In order to bring about a better sustainable future, two things spring to mind.
1).Mother Earth essentially has value due to its nature (as a living sentient Gaia Being), and not because of its utility value (eg: we (humans) need rainforests as the lungs of the earth). She is sacred in Herself, whatever economic/utility value She may have as well. And people need to personally experience the panpsychic reality of Nature to feel deep down what is truly at stake in Earth's destruction.
2).People have to wake up to the fact that gov'ts & corporations are intentionally out to do the general public serious harm (ie: kill a lot of us off, or at least perpetrate illness, both of which are used as a business opportunity). Eugenics is big business.
Until people clock these two points, they won't be angry enough to motivate their search for wise communal action in response to it all. And it might be also that the potency of sexual energy can be directed towards such action.
Hi Joshua, thanks for your interesting response. I agree 100% with your point #1, however, I have no evidence that, "gov'ts & corporations are intentionally out to do the general public serious harm." My inner being resonates far more with Rumi's suggestion to ,"Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor."
And having said that, perhaps I'm living evidence against your conclusion... perhaps I'm simply motivated towards "wise communal action" because I have a sense that this is "Right Action." And I'm loving this synchronicity too - on Sunday a group of 7 of us in a Buddhist Sutta study group had a wonderful Zoom with a Theravadin Thai Forest Buddhist monk based in the UK and who has been in the robes for 20 years. And I so appreciated how he shined the light on the fact that when the Buddha spoke of "Right Action," there is the sense that something is right action not because it is "good" or "bad," but because by doing "Right Action" it lessens suffering. In any case thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I love how Substack is a space where we can agree to disagree on things like this.♥️🙏🕊️
Thank you for the reply. I think "Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor" is a great approach to life, whatever powerful institutions may be doing.
'Wise communal action' where I live in Portugal (emigrated from U.K in 2008) includes food & plant swops, and various helping-each-other-on-our-quintas initiatives (quinta = small-holding).
I don't know much about Buddhism, apart from "Understanding relieves suffering" and reading Pema Chödrön a couple of years back (I was interested in reading female religious writers from recognised female lineages).
The balance between 'being' and 'doing' has long taxed me. I find creative work as a weaver, sculptor & poet brings those two closest together, integrates them as 'one thing' in lived experience - and which, in your words above, relieves suffering - which is quite a revelatory thought, thank you. Perhaps it takes the old mantra "action is the antidote to despair" to a new level of understanding. Best regards, Josh.
In the case it may be of benefit with regards to despair, I remember my mother talking about a spiritual teacher she went to who said, "There is no hope. We're all going to die." She said it kind of shocked her into the reality of the importance of living in the present moment - and yes, action purifies. AND, in that interview I link to above, I love this part too:
"Kittisaro: So there’s this dynamic tension between acceptance and making an effort. If we try to change things without wisdom, then we burn out. And if we try to force the world to be how we think it should be, sometimes our help is misguided. Sensing the perfection of things can allow us to ground ourselves in the truth of the moment. In moments of serenity and peace, we know what we can do to help.
For me, accepting and helping aren’t opposing positions. Ajahn Chah’s statement — “If it shouldn’t be this way, it wouldn’t be this way” - was meant to balance our compulsive desire to change the way things are, usually in an effort to make ourselves more comfortable. If we’re always changing our world around, we’ll never know liberation, because no matter how perfectly we arrange things, life’s impermanence will always cause them to shift.
For me, that’s the challenge: to keep returning from the ground of my true nature to the suffering of the world, doing what I can to help, and also staying rooted so that I don’t get caught up in suffering myself."
In order to bring about a better sustainable future, two things spring to mind.
1).Mother Earth essentially has value due to its nature (as a living sentient Gaia Being), and not because of its utility value (eg: we (humans) need rainforests as the lungs of the earth). She is sacred in Herself, whatever economic/utility value She may have as well. And people need to personally experience the panpsychic reality of Nature to feel deep down what is truly at stake in Earth's destruction.
2).People have to wake up to the fact that gov'ts & corporations are intentionally out to do the general public serious harm (ie: kill a lot of us off, or at least perpetrate illness, both of which are used as a business opportunity). Eugenics is big business.
Until people clock these two points, they won't be angry enough to motivate their search for wise communal action in response to it all. And it might be also that the potency of sexual energy can be directed towards such action.
Hi Joshua, thanks for your interesting response. I agree 100% with your point #1, however, I have no evidence that, "gov'ts & corporations are intentionally out to do the general public serious harm." My inner being resonates far more with Rumi's suggestion to ,"Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor."
And having said that, perhaps I'm living evidence against your conclusion... perhaps I'm simply motivated towards "wise communal action" because I have a sense that this is "Right Action." And I'm loving this synchronicity too - on Sunday a group of 7 of us in a Buddhist Sutta study group had a wonderful Zoom with a Theravadin Thai Forest Buddhist monk based in the UK and who has been in the robes for 20 years. And I so appreciated how he shined the light on the fact that when the Buddha spoke of "Right Action," there is the sense that something is right action not because it is "good" or "bad," but because by doing "Right Action" it lessens suffering. In any case thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I love how Substack is a space where we can agree to disagree on things like this.♥️🙏🕊️
Thank you for the reply. I think "Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor" is a great approach to life, whatever powerful institutions may be doing.
'Wise communal action' where I live in Portugal (emigrated from U.K in 2008) includes food & plant swops, and various helping-each-other-on-our-quintas initiatives (quinta = small-holding).
I don't know much about Buddhism, apart from "Understanding relieves suffering" and reading Pema Chödrön a couple of years back (I was interested in reading female religious writers from recognised female lineages).
The balance between 'being' and 'doing' has long taxed me. I find creative work as a weaver, sculptor & poet brings those two closest together, integrates them as 'one thing' in lived experience - and which, in your words above, relieves suffering - which is quite a revelatory thought, thank you. Perhaps it takes the old mantra "action is the antidote to despair" to a new level of understanding. Best regards, Josh.
In the case it may be of benefit with regards to despair, I remember my mother talking about a spiritual teacher she went to who said, "There is no hope. We're all going to die." She said it kind of shocked her into the reality of the importance of living in the present moment - and yes, action purifies. AND, in that interview I link to above, I love this part too:
"Kittisaro: So there’s this dynamic tension between acceptance and making an effort. If we try to change things without wisdom, then we burn out. And if we try to force the world to be how we think it should be, sometimes our help is misguided. Sensing the perfection of things can allow us to ground ourselves in the truth of the moment. In moments of serenity and peace, we know what we can do to help.
For me, accepting and helping aren’t opposing positions. Ajahn Chah’s statement — “If it shouldn’t be this way, it wouldn’t be this way” - was meant to balance our compulsive desire to change the way things are, usually in an effort to make ourselves more comfortable. If we’re always changing our world around, we’ll never know liberation, because no matter how perfectly we arrange things, life’s impermanence will always cause them to shift.
For me, that’s the challenge: to keep returning from the ground of my true nature to the suffering of the world, doing what I can to help, and also staying rooted so that I don’t get caught up in suffering myself."
♥️🙏🕊️
🙏
Wonderful post! Many thanks, Camilla. Sounds like a must-read.
Thanks Julie! I'm so enjoying reading it, she's such a great and impassioned writer❤️🙏🕊️
Thanks for sharing, Camilla. Looks like a must read! :)
can you sense my enthusiasm for it? 😂
Hahaha just a little :)