A topic I have written about many times before was featured yesterday in a post at Notes From The Outside. As part of an overall discussion of the environmental movement, Brandon wrote:
So, you spend some time wallowing in despair and apathy. You bemoan the state of our world. You say you are through trying to make a difference; you're just going to throw caution to the wind and live like far too many others do.
But you find that you can't do it! Your love for your fellow beings and the planet itself pulls you back from the brink. You redouble your commitment and devotion to sustainable ideals and you head back out again...only to have the scenario repeat itself.
While many people only view love through the lens of ecstasy and intimate relations or a protective feeling for one's immediate family or group, a deeper love for all that this world is and can be is not something certain people can truly turn away from. When you feel an innate connection with all of creation, your heart breaks over and over again each time there is oppression and exploitation.
And so, while there are times you revel in the inherent beauty and grand mystery of life, much of the time your uncompromising love for all is felt deep in your bosom as an unquenchable despair. You come to understand that this kind of love hurts and, sometimes, the pain seems unbearable.
As many readers have pointed out in comments before -- it is something both Brandon and I fully acknowledge and understand -- the best method for pulling oneself out of this quagmire of despair is to focus on the one area in our lives in which we can exert the greatest impact: ourselves.
This strategy goes hand-in-hand with Taoist philosophy as well. Each of us represents a microcosm of the world out there. How can we expect the world at large to prioritize sustainable concepts if we don't make an undying commitment to the same? We may be concerned with what happens globally, but we must first work to insure we are doing our utmost locally and, by locally, I mean in our own lives.
Every act causes a ripple and that is why the old adage is so true: We must be the change we seek.
I've long felt a despair of sorts, as far as environmentalism goes. For me, it has always been the major issue. I know on this blog I talk a lot about Zen and spirituality and such, but that's only so many words, probably useless to talk about. But the Green Movement, well, that's the big one. If ever there were a field I would go into, that would be it: sustainability, permaculture, deep ecology; these things thrill me, intellectually and practically. Spiritually too, I guess.I have arrived at this same place many times. All of my time and energy as a semi-professional activist seemed to be such a waste. No matter what we did or protested against, things only seemed to grow worse.
But I look at our culture and think it's a waste of time. Despair, not as an oppressive emotion (most of the time), but just as a knowing. We will never be able to transform into a sustainable culture, we are cancer. It stops me from acting, as I continually think it would be a waste of time to devote my life to these things, burnout and broken dreams the inevitable result. Better to escape to the hills, on a private off-the-grid homestead, in my own little corner of the good earth and hope the cancer doesn't follow me in...
So, you spend some time wallowing in despair and apathy. You bemoan the state of our world. You say you are through trying to make a difference; you're just going to throw caution to the wind and live like far too many others do.
But you find that you can't do it! Your love for your fellow beings and the planet itself pulls you back from the brink. You redouble your commitment and devotion to sustainable ideals and you head back out again...only to have the scenario repeat itself.
While many people only view love through the lens of ecstasy and intimate relations or a protective feeling for one's immediate family or group, a deeper love for all that this world is and can be is not something certain people can truly turn away from. When you feel an innate connection with all of creation, your heart breaks over and over again each time there is oppression and exploitation.
And so, while there are times you revel in the inherent beauty and grand mystery of life, much of the time your uncompromising love for all is felt deep in your bosom as an unquenchable despair. You come to understand that this kind of love hurts and, sometimes, the pain seems unbearable.
As many readers have pointed out in comments before -- it is something both Brandon and I fully acknowledge and understand -- the best method for pulling oneself out of this quagmire of despair is to focus on the one area in our lives in which we can exert the greatest impact: ourselves.
This strategy goes hand-in-hand with Taoist philosophy as well. Each of us represents a microcosm of the world out there. How can we expect the world at large to prioritize sustainable concepts if we don't make an undying commitment to the same? We may be concerned with what happens globally, but we must first work to insure we are doing our utmost locally and, by locally, I mean in our own lives.
Every act causes a ripple and that is why the old adage is so true: We must be the change we seek.
The only thing worth changing is ourselves. Everything else will fall into place. Just as a sidebar an nice article and book on Japan's sustainable culture.
ReplyDeleteBent by the Sun, Lessons from Japan's ancient traditions of sustainability. http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12958
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