The Animal Follows Its Nature. Man, However, Can Transcend It.

Being born Homo sapiens is not enough to be fully Human. What distinguishes us from other species is not intelligence, nor language, nor technology — it is consciousness. The awareness of participating in a reality greater than oneself, and of being responsible for it.

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Being born Homo sapiens is not enough to be fully Human. What distinguishes us from other species is not intelligence, nor language, nor technology — it is consciousness. The awareness of participating in a reality greater than oneself, and of being responsible for it.

This idea may come as a surprise. Yet when we see people commit acts of cruelty or destruction, we spontaneously say: "That's not human." Of course it is. Man carries within him the best and the worst. The whole question is where his consciousness lies.

Men always act according to the state of their consciousness. When their consciousness is in the wrong place, they can do harm; when it rests in the fundamental harmony that sustains all life, they naturally become incapable of harming it. They feel themselves to be part of that harmony and no longer feel the need to oppose it.

What Distinguishes Man?

It is sometimes said that a violent person is an animal, or that animals are more human than Men, which is contradictory. When a dog saves a child or a dolphin comes to the aid of a swimmer, some claim that animals have lessons to teach us.

But would that mean that Men never come to the rescue of other Men, or of animals? That would be an insult to all those who, every day, give the best of themselves: firefighters, doctors, nurses, sailors, or ordinary citizens who save lives.

These expressions reveal our emotions — and sometimes our discouragement.

A lion will never choose to become an herbivore. A deer will never decide to hunt. The animal is true to what it is — and that is precisely its strength. Man, on the other hand, can either betray his nature or transcend it. That is his greatness, but also his responsibility.

What, then, is the difference between an unconscious Homo sapiens and a Man? Consciousness.

Not the awareness of existing, but the awareness of participating in a reality greater than oneself.

Destructive Cynicism

Some leaders destroy hundreds of thousands of acres of primary forests, of incredible biodiversity and irreplaceable heritage value, to plant oil palms or soybeans.

That their distant cousins, the orangutans, perish in the flames consuming their habitat, matters little to them — as long as production increases and with it the profits. Yet what is at stake here goes far beyond an economic or even ecological issue: biodiversity is not merely a matter of philosophical or tourist appeal. The future of life on Earth may depend on animal and plant species we will perhaps never even know.

Some people know the importance of air, water, and living ecosystems — and plunder them anyway. "After me, the flood," Louis XV is said to have remarked. Some of his spiritual heirs are still among us.

Knowledge That Does Not Transform

Yet those who make these decisions often know the stakes. They have read the reports, heard the warnings, seen the figures. But this knowledge remains intellectual. It never becomes lived consciousness.

This is not necessarily a lack of intelligence; it is a lack of consciousness.

One who truly feels their belonging to the living world no longer sees a forest as a mere timber stock, a river as a pipeline, or an animal as a resource. They spontaneously perceive that everything participates in the same balance.

Feeling the Fundamental Harmony

When you go into the forest and meditate in the silence, a new perception sometimes arises.

You feel what underlies all life. You understand that the earth nourishes the plants, that the plants nourish the insects, that the insects nourish the birds, that fungi and bacteria sustain invisible life, and that nothing exists in isolation.

You discover that life forms a whole in which every being matters, like every brick in a house or every pixel in an image. Remove just one and the whole is altered.

In this state of consciousness, one no longer feels above the living world, but simply one of its elements. Respect for nature, for animals, and for other Men is no longer a matter of morality — it becomes self-evident.

Ancient Wisdom

Peoples close to nature have often expressed this intuition with a clarity we have lost. Tecumseh, Shawnee chief, said:

"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies within yourself."

This gratitude is not a belief. It arises naturally when one becomes aware of one's place within the living world. Sitting Bull, Sioux chief, already saw coming what we live today:

"Every seed awakens and so does all animal life. It is to this mysterious power that we owe our existence; we therefore concede to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this Earth."

And he added, with troubling lucidity: "The love of possession is a disease with them."

We did not know how to listen.

Transforming One's Consciousness

One can campaign for the protection of nature, for human rights, for social justice, or for the welfare of animals. All these causes are necessary and deserve to be championed.

But they are not enough.

A society truly becomes more harmonious when Men deepen their own consciousness. That is where lasting change begins.

To do this, one must learn to step back from oneself and discover who one truly is, beyond one's ideas, one's knowledge, one's opinions, and one's social role.

This is the path offered by the daily practice of La Voie Spirituelle: gradually deepening consciousness until a spontaneous respect for all forms of life is born. Not out of obligation, nor ideology, but because one discovers oneself to be part of that fundamental harmony which sustains the world.

To be Human may be nothing more than this: to live in awareness of that belonging.

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