This article poses questions which are not meant to diminish, point fingers or disrupt any given person’s spiritual orientation. However, this article does ask serious questions all of us ought to consider. We as a humanity seem to have developed broad and far reaching philosophies, religious belief and world views, in fact, this is accepted as being human; what with our ‘higher cognitive capacity’, why wouldn’t we develop belief systems or views which aim to rise our consciousness higher, and intelligence deeper? There are various facets to human belief systems and world views which this articles will raise questions about, and explore.
If indeed the human consciousness has developed to produce that which gives us hope, faith and reliance upon something beyond (or larger) than us, then we need to examine from where does this spiritual inquiry arise? From anthropology, to philosophy, religion and high educational institutions, it is believed to be natural for humans to go on ever increasing philosophical and world view development. However, what this article wishes to introduce to the reader is, perhaps we need to go further back – back to pre-religious and pre-philosophical times. A era in humanities’ history where the world’s major religions and philosophies (even the oldest of them) were not yet originated. From this point, we can wonder, how did people see the world, interpret reality and how did they feel of the powers and forces of nature and the cosmos?
The correlation between development and organization of what we know today as the world’s religions and philosophies is reflective of and concurrent with the end of the last ice age and emergence of agriculture. Isn’t it ironic and curious how agriculture, a means of life which imposes domestication (a form of control) of plants and animals for particular uses, occurred within the same era of human history that origination of religion and philosophy began? The point here; the domestication of agriculture, and the organization of world views in form of religion or philosophy both create a paradigm of existential conditions which controls and molds the inner and outer worlds of not just human, but also plant, animal and ecosystem.
In many cases, culture has become interlocked with religious and philosophical beliefs, agriculture lead to industrial and then also technological/digital lifestyle. All of these (religion, philosophy, agriculture, industry, technology) require and utilize some form of control or superimposition to maintain their own functionality and existence. What we are trying to open up, is the door of perception which perceives before and beyond these forms of control, superimposition and/or domestication. And once in that state of awareness, explore how did humans view the world and life prior to all these conditions, processes and things?
The world is a colorful realm of experience, comprised of cultures, ecosystems, languages, arts, sciences, monuments, empires and expression. We cannot negate what is happening in this world. Although, we can inquire as to how did it become this way. And by inquiring into these conditions of the world, we discovered very important realizations. These realizations guide us to question who or what is controlling our selves and lives, while also how does this physical world truly appear without the superimposed systems, perceptions and functions falling on it by religion, philosophy, agriculture and industry.
It is like asking, can I exist free of religion? Does Absolute (no matter what word we call the Absolute) exist because of religion and philosophy, or do religion and philosophy exist because of Absolute, or are they in truth non-interdependent? Can we as individual sentient beings live our lives free of superimposed belief systems or ideas, and still experience a spiritual life and enlightened consciousness? These are questions which must be asked!
If the domestication of plants and animals (and ecosystems, including humans) reflects or is correlated with organization of world views found in religion and philosophy, then perhaps something about being human is discovered when we let go of superimposed world views placed into our minds by religion, philosophy and through the daily experiences of living in a domesticated world. And this is why this article’s title asks; What do we worship? We must explore what freedom is by casting aside superimposed views or ways of living, particularly if they arise through religion, philosophy or systems of societal function, and then the mind can experience a new form of freedom. This does not imply that we must become racist, prejudice or degrading towards religion, philosophy or societal function, it means we must be in our own mind and feel solid in doing that. Which here again resorts back to the article’s title; What do we worship?
As agriculture lead to industry, and industry to technological society, we as a humanity have fallen ever deeper into a realm of organized, institutionalized and molded existence. This has happened to such a degree that it can become quite difficult to relate with ourselves, each other and this physical world in a manner which directly allows us to function as we originally evolved. The fabric of survival upon this Earth, the spirituality of being witness to natural processes, food collection, and powers of the natural world was indeed the original spirituality of humanity. The decentralized nature of this spirituality, though the same the world over, expresses itself in various ways depending on the ecological communities which are part of the environments where we dwell. If a snow storm holds spiritual significance in the north, then an earthquake holds same significance in the Himalayas. Or if the sighting of a grizzly bear in North America embodies spiritual symbolism to the people witness of this occurrence, then the sighting of a jaguar in South America would hold equally true spiritual experience. To be witness of the natural phenomena of our beautiful Earth is spiritual experience enough, why organize and institutionalize it?
Due to the organizing and institutionalizing of spiritual experience, religion and philosophy have worked in tandem with societal, industrial and technological advancement to produce the massive global economy of our world today. This economy dictates the vast majority of the world’s human population in terms of how we ‘survive’. What is experience, the most repeated and daily experience, typically holds greatest influence upon our mind, emotions and thoughts. In this manner, the global economy has become the biggest world religion ever practiced in human history. It is not something to be proud of though. We worship money, working to make money, often at the expense of our own health and at the destruction of the Earth’s ecosystems and natural resources. Shouldn’t it be the other way around, that we worship the Earth and ecosystems and our interrelated well being with the Earth, as a form of decentralized, original human spirituality?
As the emergence of AI unravels before our eyes, it seems a new form of worship is being originated, the worship (or religion) of advanced digital technology. Which plays a major role in stripping the Earth of the last remaining wild places, resources and adds incredible unknown impacts of toxicity in the the air, water and soil. It is time that we collectively dismiss these modes of worship, and reclaim our unique individual communion with ourselves, the Earth and the cosmos. The free mind is untainted by superimposition, and is eternally waiting within us to have our conscious mind engage with the true free mind. This implies for us to meditate upon what is it that takes most of our time, and how do we use our time in life? The original wild spirit which humans have evolved with, is within us, in the silence and simplicity of the natural life of a human on Earth.
Symbolic thought perhaps has always been a part of human experience, we have archeologist’s and anthropologist’s work to reflect on to confirm that symbolic thought predates society, agriculture, industry, religion, philosophy and technology. However, in all of the early artwork and reflections of recorded human symbolic thought (cave paintings for example), we have clear evidence of what must have been a worship (or at least the holding of reverence) of natural forces, animals/plants and various cosmological phenomena these peoples were witness to (or depended upon). Perhaps, it could be surmised, symbolic thought is indeed the original spirituality, which is the reverence/worship of natural, cosmological phenomena as well as that of environments with animals and plants people coexisted and survived by.
It is in the organization and institutionalization of this original decentralized, wild symbolic thought that seems to have given rise to dogmas, doctrines, hierarchies of teachers/gurus, construction of monuments/temples/shrines. And yet, why build these monuments if, first we strip the area of land of it’s natural ecology to then build a structure meant to find “the Absolute” and answers to our spiritual questions, and then sit inside these monuments wondering where the Absolute and full spiritual experience is? It seems perhaps these questions would not have arisen if the structure were not built, and if the organization and institutionalization never began of symbolic thought of early humans. The natural beauty of the Earth’s wild and natural places and processes is the most profound temple of all. What more could humanity need for spiritual experience and communion?
We could carry on for a long time, giving countless examples. However, that is simply all there is that needs to be written. Humanity searches for things which humanity itself took away, both spiritually and physically. We need not spend our time in searching any longer, the wild world and original, wild human spirit is already ever present as us, in us and around us. The disjointed elements of modern society and humanity will be cured not only through reuniting with and reinventing a natural survivalist and subsistence approach to life on Earth, but also which fosters holistic knowledge of cycles and processes in the natural world. Through this knowledge, we find worship, worship of the original sacred – life and survival on Earth.