Urban Environment
Intelligence has given man the capacity to build and live in an environment that is highly distinct from where we once lived. As we carry out our daily routines, working, playing, and learning, in artificial environments, there is a lack of a certain something that prevails silently within the heart. Something that makes us feel incomplete, and for some, uptight. This ‘something’ is neither physical nor objective. While this something may not always be the same for everyone, it does not vary in extremity. Those who are enlightened found what their hearts, minds, and soul needed to exist in elation. Others who are blinded by the hussle and bussle of daily chores found themselves trapped in vicious cycles of rat races. While there are many who live through their entire lives seeking for the purpose and meaning of life, others have come forth to present their views as that of making life on earth a better place for those to come. With such a position firmly set, it is nothing short of obvious to lead those who truly seek to find what they deserve.
Derived from the evolution of species, man’s connection with nature is straightforward. But what is most astonishing is how this creation of nature has come to work in misalignment from its very source. Fortunately, this misalignment is noticed by many who are perceptive and sensitive, who continue to influence the rest out of goodwill. Things are taking a turn now, city streets are lined with trees, public parks sky-rocketing prices of surrounding residential buildings, nature reserves are being zoned. From man’s primitive religious understanding of nature, shifting to man’s reliance on science, which bases everything on a proof, we are happy to see that Man has re-founded its interconnectedness with nature.
Man is made up of three elements, the mind, body and soul. Soul is also known as the “spirit” and it is what provides consciousness in what would otherwise be an unconscious collection of matter made up largely by carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Who we know ourselves as, we perceive through the eyes of our spirit. Who I am essentially is my spirit, nothing more. My mind is not me, it sometimes work against my will, making me procrastinate and doing things which I know is detrimental. A simple illustration is to try asking yourself not to think of an elephant for the next twenty seconds, you will soon realize it is not easy as your mind has “a mind of its own”. However, you as a spirit can challenge your mind, and in mastering your mind, success is the natural thing that follows. Simply put, you can be thought of as the driver of a vehicle, the mind is the vehicle’s engine that can occasionally breakdown on you, and the other vehicular parts make up your body. The better the parts are, the easier it is to reach your destination.
Herein lays the relevance of the idea of the mind, body and soul. In living in a purely artificial environment cut away from the slightest hint of day and night, we may observe the human body to be functioning perfectly fine. The soul, however, is suffering from a grave lack of nourishment that nature feeds it with. The presence of trees, leaves, grass, water, birds, fishes, hills, soil, clouds, sky, sun, all play a role that is far more important than what many of us know of them to be. Suffering from a lack of the presence of nature, the mind’s productiveness would be affected and it eventually leads back to defective bodily functions. With slight exaggeration, it would be akin to a driver driving with his windscreen painted opaque, a disastrous thought.
As we perceive the objective reality through our five senses, our minds constantly seek to appease the soul. Waking up when the sun rises, and sleeping when the sun sets, is but one of the many hints of our connection with nature. Sure there exist anomalies where people sleep when the sun rises and wake up when the sun sets, either due to work, or personal preference, regardless of which, we are still bounded by the daily time cycles of predefined by nature. It is therefore obvious that for life on earth to improve, our interconnectedness with nature has to be enforced and enhanced. Perhaps with better integration of landscapes and nature into our existing cityscapes, we will ascend to the next level of intelligence and consciousness, with the ability to utilize far more than the current meager five percent of the seemingly limitless grey matter that we possess.
Many years ago Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the season of light; it was the season of darkness. It was the age of belief; it was the age of incredulity. It was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair. We are all headed straight to heaven; we are all headed straight the other direction.” Although that was written over a hundred and fifty years ago, the same can be said today. Living in a society that has technology far more advanced than any other period in human history, we are still faced with problems of people suffering in illness and poverty? The fact of the matter is that it is not how much technology we have that matters, but how much we understand the natural cycles, that will make a difference to life on earth.
Man’s interconnectedness with Nature is underplayed as of today. What is to come, however, is the enlightenment of mankind as a whole, which will ultimately lead to the complete integration and symbiosis of Man and Nature.
Man & Nature
Leonard Cai