This freesite series brings various thoughts and insights that seem particularly relevant now, at a time when the old order is failing around us, and a new civilization is about to rise from the ashes.

Most items are in the form of quotations and many go back a long way. However, all the wisdoms expressed in the series remain relevant to our times.

Respect

Excerpts from Chapter 9 of Twelve Principles, by Martin Hawes.

To act responsibly is to act with respect - for our fellow human beings, for other living creatures, for the Earth, for life and for ourselves. When we have respect we consider the needs of others and consequently limit our own demands. When we lack respect we trample on others, mistreat our fellow creatures and mutilate the Earth - as many of us are doing now.

We are all more or less familiar with the outward expressions of respect. If I respect you I won't try to shout you down or cut across what you are trying to say. If I respect the natural world I won't break a branch off a tree unnecessarily or use up fossil fuels as if doing so was my God-given right. but what is my motive for being respectful? What is the underlying source of respect?

There is something mysterious about respect, something that cannot be rationalised or explained away. Why should I respect a tree, a bird or another human being? Why should I refrain from killing things unless I really need to kill them? I may go through the motions of respect because I want to appear respectable; but if I don't feel respect, my outer actions will have no integrity and will ultimately lack true respect. The feeling of respect cannot be contrived; it has to come from the heart.

Respect comes naturally when we recognise the inherent value of things. The members of many indigenous communities treat animals and plants with reverence, doing no more harm than is necessary to sustain their basic needs. In the so-called developed world we kill animals on conveyor belts and mow down trees as if they were weeds. The failure of the agricultural industry to respect the fact that cows are herbivorous was largely responsible for the scourge of BSE (commonly known as 'mad cow disease') and its human variant vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), which by 2003 had killed more than 120 people and may continue to kill people for decades to come.

So it is important that children be encouraged to understand and feel respect from a tender age, before they become excessively cynical or stupefied by consumerism. They should be encouraged to look at the sky and the trees, to feel the life pulsing in a leaf and the vitality of a bird in flight. They should be encouraged to respect themselves - and the best way to help them in this is for the adult to respect the child, because to feel respect is to experience one's own worth through someone else's eyes.

It is especially important to have self-respect - which is not to suggest that we should become vain or give undue importance to our personal gratification. Respecting ourselves means recognising our potential for integrity and our capacity to make a positive contribution to the world.

When we lack self-respect we tend to fall into various forms of delinquency. It could be said that contemporary Western society as a whole is delinquent because in many respects we are living negligently, preoccupied with trivial pleasures. If we respected ourselves we would not waste our lives doing meaningless work to purchase amusements we don't really want. If we had self-respect we would think for ourselves and not allow our brains to be programmed by advertising agencies and political spin-doctors.

.....

How are we to respect people whose actions seem to us contemptible, or at best unwise? The answer lies partly in recognising that there is goodness in almost everyone, and that many people are struggling with far greater difficulties than we are. We all do contemptible things at times, and we often condemn in others the insecurities or insensitivity that we fail to recognise in ourselves. If we can put aside our judgements of others, we may find ourselves surprised by their courage or humbled by their generosity. When we treat other people with respect, they almost always respond in kind.

When there is respect there is honour. 'Honour' is a powerful word, but it has fallen even further into disuse than 'respect'. It carries a sense of dignity, humility and reverence. To respect a tree is to honour it for its life, its history, its beauty, its mystery. To respect another human human being is to honour that person regardless of gender, age, race, religion, sexual orientation or cultural background; it means not exploiting that person or indulging in activities that contribute to his or her exploitation. Ultimately, to respect is to recognise that all living things are manifestations of the intelligence of the universe - an intelligence vastly beyond the reach of thought or imagination.

There is a sequel to that story about when I was a track-worker. On one occasion a colleague and I were in an area where good timber was scarce, and we found a tree that would have supplied all the timber we needed for several days. It was a magnificent tree that seemed to hold sway over all the forest around it. As we were sizing it up, we began to notice birds of many different species; the longer we stood there, the more its branches seemed to fill with birds. It was as if all those birds were flocking to the tree and saying, 'Don't take this one! This is the Lord of the Forest!' To fell that tree would have been sacrilege. So we paid our respects and left it in peace.

To respect is to acknowledge the sacred in the Earth and in all living things.

The twelve principles in Martin Hawes' book are,

One People,
One Planet,
Responsibility,
Making a Difference,
Learning,
Seeing,
Self-Awareness,
Global Awareness,
Respect,
Simplicity,
Love,
Integrity.

This is not a bad shopping list of ways to help raise the consciousness of humanity, at the start of our next great adventure - a Level 4 Civilization.

Lothar, January 2006.

Details of Martin Hawes' book, Twelve Principles, can be found by clicking the Sources 2R link in the sidebar.

If you are interested in raising consciousness, also see The Animals Regret link there.