Category Archives: Uncategorized

Long Time Gone
Song from Crosby, Stills & Nash — 1969


1969 was a year, much like out present era, in which many in the USA realized that we were trapped in a war which had no real purpose, could not be won, and from which we could not extricate ourselves. (The war went on for another mindlessly obscene six years!)

A major challenge of the era was how to keep one’s life from being engulfed by the tide of arrogance and stupidity represented by the war that would not stop, how to keep one’s heart from dying of grief. That was the context in which Crosby, Stills and Nash wrote and performed this song.





Humanity’s Phase Shift
An interview with civilization theorist Daniel Schmachtenberger



Daniel Schmachtenberger is a futurist, evolutionary philosopher and strategist, and social engineer. This conversation with David Fuller of Rebel Wisdom looks at the growing civilisation-level crisis that we are beginning to see around us, and looks at what a genuine ‘phase shift’ for human progress might look like. Rebel Wisdom is a platform for the biggest ideas around.
http://www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/

Rebel Wisdom is running workshops for men and women to get a direct experience of the ideas in our films: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/events

Find us on iTunes and Spotify, or visit rebelwisdom.podbean.com to download Rebel Wisdom as an audio podcast. To help us make more of these films, please consider becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/rebelwisdom



Joanna Macy Video on Nuclear Weapons
The Challenges of the Poison Fire




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Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy explores the spiritual challenges to humanity presented by nuclear weapons.  She is filmed by Cynthia Jurs, Director of the Earth Treasure Vase Project, a Tibetan spiritual practice of filling clay jars with prayer scripts and small objects of deep meaning to the givers, and then burying the vases at trouble spots around the world.  The Treasure Vase ritual asserts the power of consciousness and intention in a world imagined as full of only inert objects.  Several Treasure Vases have been buried at nuclear weapon sites.






the ecological imperative to love all creatures great and small

 

A one-page mini-manifesto by Dennis Rivers
and uncounted zillions of ecological kindred spirits  – 2018 revision


Most people accept that life, to at least some degree, depends on love, because we recognize that babies need food, shelter and affection, which they cannot arrange for themselves in the absence of loving parents and kin. But the idea that we have a need to care for the entire web of life and people, well known to many native peoples, is only beginning to be explored in Western countries.

The emergence of industrial society and its long-lived toxic by-products, from pesticides to leaking nuclear waste tanks, has fundamentally changed our relationship to the natural world, the ground on which we stand. For eons, wrecking the planet has been beyond human reach. But our impact on the Web of Life is now so large that I am drawn to the conclusion that complex life will only continue on Planet Earth if we care for all people as our beloved kin, and all creatures as if they were our beloved children.
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The Spiritual Significance of Gaia Theory
A Talk by Dennis Rivers — March 1, 2018

A Vision of Gaia — Artist unknown but deeply appreciated

March 1, 2018

Gaia Theory is the proposal by scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis that the Earth is like a giant organism, with many balancing factors (soil, atmosphere, ocean, web of life) acting together through complex feedback loops to keep an environment favorable to life. 

This talk about Gaia Theory was presented to the Word and Life Study Fellowship in Santa Barbara, California.  Over a period of ten weeks, The Fellowship asked a variety of speakers to expand on the themes explored in a recent book, Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth.

The chapter I was invited to expand on was about Gaia Theory and the soul of the world, written by Jungian analyst Jules Cashford.

Gaia Theory

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Awakening-to-Connectedness Meditative Prayer — Long version

Awakening-to-Connectedness Meditative Prayer — Long version

(or pray the prayer of your own heart for the benefit of all life)


With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I open my life to infinite well-being.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I open my life to beautiful aliveness.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I open my life to radiant compassion.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I open my life to see more deeply into the heart

of everything and everyone around me.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I open my life more deeply

to the creative unfolding of all my abilities



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment to respect, to nurture, to awaken

the well-being of all people and all sentient creatures.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment to respect, to nurture, to awaken

the beautiful aliveness unfolding in everyone and everything.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment to respect, to nurture, to awaken

the radiant compassion yearning to be expressed

in all my brothers and sisters.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment to respect, to nurture, to awaken,

the capacity for transformative understanding

in all my sisters and brothers.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment to respect, to nurture, to awaken

the creative unfolding and full development

of all my brothers and sisters.



With every breath, with every step,

with every dream, with every lifetime,

I deepen my commitment

to nurture and protect the web of life.

David Attenborough: The Truth About Climate Change (BBC – Part 1)


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A two part documentary presented by Sir David Attenborough – The Truth About Climate Change. Like us https://www.facebook.com/CarbonControl Follow us https://twitter.com/CarbonControl

Some extraordinary phenomena have taken place in recent times; Hurricane Katrina, the heat wave of 2003, polar bears swimming in search of ice and vast swarms of insects enveloping an African village. But are these isolated incidents or are they omens of a greater global change?

Sir David discovers that the world is warming at an unprecedented rate, and finds out why this is now far beyond any normal allowance for cyclical fluctuation. But are humans to blame? These changes are already in motion whatever we do now, but Sir David believes that we may be able to act to prevent a catastrophe. People around the world are having to adapt their way of life as the climate changes; the Inuit in the Arctic whose hunting is now limited, the Pacific island inhabitants forced to move as their homes disappear beneath the waves, and the Siberian homes slowly sinking into the permafrost. Sir David investigates some of the possible scenarios for the future, including rising sea-levels, insect plagues and an increase in diseases.

All rights: BBC