Cooperation with all beings
A nonviolent future will emerge from the sacred alliance of all beings. Cooperation, communication and synergy are qualities that we must relearn to heal our relation to nature. In “Terra Deva,” our department for spiritual ecology, we research interspecies communication with domesticated and wild animals, plants and nature spirits. We also care for a team of horses that teach us perception and authentic contact and run a dog sanctuary to offer both emergency assistance and sustainable help for suffering canine friends in our region.
“I can imagine a world – because it has always existed – in which human beings and animals enter into a covenant and live together in peace and harmony, a world that day by day is transformed by the magic of love. This is not a dream.”
HENRY MILLER
What We’ve Learned
- All beings are unified in one existence and one consciousness – all belong to the universal community of life. Violence and fear have led to sickness all over the world. For this world to heal, we must realize our interdependence, end all cruelties toward and learn to cooperate with our fellow beings – human and nonhuman, visible and invisible. A nonviolent world, Terra Nova, originates from the sacred alliance of all beings.
- Rather than speaking about, we can learn to speak with the beings of nature and establish our human society in synergy with them, as they are as animated as we are. Every place we humans want to inhabit is already home to an innumerable host of beings. Rather than imposing our intention on nature, a nonviolent culture will always first enter into communication with the beings of nature and ask for permission to enter and build.
- We can collaborate with all beings, even the ones we so far have considered “pests.” We can’t dissolve any imbalance by exterminating other beings. When we overcome our aggression toward nature, its beings happily accept our guidance. Animals need our loving orientation, not violence, and respond with unreserved gratitude and friendliness once we grant them that wish. Our hearts heal when we realize that beings who have had to endure infinite pain are ready to forgive without any reservation.
- We don’t eat meat or fish in Tamera, as we don’t want to be complicit in the cruelty of the meat industry. But we continue to research whether or not we can eat animals or animal products in a nonviolent culture, and believe we can answer this question only by communicating with the soul of the animal, not through ideological debates. It’s one of the most delicate questions as it immediately connects us to the destiny of animals in this world – and to our human issues of violence, sexuality and the fear of death.
- How we relate to animals always reflects how we relate to our own animal nature. Humanity has inflicted unimaginable atrocities on animals because people have denied their own animal nature. When we accept the sensuality, perceptiveness and wild desires of the animal within us, we will relate in a loving way to all carnal beings. Someone who experiences sensual love cannot torment an animal.