Saturday, October 12, 2013

Being the Stream

Emerson observed the unboundedness of living organisms.
"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn"Ralph Waldo Emerson
Yet unboundedness is a apparent paradox in a closed ecosystem like Earth's biosphere ― or is it?
"Such a contradictory state of affairs is feasible only because the resources accessible to life can be used over and over again."J.I. Gitelson
A path toward deep ecology, and the realization of interconnectedness, is to cast aside what we have learned so that we might reconnect with a deep-seated, primordial awareness ― an awareness devoid of subject or object.
"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there."
Hakuun Yasutani
Light and shadow are aspects of the whole, just as usefulness and uselessness are aspects of the whole. Taoist philosophy asserts that the moment we choose one side over the other we upset nature's balance.

Allowing ourselves to be immersed in interconnectedness involves the challenging discipline of embracing opposites. Gary Snyder writes about the meditative discipline of being at home in the whitewater and the eddies:
Being the Stream

Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream or the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies. Meditation may take one out of the world, but it also puts one totally into it.


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