"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
Animals live from instinct. For them the concept of time, past or future, is meaningless. They live in the present. Many/most nurture, protect and cherish their young with total commitment. Life and death happen. It is the circle of life.
Man has a large brain with the capacity for critical analysis. He studies the past to predict and control his future. That’s where he lives most of his life: in anxiety about the past or in fear, hope and expectation about his future. He forgets that life can only be lived in the present.
His over-developed ego leads him to believe he is all-powerful and omniscient.
This delusion leads him to believe he is somehow separate from the rest of the universe, which he craves to master. He feels superior to all other life forms and will fight, kill and destroy indiscriminately to feed this illusion.
Because what he craves can never be achieved, he is deeply troubled, never satisfied and there’s always something missing.
His mindset is focused on frantically changing the ‘external’ circumstances of his life, when, in reality, salvation can only ever be found ‘internally’. The external world is just a reflection of his inner state and turmoil. So too his judgments, prejudices, fears and anxieties.
Only by examining, humbly and sincerely, his inner thoughts and facing his deepest, darkest emotions and fears with courage, humility and compassion, can he begin to start the process of re-birth, or rediscovering his true nature and his natural connection to universal truth and love. Only an act of total surrender will open the door to what he has been longing to find all along...