Homo Sapiens, we are. A specie of the genus Homo, we might have originated 350 thousand years ago and are very much part of Nature, like birds, fish or monkeys. The relationship we have with our environment has been one of love, dependency and terrible conflict. Nature the mother, the creator, the god. Also Nature the destroyer, “natural” disasters, erupting volcanoes, tsunamis, epidemics. Imagine to be born in a low tech world with no reliable shelter and constant exposure to the elements, attacks from predators, food scarcity, disease and very low life expectancy.
Obviously there are many benefits of modern urban life. Hence the global trend to move from the countryside to the city doesn’t show signs of slowing down. How comforting a suburban bedsit might appear to a 15th century peasant, or a modern day subsistence farmer.
Thanks to enormous technological progress, we now seem to be on top of Nature herself, unchallenged masters of the world. Homo Sapiens are increasingly living in modern cities with amazing amenities and physical comfort. Are we even animals anymore?
It’s 7am in London when I leave home for the short walk to Clapham South tube station. It’s dark, cold and drizzling outside. The Northern Line is packed at this time and I strategically position myself at the very end of the platform hoping to board the first train that comes. I know people wait 2 or 3 trains before finding any space, particularly if they are standing in the centre of the platform. I have a better chance where I am. I no longer mind squeezing myself in, like tinned sardine, I grew accustomed to it. As I push on the carriage, I don’t feel I have to say the polite English word “sorry”, it’s early morning and no one cares.
Moorgate station, 7.55 am “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Eventually, just a glimpse of dull winter radiation, but who am I to complain? I grab a coffee from the free machine downstairs and I am at my desk for 10 hours of work. 30 min lunch break to go out and grab something to eat at 1pm, I leave the office at 6.30ish, when it’s dark again. 5 days a week, this was my life. No trees, little to no grass, no mountains, sea or sun my eyes fixed on the screen in a concrete and steel building in the largest city of Europe. 30 minutes of pale exposure to daylight was all my well paid colleagues and I were entitled to.
For many years I largely gave up any contact with Nature, becoming an extension of the technology I learnt to use. CRM, Trading, Accounting, HR and Payroll, Excell, or whatever other IT system you make work with. Is it the software that becomes part of you or increasingly you part of the software? The boundaries blur, man and the machine, the machine and man.
Throughout history we had times and movements very much focused on progress, industrialisation and science, followed by thinkers going the opposite way. Futurism emphasised speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city. Inspiring? I don’t think so.
Romanticism on the contrary appealed to the heart. As Wordsworth wrote: “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her“. Romantics believed in the goodness of humans which is hindered by the urban life of civilisation. Children are born noble and then corrupted by society.
Nature is the feminine energy in Tantric Yoga. Movement and creativity. As a child surrendering into his mother’s arms, so the artist, the dancer and the yogi must surrender to the energy of Mother Nature, the ultimate source of inspiration, the muse of poets, painters and musicians.
To a true city dweller Nature is synonymous with short holidays or weekend escapes, conservative country folks, last year’s fashion and discomfort. But when you are stuck in a confined space with millions others, most of whom you will meet once and never see again, customs and social norms become really brisk, maybe polite but unfriendly. This generic landscape of strangers can be so impersonal as being alienating. By burying their faces and consciousness in a tablet, phone, reader or newspaper people can protect from the lonely void of the mass they (not very much) belong to.
Nature, to me, is the ultimate luxury. Why go 5 star when you can go 5,000 stars, the Milky Way? My ideal world is a modern village immersed in a bucolic environment of natural beauty. As a 21st century person, I am not quite ready to give up all the perks of technology and civilisation though. Gas stove, oven, blender? Yes please. Fibre optic broadband? Of course. High tech planes to get me from Europe to Thailand in 12 hours? Absolutely. International people, the English language to communicate with them, hard, stable currency for easy transactions? Sure. Overpriced, central London apartments? No thanks. 2 hours commute, 10 hours a day rat race, smog, packaged food? Oh no.
Can we have it all though? The comfort, technology and stimulating cosmopolitan environment of big cities with lots of forest, clean air and fresh food, a village feel and a seaview?
Some people say Homos Sapiens are half animals, half gods and to realise ourselves we need to find our “true” Nature.
Come to Koh Phangan and take a look at the Yoga Village, Srithanu. Might this be an experiment, the beginning of something new? A comfortable, modern, international and almost futuristic village immersed in a pristine, beautiful environment. Is it a dream? Well, it is my dream.
