Grass-fed cows and breast-fed babies

Untangling The Tangle #3

Grass-fed beef and breast-fed babies. These terms popped up separately in articles I was reading online. What have these got to do with each other?

What struck me is this: cows are herbivores and naturally graze on grass, but on large-scale feedlots, they are fed corn and the rendered remains of other animals, including other cows (essentially turning them into cannibals). 

Babies of all species are best nurtured on their mother's breast milk. Breast milk substitutes do not come close to mothers' milk. Humans are the only species to substitute breast milk with an artificial formula. Of course, there are times when mothers cannot breast feed, but these are exceptions. 

As with factory farming, the capitalist drive for profit and convenience has made a mess of what could be called the natural order of things. We are in a world now where we must designate as unique what should be the default, the most natural of things: grass-fed cows and breast-fed babies.

What has this got to do with untangling the tangle of our lives? 

 If we look at our own lives, we often take what would be a more natural way of living and find reasons to live in opposition to it. A practical example is how we extend the day well into the night, seduced by the glow of a screen rather than of the moon. We rebel against the natural sleep cycles that govern all living things and end up not getting enough sleep.  

We misapply the power of our thinking mind to create a contracted and separate sense of self. That is not a natural way of being. However, it appears so because collectively, we have all bought into it, primarily to protect ourselves from what is "out there," a hostile world to be managed and controlled, so we are soothed. 

We anesthetize ourselves with social media and virtual "reality." Every day, our lives and attention inch further into a virtual sphere where we are addicted to likes and followers.

if we returned to a world that was not in such a hurry, a world in which we no longer let the capitalist machine run unfettered, we would begin to see our path back to a more natural state of being.

We would see our way back to a world we want to live in, where we are connected to natural rhythms and cycles, a world in which breast-fed babies and grass-fed cows are the norm, not the exception. 

As per the last installment of this series, the fallacy is thinking that the problem is "out there." It's not. It's in here. You and I are not attuned to our immediate environment, to our simplest wants to be nourished and touched, talked to, laughed with, and allowed to go to bed at a decent hour.

To untangle this tangle, we have to see through the fabrications. Our work is to return to a more natural direct experience of life, of everything--one that is not reliant on the concepts and belief systems that end up closing us off from our true nature, others, and the natural world. 

The beauty of it is that you don't have to "do" anything--no guidebook or course is needed. 

You simply rediscover your innate capacity to be present and pay attention, to notice the natural world in a flowerpot or a park, in the sparkle of sunlight on water or the sound of a squirrel amidst the leaves, in the subtle shift in light as our planet hurtles through space on its annual voyage around the sun. And to do this without judging your experience. 

Today, for me, it was watching a bee hover about my terrace until it finally found a small succulent with brilliant gold flowers from which to gather pollen. It's early spring, and there are not many flowers, so it was immensely satisfying to simply watch the bee go about its business and then flit away.

There's not much more to it than this. Make time for this more natural direct experience of life and see what shifts. This is not unwinding from the day, this is untangling, a way of life.

 The philosopher Krishnamurthi distilled it down so and evocatively:

I want to live on this marvellous earth, so full, so rich, so beautiful. I want to look at the trees, flowers, rivers, meadows, people, and at the same time live completely at peace with myself and with the world.

Everything that you say you want is right here.