This conversation is particularly interesting to me because I feel I have both 'sides' - if they are in fact two different sides - in my head these days.
Eg, I believe in climate change. I believe it's a real thing that's happening, as part of a wider ecological mega-catastrophe that's been brewing since the 1950s. This is really, really, not a new phenomenon and not a new message. The WW2 and post-WW2 generation of environmentalists - Farley Mowat, Rachel Carson - were the first to call our attention to it. I think the narrow focus on just CO2 emissions is recently perhaps a little unfortunate, but we've known since the 1970s at the latest that Earth's biosphere is in deep, deep trouble because of human activity.
Deforestation, whaling, overfishing, ocean acidification, species extinction, icecap melting, the collapse of bees. All these are real and measurable phenomena. And they should be deeply concerning to anyone with a spiritual orientation! In Christianity, for instance (as I'm one myself), we're commanded to do good to others. The Jewish scriptures command us to look after the land, to rest it every seven years, to forgive debts, and to share our wealth with widows, orphans and refugees. Since WW2 (and even since the Industrial revolution) I think we've not been - in Jewish terms - giving the Earth its Sabbath. And I think that's starting to hurt us.
(In my experience, the Jewish religious commandment to 'love our neighbour as ourselves' and the Christian observation that the Early Church 'held all things in common' leads me politically and economically to forms of voluntary socialism, Social Democracy and to EF Schumacher's Green economics rather than laissez-faire market conservatism. Both Schumacher and the Distributivism of GK Chesterton resonate with me a lot more strongly than the current two mainstream political flavours on offer).
But I also believe (again coming from my spiritual leanings) that the physical world is NOT all there is. That when we pass from this Earth, we rise to a wider universe. That the universe IS in fact Liebniz' 'Best of all possible worlds', and things are not 'broken' so much as 'challenging our preconceived ideas'. which is deeply linked to the idea of God existing and being an active, governing force at every level of existence. And that our best human response to this is to relax, in a sense, to not try to force huge changes, to simply let what this Vast Active Living Intelligent System is doing, happen.
And I want to try to balance those two views: that the saints of all ages who have been the most inward and meditative/detached have also been deeply practical and generous people; that the entire planet feels at a deep place of crisis, requiring an active planetwide spiritual and practical response or it may very well suffer mass extinction; and yet also that 'everything is under control' - and not just 'control' but LOVE - at the higher levels of reality.
Wish I could say I've figured out that balance. But I think we need one eye on each side of the story.
I believe the Earth needs a miracle to survive. I also believe miracles are possible. I think the Earth and human civilisation will survive - but perhaps not without us changing our hearts. I think the great crisis facing Earth is fundamentally a crisis of a lack of love within us.
I believe we can and must change our minds to be more open to the vast spiritual universe around us, and our hearts to be more loving toward other beings (human and nonhuman) here on Earth. And if we change our hearts, then transformation and healing to our bodies, our lifestyles, our economies, our politics, and our biosphere will follow.
Regards, Nate
Eg, I believe in climate change. I believe it's a real thing that's happening, as part of a wider ecological mega-catastrophe that's been brewing since the 1950s. This is really, really, not a new phenomenon and not a new message. The WW2 and post-WW2 generation of environmentalists - Farley Mowat, Rachel Carson - were the first to call our attention to it. I think the narrow focus on just CO2 emissions is recently perhaps a little unfortunate, but we've known since the 1970s at the latest that Earth's biosphere is in deep, deep trouble because of human activity.
Deforestation, whaling, overfishing, ocean acidification, species extinction, icecap melting, the collapse of bees. All these are real and measurable phenomena. And they should be deeply concerning to anyone with a spiritual orientation! In Christianity, for instance (as I'm one myself), we're commanded to do good to others. The Jewish scriptures command us to look after the land, to rest it every seven years, to forgive debts, and to share our wealth with widows, orphans and refugees. Since WW2 (and even since the Industrial revolution) I think we've not been - in Jewish terms - giving the Earth its Sabbath. And I think that's starting to hurt us.
(In my experience, the Jewish religious commandment to 'love our neighbour as ourselves' and the Christian observation that the Early Church 'held all things in common' leads me politically and economically to forms of voluntary socialism, Social Democracy and to EF Schumacher's Green economics rather than laissez-faire market conservatism. Both Schumacher and the Distributivism of GK Chesterton resonate with me a lot more strongly than the current two mainstream political flavours on offer).
But I also believe (again coming from my spiritual leanings) that the physical world is NOT all there is. That when we pass from this Earth, we rise to a wider universe. That the universe IS in fact Liebniz' 'Best of all possible worlds', and things are not 'broken' so much as 'challenging our preconceived ideas'. which is deeply linked to the idea of God existing and being an active, governing force at every level of existence. And that our best human response to this is to relax, in a sense, to not try to force huge changes, to simply let what this Vast Active Living Intelligent System is doing, happen.
And I want to try to balance those two views: that the saints of all ages who have been the most inward and meditative/detached have also been deeply practical and generous people; that the entire planet feels at a deep place of crisis, requiring an active planetwide spiritual and practical response or it may very well suffer mass extinction; and yet also that 'everything is under control' - and not just 'control' but LOVE - at the higher levels of reality.
Wish I could say I've figured out that balance. But I think we need one eye on each side of the story.
I believe the Earth needs a miracle to survive. I also believe miracles are possible. I think the Earth and human civilisation will survive - but perhaps not without us changing our hearts. I think the great crisis facing Earth is fundamentally a crisis of a lack of love within us.
I believe we can and must change our minds to be more open to the vast spiritual universe around us, and our hearts to be more loving toward other beings (human and nonhuman) here on Earth. And if we change our hearts, then transformation and healing to our bodies, our lifestyles, our economies, our politics, and our biosphere will follow.
Regards, Nate
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