Ecological Implications
Life is Matter and Spirit
"I believe that evolution proceeds towards Spirit"
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Under the existing paradigm, we're reluctant to acknowledge our human creatureliness because it makes us feel too identified with animals. The irony here is that even if the aliens in the example above were not twice, but ten times more intelligent than humankind... even if their technology was centuries more advanced than our own... we'd still have no problem discerning and acknowledging their creatureliness. And just as they 'came to be' through the same evolutionary process that brought forth all life on their home world, the roots of our creatureliness as well, stretch back in the same evolutionary line that brought into being all other forms of Earth life. No living being is 'lowly', because all life is both matter and Spirit. There is no 'great divide' separating us from all the rest of Earth life in all its diversity.
To better understand the importance of 'owning' our human creatureliness, consider the subtle distinction between how we've been taught to think of ourselves as separate and apart from the rest of Creation - and the Native American's way of thinking on the subject. Native Americans categorize all life as being either "two-leggeds" (humans), "four-leggeds" (4 legged animals) or "no leggeds" (snakes, plants, etc.) This classification scheme unites all life within the same frame of reference. Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a 'two-legged' to get a real sense of what this more inclusive way of perceiving ourselves feels like.
the essence of our humanness
Our creatureliness is the essence of our humanness. It encompasses not only the shape of our eyes and how many limbs we have; but instinctual templates which still pattern much of our thinking, feeling and behavior. These instincts are discussed more fully in the section, INSTINCTS. For example, we feel comforted within the safety of the herd and fear being ostracized by going against the crowd. A strong alpha leader, even if ruthless; makes us feel protected from packs of 'others' whose intentions toward us may be hostile. Our pecking orders are every bit as ritualized as chickens scratching in the dust by the barnyard door. Only we generally prick each other's egos to establish a superior position within the pecking order of our kind and don't physically peck at each other. Of course, viewing oneself as having a 'competitive streak' is more socially acceptable than admitting an instinctual base for the same behavior that can be seen in any barnyard flock. Our striving for a better place on the human status hierarchy is often as comical as a peacock's showy strut, even though we might substitute the latest fashion trend, professional status or trophy object for the peacock's feathery display.
"Behavior patterns are just as conservatively and reliably characteristic of species as are the forms of bones, teeth or any other bodily structures. Behavior patterns have an evolution exactly like that of organs."
Pierre van der Berghe
Anthropologist
Living Inside Our Heads
Our highly evolved forebrain has greatly increased our capacity for abstract thought. We live in imaginal worlds of ideas and conceptual frameworks even more than we're grounded in the physical world. Our capacity to think abstractly has made possible great scientific and technological advances - but it's also proved deadly when our propensity for getting lost in our abstractions is not held in check. For instance, millions of humans have been killed because of differing abstract conceptualizations regarding our One Divine Source.
We're all aware of the potentially catastrophic consequences of a nuclear WW3. We all know of the ominous threat of global warming... Scientists have also warned that the desertification of our oceans might lead to the extinction of all fish life within the next 40 years... Yet our human consciousness is so enmeshed and entangled in outmoded conceptual frameworks that we might not be able to overcome these challenges in time. Our abstractions might very well keep us from uniting together as a species in order to overcome the dangers we now face. If we're not able to free ourselves from the conceptual frameworks that have grown rigid in the consciousness of our species - our unchecked propensity for ideation and abstract thinking may in the end, even prove fatal to our kind.
Planetization on the other hand, grounds us together in the objective reality of our collective presence within Earth's biosphere. It frees our human consciousness from its almost total ensnarement in the increasingly maladaptive conceptual frameworks that now threaten our survival. They can only maintain their hold over us within the old paradigm, but exert no attractive force, and have no validity; from the perspective of Planetization.