Sacred Earth, Primal Us.

After about a month of diligent reading , I have finished Huston Smith's "The World's Religions".  It's a great book, by the way.  I have never sat down and read or studied anything about Islam or Confusianism and have only recently (in the last year or so) read anything about Buddhism, Taoism or Hinduism.  I've been studying the later because of my practice of yoga and have found that my life has greatly benefited by studying these three.  Judaism and Christianity I know very well because of how I was raised.  Mr. Smith writes about all of these religions, and it has been very, very good.  But of all the religions Mr. Smith writes about, it was the last group that has really got me thinking.

The primal religions, those of the aborigines, the American indians, the African tribes and others see everything as being sacred.  Profound when you think about it.  Sacred because everything is connected and interdependent.  And because of that interdependence, the ideas of good and evil, that we see in other views, doesn't exist.  Why don't we, the modern, civilized people think like that? The primal people are right, we truly are all connected.  If you don't believe that, consider a few things.  When you walk into a room and turn on the lights, who is making sure you have electricity to have light? Who made the lightbulb and the wires and the switches?  We've depended on someone to do that for us.  What about the lightbulb itself?  Who thought of that idea?  Who designed the generating plant?  Who built the turbines?  Who mined the coal?  Who made the machines that mined the coal?  This could go on and on and this is just one thing, electricity.  Think about the food you eat.  Think about the job you have.  Since we are all connected, committing what we call evil was never even considered by the primal peoples.

I've heard people and myself say, "I've done this on my own.  I didn't need any help.  I've pulled myself up by my boot straps."  Really.  Who gave birth to you?  Who educated you?  Who fed and clothed you as you grew up?  See my point?  We haven't done anything on our own, we are all connected, we are interdependent.

The indians understood their dependence to the earth and to each other.  They understood how important the earth was and is and the people on it.  It's the only earth we've got and we are all we've got. We depend on it and each other for everything.  It and us are sacred.  You know, all the holy books of the world are just that, books and we've got a bunch of them to choose from.  They are sacred because we say and think that they are.  And then from these so called sacred books, we've got tens of thousands of interpretations of what we think they mean.  So how sacred are they?  How much Truth is in them?  I don't know, but ultimately, the earth, it feeds us.  The earth, it shelters us.  The earth, it clothes us.  None of the sacred books can do that.

Maybe we should become primal once again.