“A mechanical, systems-based approach can only produce more exploitation because its foundation is separation. True sustainability emerges when we consciously embrace an ecosystems-based approach.”Every Earth Day it’s the same thing: the world expounds on the virtues and necessities of saving the planet, and they point to the perils and evils of one kind of technology, while gushing over the benefits and glories of a different brand of technology, all the while missing the point entirely.
~ Wolfgang Amelung, Inventor & Co-Founder of Genesis EcoFund
Have you ever been in nature? You know that feeling that you get? That relaxed, refreshed, recharged, clear-headed, balanced feeling? Why is that, do you think?
Maybe it's because our TRUE NATURE is NOT the mechanical mind we have and are trapped in most of the time: all our systems, linear thinking, engineered solutions--and their antithesis, our "escapism," desire for randomness and abstract thought, wanton destruction (even if its in movies, video games, or on the nightly news).
Maybe our true nature is reflected in the highest expressions of Mother Nature...not what we superficially see and describe in primitive linear relationships (competition, survival of the fittest, etc), but precisely what we don't see and what the mechanical mind cannot comprehend fully. But let's give it a shot anyway...
To truly comprehend the meaning of “Earth Day,” we must begin to comprehend that “the earth” has always had a second meaning as it applies to humanity. While this meaning is not exactly “hidden” in the strictest sense, it has been lost on most people.
“Earth” is another word for “soil;” the hume in the word hummus (a very “earthy” substance indeed); that is the stuff; earthstuff, if you will…the flesh of the earth. This sense of the word applies to the hume in human. In truth, the word human is a compound word meaning earth and mind (hume and manas).
Image: Earth, Hands
Source: breisebreiseleighgoleire1969.wordpress.com: Breise! Breise! Extra! Extra!: News Headlines from around the world Septmber 11th 2011
Source: breisebreiseleighgoleire1969.wordpress.com: Breise! Breise! Extra! Extra!: News Headlines from around the world Septmber 11th 2011
THAT is why we feel so good in nature...because on some level we feel as though we've come home...held in the comforting bosom of our Mother's healing embrace. In a very real sense, when we think about Earth Day, we should not avoid thinking of ourselves.
But we do. We see ourselves as somehow separate from the earth when in truth, we are the earth; it is us. This is both a physical and metaphysical phenomenon: it is a reality in every sense and at every level. It is not the whole truth, but it is far closer to the complete picture than modern science (or even contemporary religion, for that matter) comprehends.
And therein lies the problem. We separate ourselves into a distinct category (human world v.s. the natural world). We believe ourselves to be lords over nature: that it somehow is ours to do with as we please; subject to any and every monstrosity our mechanical minds can conceive of.
What we call progress and civilization, built on so-called human ingenuity and technology, has been at the expense of the earth; of nature; and our own fundamental nature as earth! Our relationship with the planet is directly 1:1 analogous to our relationships with ourselves and each other.
Production, consumption, construction, destruction, addiction, affliction, subjugation, medication…anxiety, stress, SUFFERING.
And what’s our response? To continue the insanity, as Albert Einstein described it; that is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Humanity believes so-called advanced technology—the same old linear, binary, mechanical systems-based approach made more complicated and sophisticated—will save it. Economists actually believe they can achieve perpetual growth by returning indefinitely to the wellspring of efficiency. But efficiency is at best only 1/6th of sustainability.
Image Collage by PeapodLife: It takes more than “efficiency” to be “GREEN”
Sources: http://imgarcade.com/1/environmental-sustainability/;https://environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/environmental-sustainability-is-out-the-window-if-commission-is-cut/; http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1857113,00.html
All it takes is a conscious, honest, objective look within oneself and any and all of nature on this planet and in the vast expanse of the universe to know the utter tragicomedy of modern humanity’s thinking…nothing in the physical universe lasts forever: not even planets, stars or galaxies.
So what’s the Answer?
It’s quite simple, really. We advance with a conscious appreciation of authentic nature. We throw away the crude linearity of a binary existence—the legacy of our mechanical systems-based approach—and embrace the infinite complexity of an ecosystems approach.
Instead of imposing a mechanical bias on nature (which is a crude and superficial understanding at best) and subjecting it to the unspeakable horrors such cold, heartless calculations create in the real world, we expand our consciousness and with objectivity embrace the reality of nature…harmony and mutual symbiosis...as modelled by ecosystems.
Only nature can create authentic sustainability. And even then, we must acknowledge and accept that the cycles of birth, death and sacrifice are fundamental to the nature of all things—ourselves, our civilization, and our planet is no exception.
The beauty is, once you start embracing an ecosystems approach—once you immerse yourself in the electromagnetic field of an indoor ecosystem and open your consciousness to your participation in it and relationship with it—you settle into the unavoidable laws of the universe…inspiration, innovation and comprehension follows.
By comprehension we mean a deep, conscious appreciation and direct experience of the nature of yourself and all things; this is not an intellectual pursuit, and cannot be achieved by reading books or any other intellectual means. However, it can and must be experienced for real personal growth; and is the REAL SECRET behind every major paradigm-shifting advancement in any and all fields of pursuit:
- Sir Isaac Newton discovered Gravity meditating under an apple tree
- Einstein discovered relativity while taking a bubble bath
- Beethoven's 5th symphony was inspired by birdsong
- and countless other examples
ONLY nature has this power...to help us achieve our highest potential, because that is the very purpose and meaning of EVOLUTION itself!
And, as it turns out, conscious comprehension and direct experience of the nature of ourselves and all things is the birthright of humanity, the dream of every living being, and represents the real “progress” and true sustainability for our individual 'earth,' and the planet as a whole.
In other words, "No man is an island." What would the planet be without the Sun's rays and the moon's rhythms? So too, we as individual 'earths' need our immediate environment to support us and vibrate in ways which optimize our lives--mind, body and soul--so that inspiration, innovation and solutions to so many of the problems the planet faces will automatically be aligned to the underlying paradigm of life itself: harmony and mutual symbiosis.
This is the mission of Genesis Eco Fund, and our hope for you and the whole planet from this Earth Day forward.
To look at all this in a slightly different way, contemplate the following quotation which has been attributed to Chief Seattle, although according to Barefoot Windwalker it is neither “historically accurate, nor even something that Chief Seattle said” regardless…
“This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”
~ Chief Seattle
Source: barefootsworld.net: CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER
Image: Quote by Chief Seattle, “This we know: the earth does not belong to man…”
Source: www.plentifulplanet.com
Related Links:
Earth Day Canada
Earth Day Network
PeapodLife
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