To cultivate my power in integrating an experience of chaos -- because it is a lot to bear in this moment, I will put the fruits of what I am picking -- that is, what becomes more ripe all the time, here on the page. (For this trick, I will attempt to transform fruit into the linear!)
It is a muggy night in mid-August, dense with the underlying buzz of all that is,
and I am filling space held for me with a verbal stream-of-consciousness. More
space appears within that which already is. I've come upon something that feels
like a tool in encouraging the ever-opening of the bud of my being, of
collective being. I came into this: a direct correlation between sustainability/science (science being
human-studied and concocted and thus, limited, systems of measurement); spirituality; and social justice/equality. (The way in which they work in
conjunction, in which the three parts form three even spokes on a rotating
wheel means that they're co-dependent on one another for the forward
movement of the wheel, and that all three need to be in alignment to fill
their part. This also means that you can find your way into the three-part
system via any of the three concepts and rotate your understanding through them
going in any direction.)
Beginning
with sustainability and environmental preservation (often gauged and measured
through systems of science, which may perhaps be the easiest for humans to
touch since there is tangibility here), we have to incorporate three parts in
our actions; in the West, most of us have these in-conjunct words imprinted in
our memories from our days of standardized early education but rarely actually
implement, thus manifesting a breakdown and even pointlessness of the entire
system: Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. What I'm saying, basically, is fuck the label
of "the green movement" if all it's doing is encouraging trendy
reusable bags at the grocery store and can deposits (which is problematic of
course in its own right because of the introduction of money into the equation,
but makes sense in a still-operational paradigm for the purposes of creating an
incentive for said can-donator. The problem is, though, if a monetary can
return is taken out of the equation, the masses "forget" to recycle,
which shows the systemic and problematic reliance on money to elicit action).
First, reducing the amount of things we have, reusing what has
already been produced so as not to perpetuate the system's habit (and need for
its sustained existence) to create more things -- so that instead, we are fully
utilizing the physical things we have to their fullest potential (i.e. that
which is already available to us), and recycling what we can so as to
slow down our inherently destructive habits of dumping our waste into the
earth's water and soil. [Watch even a few minutes of
this if you'd like a Culture-of-Consumerism 101 rundown of the
way the act of persistent consumption (in terms of materials goods, but
this concept is also of course relevant to what we put into our bodies) works
to create and perpetuate a sick society.] If more ways of putting any of these
elements of this trifecta of sustainability into action is not clear, I also
suggest this: if you have a toaster that works in a single family
home, don't buy a new one just because it's shinier and has more slots so you
can toast more shit simultaneously. Here's another: if you have more than one
pair of snow boots, and especially if you have a pair of snow boots
and you don't live in an area that ever gets snow, please do not buy
anymore snow boots. The same goes for shoes, in general. I would
actually go so far as to say that if you have more than a couple pairs of shoes
and only one pair of feet, you probably need to stop buying
shoes, especially if those shoes are made by small children whose
names you can't pronounce in factories located in countries you've never
been, because you are creating a problem much larger than the size of the
carbon footprints collectively created by all those pairs of shoes that sit
unworn in your closet because, as my assumption goes, you only really
have the ability to wear one of those pairs of shoes at a time. And, if you're
still located in the micro-space, here's this little nugget: I know of guys
with whom I went to high school who have hundreds of pairs of sneakers in their
closets. And what's hiding underneath all the sneakers in those closets is the
truth that these guys haven't changed much since we were in high school.
Conformity was never cool -- not even when we thought it was in high
school. What good are all the other pairs going unworn in your
closet, especially when there are children without shoes all over the
world? (Many of them are the very children who hand-sewed that swoosh
that's shaped just perfectly to cushion your ego within its shiny,
crescent form.)
We
are not contributing to a thriving and just living system on this planet if we
stand on the flimsy, bolstered statement that we're providing work for
others -- this is outsourcing, and, as a concept, it is harmful because
everything that we need can truly be found where we are; we have just become
disconnected from the knowing of how to access it. The same goes for our
internal processes, right? When we outsource, we are perpetuating a system of
dangerous interdependency that continues to poison everything with its
power and, simultaneously, it gives our egos more reasons to believe that
because of a societally-dictated status, we are "better" or of
more importance in some way than another person who doesn't have every
color and style of say, a Nike shoe; this then continues to separate us,
thus perpetuating conflict between one another (on micro and macro scales, both
internally and externally; as within, so without). So, this
broken system to which we are contributing reaches from deep within our
beings from which we are so disconnected, all the way out to the
electric-rainbow-colored, shoe-filled closets we identify with, and then far
beyond it, all the way to the farthest-reaching atmospheric point of the punctured
ozone layer of the only home planet we have. But here's the thing: if you don't
care about that; about well being, about all your relations; about
intersectionality and healing; about Earth, and the forests and streams and the
very breath that nature allows us to have ... if none of that matters to you,
then this whole thing breaks down. It breaks down right now.
If
this is breaking down, here comes the part where we rebuild: YOU MATTER,
and are making a difference, regardless of what you do: you're either harming,
or you're helping. So here's a secret I have come to learn: caring fills your
cup. The evolution of not only our wellbeing but our
livelihood, our children's livelihood, and our the current flora and fauna kin
that grow and thrive on the planet are dependent on it, ... and even your
shoes -- that is, the carbon footprint that they, along with the beings whose
feet occupy them, create. And I know you care about that. I know that because
about all these dependent factor because if you didn't care about them, you
wouldn't be here. So I'm going to keep going -- and so are you. Remember,
you're making a difference regardless of what you do -- you're either harming
or helping.
Onward.
ALL three of these elementary school-instilled R's must be utilized for
there to be a change. And here's where it starts to flow.
It
is in reducing that is built the window to the next part of what will
allow our evolutionary expansion: and that is our spiritual consciousness.
Before half of you check out here, I'll be more clear: I'm not talking about
religion, and I'm not talking about wearing a screen
printed tank top with a merkaba on it because it's trendy, or acid and
unicorns and music festivals, unless it's all of those things, integrated, on
the spiritual path that's carried you from darkness into light and then takes
you back into darkness sometimes, and love is your religion. That would be the
grounded truth of spirituality, and through all of it you're beginning to see
that love is truly the only religion that there is. That you're reading is the
proof that you care; proof that comes through in the fact of the very truth
that you exist. There is a tangible way through this, and it wraps up with the
human part -- the social part -- that follows. So, however you identify in
terms of spirituality or non-spirituality; wherever you fit on the non-linear
belief spectrum, from staunch Atheist with no "belief system"
whatsoever to a card-carrying Believer in an Omnipotent Diety, to the simple
belief in karma and cosmic force, of ebb and flow, of the power of
manifestation and attraction, stay with me here. Our ways of being and
experiencing and relating to all that is -- to ourselves, to the ground
beneath our feet, to the air we breathe, to our ability to acquire what sustains
what is within and give back what sustains what is without -- might depend
upon it. If this next part seeps in -- even in the most minuscule way, it is
something. Within all of us there are messages for others, for us to impart to
them, and there are also messages from other for us. These messages have the
power to bring others into awakening or further their already-trodden journeys
on that path. There are messages that come through in actually words and
writing and through other people, and there are also messages that come through
via encounters with animals (as each holds specific totem messages) and in
situations all around us all the time. [When we begin to relinquish control a
bit, when we let go of the plan and asking for signs from another person or
from the natural world, and then really look for the sign we've asked for, and
then follow that sign -- embodied within our highest selves, rather than living
within the indoctrinated fear-based model in which many of us have been raised
-- we get to the best place there is for us.] We realize the world and broader
Universe speaks to us in the language of nature, and so we pay more attention.
When
we have less things because we have been reducing the amount
of material goods around us (and are reusing what we already
have so as to stop contributing to the damaging and stagnating society of
consumerism), we have less distractions to entice what yearns for
comfortability within us, less to distract from the signs around us coming from
the messengers' signs from the spirit world ... so what do we instead of
entertain ourselves with all those things that kept us so disconnected
before? We sit with ourselves more. We connect. We recognize the human-run
cycles that keep us apart and start to instead embrace the natural cycles that
bring us together. So, we connect with ourselves, one other, and the natural
world around us just a little bit more. And because of this, we move into an
innate need to deepen our connections with one other more
because our consciousness grows when we are sharing thoughts, ideas, and
physical and energetic space (whether that be with a roommate, someone you
haven't yet talked with standing behind you in line at the market, our plant
friends that we bring into our homes to contribute to the good health that
thrives there, the barista concocting your drink, the cat that finds its way
into your garden, the person on the other end of the telephone line -- a
"wrong number", or lifelong friend), and we begin to notice the mysterious
and purposeful buzz around us more -- the kind that comes from deep within us
and is met from far, far outside of us. We realize that there is no difference,
and that we are all here together, experiencing this buzz. And we become
peaceful. Our internal and external periphery expands. We've reduced what's
piled up around us, and have a clear path to walk amidst all the stuff ... and
there's way more life at the other end of that pathway. These connections
begin to affect us. They affect us on a deeper level than anything we can
access from watching our favorite character on TV (who is or was an actual
human being out there -- who is or were living their life while you watch
something that was recorded while that person acted in a role other than which
they typically play; a part other than themselves. While this can be
entertaining and there of course valuable things on TV, but this is the
permeating truth.) True connection; touch; a knowing look or passing grin; a
shared witnessing of an event, no matter its stature; an understanding of an
experience had together -- they all begin to take effect. They affect us
psychologically, physiologically, cellularly. And then we realize that not
having those experiences begins to feel like not living. It
begins to feel like not enough ... and that's okay. If you're feeling this, it's a good thing. It means you're alive. It is supposed to
feel this way. This is what living is. You are not alone, and
you're starting to realize this. Because it's through this process that we connect
with our true nature. Deep joy, deep sorrow. We are alone. We return to that.
But, then -- others have these experiences, too! So we are not alone. We
remember we are held, we are okay ... we remember that this is
okay. Alone, not alone. Not alone, alone. It's all to be experienced. There's
no difference in the state of aloneness or not aloneness, and we exist in that,
together. Joy, sorrow. We realize that the two grow simultaneously. We connect
with the human experience, and our aliveness. Through reducing, we have less to
keep us zoned out, distracted from our aliveness. And in touching our
aliveness, we touch all aliveness -- which is everything. We live within
a pulsing, cycling, universe of aliveness, for everything exists within a
cycle, and that cycle does not end -- it is circular; a growing sphere, out
around us, expanding just as all things do to the edges of our universe, and it
is. That cycle is alive. The cycle, of course includes death (and regeneration
or rebirth), represented in the natural world in the prevalence of the seasons,
and in its cycling nature, it is pushing forward -- it is in being. When
we come to terms with this aliveness, we recognize that we are no more and no
less important than any other being. Truthfully, if one were to actually
zoom out far enough away from Earth (we've all seen those videos denoting
our smallness), if you get far enough away and out into the vast depths
of the surrounding cosmos, everything here on this planet becomes, at some
point, the same size. If we can get far enough out in our understanding (while
going far enough inside ourselves), I believe we can embody this knowing.
Perhaps this aids in healing. Because of course, and often to our detriment,
the variable in the human experience is the processing mind -- attachment
through ego -- which brings us to really doubt and discredit the fact that we
are small. We believe that because we process and think and exist (in the ways
we choose to create and destroy, especially) in different ways than other
beings, other species, that we are larger or more important or that our lives
matter more. And it simply isn't so.
My point here, is that when we detach from all that we are accustomed to
believe matters (and most of those things -- leading to even the way we relate
with one another and our allegiance to those who tell us what to do, show us
where we should build our houses, provide us with a human-concocted notion of
what to believe -- are programmed into us by those in power in order to keep us
in our comfort zones, in our fear, and therefore in order and "under
control" so as to perpetuate the existence of "power" for a
select few) we recognize that we are as infinite as the universe around us, and
growing in our vastness all the time in the same way. And that is what pushes
everything forward and up: this aligned growth. As large as the universe is
around us, it is also as large and vast within us, within each living thing,
each cell, each microorganism. The conscious cognizance of this explains the potency
of the human experience: we feel our joy and our pain on the same scale as our
own unique spectrum of perception of this vastness. This holds for us the
deepest and most expansive joy and sorrow, simultaneously. And that is the
beauty of being human. We experience this in ways that most other species do
not. When we start talking about space, things get pretty far out (that's
the nature of it, right?), so to come back and ground down around this felt
sense of spirituality, or whatever term for connection to ourselves and
all that is around and within us we like to use, here is this: when we
recognize our interconnectedness on this basic level and recognize it in
its simultaneous simplicity and complexity, we recognize that we are
all the same. Because we are all experiencing. That we are another's
experience, and our own experience, and therefore we are experience
experiencing itself. We recognize that we experience differently, and we also
experience the same. Our joy and our pain are one. It is through THIS
recognition that we come upon the third part of the triad that creates positive
change ... and that is social justice.
When
we realize our shared experience with all beings, we stop bringing harm to
other beings -- and this includes other humans. It simply becomes
impossible to consciously do while feeling okay about it. We begin to recognize
that what we harm in others we harm in ourselves. We deepen our wounds, our
trauma, our sorrow, by harming what we perceive to be another. On the flip
side, the joy and positivity that we encourage in others, we encourage in
ourselves. We remind ourselves through these actions. Even if this
encouragement in another is to keep going -- we encourage because we hope that
others will encourage us to do the same. Perhaps, even, we become our own best
and strongest support when we lift up others. We build core. We begin to thrive
together, to help one another to live a best life that is possible. We begin to
see physical manifestation as a gift because we get to experience the potent,
sensory texture of it. We feel the goodness of joy and the goodness that comes
from the processing and releasing of pain. When we clear it out, more joy can
flood in. It is a tangible expression of nature, like any other: energy moves,
and new energy takes its place. It is the nature of the cycle. Through our
growing recognition of a shared experience with all beings regardless of how we
look (two eyes and ears, a beating heart, leaves growing from limbs, fur or
scales protecting flesh, words spoken in the same or different sounds, sounds
made in audible or inaudible tones) we don't need to steal personal power from
other beings because we have our own. We begin to recognize that the world can
function on a system of sharing. That we will find what we need; that we will
be provided for. We learn to recognize our gifts and just as each cell, each
organism, each being is slightly varied in makeup from the next, we're the same
in that we all have one thing fundamentally in common: we have unique and
authentic gifts, offerings, abilities to service. Through a system of sharing,
space is created in which we can learn our own unique gifts and can creatively
bring forth to the world so as to ensure its continued survival -- all
continued survival. We trade what we learn we are able to create, to manifest,
of our own personal and unique gifts and we no longer take or steal others',
for there is no point in this. We aren't bombarded by the need to HAVE, which
is what the outcome of the habit of reduction of things that distract us from
these truths (along with reusing and recycling, since many things of course
already exist here on our planet) has instilled within us. We continue the
perpetuation of aliveness via the cycles around us and within us, and this
returns us to the promise of a sustained environmental culture. Sustainment so
as to continue cycles here. The truth is that, in physicality, this planet, the
one we call Earth, one day, will be all that remains of itself. But these three
pieces that construct the promise of positive evolution and fluid, non-harming,
forward movement, if embodied and implemented, ensure that aliveness will
continue in its highest form -- and that essence will carry on within all.
So,
how do we begin to integrate this? How do we move forward in effective ways, and
how do we move into our sacred responsibility to this planet, to each other,
and to ourselves, carrying along with us both grace and ease? We find a
teacher. We recognize that we, ourselves, have much to teach from our knowing
of what is possible but perhaps, we have even more to learn. We must trust that
there are organizations that integrate all
three of these principles; we trust that these are organizations bringing
these principles to the world and in our merging with these organizations we
feel less alone and become more impactful as human beings. Trust that there are
teachers out there and trust that once you are ready your teacher will appear.
Most of us will have many teachers over the course of our lifetimes and some of
them may be involved with these organizations. Look to teachers who are no
longer with us whose words permeate pages we can find in bookstores; look to
teachers who are still with us but whom you may never meet in the flesh –
teachers like Joanna Macy, Jane Goodall, Pema Chödrön,
Deepak Chopra. Look into organizations like the Pachamama Alliance; go to
local food co-ops; volunteer at places where people are writing poetry, tending
gardens, chanting mantras, feeding the poor, creating music, planting seeds
and learning and playing together. The connections generated in places such as
these – conversations like the ones centering
around the topics highlighted in this piece – are what will allow our planet to continue to move forward; and you will be aiding in that collective
movement.
Gratitude.
May all beings be at peace. Aho.
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