This weekend I will be involved in the training required to become a facilitator of Pachamama Alliance’s Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. I am excited, awestruck, and nervous as I become a part of this monumental bridge of past and present to create a sustainable future for all life.
As I’ve been reading my preparatory materials, I’ve come across some rather thought-provoking excerpts. Here is a portion of them for your consideration this weekend:
The following paragraphs are taken from The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry: “In relation to the earth, we have been autistic for centuries. Only now have we begun to listen with some attention and with a willingness to respond to the earth’s demands that we cease our industrial assault, that we abandon our inner rage against the conditions of our earthly existence, that we renew our human participation in the grand liturgy of the universe.
“Evidence for this hopefulness is found in the sequence of crisis moments through which the universe and, especially, the planet Earth have passed from the beginning until now. At each state of its development, when it seems that an impasse has been reached, improbable solutions have emerged that enabled the Earth to continue its development. At the very beginning of the universe, the rate of expansion had to be at an infinitesimally precise rate so that the universe would neither explode nor collapse. So it was at the moment of passage out of the radiation stage: only a fragment of matter escaped antimatter annihilation, but out of that fragment has come the galactic systems and the universe entire. So at the shaping of the solar system: if the Earth were a little closer to the sun, it would be too hot; if slightly more distant, it would be too cold. If closer to the moon, the tides would overwhelm the continents; if more distant, the seas would be stagnant and life development could not have taken place. So with the radius of the Earth: if it were a little greater, the Earth would be more gaseous, like Jupiter; if a little less, the Earth would be more solid like Mars. In neither case could life have developed in its present form.
“After the appearance of cellular life, when the original nutrients were consumed, the impasse was averted by invention of photosynthesis, upon which all future life development has depended So it has been with the great story of life in its groping toward unlimited variety of expression; the mysteries of life multiply, but he overall success of the planet became increasingly evident, until the Neolithic phase of the human.
“This story of the past provides our most secure basis of hope that the earth will so guide us through the peril of the present that we may provide a fitting context for the next phase of the emergent mystery of earthly existence. That the guidance is available we cannot doubt. The difficulty is in the order of magnitude of change that is required of us. We have become so acclimated to an industrial world that we can hardly imagine any other context of survival, even when we recognize that the industrial bubble is dissolving and will soon leave us in the chill of a plundered landscape.
“Mitigation of the present situation (recycling of materials, diminishment of consumption, healing of damaged ecosystems) will be in vain if they are done to make the present industrial systems acceptable. They must be done, but in order to build a new order of things.” Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth
The following paragraph comes from The Great Work by Thomas Berry: “The deepest cause of the present devastation is found in a mode of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of rights on the humans. The other-than-human modes of being are seen as having no rights. They have reality and value only through their use by the human. In this context the other-than-human becomes totally vulnerable to exploitation by the humans, an attitude that is shared by all four of the fundamental establishments that control the human realm: governments, corporations, universities and religions—the political, economic, intellectual, and religious establishments. In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members…Every being has its own voice. Every being declares itself to the entire universe.” Thomas Berry, The Great Work
Look for more excerpts in the weeks to come. In the meantime, please consider these thoughts from Thomas Berry. As you go about your day-to-day life, let them reside in your heart. Contemplate them. Consider them. And question. How might the earth guide us towards a sustainable future? And what new order of things might we build? What is possible if each of us comes to understand our individual call to action–action on behalf of our planet, as well as present and future generations?
