested (reflected) in the reflection pool of the natural world, and vice versa.

In Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the young protagonist found that enlightenment, or spiritual illumination, came not from teachers because wisdom could not be taught, but rather that it came from within. Siddhartha first sought wisdom from spiritual teachers. Dissatisfied that he couldn’t find what he was seeking, he turned to Kamala, the courtesan, and Kamaswami, the merchant, again to his disappointment. His attainment of wisdom (enlightenment) came not from someone imparting that wisdom to him through teaching but, rather, through an internal connection to the river, under the guidance (but not teaching) of the ferryman, Vasudeva, who never instructed Siddhartha on the meaning of life, but instead directed him to listen to the river and search within himself for understanding. Listening to the river with Vasudeva and meditating upon its revelations, Siddhartha came to the understanding that time is an illusion and that all experiences, even suffering, were but a part of the great and jubilant fellowship of all things.

Most importantly, we’re all manifestations, incarnations of this single Universal Consciousness, and we are all connected to all of Nature, i.e., to everything in the Universe. Call it the Law of One. Westerners would say that the battle being waged between good, and evil is a battle between forces drawing the cosmos toward order and those tending toward disorder. It is a compelling notion. Opposing forces that are somewhat balanced, perhaps? Who knows? A cosmic dance, ever in flux, evolving, perhaps, between dualistic opposites in the natural world. In such a scenario, again relying on the notion of reflection, the forces of good would unify, organize and harmonize the cosmos, and the opposing forces would disorganize, break apart, de-harmonize it and render improbable, if not impossible, a return to a higher, more harmonious state of order in the spiritual realm, or Universal Mind, and nature – its reflection pool. The second law of thermodynamics calls this deharmonization, or de-ordering, entropy. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics captures nature’s tendency toward disorder (evil).

However, the universal pattern - the Tao, the source of all - can be "pointed to" by the Chinese word "Pu" which, in turn, can be translated as "the uncarved block" and refers to a state of pure potential which is the primordial condition of the mind before the arising of experience. The Taoist concept of Pu points to perception without prejudice, i.e., beyond dualistic distinctions such as right/wrong, good/bad, black/white, beautiful/ugly. It is a state of mental unity which places the Taoist practitioner into alignment with the Tao.

When Jesus was asked by his disciples what the greatest commandment was, he replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is that you shall love others as yourself.”

One might easily take away from such a response the notion that the way one treats all other things in nature is actually the way in which one IS treating oneself. We are, in fact, all one, and separateness is an illusion strengthened by the “I” – i.e., the ego. While things may appear distinct, they are not separate, yet, at the same time, one creates ripples in the pool of nature. One must bring oneself into harmony with all of nature of which one is inextricably a part. For example, by killing the rainforests, one kills oneself. Jesus was describing the need to harmonize each individual point of consciousness with the Universal Consciousness aimed at a highest state of good, or order (again, a dualistic notion that seems unavoidable).

In more scientific terms, some would argue that the Universal Consciousness is the Unified Field of intelligent energy that comprises everything, and consciousness is a knowing, or a feeling, rather than knowledge of measurable phenomena acquired by and commented on, or judged, by the intellect. Universal Consciousness is infinite and eternal – not to be understood intellectually. Infinity is a limitless quantity. Eternity is not limitless time, but rather it is existence that extends beyond the limiting, dualistic time-space coordinate system. One cannot intellectualize eternity but knowing it and feeling it gives rise to something akin to an aha moment. I call these occurrences glimpses. Take for example, the feelings invoked by the sights of seeds germinating and trees burgeoning in the spring, or the warmth of holding an animal.

Universal Consciousness is intelligent, creative and omnipresent across all dimensions of the universe. It’s not only present in each and every thing, it IS each and every thing. There is no separation between beings, or constituents, of the Universal Mind. Universal Consciousness is an infinite, eternal ocean of intelligent energy. Each one of us – each soul, each individual point of consciousness – is but a drop in that ocean. Where one drop ends, and another begins is impossible to determine because there IS no separation in the Unified Field of energy.

Digressing for the moment, take non-human animals, say, dogs, for example. Dogs exhibit affection, curiosity, playfulness, anxiety, aggression, anger, shame and fear – just as we do. Schooled as a Catholic, I was taught that, while animals should be treated well, they don’t possess an immortal (eternal) soul. Only humans do. Even as a child, I was aware that this teaching was misguided. It shouldn’t be hard to understand why Pope Francis has so much appeal, as he has openly challenged this traditional notion, which made no sense to me, and it obviously made no sense to our good Pope.

Getting back on thread, eastern thought places primary emphasis on the universal nature of mind and, of course, the ripples in the pond (karma) that I’ve already discussed. The Dalai Lama often talks about the need to reduce the suffering of all living beings. In philosophy, the notion of “panpsychism” is the view that Mind, or Spirit (psyche), is found everywhere (pan). Panpsychism is one of the oldest of all ideas in speculative philosophy extant today and was put forth by the ancient Greeks, notably, Thales of Miletus and Plato. These ideas were embraced by other westerners that followed, including, for example, William James, Baruch Spinoza, Teilhard de Chardin, Arthur Schopenhauer and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

The self-serving western belief that man is superior to, has dominion over, and is anointed by God to impose his will on all of nature is neither divine nor sustainable. One might say that man must be a good steward, not a tyrant. But, looking deeper, one must also understand that we are in a relationship - a dance, say - with nature. Except by virtue of the "might is right" rationale, we are not self-anointed to control nature, to dominate it. Even stewardship implies a superior claim.

What we come to is the notion that we must flow with nature, go with it, dance with it, speak with it and experience a mutual dialog, one that brings up a deep feeling of love - one that brings consciousness into the natural world by degrees. We must celebrate the dance, the movement of yin and yang, understanding that all distinctions imply movement in this cosmic dance while, at the same time, also understanding that we are all one. The analog of the Aspen forest comes to mind. The Aspen tree is but an outcropping of one root system - the entire forest! One facet of a diamond is not a separate form, but rather it is an aspect of one diamond. Each of us is both the facet and the diamond. Atman and Brahman.

Consider how man is recklessly destroying the planet, extincting the elephant and rhino populations and deforesting the Amazon – killing the planet’s natural ecosystems. One enlightened, guided by spirit - or love seeks harmony in the cosmic dance, not the acquisition of power for its own sake or purely as a matter selfinterest – with, of course, the notion that the self is not part of the all – the One.

I must, however, take pause to point out parenthetically that the violent food chain inherent in our natural ecosystems is a manifestation of the entropy (disharmony) of the universe set in motion in (rippling through) the natural world, antithetical to harmony within the realm of matter, reflecting, again, a dualistic conflict between good and evil, i.e., the forces of order and disorder. How can one separate good from evil? How can we have the head of the coin without the tail? How can one even contemplate everlasting bliss without its antithesis as a reference? It's quite difficult, you see, to escape the paradox. It's a vicious circle.

Notwithstanding the nagging paradox, all sentient beings, regardless of intelligence, experience suffering and cherish life. All sentient beings exhibit a will to live. Injured dogs, just like people, experience an elevated heart rate and blood pressure and release stress hormones into their bloodstreams. Like us, they not only react to noxious stimuli, but they also consciously experience pain. This disharmony (suffering) on the level of the individual consciousness is but a manifestation of the disharmony of the Universal Spirit as reflected in the natural world ("… on earth as it is in Heaven ...").

So, the question I ask is this: Is the natural world a perfect reflection of Spirit? Perhaps not. If spirit is nondualistic, corresponding to the uncarved block, or pure potential, then do enlightened individuals serve, perhaps, as portals for bringing consciousness into the natural - or, manifested - world from the unmanifested? Going further, is consciousness a purely human trait? Are nonhuman animals and trees rocks, even - conscious?

Let's take a deeper look at the last question. All species are capable of sophisticated, learned behaviors commonly associated with consciousness. Moreover, evidence of behaviors thought to be unique to humans is found in many species. For instance, bees can relate the location and attributes of food sources to their comrades and can navigate several miles using information stored in short term memory. A particular scent can induce bees to return to the location where it was originally detected. Most amazing is the fact that bees are capable of recognizing individual faces from two dimensional photographs.

Some have pointed to language as the defining attribute of consciousness. Conveniently, this self-serving viewpoint rules out all but one species, Homo Sapiens, as having consciousness based on the most common definition of language – that being human in form.

Charles Darwin observed that earthworms acted consciously and intelligently. Studying their behaviors for decades, he concluded that there was no determining threshold between lower and higher animals, including humans, that would enable the attribution of consciousness to one but not to the other. The importance of this recognition cannot possibly be overstated.

The nervous systems of all multi-cellular organisms found in nature are complex. Their neural networks, processes and biochemistries are as sophisticated and specialized as anything observed in the human brain. Given the lack of a convincing rationale separating simple from complex animals (and simple from complex behaviors), the belief that only humans are capable of experiencing anything consciously is preposterous.

Many, if not all, multi-cellular organisms experience both pain and pleasure. Even a worm has a sense of being alive. Not every creature has ears to hear and eyes to see. Yet, all are sentient and capable of some level of consciousness.

Panpsychism argues that everything is endowed with a manifestation of the presence of the Universal Mind. This enmindedness applies equally to a brain, a tree, a rock and an electron. All nature is a manifestation of the Universal Mind.

Consider the wetness of water, i.e., its ability to maintain contact with surfaces and itself. It’s a consequence of intermolecular interactions. One or two molecules of water are not wet but put many molecules together at the right conditions of temperature and pressure, and wetness emerges as a property. Of course, the functioning of the complex brains of vertebrates is more easily associated with the notion of enmindedness than the merely physical properties or processes involving “inanimate” matter. But, what Universal Mind, or enmindedness, instructs billions of water molecules to organize in a way to create wetness?

Looking at this another way, if a small brain cannot “consciously” experience pain, what special ingredient enables a larger brain to be sufficiently conscious to experience suffering from, say, banging a thumb with a framing hammer? Why should adding a little more and slightly different neural hardware give rise to what we’d refer to as sentience in higher species but not in the lower species. All sentient beings are capable of suffering … an ant, a fish, a lobster, an earthworm, a man, an elephant, a whale, a Carolina jasmine, a red bud tree. Ever notice how Ruellia and potato vines become limp and wilt in the hot sun? Photosynthesis stops at 95 degrees F, and the stomata of leaves close, preventing the exchange of CO2, O2 and water. Is this process the result of enmindedness? A micro example of Universal Mind? The God Principle?

We've come to this present vista at which we humans find that we have no choice but to reexamine our ethical values, priorities, choices and attitudes toward all sentient life, our ecosystems, conservation and sustainability – not to mention our notions of God in the midst of undeserved suffering – not only the suffering of homo sapiens, but of all species, known and, as yet, unknown, both here, under our noses, and beyond.

By far, what is most deeply troubling about our institutional way of thinking is the notion that other species have less entitlement to exist than do humans, justified by the argument that other beings (non-humans) do not “consciously” suffer. Moreover, cruelty perpetrated by humans on other species is still considered by many, if not most humans, as less heinous than cruelty perpetrated by humans on other humans.

Some time ago, the civilized world recognized the depravity of the institution of slavery. Abraham Lincoln set in motion ripples in the reflection pool that over many years culminated in a black man becoming President of the United States. Lincoln initiated one of the greatest social revolutions of our time. Our next great social revolution is underway and is clothed in the welfare of non-humans.

“Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures. ” -- The Dalai Lama

“People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel. ” -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man. ” -Mahatma Gandhi

“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive. ” -- Albert Einstein

“It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.” -- Mark Twain

It seems I’ve developed over time a vehicle and a mantra suited for one with my predilections. For example, I have no purely logical way of encapsulating the over-the-top love and concern I have for non-humans. That has been a defining attribute since my early childhood. Universal suffering. I’ve wept over the plight of animals in a way that I struggle to understand, much less explain to others. I’d like to think that, perhaps, I might have been either a whale or an elephant in a past life, but that would be a little too glam. More likely, my current incarnation is the fruit of the karma, now ripening, that I created - either in an earlier life, or this one. Actually, this one, if I'm to be completely transparent and forthright. Wow, that felt good! An act of contrition, eh?

Of course, there’s much to be said about the ideas of westerners Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche and Sartre, taking as a starting point a general sense of disorientation in the face of an apparently meaningless, absurd world and imposing onto that backdrop the notion that thinking begins with the acting, feeling, living being. I appreciate Kierkegaard’s idea that each individual – acting “responsibly” and individually rather than in accordance with generally accepted labels, roles, stereotypes, definitions, or categories into which society and the prevailing wisdom suggests one must fit – is solely responsible for giving meaning to what the author calls an “authentic” life.

Anyway, when we were picking teams for sandlot, I found myself making a gut choice and gravitating over to the Bodhisattvas and a more eastern framework for grappling with an understanding of and relationship with the cosmos. You know the expression, right as rain? Eh? OṂ MAŅI PADME HǕṂ

As to an “authentic” life, the only thing that comes to mind is the experience each morning as the five members of my animal family, Mollie, Lily, Ollie, Jed and Othello, begin to stir, and there’s this coming to a shared life and this ineffable sharing of joy and spontaneity as we play on my well-worn bed without regard to either future or past or the pulled threads. We speak in a ritual tongue that would seem entirely odd to anyone else, but this lingua franca, this mantra, is integral to our dialogue of brute affection that embraces us and unites us in this daily celebration of love.

Beyond that, it’s hard to find an example of authenticity in my life, except that which exists solely within the realm of thought. Does life imitate art? Gotta appreciate Oscar Wilde’s piercing insight into that unsuspecting subject.

" ... Histories of ages past Unenlightened shadows cast Down through all eternity The crying of humanity 'Tis then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man Comes singing songs of love ... " -- Donovan

Pat LaStrapes is a naturalist, ethical vegan, devout animal advocate, climate activist, proponent of plant-based and stem cell-derived meats, amateur de vin, full-time ahimsic gardener and a dear friend of squirrels, possums, racoons, birds of all feathers, Norway rats, spiders, beetles, snakes, earthworms, snails, etc.

Pat was formerly, in the energy sector, served on boards, worked in C-suites, advised governments and project stakeholders and led cross-functional and multicultural teams in the development of integrated energy projects.