Book available from Amazon here
In this brilliant and inspiring new book, Judy Carmen describes how the time has come for humans to evolve from Homo sapiens to Homos ahimsa – and we don’t have much time to do it.
Homo sapiens (‘Wise’ man) has brought devastation to the world – climate change, environmental destruction, pollution, poverty, mass industrial cruelty to and abuse of animals, and now a pandemic that is bringing the human race to its knees. Only Homo ahimsa (‘Non-harming’ man) can reverse the damage.
“Ahimsa” is a Sanskrit word which means “non-harm”, the opposite of “Himsa” which means “harm”.
Homo sapiens may try to use his brain and “wisdom” to find a technical ‘fix’ for the mess he has made, but this will not resolve the problems. A spiritual transformation is required whereby humans learn to treat others – including animals, of course – with compassion and to recognise their interrelationship and interconnectedness with the planet, the environment and all other living beings, and to treat them with love and respect.
Homo ahimsa lives a vegan lifestyle of non-harming. One of the key points that Judy makes is that, as long as we have no compassion for animals and use and abuse them, we will never remove the violence from our nature that leads to greed, environmental destruction, poverty and war. We cannot separate our efforts to resolve these problems from our efforts to correct the way we have misused and abused animals. Our compassion for and treatment of animals is at the heart of the issue.
Humans stand at a precipice in their evolution with a stark choice ahead – self-destruction along with the extinction of many other species or spiritual evolution. Surely spiritual evolution is the destiny of the unfolding Universe? Humans have reached this point and their future lies in their own hands.
Many people will believe that, whilst some individuals can make this spiritual transformation (and there have been many such individuals recorded over the last 10,000 years) many will not, and we will all sink in the same boat because of them. Personally, when I look around at humanity as a whole, I struggle to be optimistic. Judy, on the other hand, is optimistic. She believes that those individuals who are already Homo ahimsa can change the energies of the world with their actions and also with their prayers and meditations. She describes them as the ‘Vision Keepers’ who share the vision.
Isaiah had a similar vision of a Peaceable Kingdom 2,800 years ago. We still haven’t achieved it. But this time it is different. With a global population of 7.7 billion people and a damaged world, we are at a critical turning point. We have to change this time and Judy makes the recommendations of how this can be achieved – ‘How we’re going to save the world’.
In fact, Judy is a living example of Homo ahimsa. She is the co-founder of Prayer Circle for Animals, writing prayers and sharing them widely on the internet. We have featured some of her prayers in previous editions of The Ark. She is also co-founder of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition in the US which has recently partnered with the Animal Interfaith Alliance, of which CCA is a member.
This is not just a theoretical or philosophical book, it is also a very practical book which explains how we can make the changes necessary to evolve. This is why I am recommending Homo Ahimsa to everyone to read.
Review by Barbara Gardner
Homo Ahimsa was printed by Circle of Compassion Publishing, 2020 and can be purchased on Amazon here.
The Worldwide Noon Prayer
Compassion encircles the Earth for all beings everywhere.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be free.
Animal Interfaith Alliance 