Comments on: Catastrophe as Spiritual Practice

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:22:57 +0000

What you experienced as vitally true and real is each of our ability to respond to crisis with love and connection at the moment where nothing else is available. Is it possible that the converging crises may be precipitating humanity to a collective point where we all face a moment where all illusions and defensesw are stripped away and allmust respond from love or fear. And could that moment of crisis itself lead to collective transformation of humanity in a way that would itself be a saving breakthrough?

By: Ted Howard

Ted Howard — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:35:16 +0000

Hey Dennis
This is not so much a “collective transformation of humanity” as a ‘wake-the-fuck-up’ to “civilised” humans.

What “we” face is NOT so much a species problem, but a waking up to the insane dominant culture “we” find ourselves in. Anytime I see comments like this, I reflect on the depth of empire indoctrination “we” (civilised humans) are burdened with.

Indigenous people have been waiting for “us” to realise this for a bloody long time! As Derrick Jensen says when he talks about the culture being insane and the government being one of occupation, his indigenous friends ask him “what took you so long to realise that?”!!!

Saying this is a potential “transformation of humanity” is a travesty of justice against the 6000 to 10,000 years of indigenous resistance to the insane dominant culture, and their immense care and love for this planet.

IMHO, until you start from this premise, it’s going to be very very hard to find much that’s sustainable in the Global Industrial Civilisation (Empire!), and quite frankly I don’t have energy I’d want to put into doing this anyhow. I’d rather see it collapse as soon as possible, and I even embrace ways to help it do that.

I’d rather be creating a local community of like-minded folks and doing whatever we could to fall in love with and defend our landbase, as if our lives depended on it, as it surely will! I’d rather do what I could to defend local indigenous peoples and their sustainable ways.

Sustainibility = giving more back to the land than you take from it. As a newbie in understanding this, I’m really not sure if I will survive the catastrophe unfolding, but I want to cut through the bullshit and embrace the spiritual journey into it anyhow.

Thank you sooo much Sally!

Regards
Ted

By: Robyn

Robyn — Wed, 16 May 2007 08:07:43 +0000

Thanks for that Sally. You have articulated what I have hardly allowed myself to think and feel. I’m not alone!

By: sally

sally — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:34:03 +0000

Hey Ted & Dennis,
This is the kind of dialogue that deserves a weekend and a committed circle of thoughtful souls. Some of the questions I sit with are “Is there an unseen opportunity in collapse to regain indigenous consciousness AND integrate some learning from the last 10,000 years that would ADD to our indigenous wisdom? Has it ALL been a huge regressive step, this way of being called civilized (citified) or is there something meaningful to be gleaned from the experience, something to be added?” I don’t have an answer, only a sense that holding the tension, the creative tension, of both maybe fruitful. It’s the old not wanting to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Pity we have to meet like this. The indigenous would perhaps laugh at the notion that there is profound connection available via dots on a screen. Still, it is what is available in this moment and for that, and you two and all the other souls who are awakening and speaking here and elsewhere, I am grateful.

By: wendi

wendi — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:13:02 +0000

Sally, This entry has renewed my awareness that as the world narrows and shrinks, the void between we as individuals and the chaotic and destructive forces that dictate our lives, widens. But we continually fill the void with fear, disgust, rage, and despair – despair of the possibility of ever changing our political climate, lack of humanitarian and civil right practices, exploding global population, teetering economies, critically degraded ecosystems, peaking fossil fuel flow rates, and a radically, rapidly changing climate, and knowing that change will only happen upon collapse – here we mutants are, wanting and encouraging collapse today. And more powerful and crippling is the despair we experience of what our situation exposes in each of us forced to acknowledge our shortcomings and own personal responsibility for ‘our’ situation. Catastrophe and tragedy are all around us. Can we really imagine we could possibly understand our own true thoughts in a state of affairs that is so terrifying, deceptive, complex, destructive, and painful, morally and practically? Circle and dialogue provide opportunities to touch on the most delicate and deepest of thoughts, nuances and feelings. My experience is that this too can hurt deeply, because the subtleties and the emotional atmosphere a circle is capable of creating reminds me of the bountiful reality of which I am being robbed. I no longer know where to turn or what to do.

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 20 May 2007 02:30:53 +0000

Just letting you know Sally and others who have submitted comments, that I’m confident there are people all over the world (I’m in Australia) who feel as you do and blogs like this allow us to know that and to connect with each other. Sally, I found your words are very moving and powerful and reminiscent in some respects of Eckhart Tolle who advises us to allow the present moment to be as it is, whatever it brings us. Spiritual practice as I understand it can only take place in the now so if we resist what happens we also resist an opportunity for spiritual practice. It’s easier when the present brings pleasure and joy but more challenging when it brings pain or fear or catastrophe. Again, thanks, the compassion and humanity in your writing is a joy in itself. Helen