Chapter Nine from my book Uncommon Common Sense- Practical Spirituality
After my morning meditations, I study nature. The most common show is the crabs that inhabit my beach. I watched one small crab working diligently to dig a hole for itself. Just when the small crab finished, a larger crab came, took the hole, and chased the small crab away. I started complaining to God that I did not like how He set things up on Earth. He then gave me a vision that forever answered my most troubling questions.
God showed me a crab that, I could tell, felt it had everything it ever wanted or needed. This little crab was fulfilled, content, and felt blessed in every way. In this state of gratitude, the little crab felt overwhelmingly generous and wanted to share all it had with the rest of the crabs. The little crab announced to the other crabs on the beach that, having so much abundance, it just wanted to share its blessings with everyone. All the other crabs on the beach came running towards the little crab, tore its legs off, killed it, and proceeded to fight each other and take everything in its hole.
I was shocked at this vision. God explained that the crabs were doing what they were all programmed to do by Him. They were not being mean, evil, or greedy; they were following the survival instinct He had created in them. They were, in a sense, obedient to God's laws and plan. He then said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I was jolted by the truth behind what Jesus had said. This revelation of His understanding and wisdom differed from what I had been taught. It was a statement of His compassion, but even more than this, it was a statement of observation and truth.
Before this experience, I really believed that something was wrong with me. I seemed to attract exploiters into my life. From this vision, I saw that most humans function on a purely animal level. As they are not yet aware that they are spiritual beings, they exploit whenever, whatever, and whoever they can because, for them, it is a matter of survival, a matter of life and death. Like all lesser-evolved creatures, they are programmed to stay alive at all costs.
God explained that another part of this vision is important to understand. He programmed each species to destroy any deviation from itself. Any deformity or mutation in the wild is left to die or killed by species members to keep the species healthy and strong, ensuring the mutation or “different” animal does not reproduce and weaken the genetic line. From a purely animal, purely physical level, spiritual strength (IE., compassion, generosity, consideration, selflessness) is perceived as a weakness to be preyed upon. Though Jesus was “different” in a good way, in spiritual terms, on an animal level, “different” is neither qualified nor analyzed. “Different” triggers the instinct to kill and eliminate.
Humans, on an animal survival level, react this way to anyone different, even if the difference is being more spiritually evolved. In the human-animal world, millionaires are really only at the top of the “Crab Game.” It’s obvious that if a person perfects the Crab Game, he will have recognition, acclaim, and respect. If somebody evolves beyond the Crab Game, he will be disrespected, criticized, and attacked because his presence challenges the Crab Game, all of its values, and all that people who play the Crab Game embrace as their way of life. This is why Jesus said that we will be persecuted if we become like him. Like Him, you become challenging and have transformational energy. Then, only those who want to transcend will value what and who you are. To the rest, you will bring out the animal instinct to prey upon you even as you pray for them.
Another lesson from the Crab Game is: no matter how big the hole or how much is in the hole, crabs are still crabs. The purpose of animal life is evolution: the survival of the fittest. The purpose of human life is spiritual evolution: to re-member, to re-connect with our true identity (which is spiritual). This is the purpose for which we were created. According to the Essenes, the original Christian teachings, man is not in harmony with life when he acts from infantile feelings after he is grown. In the same way, when man acts from animal instincts after he has become civilized, he is out of harmony with the law of life. When man can think his way out of danger, instead of fighting or fleeing, but does not use his more advanced abilities, he behaves at less than his potential: like a bird, created to fly, hopping around on the ground. When man, created to be a spiritual being, behaves like an animal, he is not in harmony with his true nature and is not fulfilling his destiny. No matter how well he uses his skills and knowledge to get the biggest hole, he is still acting only as a crab.
Leaving the beach that same morning, I saw the largest mounds, identifying the biggest crab holes on the beach. A wave came in and washed them all away in one second. Then I heard God say, “This is how all man’s effort to amass material possessions, fame, and power looks from My view. It’s just that time, from the human perspective, appears to be longer.”
Are you just perfecting the Crab Game in your life, or are you transcending it to express the spiritual being you were created to be?
“Gaining a profit is less important than becoming a prophet.” - MM