All life is on a Journey
Interstellar dust very gradually collapses under its own gravitation. Slowly, out of what had no centre or even a definable form, a cloud is formed. This continues to collapse and the particles move closer and closer together. The cloud rotates and the collapse gathers speed until eventually the particles are so close together that the nuclei of the atoms become so close that atomic fusion takes place and a star is formed. At this point the mass creates its own energy and is not dependant on reflected light in order to be visible.
This action is directly analogous to the process that takes place in human beings. The Persian Sufi Jalaluddin Rumi expressed the evolutionary process as follows:
I died as a mineral and became a plant;
I died as a plant and rose to animal;
I died as animal and I was a man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man to soar
With angels blest. But even from an angel
I must pass on: all except God must perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
Initially there is no centre of consciousness. The rock has no consciousness of its own and is manipulated by forces around it. Plants have a certain degree of consciousness and can adapt to suit their environment. Animals have more consciousness still but each species can only act within the parameters of that species. An ant is limited to ant-like behaviour. A sheep to sheep-like behaviour, though they have more latitude than an ant. A dog is usually limited to dog-like behaviour, though dogs have more latitude than sheep. Human beings have more latitude still. In fact the possibilities for human behaviour extend from being little more than that of sheep, to what Rumi referred to as being beyond the angels.
When a human being reaches a certain stage of enlightenment they are able to generate their own energy in the same way as a star does. This is what Carlos Castaneda called ‘The Fire Within’. A star does not have free will however – a human being does.
All life is on a journey. Only human beings have the possibility of completing that journey.
