Years ago, I lived in the African bush and met a Rhino. Her name was Bauxhhinia, but we called her B. She was one of less than 500 East African Rhinos left in the world. This is her story.
Like so many humans today, B was born into slavery. She was born in a zoo in Naples with three sisters and then sold to a zoo in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After years of being caged in isolation, in a space meant for no human or animal, she was imported to South Africa for a breeding program that never came to fruition. Instead, she was placed in a celebrity ranch, where she was used as entertainment for humans.
As she had no voice that could be heard by the Human, she could not tell them, that the stress of being torn from her home, removed from a wilderness whose memory lay in every cell of her body, she was dying. A slow death of loneliness. As her misery and pain manifested in her steady deterioration, her owners decided she would be can-hunted by a Norwegian hunter for 60,000US$.
I learnt about ‘canned’ hunting during my volunteer time at the Lion Reserve in South Africa, where I connected and played with white lions, cubs, tigers, black panthers, and a baby jaguar. Each told me a story that broke my heart repeatedly. Each offered me love and joy as long as I did not threaten their very existence.
Canned hunting is the process whereby wild animals, such as Rhinos and Lions are hunted in an enclosed space using bait. Not a fair fight, by any means. During the period in which I was in the South African bush, it was estimated that there were 45 to 50 large cat breeders in South Africa, holding an estimated 2,500 lions in cages and small enclosures solely for this purpose. This was to be the fate of B, until she was rescued by a kind human and placed on the reserve I was volunteering at, to live out the rest of her limited days in peace.
Before she fell sick, I would spend hours bathing and feeding her papayas. On good days she smiled with us, on bad days she chased us across the reserve. She could have been any living being, even a human, such was the connection in our interactions and the range of emotions she displayed. The only thing that separated her from me was her form. Her history, was no different from thousands of humans still being trafficked around the world for the pleasure and gain of other humans.
When she fell sick, I moved into her house and lay beside her day and night. I fed her, washed her bottom, and spoke words of love and kindness so that she knew that in this final part of her journey, she was not alone. That she was loved.
As I watched and felt her suffering, I witnessed every unkind, inhuman act that had ever been done to her. For it was written in her energy, her entire being. It was no different from watching my father die months before. Once again, the pain and suffering were the same, it was just the form that was different.
Humans, we should all take the journey into ourselves, if not for ourselves then for all of nature. For they have no voice, but the source of their suffering in most cases is us. Every thought, action, and word you use impacts every living being in this world. As all thoughts are vibrations that ride on the energy that connects us all. It is just too easy to sit in ignorance and comfort, and think your life is yours and has no impact on anyone else.
Across every science, religion, and discipline there runs a string of truth. For example, a truth that there is a consciousness that connects us all. That every path is a path to inner happiness and selfless service and love to all beings. That the human body is energy, which if used in the correct way, can and will connect you to that consciousness. Through that connection, you will understand that you are connected to lions, rhinos, trees, oceans, earth etc. That karma is based on the universal laws of cause and effect and lastly as above so is below.
There exist fundamental truths and knowledge in this world, which should be the foundation for all human life. Just as you cannot build a house without a foundation or it will collapse, so can you not live a life without the foundation of truth and correct knowledge, or at some point it too will collapse into suffering, fear, sickness etc.
To choose not to learn these truths and knowledge and then contemplate them is to contribute to layers of negativity, trauma, and suffering that are slowly changing the energetic charge of this universe we live in. As above, so below, means that what we are all giving out in ignorance will boomerang back to all of us. To every child of every living being and to ourselves. Just as what is above is manifested below, what is below manifests in everything.
You don´t have to believe in a god, you don’t have to seek enlightenment or retreat into a cave or monastery. What I am asking is that you learn the truth and knowledge about yourself and your connection to everything. To base your life not on ignorance, but on knowledge. How does your human form operate? How does the mind work? What is consciousness? What is energy? How does your energy impact you and others? What are the laws of the universe, of karma? What are the elements that define you? But most importantly why are you here?
If you are connected to everything and everyone, then what is your purpose in this life?
Now don’t get me wrong. I am fully aware of the power of being comfortable. Of living in your desires, so that many of you are willing to pay the price of suffering, to be able to keep your comforts, your habits, and addictions. But understand that suffering will make its way into a physical manifestation of disease and mental anguish, that your comfortability may be the death of you.
I understand that we choose not to explore or seek knowledge, because to do so would mean to enact changes that create fear and un-comfortability in us. That will mean giving up pleasures that only ever give us a fleeting moment of happiness before they vanish. Thus, placing us on the merry-go-round of chasing happiness and pleasure in desires and addictions.
We ignore seeking truths, having convinced ourselves that if we seek them we are putting ourselves in the box of religion, God, fundamentalism, etc. Or simply because we are lazy and have convinced ourselves that the way we are living our lives is fine. Because change takes work, but the reward is not fleeting. Change based on correct knowledge gives rise to a permanent sense of joy and bliss within you, and the desire to better all of humanity and nature.
By the way we humans are part of the very definition of nature. We are nature.
The onset of media and technology means we no longer farm or hunt for our food. We no longer must fight a war, where we must look a person or animal in the eye as we kill them. We no longer have to make our own clothes or see where they are made. You get the drift. Because we are so removed from life, we have become fully disconnected from it and from ourselves.
Few humans understand their own bodies or listen to them, preferring instead to have a fit bit to tell them what their body is saying. But through the limited filter of technology of course. It is because we are so disconnected from ourselves that we are living in a world filled with depression, anxiety, diseases, etc.
But like it or not. You are connected to everything and everyone. Yes, that includes the rest of nature. Nature feels pain and suffering, just as they experience joy. They just manifest it and express it differently than we humans do. Or not. How many of you hide your emotions behind a wall or the saying I am okay. So that those around you have no awareness of your pain. It is no different from nature, just because you can’t see it, does not mean it is not there. In fact, if you look closely and sit with nature, instead of in nature, you will hear their joy, feel their light, but also experience their pain.
Human, your every thought and action impacts all. Closer to home, it impacts your kids, your friends, your family, your dog, the trees, the earth you walk on, the air you breathe, and the water you drink. Because you are energetically and consciously connected to all of it.
So take the journey to seek the truth. Strive to be a better Human. Find the courage to change. Be the hero, not the victim. Stop hurting the world, by hurting yourself. I promise you that when you live from truth and knowledge, your inner and outer world will become a magnificent spacious place filled with pure selfless love. But don’t take my word for it. Take the journey and see for yourself. Be the lab, be the experiment.
All of us can learn to be better humans from nature. Because nature does not need to take the journey or seek the truth, it is truth. It has no conditioned mind, and as such nature is the purest manifestation of consciousness, which lives in direct connection to all those around them and above them. They know their purpose, they know their way, and they live according to the laws of the universe, and they have no ego. They are all gurus.
When we begin to connect to nature, to hear and see them, we will no longer have to tell stories of rhinos and pregnant lionesses being shot for pleasure, of turtles and whales suffocating in nets, of baby elephants being abandoned because a human wanted a tusk on a mantel. Instead, we will tell you stories of elephants protecting pregnant human women, of birds guiding humans to safety, of lions loving humans and of trees and plants offering their healing.
Namaste Natures Voice.
