Sensing the Fabric of Life
“The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings.”
–Rachel Carson (American Biologist and Writer, 1907-1964)
The Garment of God
“Nature is the living, visible garment of God.”
–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Poet, Playwright and Philosopher, 1749-1832)
“The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotation” (Frank S., ED. Mead)
The Challenge of Our Nature
“Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own nature.”
–Dennis Gabor (Hungarian-born British Scientist, Developer of Holography and, in 1971, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1900-1979)
Temples in Nature
“Thoughtful seekers among the ancients and Orientals found fitter temples in Nature, in open desert spaces with the sky overhead and the sand underneath, than in elaborate structures resounding to the chants of professional men who had exhausted their divine mandate.”
–Paul Brunton (a.k.a. Raphael Hurst, English Philosopher, Traveler, Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)
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“Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us, and they call it God.”
–Roman Kroitor (Canadian Filmmaker and Co-Inventor of IMAX, 1926-)
Our Living Globe
“It is easy to forget that man has taken a look at his home from the outside only in the last twenty years and the profound and almost mystical effect upon the astronauts has been embraced by the species as a whole. We can see our planet as an exquisite, luminous, living globe hanging undivided in the silence of space. The testimonies from space bring home with a fresh impact just what a rare and precious opportunity of life we share within the planet as one whole ecosystem and us as a part of it.”
–Yatri (a.k.a. Malcolm Godwin, English Artist, Spiritual Seeker and Writer, 1936-)
“Unknown Man: The Mysterious Birth of a New Species” (Yatri)
Interlocking and Interdependent Communication Patterns
“There are millions of interlocking and interdependent communication patterns among all the physical forms of the Earth, and with training human beings can perceive and understand those patterns of communication. It is part of our species’ purpose to do so.”
–Stephen Harrod Buhner (American Poet, Writer, Ecologist and Psychotherapist, 1952-)
“One Spirit, Many Peoples: A Manifesto for Earth Spirituality” (Stephen Harrod Buhner)
Like a Single Cell
“What is (the earth) most like?…..It is most like a single cell.”
–Lewis Thomas (American Physician, Writer and Educator, 1913-1993)
“Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher” (Lewis Thomas)
What Does The World Owe Us?
I was hearing yet another person tell me that they thought that the world “Owed” them. It reminded of this lovely quip:
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
–Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer, 1835-1910)
Re-Enchanting the World
“Because disenchantment is intrinsic to the scientific worldview, the modern epoch contained, from its inception, an inherent instability that severely limited its ability to sustain itself for more than a few centuries. For more than 99 percent of human history, the world was enchanted and man saw himself as an integral part of it.
The complete reversal of this perception in a mere four hundred years or so has destroyed the continuity of the human experience and the integrity of the human psyche. It has nearly wrecked the planet as well.
The only hope, or so it seems to me, lies in a re-enchantment of the world.”
–Morris Berman (American Cultural Historian, Writer and Visiting Faculty Member of the Catholic University of America, 1944-)
