Life can be beautiful and fantastic, and it can also be the opposite end of that spectrum and anywhere in between. We ask the question, is life sacred?
What does sacred mean in this context? To me, a sacred life is a life that should be cherished and protected, a sacred living being should be considered higher above all others, something even holy, perhaps. Personally, I do not believe that life is sacred. I believe life is nature and nature is lovely, but certainly not sacred. But for arguments sake, lets walk this through, and lets explore why it doesn’t make sense to me that life should be considered sacred. Perhaps you will agree me with, perhaps not, and the duality of this discussion is open for interpretation and nuance. My opinions are not to be taken as gospel, I want others to form their own opinions and make their own arguments, discussion is the fire that warms us. Feel free to bring this topic into the forums for open discussion.
Who’s life would be considered sacred?
Some folks I’ve talked to on this subject think that human-life is the most sacred of all life; that humans should be protected and cared for regardless of what they’ve done or who they are as a person in society. However, when asked if that should include the criminals and the most heinous wrong-doers of all time, such as dictators or mass-murderers, then their opinion quickly shifts to exclude a few of those ‘sacred’ human-beings. What about the poor soul, vagabond, or the wretches that lives on the street and beg for scraps or coins, smelling and stinking up the sidewalk? Should we not rush to their aide immediately and take them under our wings to provide a better life to that sacred-being? How about your fellow-human-beings that are being held against their will in some ill-begotten country? Should we not be organizing and funding a campaign to help those people trapped in destitute?
My point is not to make you feel upset for worrying about your own life or your own family, my point is to underscore that sometimes people say things to make themselves feel better about something, and that is alright too, but we should be able to identify that, and understand that it’s a part of our ego-focused mind to believe that humans are sacred, because we are humans ourselves, and its natural to believe we are important. However, just because we are human, does not mean our lives are sacred.
Other times folks like to include other animals or other forms of life in the sacred-category. Like what? Well, people like to believe that dogs and cats are sacred. They will go out of their way and spend their hard-earned dollars to rescue a pet and give them a name and a place to sleep and food to eat and think they’ve done good in the world. They’ve rescued a sacred animal from the disparaged animal shelter. Now, their new fluffy-friend has a warm place to sleep, food in their belly, and someone to love. It certainly sounds wonderful, and it is for our own selfish reasons, but pet-lives are not sacred either.
Sidebar: Selfishness is not always a bad thing, it’s completely fine to be selfish, sometimes. When you adopt a dog, you’re doing it because you want a companion and you select that companion based on your personality. There is nothing wrong with that, and I do it myself, it’s completely normal to be selfish sometimes and the word does not deserve any negative connotations that are often linked to it, especially when used in this context.
Different cultures place value and protections on different animals for different reasons. Take the widely known example of cows in India, they are a ‘sacred’ and protected animal in their country. According to The Hindu (2023), “The cow has been worshipped in Hindu traditions for centuries and is seen as a symbol of life and sustenance.” The Indian Constitution even reflects this sentiment; Article 48 directs the state to protect and improve the breeds and prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves.
Furthermore, Indian states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have enacted strict laws against cow slaughter. For example, the BBC (2021) reported that “in several Indian states, cow slaughter can lead to imprisonment of up to 10 years.”
Contrast how cows are regarded in India versus the United States, where the US slaughters approximately 36,000,000 cattle every year. That’s 36 million ‘sacred’ lives murdered every year so folks can eat hamburgers via a drive-thru window. As we can see, different cultures and different people determine for their own reasons what ‘sacred’ means. Are any of them right? Are any of them wrong? The answer is that neither of them are wrong, and everyone is right at the same time, because from their individual points of view they are correct and everyone else is wrong, but from our point of view, everyone is wrong and right at the same time.
Opposing views and different ways of life are natural and necessary
How can everyone be wrong and right at the same time? It’s important to understand that contrasting viewpoints, held by different people at different times, are as natural and necessary as light and dark, space and matter, heads or tails. They are opposite sides of the same coin.
When you flip a quarter and it lands on tails, you don’t celebrate it’s victory over the heads side of the coin, do you? You accept that as the outcome of this individual coin toss. You cannot have a tails victory if the heads side of the coin does not exist. Let’s say, for example, that you hated the heads side of the coin; you don’t like the way that person’s head is shaped, nor the way they did their hair, but you love the tails side of it, for whatever reason. Even in you hatred, you don’t want the heads side of the coin to go away permanently, because then there would never be any victory or defeat. There would be no conflict, no tension, and no spice. Tossing a coin would be utterly boring because you’d know the outcome before you flipped it.
The duality of life and focus of Zen
Understand, dear reader, that life cannot exist separately. When we see a beautiful mountain range, with snow-capped peaks and splendid valleys, you take it all in and marvel at its beauty but that mountain could not exist without the rivers and waters that carved it out of the landscape, nor could it exist without the space behind it, providing its canvas. People believe there is nothing to like about the air or the ‘negative’ space behind the mountain, but if it were not for that air, then we would not be able to see how splendid the mountain is.
Some folks don’t like the rain or the snow, they don’t like winter or they hate summer, but we cannot have one without the other; just like we cannot have a front without a back, everything in life comes in pairs and understanding that is paramount to our discussions and understanding of the Zen philosophy.
Tying this back in with how life is sacred or not
So, what’s the right answer? Is any of life sacred, is it all sacred, does it even matter?
Like most things in life, the answer is the one that applies to your life and to your circumstances. If someone came up to me and told me that they were helping the homeless because their lives are just as sacred as ours, I would have absolutely no problem with that. Same as I would if someone came up to me and told me that they don’t really care for the homeless, and wished they were moved out of sight.
Our understanding with the cosmos is to learn to let go, learn to not fight so much against every little detail of society and stop fighting against nature. For us humans are just as animal and part of nature as the wild boar or the screeching bat. We think we’re so smart but the reality is that we are just a part of the universe and once we understand that, then the easier it is to let go of things.
“To let go of the ego, you must have one to let go of.”
Do not be upset when you cannot let go, however. Because there will come a time when your emotions get the better of you, or your ego will spring up and you’ll join in an argument of some kind. It is completely natural and ingrained into our beings by society, it’s ok to ‘play the game’ from time to time, but I would encourage you to reflect on yourself when this happens. Write it down in a journal, even, when you notice yourself spring into emotional or egotistical action. Write what you were feeling, what the situation was, what you might have done differently (if anything at all, maybe you simply liked the emotional response and wanted to be a part of it regardless).
What a wonderful blog that you created! I’ll be sure to read all your stories.