Chapter 20
Animal to Human:
The Evolution of Our Consciousness As mentioned in a previous Chapter, there are Five Realms of Existence - heavenly realm, human realm, realm of afflicted spirits, animal realm, and realm of hell. Each of these realms have certain characteristics and aspects or conditions within each realm, and certain conditions for the beings in that realm. To obtain the human form, we are primarily reborn from the animal or heavenly realms. For humans to take form into the human realm, we have already had countless previous births. Planet earth has existed for over 4.5 billion years. Your existence for 80-100 years in your current human form, and our ability to somewhat understand the last few thousand years is minuscule compared to how long the planet has existed. Globally we say it is the year 2021, however, that is just counting from a period of time based on historical events that occurred in the recent past. Is it really and truly the year 2021 when the planet earth has existed for over 4.5 billion years? Well, it depends on when you started counting. If we count from the beginning of the existence of the earth, the current year 2021 does not come close to accurately reflecting the total history of the planet, its existence, and its evolution. There is a lot more to learn here on this planet than what you currently know or understand. Keeping this in mind, your own existence in this human form is also minuscule in the grand scheme of planetary existence. Our 80-100 years of natural life, is a blink of an eye compared to the total time and existence of the entire earth. At this point in time, you have memory and can recall events, situations, and relationships that have transpired within your current existence - your current life. However, you have had several lives prior to this life that you may not currently recall and cannot remember. Those prior existences may not be part of your current available memories.
As the mind wakes up closer and closer to Enlightenment, the mind may have memories of previous lives. The process of progressing towards Enlightenment will allow you to attain a higher and Higher Consciousness, which allows you to see more of your current life and past lives. As you ascend to a higher place, you can see more of the bigger picture. Just like if you were in a village or city, you can only see and experience what is in that village or city. But if you relocated to a higher location on a nearby mountain top, you would be able to see all the other villages from this higher vantage point and how all these villages interconnect from one to the other. Attaining a Higher Consciousness will have the same effect as being on top of the mountain. As you attain a Higher Consciousness, you will see more of your existing life and how to create a smooth and peaceful existence within this life. You may also observe previous births in the other realms, including previous births in the human realm. To obtain rebirth in the human realm, you would have needed to generate significant amounts of wholesome Kamma in your previous births. Seeing past lives, is not necessarily important because they are in the past and have no significance on your attaining Enlightenment in this life. Discovering past lives is interesting but will not help you to attain Enlightenment in this life. Only what you do in this life will contribute to Enlightenment in this life. Nothing from past lives and nothing in the past from this life matters - it’s in the past and does not affect your ability to attain Enlightenment in this life. Being born into the human realm means there have most likely already been countless previous births within all Five Realms. A certain number of rebirths into the human realm occur from the heavenly realm. The vast majority of all rebirths occur out of the animal realm into the human realm. Gotama Buddha explained that the total volume of all our blood from our previous births is greater than the total volume of water in all the oceans and seas of the entire world. He also explained that all the milk we have drank from our mother in our previous rebirths is also greater than the total volume of water in all the oceans and seas of the entire world. Considering the planet has existed for 4.5 billion years and your short life span within each of your previous existences, you can easily see how your previous rebirths would be numerous and countless. The total volume of
blood from those existences and births would easily total more than all the water of all the oceans on the planet. This is why the goal for this human existence is to reach Enlightenment so that you can eliminate The Cycle of Rebirth while experiencing a content and peaceful remaining existence in this human form. You and I have been wandering through this entire process of rebirth countless times, being reborn into various forms. Our Kamma in those previous births has not led us to The Teachings which allow us to cultivate our consciousness and gain wisdom to completely escape this Cycle of Rebirth. You are still bound by The Ten Fetters which will keep you trapped in The Cycle of Rebirth, until you work to eliminate these from the mind.
Animal to Human
To exist in the human realm, it means you have previously been reborn into the animal realm countless times. You may not remember these births at this time, but you may gain these memories as you continue to develop your consciousness. But even in your current mental state, you can understand the process of rebirth and that you were previously born as an animal.
Let me explain…
Many people consider humans to be animals, more developed and
intelligent, but nonetheless we are often considered animals. If you think of how the human mind works, it is very much like an animal’s mind but much more evolved. When we are first reborn into the human realm, we are evolving out of countless previous animal existences. Just like an animal, we do not have the ability to remember events, people or situations in great detail. As a human, the mind operates on praise and reward, and continues to function best in a praise and reward structure - just like an animal. Even though we are now in the human realm, we go through all the same trials and tribulations of the animal realm because the consciousness is evolving out of the animal realm. We begin to understand, through developing the mind, how to eat and what food does for the body. We learn to walk, talk, interact, socialize, and what is acceptable or not acceptable within our “pack” of like species. We learn through our experiences and
interactions with other humans, just like animals learn through the experiences and interactions they have with other animals of the same kind.
Some animal behaviors are instinctive while others are learned behaviors,
just like with humans. We have many instinctive behaviors while many of our behaviors and conduct are learned behavior. Humans left on their own without socialization (learned behavior) and without the ability to acquire more wisdom, would instinctively revert to our animal consciousness. The animal consciousness is overwhelmingly preoccupied with basic survival instincts that are born out of craving, anger, ignorance (unknowing of true reality), accumulation of an ego and protection of a self. Keep in mind that craving encompasses strong desire and a lack of interest to share or be generous, which includes the excessive accumulation of food. Animals are well known for hoarding food without interest to share. As humans, we start off our existence with these same qualities of our consciousness, yet, because we are humans we can evolve beyond craving, anger, ignorance (unknowing of true reality), the accumulation of ego and the protection of a self. Enlightenment is the abandoning of craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) the elimination of ego and the realization of non- self. The process of Enlightenment is in effect, evolving beyond our animal instincts and consciousness into the human realm of existence with a Higher Consciousness. Many humans will not evolve into a Higher Consciousness during their life or at death through the process of attaining Enlightenment and, thus, will be reborn back into the animal realm or a lower realm of existence. Humans may also be reborn back into the human realm or into the heavenly realm depending on Kamma in this life. It should be the goal of every human, now that we have obtained this rare rebirth into the human realm, to work to attain Enlightenment in this very life. This is the only way to end our massive self destruction of the planet and end the continuous Cycle of Rebirth. Birth in its very nature consists of misery and pain whether in the animal realm or human realm. If we are born, we will experience sickness, aging, and death along with massive amounts of discontentedness and the suffering it causes.
Evolving past our animal instincts and the animal consciousness is possible now that you have obtained this human state. It must not go to waste, and you must not be complacent. This knowledge is available for you to evolve to a Higher Consciousness if you take steps forward to learn, reflect, and practice The Teachings so that you can attain the results. This is why these Teachings are not a “religion” as humans have understood them and categorized them in the past. Religion is often thought as an organization attempting to control human behaviors, I understand why many would think this way. However, these Teachings are to attain a better existence, a Higher
Consciousness, and guidance to assist you in escaping the continuous
Cycle of Rebirth. Through training the mind, we can experience an improved human existence evolving beyond the animal instincts of our previous lives. There is no interest to control behavior but for you to “save” yourself from The Cycle of Rebirth and create a peaceful existence. But, you must do the work to “save” yourself. This is why there is no central organization that governs these Teachings and there is no central figure who controls The Teachings or the people who are learning and practicing these Teachings. Each person is able to make their own decisions of what is helpful for their life. These Teachings are to assist you and all of humanity, to evolve past animal consciousness and into a better existence, so that you will not need to be reborn into another existence to experience the misery that is associated with birth. If you are reborn, you will experience misery through sickness, aging, and death. The goal is to never be reborn ever again. “Not being reborn” means you escape the misery of existing in any form while enjoying the rest of this life without discontentedness. The mind will be peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy - permanently.
Status of the World
It is common for an unEnlightened mind to complain or take exception with the current state of the planet. The environment is not healthy and a large majority of the minds of people on the planet are not healthy. The health and condition of the minds of humans is directly reflected in the health and condition of the planet.
Because human existence has largely reverted back to our animal
consciousness of craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality), with the accumulation of ego and protection of self, we are seeing massive amounts of destruction to our planet and to each other. Murders, rapes, massive accumulation of wealth and power by a small percentage of the population (i.e. hoarding) which helps to cause extensive poverty and famine, corrupt politics that allows for further accumulation of wealth and power, diseases, invented diseases that help to create wealth with costly medical procedures or medications, these and countless other problems exist on the planet due to the mind of humans reverting back to the animal consciousness of craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality), with the accumulation of ego and protection of a self. If this progression of human consciousness is allowed to continue to degrade, our human existence will be utterly destroyed through creating “hell on earth”. The Path Forward It is common for humans to complain about the condition of the planet and the misery that exists. It is also common for humans to complain about how “others” contributed to the misery of the planet and the world around us rather than looking at our own individual intentions, speech, and actions. What all humans must understand, is that there is nothing you can do to individually change another human. It is the choice of each human to change themselves. You will not and cannot change the natural laws that govern the world. You can do nothing to change the fact that The Natural Law of Kamma exists and that The Cycle of Rebirth will continue for the remaining time of human existence. The only thing you can do, personally, is to seek your own Enlightenment and assist those around you to also seek this Higher Consciousness as they choose to ask questions. As Gotama Buddha said, “do not allow yourself to be the last person” to attain Enlightenment. If you spend time attempting to change local laws, motivate people to change local policies, or other aspects of life without the encouragement of seeking a Higher Consciousness, you are attempting to change behavior but not human consciousness through these Teachings.
By attaining a Higher Consciousness, human behavior will automatically
change through freedom of choice with deeper and more profound wisdom. We must be the influence and motivators to encourage all humans to improve their consciousness to abandon craving, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) to dissolve the ego and realize non-self. This will automatically influence more healthy decision making and behaviors. We influence others through our own intentions, speech, and actions, not through telling others “what to do”. If each human does not walk toward the “light” and continues to dwell in the “darkness”, then the planet will continue to become a darker and darker place to exist. Most of us do not have the influence or ability to change or affect large populations of people unless you are a leader within your community. Most of us live a daily life with a handful of close friends and family around us. We attempt to change a rule or policy that we think will bring about a better existence for those people in our immediate society. However, working endlessly to influence change or to change a law, policy, or specific condition of the human existence as it exists in this current modern time, does little to influence the overall evolution of our entire human species and planet that has existed for over 4.5 billion years. Do you have any insight into the laws or policies that existed a few hundred, thousand, millions, or billions of years ago? No, because all of that is well in the past and does not matter, it was all impermanent and all that matters is this present moment. But the natural laws that govern our existence have not changed and still influence everything about our existence. You need to learn and understand these natural laws of existence in order to create a peaceful existence in this life. All you can do as an individual is to make a decision to work towards attaining a Higher Consciousness, while motivating and encouraging those around you to do the same by being a good example of a Practitioner who is practicing these Teachings with your own wholesome intentions, speech, and actions. But it is your salvation and inner growth that is the most important. There is nothing you can do to “change” another human. They need to make their own decisions to change and evolve to a Higher Consciousness.
When you have attained Enlightenment, you will not experience any anger, have feelings of frustration, or blame others for the problems you face. You will not have anxiety, sadness, boredom, loneliness, fears, or other discontent feelings. When you attain Enlightenment, you will have eliminated your cravings and addictions. You will not discriminate or judge others. You will not have a desire to always be “right” and argue. If these exist now, you need more growth and more inner development to fully awaken to your Higher Consciousness. It is not selfish to focus on yourself and your own evolution and growth. You can run around the earth focusing on changing societies’ laws, modifying a policy, or conducting business, those things are needed as well, but if you are neglecting yourself and your own inner development then you are not serving yourself nor humanity to the best of your ability. You must work to evolve your consciousness beyond the animal instincts and into a higher human consciousness. As you do that, you will be a better parent, friend, family member, employee, boss, or whatever it is that you would like to do in life. As you develop a Higher Consciousness, the sky is the limit. You need to start with “Right View”. Understand that “you” and “you alone” cause your discontentedness and “you” can eliminate your discontentedness by eliminating cravings, anger, and ignorance (unknowing of true reality) seeking Enlightenment. Without this basic and most important understanding, you will blame others for your condition within this human existence. You will think there is no ability for you to improve or modify anything to escape the misery. You will feel hopeless and a victim to your surroundings and the events in your life. Nothing will improve. But you have 100% ability to create change in the current condition of the mind. “You” and “you alone” are the only person that can improve your consciousness through learning and practicing these Teachings. You can pray to God, worship God for eternity, or practice “worshiping” of other entities, however, worshiping is not going to gain you favor nor create a better life for you. God is not a “genie in a bottle” and, if you have a belief in God, it is “you” that must do the work. God will not change your life; only “you” can do that.
You cannot just “worship” or “believe”, you must practice The Teachings that lead to an improved existence. Nothing external will create inner peace and allow you to attain Enlightenment. There is no need to pressure or force others to practice Teachings that you yourself are not fully practicing, do not fully understand, and have potentially been misinterpreted. Belief is only belief, but by practicing Teachings that produce results, you will know they are beneficial because your life will improve. You will see the truth and wisdom in your practice as the mind becomes more and more liberated, thus, concentrated, stable, peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy. The mind will become unshakable.
Childhood Development
Because humans mainly evolve out of the animal realm, you will find that the best way to guide, teach, and lead humans is through praise and reward like you would do in training an animal towards good behavior and good choices. You need to treat all beings with loving-kindness and compassion but we can also guide our children in these Teachings and through life’s many lessons much like we would guide any being through praise and reward. Currently, there are still families around the world who choose to hit children as part of the disciplinary process to guide and teach. This practice is born out of our animal instincts to fight, have anger, and aggression when something is done around us that we disagree with. In doing so, we are teaching children to be angry, hostile, and aggressive, while lacking the ability to solve challenges peacefully through discussion and sharing wisdom. Children need to be taught how to make wise decisions but hitting children only teaches anger, hostility, and aggression. Instituting capital punishment to kill other beings who we think should not be part of our society due to having committed crimes, is also from our animal instincts and should be eliminated from our global society as killing any being produces unwholesome Kamma and promotes killing. Why would someone in society think they are wrong for killing if governments sponsor killing through capital punishment, wars, and assassinations?
Leaders of governments are promoting killing while condemning the killing
that happens on their streets. This conduct by governments is teaching
humans that killing is appropriate and acceptable if someone has done something we think is wrong. As an animal, if something happens that angers us or we disagree with, we will fight and show aggression until the other animal complies with our requests or there is a battle to death. This is animal behavior that needs to be purged from our human consciousness. To guide our children to a Higher Consciousness, we must be actively working to earn our own Enlightenment while being a role model for our children to seek the same. If we continue the destructive cycles of the past, we will continue to see destruction throughout the world. Positive encouragement and positive influences will help to guide humans to a better existence.
Bullying, mass shootings, aggression, fighting, gang violence, murder, war
and countless other behaviors are born out of our animal consciousness to protect the self and show aggression when something happens around us that we do not agree with. To evolve individually and as an entire civilization, we must learn to talk, discuss, and educate through respectful and polite dialogue. Talking to our children and each other is the only way for us to share and learn. Just like we learned animal behaviors through socialization, we must learn these Teachings through human interaction and humans teaching each other how to learn and practice these Teachings. The best way to guide children on this path is to expose them to The Teachings early in life when The Three Poisons and ego is minimal. Then, allow children to experience their own Kamma helping them to understand this natural law while guiding them to making good choices.
All too often, parents “protect” or “insulate” children from the consequences of the child’s unwise decisions. As soon as their child does something that would cause unwholesome Kamma for the child, the parent sometimes will protect the child because they do not want to see the child struggle. But it is through the struggle of the mistakes and learning from their mistakes that children can grow to understand that The Natural Law of Kamma exists and that their own wholesome or unwholesome intentions, speech, and actions has a direct result or “cause and effect” in their life.
Children can learn that through good decision making based on The Natural Laws of Existence found in these Teachings, they can create a peaceful existence and peaceful life where they do not harm others and, thus, no harm comes to them through The Natural Law of Kamma. Children can attain Enlightenment as young as age 7 with proper learning and guidance. One of the best gifts you could ever give a child is for you to learn and practice these Teachings so that you can attain Enlightenment. Then based on your own growth, provide this same guidance to children so that they can attain Enlightenment which means they will never experience sadness, loneliness, or even cry among many other benefits. Children can experience a peaceful, calm, serene, and content mind with joy from early in life, being able to have healthy and productive relationships that benefit their life for their entire life, without experiencing a life full of frustration with a discontent mind and the suffering it causes. The very best gift we could ever give a child is to guide them towards attaining Enlightenment, cultivating a mind that has eliminated feelings such as sadness, anger, frustration, boredom, loneliness, etc., while practicing generosity, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity towards all beings. Today, we have countless stimuli in our life. We teach each other but we also learn through media like TV, Internet, music, and gaming. All of these various media and images we hear and see, shape our views and perspectives. All input into the mind is teaching and educating us. Video games and other media that show graphic content or have us participate in graphic content, does not help to educate us beyond our animal instincts and animal behaviors. While gaming and media can be entertaining, it can also be damaging to our consciousness, making the mind think it is acceptable to harm and kill. While we may say “it is just a game” or “it is just a movie”, gaming becomes real life, especially when these games are played and media viewed extensively from young age into adolescent and adult life without proper guidance from these Teachings. While these same games are played throughout the world and graphic media input into the mind, there are only a few places in the world that experience massive anger and acts of violence. The places that experience the most violence and anger are those places that are lacking the social guidance offered by these Teachings.
Be thoughtful of the media that goes into the mind. Graphic violence or other media can persuade you away from a solid life practice and impact the calmness or stability of the mind. Pleasant feelings, painful feelings, or feelings that are neither painful-nor-pleasant, i.e. discontentedness, can arise through media that affects the mind. All input into The Six Sense Bases including the mind, the doorways to discontentedness, can impact the mind, so choose wisely what you allow into the mind to absorb through the sense bases.
Wise Choices Eliminates Our Animal Behaviors
You can see that hatred and countless acts of violence have drastically increased decade over decade. Mass shootings and violence are being perpetrated throughout the world on a large scale through individual events and terrorist organizations. We can continue to deny the existence of massive amounts of hatred in our world, which is exacerbated and stimulated by our choice of input into the mind with lack of guidance, or we can implement the guidance found in these Teachings to guide the world to a better existence. The source of anger, aggression, and mass violence is not the video games or media, it is our roots in the animal realm and our previous animal existences, however, the media we choose to put into the mind encourages or arises animal instincts and behaviors. Making wise choices to purge hitting for discipline, eliminating input into the mind of media that promotes hatred, violence, killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, use of substances that cause heedlessness, and ensuring governments and leaders do not support the same, will ensure that we “guard our doorways to discontentedness” through wholesome input into the mind. While The Five Precepts ensure the elimination of a significant portion of unwholesome Kamma for each individual, they also guide each human away from their animal instincts and animal consciousness. Learning and practicing these Teachings will ensure that we continue to evolve as a species and global society while moving away from our roots in the animal realm and closer to functioning as awakened human beings. To learn more about The Realms of Existence and The Cycle of Rebirth, see the book titled “The Realms of Existence” (Volume 11) of this same book series.
Learning Resources for Further Exploration
Audiobook
(Audiobook) - (Volume 1 - Chapter 20) - Animal to Human: The Evolution of Our
Consciousness (Read & Listen)
Ep. 520 - (Audiobook) - (Volume 1 - Chapter 20) - Animal to Human: The Evolution of Our Consciousness
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/buddhadailywisdom/episodes/Ep--520---Audiobook---
Volume-1---Chapter-20---Animal-to-Human-The-Evolution-of-Our-Consciousness-e272upp
Youtube Video(s)
(Group Learning Program) - Chapter 20 - Animal to Human: The Evolution of Our
Consciousness
https://youtube.com/live/SV29ZBcnxcM
(Group Learning Program) - Guided Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and
Student Questions
https://youtube.com/live/Qm2tgJ70_lE
Podcast(s)
Ep. 480 - (Group Learning Program) - Chapter 20 - Animal to Human: The
Evolution of Our Consciousness
Ep. 481 - (Group Learning Program) - Guided Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and Student Questions
Quiz
Animal to Human: The Evolution of Our Consciousness
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