BAREFOOT THROUGH THE AMAZON

Following up on my most recent post and continuing the theme of place and the sacred, this time I share a passage from another writer. I was introduced recently, by a friend studying the songs and language of monkeys in the jungles of Bolivia¹, to the book Barefoot Through the Amazon: On the Path of Evolution. The author, Marc Van Roosmalen, is a field biologist studying the habits of the red-faced black spider monkeys in the interior of Suriname. Spending weeks at a time alone at his remote and densely jungled study site, in the following passage he describes the view and his reflection in the late afternoons, perched 200 meters above the forest floor atop a butte called the Voltzberg dome. As an acute scientific observer of the habitat and wildlife, I am drawn to his detailed description of the place and its inhabitants. But in relationship to my blog, what also intrigues me is his meditative reflection. Although a man more of science than of religion, he shares openly a sense of the spiritual that arises within him in connection with this place.

“At the start of each session,” he writes, “I used to climb the Voltzberg dome in the late afternoon. It was a hike of about forty minutes from my camp situated at the edge of the granite flat. It was an excellent, easy and above all pleasant way to find out the latest news on the whereabouts of my study objects, the spider monkeys . . .. I was surrounded by pristine upland rainforest stretching out to far beyond the horizon where no human soul was to be found.

“These were sacred moments. Closing my eyes, I can still recall them in full detail. The stunningly beautiful sunset sky. Pairs of macaws heading for a distant lodge tree while keeping loud and animated conversations. Melancholic songs of tinamous and quails sitting somewhere on the bottom of the rainforest. Choirs of all kinds of frogs, flocks of parakeets and parrots having a last quick feed flying from one fruiting tree to another, squabbling squirrel monkeys invisible inside the tangles of liana forest down there or climbing up the south side of the Voltzberg to find a safe sleeping site close to where I was sitting. The roars and grunts of jaguars on the hunt, red howler monkeys howling alternately from almost all directions and at all distances, fat black granite lizards foraging for insects at the steep edges of the abysses around me, beset with wild pine-apple bromeliads and globose, blue- and purple-flowering cacti (genus Cleistocactus).

“The ideal temperature and the cool breeze, the divine perfumes of flowering terrestrial orchids, bromeliads and other plants, the late-afternoon nectar feeding bouts of all kinds of hummingbirds. The other 'inselbergs' visible in the far distance . . .. The spider-monkey long calls carrying miles away across the canopy emitted as they were from the tip of up to sixty meters tall emergent trees. This was true paradise for the well-behaved human.

“Sitting there, I could not help starting to contemplate, to meditate, to retrospect my life and that of others, to philosophize about nature, evolution, and, in particular, the ascent of man. What makes us think to be superior over the other creatures or even to be supernatural? What purpose or meaning life may have? What significance does it have or could it have? What difference is there between me, sitting there overlooking the world and the creatures around me – as we are all subdued to the same laws of nature that apply also to me? What would value me, a human being, more than for instance a monkey for I would have to face death in the same way as a monkey would after breaking a leg or so? I questions if there is room for any supernatural being if not Nature itself. Humbled by Nature, I came close to a profound religious experience, teaching me the lesson never to forget how precious life is, a unique one-time event that can instantly be broken off by mere bad luck when being at the wrong place at the wrong moment. The ethics and principles that guide me through life are strongly rooted in those days' profound and intimate contact with a pristine, ancient, millions of years of evolution breathing natural environment. It would be a perfect therapy for people all over the world – in particular those living in crowded concrete mega-cities totally out of touch with Nature – to come to this place and experience the work of Nature or God without any hint to or a 'helping hand' from our own species, Homo sapiens.” (Barefoot Through the Amazon, Kindle edition location 460 - 497)

1 A friend from Chicago days, Patrice Adret is currently a researcher at  Museo de Historia Natural Noel Kempff Mercado. You can learn more about Patrice and his work, and view his videos by friending him at https://www.facebook.com/patrice.adret?fref=ts.