Nature symbols: being's development and nature

The manifestation of the being

Traditionally, the Unity, the Principle at the source of the manifestation of all beings, is polarized into an active (Essence) and a passive (Substance) principle.

According to all Western traditional forms, from Antiquity to the middle ages, three hierarchic fundamental orders are derived from the polarized Unity:

The medium term, the soul, is passive compared to the active (properly essential) Spirit and active relatively to the passive (purely substantial) body. Note that the most recognized characteristic of the being, the mind, is also part of this medium term.

After the Middle Ages, the assimilation of the Spirit to the soul led to the body-soul irreducible Cartesian duality. Consequently, the emphasis was more and more put on the body than on the Spirit. This ended up, during the 18^th century, into a monist anthropology reduced to the body, which opened the way to the “machine-man” (La Mettrie).

Of course, the main being's states reflect the former hierarchy as follows:

• The total being having rejoined the essential world, the Spirit.
• The human being, balancing the essential and substantial worlds and having become a real individual (from “individuum” meaning indivisible).
• The ordinary being still attached to the substantial world, the body.

The human refers to the individual world whereas the total being belongs to the supra-individual world. The ordinary or the human being may progress alongside this hierarchy through successive passages from a state of being to another. Any of these passages, consisting in a death to the current state and a re-birth into another, relies on the being's nature.

The nature of the being

There are two closely related facets of the being's nature:

• What he is himself, his “personality” representing his proper, inner or active nature.
• All the influences of the environment surrounding the being when he is manifested in a certain state and representing his outer or passive nature.

The constitution of the being does not come from the outside, but from the being himself, by the action of his inner nature on the outer. To illustrate this, let us consider a drawing where a vertical axis represents the inner nature and a horizontal plane the outer.

• The vertical depicts all the manifestation states, which are the expression of the being himself perceived at the microcosm level. Proper to the being and covering all orders, from body to Spirit, the vertical axis belongs to the supra-individual world.
• The horizontal plane portrays the domain of a specific state of manifestation, the environment related to that state considered at the macrocosm level. In the case of the individual, this domain will cover both body and soul orders.

The manifestation of the being in a specific state will be determined by the intersection of the vertical with a horizontal plane. Even if two beings are manifested in the same state, the verticals and intersection points will differ as their own natures do. In other words, the being himself determines his manifestation conditions in a certain state according to its specifications represented by the horizontal plane.

During his manifestation in a defined state, the being takes from its environment only what is in accordance with the possibilities he is bearing within himself relatively to that state. Moreover, any real relationship between two beings may only be the product of their own natures. In fact, the influences, that a being seems to be subjected to or receives from his or her partner, are only the expression of his possibilities.

The elements borrowed from the environment have to be in correspondence with the being's possibilities, otherwise they could not be assimilated. The being is subjected to the environment only when the external influences do not fit with some of his own possibilities and play a restrictive role. However, these restrictions may operate regarding a certain state of being and not necessarily another. It ensues that the external influences are not attached to the being and should not inevitably follow him during his successive states of manifestation.

When the outer influences are in complete harmony with the inner possibilities of the being, he is able to develop all of them in a perfect balanced way to become a full human being and, beyond individuality, a total being. This ultimate state includes the human state and should never be reduced to it.

When the environment is limiting the actualization of the possibilities, some of them remain at a potential level as long as the being has not moved to another state where the outer conditions may not play a restrictive role anymore. Till then, he remains an ordinary being.

Note that the Principle or Unity is indivisible and contains all the essential and substantial degrees of the nature manifestation of all beings, the inner as the outer. As soon as we go down the range of manifestation degrees, from Spirit to body, limitations appear in relation to the external conditions. Indeed, the descent alongside the manifestation degrees implies more and more substantial and distinct states (source of multiplicity) and less and less essential and unifying possibilities (source of integration). Therefore, it may be more difficult for an ordinary being than for the human to go up the range of degrees.

What can we learn from this in relation to the environment ?

All beings are different according to their inner nature and they are manifested in line with their outer nature or environment. When considering all manifestation states, the order hierarchy depicts a gradual estrangement from the qualitative essential unity to the quantitative substantial multiplicity, from the spiritual to the bodily pole, from the total to the ordinary being state. Within all intermediary states, in which both poles are balanced, stands the human being.

Most beings have never been belittled as much as today. Mostly reduced to simple physical entities, they are deprived of communication possibilities with higher reality orders. The worldwide reign of the quantitative substantial order is certainly not a sign of progress, but only an extension of the lowest manifestation order to the planet. This comes more from a tendency towards “uniformity” than “unity”.

The ordinary being, part of the cosmic world, does not play the harmless role of a simple spectator. He has become a key actor regarding the influences upon the world he is living in. His interventions do not only concern the obvious artificial modifications imposed on the terrestrial and spatial worlds. Indeed, the spreading of the quantitative perspectives can only reinforce the physical order basis within the ordinary being's views and the reactions of the environment.

Having reduced life to its lowest order, the ordinary being is invested by the wishful thinking of being able to control it. He is desperately looking for a comfortable life, without troubles and accidents, through perfectly regulated automated processes. However, the automation of the environment may only make man addicted to it and automate his own nature in return. While the automation is speeded up, the constant changes within the inner and outer being's nature result in a more and more precarious and unstable world. Consequently, nothing can prevent crashes within this “closed system” (not open to higher orders), totally artificial and denying the real being's nature.

One of the first steps on the way out of this restricted world consists in moving beyond the purely physical order, in direction of the real human nature, a nature balancing Substance and Essence, physical and spiritual aspects. Doing this signifies primarily moving from a material, automated and inanimate state to a real living, more conscious and animate state (from the Latin “anima” meaning breath or soul).

What about biological diversity ?

Therefore, the key change regarding the surrounding world should deal with the preservation of vegetal and animal life, of its habitats and genetic variety. The earth carries an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals covering millions of species, only 1.75 million of which are known and identified today.

Bio-diversity is essential to the ecological stability maintenance of the planet. It allows the various species to take up challenges in a constantly changing world and to fulfil the different bio-sphere functions. All the more so since no scientific theory can explain, for instance, the methane and other substances contained within the atmosphere, which result not from a physico-chemical, but a living process. Bio-diversity, in particular, is in danger today. Just think of the single-crop and herd farming so prized for their yield by modern agriculture. Preserving and, whenever possible, restoring bio-diversity remains one of the main challenges humanity has to face these days. A preservation surely not confined to reserves or gene banks and a restoration certainly not built up on GMO (Genetically Manipulated or Modified Organisms), which tend only to decrease the natural animal and plant variety.

For a long time, man has exploited the biological diversity among wild species to create new hybrid forms or refine existing ones. Indeed, humanity has, within the wild fauna and flora, a huge potential source of culture, medicine, fibre and food variety. A resource mainly concentrated within rain forests and wetlands, particularly threatened nowadays. And the GMO will be unable to replace this tremendous, mostly unrecognized, potential reserve. What does it matter ? We do not lose what we do not know!

As almost all pollution sources have an impact on nature and bio-diversity, an approach preserving the biological diversity would cover the main environmental concerns as well. It would also encompass soil, water, air and noise pollution deriving from the main economic and leisure activities particularly threatening nature and bio-diversity:

Main dangers threatening nature in general and bio-diversity in particular

Bibliography

René Guénon:

“The Great Triad”. South Asia Books Publisher;

Particularly, chapters 11 titled “spiritus, anima, corpus” and 13 dealing with “the being and the environment”.

“The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times”. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1972;

Especially, chapters 7 related to “uniformity against unity” and 11 concerning “Unity and simplicity”.

Jean-Marie Pelt:

“Plants and transgenic food”. Fayard Publisher, 1998;