One might suppose, that since virtually all creatures have their consciousness imposed upon them from outside, that they are inferior to man, who is the only creature to develop a highly qualiadelic, inner landscape. Homo sapiens, after all, has a mind, ideas, language, and morality. But that is not at all the truth.
Animals are favored with being highly in tune with their outer landscapes, and with the ecosystems which balance their precious resources. It might be argued that, because of this, they have a higher morality than any human being. Animals and plants use what they need, and no more (yes, they do take more when it is in season, but not enough to decimate another species). In addition, I imagine they have some sense (which we have lost) that death, when it is inevitable, is nothing more than a giving back, just another phase in the cycle of nature.
People, quite to the contrary, are out of tune with their landscapes, and we pay absolutely no attention to ecosystems. We rape the planet in every possible way, and we manufacture religions and philosophies to justify, and to forgive, our sinful selves. Guilty as charged.
Animals need no religion nor philosophy to teach them the most fundamental moral truth on the planet: don’t bite the hand that gives you life, that nourishes you, and provides for all your needs.
Ecosystems pour their bounty into niches and landscapes so that all life has what it needs. Nature pulls off an incredible balancing act in the ebb and flow of phenomena, from seasonal change to population waves, all of which every animal and plant understands — for they can read the qualia in the landscape, and they react to these signs with terrific precision. This is the essence of their consciousness, even if it is, merely, imposed upon them from the outside.
The human mind, (which is something apart from the brain and the body – both of which are part of the outer landscape and are imposed upon from the outside), apparently arrived some fifty to one-hundred thousand years ago. It takes what the senses impose upon the brain and interprets it, rather than merely reacting to it. But, alas, for all its wondrousness and creativity, the mind’s “success” seems to have (almost?) run us off a cliff.
Take human competition, for example. As a general rule, animal consciousness fosters cooperation, if not within species, then between species, and if not between species, then over time, as all that dies and decays replenishes some other generation of life.
For all things there is a season, and animals know it. But people, people, people don’t understand this. If only we could get past our myopic, addictive landscape, then we humans might re-acquire some of our fellow creatures’ innate sense of eco-morality. So far though, our religions and our philosophies are sophomoric and provincial when compared to the un-nameable, Tao-like, ideal, named “ecosystems.”
Empty our self-important minds, and put aside our technological toys, and perhaps we may earn the right to stand with the rest of our earth’s beings in grace. The qualia of our inner landscapes is a gift which flows directly into our minds from ecosystems, unmediated by our senses; this is a gift we hardly appreciate, but when we do, it – qualia, grace – moves through us, and then outward and back into the landscape.
We can become the servants of ecosystems, the orphan-kings of an earthly ecotopia, and even find happiness.