a mental and spiritual firewall—a kind of imaginal control program that society and its institutions propagate and that we all, more or less, internalize in our socialization. Operating as a transpersonal energetic entity or ‘field,’ this firewall blocks out all information and experiences that don’t correspond to the dualistic, materialistic, mechanistic worldview that it reinforces, thereby making it difficult for us to consciously experience the living world, both in nature and within ourselves. Its method of hardwiring us into a mindset of separation and fear often prevents us from entering into genuine connection with life and so discovering our true agency in t... posted on Dec 30 2018 (8,039 reads)

following is a review of  Healing Earth: An Ecologist’s Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship by John Todd, published by North Atlantic Books (January 2019) Water is the ultimate systems challenge.  It is a unique resource that underpins all drivers of growth – be it agricultural production, energy generation, industry or manufacturing. It also connects these sectors into a broader economic system that must balance social development and environmental interests. World Economic Forum Global Water Initiative Not quite three-quarters of the way through Healing Earth: An Ecologist’s Journey of Innovation and Environmental... posted on Mar 12 2019 (6,126 reads)

encounter with a sand painting that helped me learn how to doctor patients I knew I would lose. At the time, I was in the middle of my yearlong fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine, seeing patients at a county hospital in San Jose. I’d immersed myself in learning how to treat patients living with serious illnesses: end-stage heart failure, widespread cancer and devastating strokes. I’d learned how to help families anticipate what dying looks like. It had become second nature to talk openly with patients about the severity of their diseases, and to ask them how we might work together to maximize joy, meaning and comfort in their waning lives. I hoped that project... posted on Jun 14 2019 (10,869 reads)

– that of the space and energy – rather than individuals, there is no thing that needs to be observed. All awareness can be involved with the movement of energy through space, organized and contained by the form. The result is soft fluid power enjoying the beauty and purity of the form. This kind of feeling is not only beautiful and fluid, it is difficult to resist or counter which makes it effective from a martial perspective. There is a lovely word in physics to describe the nature of a laser beam. The light is said to be “coherent.” Ordinary lenses may focus light, but a laser creates an alignment and unity of character that goes beyond that. By allowing the ... posted on Jul 18 2019 (9,179 reads)

interesting. BW: Yes, it's definitely not academic research, and I mean, I've been called a nurse, and a doctor, and a researcher, and all those things, but that's not the case, and I've been honest about that from the start. It was based on my own experience. I've had a lot of people in palliative care write to me over the years and said, "That is so spot on with what I've found with my patients as well." So perhaps it had to be that personal nature for people to resonate with it so much. Also, I'm not sure the actual dying people would have been as vulnerable and safe to be vulnerable had they been academic questions and researcher... posted on Aug 12 2019 (13,178 reads)

was late in the night when the loud clucking of chickens woke up a neighbourhood of the Bochagaon village in Kaziranga, Assam. Swiftly, the adults gathered near the pen and saw a large snake devouring a hen. Lanterns and sticks in hand, the villagers surrounded the snake keeping a safe distance. In any other circumstances, the frightened villagers would have killed the outnumbered reptile, but this time, they called ‘the man who speaks nature’. “Ten years ago, the villagers would have lynched the snake without a second thought, and I can’t completely blame them. However, there’s a growing awareness about the importance of each element in the wilderness and... posted on Sep 21 2019 (4,816 reads)

we don’t even need to say that. It’s just scan your bar code and get to the point. But what if the “point” was to relate more deeply? How do you start to move away from these singular transactions to much more multidimensional relationships? NC: That’s such a shift in my thinking about how we change systems. It’s actually in cultivating the values and the relationships first. And from that the system emerges. Which is true of life. I mean if we look at nature that’s how it works as well. It’s not like nature maps out a system for its various parts and then behaves accordingly. NM: If we build on the farming metaphor, we can&rsquo... posted on Nov 19 2019 (7,551 reads)

will strive to do it just right. Similarly, the campaigner will distinguish what really needs to be done to stop the logging project, and what might instead gratify his crusader’s ego, martyr complex, or self-righteousness. He will not forget what he serves. It is nonsense to say of an indigenous culture, “The reason they have lived sustainably on the land for five thousand years has nothing to do with their superstitious ceremonies. It is because they are astute observers of nature who think seven generations in the future.” Their reverence for and attention to the subtle needs of a place is part and parcel of their ceremonial approach to life. The mindset that call... posted on Apr 25 2020 (8,297 reads)

is doing their best with the cards reality has dealt them, and second, everyone has the capacity to grow. Or to paraphrase Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi: "We're all perfect just the way we are. And we could all use a little improvement." The layers of chronic tension in our bodies and minds have likely been built up over many years. Dissolving them in a sustainable way requires time and dedication. The tools of release are plentiful. Yoga, massage, meditation, sound healing, nature therapy, art therapy,  aromatherapy, dance therapy-- and coutless other modalities. Pick a path or any combination of paths. But regardless of method, it's important to remember t... posted on Apr 8 2020 (10,503 reads)

Beresford-Kroeger is a world-recognized botanist, medical biochemist and author (and now filmmaker). She is known for her extraordinary ability to translate scientific complexities of nature for the general public with both precision and poetry. "If you speak for the trees, you speak for all of nature", says Beresford-Kroeger, one of the world's leading expert on trees. She has studied the environmental, medicinal, and even spiritual aspects of trees, has written about them in leading books, and maintains gardens on her property that burst with flora. From a very young age, she understood she was the last voice to bring Celtic knowledge to the New World. Orphaned at age 1... posted on May 9 2020 (7,323 reads)

the heart by giving us a way to transform adversity, conflict, and hardship into a direct opportunity for spiritual growth. In this way, rather than perceiving difficult people or adverse circumstances in our lives as an obstacle, tragedy, or punishment, we now meet these experiences with deep compassion, wisdom, and skill—using them as our actual practice on the path to enlightenment. By way of these treasured practices we eliminate our competitive, selfish, and emotionally reactive nature, as well as our false and exaggerated concepts of self (also called self-grasping and self-cherishing). It is important to understand that the greed, jealousy, anger, pride, selfishness, and at... posted on May 31 2020 (19,070 reads)

the goodness and the heroisms will rise up again, then be cut down again and rise up,” John Steinbeck wrote to his best friend at the peak of WWII. “It isn’t that the evil thing wins — it never will — but that it doesn’t die.” Caught in the maelstrom of the moment, we forget this cyclical nature of history — history being merely the rosary of moments the future strings of its pasts. We forget that the present always looks different from the inside than it does from the outside — something James Baldwin knew when, in considering why Shakespeare endures, he observed: “It is said that his tim... posted on Jun 1 2020 (8,621 reads)

food abundance, such as with “terra preta,” or Amazonian dark earth, and the food forests of the Mayans. We planted, harvested, and consumed but also took care to nourish and regenerate. What changed? At some point, humans started relating to the planet differently, and our emotional and spiritual connection to the earth was severed. Whether the shift happened during the Neolithic Revolution, when humans settled and established agriculture, or the Age of Enlightenment, when nature became viewed as an object to be observed and controlled, the result was a disconnect from nature. We became, in the words of Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael, “Takers” and not... posted on Aug 13 2020 (6,192 reads)

2014 This essay has been translated into Chinese and German. A Review of Gerald Pollack’s The Fourth Phase of Water In The Fourth Phase of Water, Gerald Pollack offers an elegant new theory of water chemistry that has profound implications not only for chemistry and biology, but for the metaphoric foundation of our understanding of reality and our treatment of nature. Let me emphasize that this is not a New Age book by someone of questionable scientific credentials. This is a book on chemistry, albeit one easily accessible to lay people. Pollack is a highly decorated professor at the University of Washington, author of numerous peer-reviewe... posted on Aug 23 2020 (7,172 reads)

touch the earth is to move into harmony with nature.” --Oglala Sioux Shamans, Native Americans, and wisdom teachers all over the world see the earth as a giant, conscious, living being. They say pollution sickens her in the same way cancer spreads slowly through a human body. Debilitated though she may be, our Mother Earth still retains tremendous power to heal. When we physically ground ourselves on her surface we are gifted with her vital energies. The science behind it is simple: The water in your body acts as an electrical conduit to earth’s negative ionic charge so you feel better when any part of you touches it. Charged particles that come orig... posted on Sep 9 2020 (14,345 reads)

For You, Tomorrow For Me.” This is the meaning behind ayni, a living Andean philosophy and practice that awakens a balanced and harmonious relationship between nature and man.  In Andean cosmology, this is expressed through complementary opposites such as male/female; sun/moon; gold/silver. Their interaction is a form of reciprocity called ayni.  One of the guiding principles of the way of life of the Quechua and Aymara people, this equilibrium of exchange and mutuality, which has been practiced since ancient times (since before the Incas), creates a cycle of connectivity and support essential to social and spiritual wellbeing. Anthropologist Catherine Allen... posted on Sep 4 2020 (5,007 reads)

may not know what the future climate is going to look like, and she acknowledges that not knowing is really hard. “But we’ve got to try,” she says matter of factly. “We’re here now … Just start.” Overcoming cultural myths Schwartz comes to the topic of climate solutions with curiosity and a deep appreciation for science. You can hear it in the way she writes about processes like transpiration and decomposition: “The logic of nature is no secret; it is laid bare in every streambed, every handful of living soil, every spiderweb, if we bother to take a look. Its tale is told through accrual or retrenchment of biomass, biodiv... posted on Sep 5 2020 (4,765 reads)

buffoonery of a collective emperor with no clothes. Extinction illness and other psychological collateral effects are deepening both depression and denial, forcing humility and exacerbating hubris. The Anthropocene casts a long and convoluted shadow. As the political adage goes, “we are prisoners of context in the absence of meaning.” So what then shall we do? A starting place is better understanding of and relating to the current context – i.e. assessing the nature and texture of the oxygen we breathe (even when we can’t). We can also attribute new and ancient meaning to the consequences of our actions. In this essay I argue that solidarity can play... posted on Nov 1 2020 (6,283 reads)

the University of Virginia’s Shigehiro Oishi have proposed another dimension of well-being that has not been carefully studied yet: psychological richness. Psychological richness involves having new, interesting experiences that promote curiosity or transform how you think. People with psychologically rich lives experience more intense emotions—positive and negative—and are more open to novelty and uncertainty. They might choose to live abroad, seek awe in nature, or explore complex intellectual problems. In contrast, the researchers suggest, happy or meaningful lives can be more routine, and possibly even boring. In their paper, published in Af... posted on Dec 24 2020 (8,876 reads)

that commoditize everything? That create scarcity instead of abundance, that promote accumulation rather than sharing? We’ve surrendered our values to an economic system that actively harms what we love. I’m wondering how we fix that. And I’m not alone. Because I’m a botanist, my fluency in the lexicon of berries may not easily extend to economics, so I wanted to revisit the conventional meaning of economics to compare it to my understanding of the gift economy of nature. What is economics for anyway? It turns out that answer depends a lot on who you ask. On their website, the American Economic Association says, “It’s the study of scarcity, the stud... posted on Jan 19 2021 (10,747 reads)