The Yin-Yang of Life

When is knowledge “written in stone” not `written in stone’? This is not a trick question. It relates, however, to the question that I raised in my previous blog post: Where does the expression “written in stone” originate?

My proposed answer to where the expression originates is, the `Ten Commandments.’ Biblical history tells us they were inscribed on a stone tablet, as witnessed by and imparted to Moses by God. Moses’ task was to communicate them to his tribal people as religious laws by which they are instructed to live, henceforth. This event is related in the earliest Judaic-Christian documents which, thereafter, have been widely distributed, re-translated several times, and passed down through many centuries around the world in diverse cultures, within the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.

Although religious historians and theologians continue to debate – following so many translations – how the original meanings of biblical text have become distorted through time and subjective interpretation, the Ten Commandments are understood today to be `literally’ the same as when originally documented in stone and on paper.

Interesting to observe, however, is how radically different is the Western culture which, through the centuries increasingly has relied on literal rather than visual knowledge, in contrast to Eastern and Indigenous cultures which, conversely, continued through the ages to recognize the perennial wisdom infused in pictorial images.

The conceptual bias of Western society is evident in how those of us living in it are socialized, and also how Western culture systemically constructs a particular perception of the world. This perception privileges intellectual analysis over the experiential and holistic. Such fractured wisdom plays out in every institution of our society, from repressed emotions within a family constellation, to mainstream schooling and allopathic health systems that omit the complement of holistic treatments.

For all ways of knowing have their value and place in human consciousness. But, our potential fuller consciousness remains split and disconnected unless we develop our innate `inner ways of knowing’ that have been systemically marginalized in the West.

That fact is why – as I outlined in a blog post earlier this year about ancient symbols – a lot of North Americans through the 1960s, who intuitively sensed something vital was missing within themselves, sought the missing pieces by engaging in Eastern and Indigenous cultural practices and beliefs, and have never looked back.

The reason is, they were engaged in the quest to seek wisdom that lies beneath, in other words, wisdom that has layers of meaning, not all of which are visible to the eye or to the intellect.

To clarify my opening question, that read, “When is something `written in stone’ not written in stone?,” let us consider rock paintings. These are the earliest known images created by human beings to relate stories through pictures.

While the Ten Commandments, regardless of language or culture, communicate the same message through time using `alphabetic’ written words, the meaning and value of ancient `symbolic’ pictorial images continue to evolve through time, in accordance with the willingness by new generations of human beings to seek deeper understanding.

Doing so may not be an accident in regard to their original creation. First of all, note why I am comparing the initially engraved yet timeless Ten Commandments in the West with ancient rock paintings and, more specifically here, the petroglyphs near Peterborough, Ontario. These examples of inscriptions implicitly communicate that our earthly existence is connected to a spiritual dimension, because both types of documents have been inspired by visions.

These inscriptions, moreover, explicitly indicate the types of relationships considered important. Note how the Ten Commandments focus only on human interactions with fellow humans or the human relationship to God. Yet rock paintings and rock carvings inclusively depict human interactions with all species as well as in relation with Spirit.

Regarding Indigenous beliefs and practices, two conversations come to mind, from which specific statements have remained in my consciousness. One conversation occurred on Manitoulin Island with Native visual artist and poet Michael Robinson (1948-2010). His spiritual insight speaks for itself in his artistic imagery. Note one of his online quotes: “I have worked hard at removing `man’ from the `centre of all things’ by putting him in his rightful place. Equally, among all living things.”

In Robinson’s conversation with me many years ago, I recall him pointing out that traditional Indigenous practices are not static through the centuries yet, instead, evolved through time to express the spiritual teachings pertinent to what each generation needs, given the challenges of each historic moment.

That statement not only made profound sense but, moreover, blew out of the water the arrogant assumption of so many hard-wired Western observers, from missionaries to scholars – and even artists such as photographer Edmund S. Curtis – who all erroneously judged Indigenous peoples as frozen in time and incapable of adapting to change. Sadly, such judgements were imposed very conveniently to justify the ongoing destruction of the way of life of Indigenous people, from politics to spiritual practices.

The second conversation happened in the 1980s between Ojibwa-Cree elder Peter O’Chiese and Fred Wheatley, Ojibwa elder and Ojibwa language instructor at Trent University, Ontario. Its outcome is partly heard in Wheatley’s voice-over narration in an eloquent short film The Teaching Rocks (1987), beautifully shot and directed by Lloyd Walton, initially for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. O’Chiese, who had taken a group of Native people to live in the traditional way in the mountains of Alberta through most of his life, and who had visions, did not want to be recorded on video nor have traditional teachings written down.

O’Chiese was willing, however, to impart some of his knowledge orally to cross-cultural audiences at several traditional elders’ gatherings at Trent University during the 1980s, which I attended. I also felt very fortunate to receive insights from elders who lived their teachings experientially rather than passing on knowledge from books in which the original meanings too often were distorted. All audiences at these gatherings were forbidden, in fact, to write or tape-record and, instead, encouraged to give full attention to the oral teachings as spoken.

I encourage my readers to watch The Teaching Rocks, which imparts teachings in several ways to its viewers. For example, Fred Wheatley’s voice-over narration uses a relaxed style of oration. As for the content, he communicates the essence of the message rather than specifics. The cinematic presentation enhances this traditional approach of storytelling, mirroring the peacefulness evoked by scenes of contemporary animals and marine life in their natural settings juxtaposed to close ups on various images on the petroglyphs. The elements of the natural world – earth, fire, water and air – also are interwoven through the film.

Within the content of the narration, something else important is communicated, as per what I mentioned above. The teachings in the rock art are absolutely not static, but rather are infused with a vitality that speaks to human beings through time, in different ways that are pertinent to what needs to be understood in each era. O’Chiese even pointed out to Wheatley that not everything is meant to be known and communicated widely until human beings are living in a certain way to appreciate the messages.

Among the Peterborough petroglyphs is a large, female image that powerfully evokes the `sacred feminine.’ As I have communicated in several of my previous blog posts, the feminine principle appears to be recognized in human consciousness much more through the holistic representations of knowledge than when depicted through the linear, usually analytical and disconnected thoughts, in written forms of communication that are ubiquitous in Western culture.

Here I come full circle from referring to inner ways of knowing and the wisdom that lies beneath in regard to prehistoric pictorial art – where the fuller meanings are not immediately visible at the physical surface – and return now to the innate inner ways of knowing within us.

What I identified during my own spiritual quest and healing journey, through experiential awakening as well as extensive research, are the following inner ways of knowing: the body, feelings, intuition, imagination, dreams, the unconscious, the soul, the world of Nature, and spiritual experiences.

We deepen and expand our consciousness by developing these ways of knowing to enhance the functioning of one further way of knowing – our rational mind. The latter is essential in synthesizing, and facilitating the expression of, what we learn through acknowledging the full range of our innate capabilities.

What I would like to note, and elaborate on at a future time, is how media literacy – conventionally understood and practiced as a set of critical thinking skills to analyze popular media – has a potentially significant, and yet untapped, role by including a more holistically enhanced set of critical thinking skills. We then can direct such skills toward the fuller understanding of how humans construct all forms of knowledge, what motivated them through the ages, and why we need to pay attention to whatever, consciously and unconsciously, influences what and who we value in the past, present and future.

Doing so can help the human family better understand each other as fellow biological and spiritual beings. Through carrying out that part of our purpose here on earth, we reawaken, and practice, our innate spiritual qualities to engage more effectively in the other part of our purpose – to live on Earth more respectively, and compassionately, in order to restore the wellness of all forms of life on our planetary home.

My next blog post will focus on a fascinating book that illuminates why and how the cultural shift to the written word from pictorial images caused the demise of the feminine aspect of human consciousness and, in turn, diminished the value of women.

More than thirty years ago I began a journey that would change my life forever, a journey that blessedly continues. For it is a journey of discovery in which the traveller learns how to negotiate the inner as well as the outer world of relationships, and their meaning, on this physical plane of existence that we humans call Earth.

The first major transformation presented me with spiritual experiences that opened my consciousness to the recognition that our earthly dimension is not the only existing dimension. Whatever language one chooses to apply – spiritual or scientific – let us simply say that multiple levels of energy exist, on Earth, in the Cosmos, and beyond, that the human species is only beginning to understand.

This blog post, however, focuses on a second major transformation that, once again, shifted my consciousness unexpectedly, following a decision to explore the origins of outer world inequities in social justice. At that time, twenty years ago, I embarked on an interdisciplinary graduate university program in Global Transformation Studies.

But something else was beginning to awaken within me. A tiny voice was hearkening – the inner voice of intuition. It began to nudge, increasingly, my intellectual awareness that global transformation could not happen without personal transformation. Little did I know that that voice would grow into a roar that would reverberate through every cell of my body in coming years.

Little did I know that my intellectual journey, to dig more deeply into historic origins of cultural racism – and conclude that the systemic consciousness of Western culture is fractured – next would propel me into a very personal discovery of what a fractured consciousness or `soul woundedness’ actually means, and the healing required. So, the deeper digging eventually morphed into an inner archeological excavation of my own psyche.

My second `transformative’ shift, metaphorically speaking, was like an inner tsunami in slow motion, shifting the layers of my psyche, – yet each layer subsequently re-stabilized – similar to the readjustments essential following the shock waves that accompany a planetary tsunami. Another way of describing it, experientially, is feeling one’s head – that is, intellectual mind – drop into one’s physical body, not just with one resounding thud but instead through a process of rather unsettling reverberations through various layers of the unconscious.

Doing so is what I call “awakening the feminine.” Believe me, folks, it is quite the trip. The good news is, what I describe is the nature of the `death and rebirth’ process that Marion Woodman so eloquently relates in her own life story in the documentary film Marion Woodman, Dancing in the Flames, the topic of my previous blog post.

This news is important to recognize, namely that authentic transformation requires the death – or letting go – of something that needs change, even release, in order to make space for something new that supports life more healthfully – whether personal or planetary.

The dictionary definition of `tsunami’ identifies it as “a very large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption.” Added to that is the declaration that the event is massively destructive and, yes, of course, that is tragically true – yet only a partial truth. Note, once again, the force of nature here is `under the surface’ and `invisible.’

Therein is the dilemma of today’s growing number of natural disasters around the world, and the tendency of news reporting about them. The focus is on visible dramatic conflict and the resulting destruction. But, these news stories illuminate what is so out-of-balance with mainstream storytelling today and popular culture. They focus, respectively, yet sometimes simultaneously, on the negative and on the extremes of bad behaviour.

Such negativity feeds fear and influences people to regress into insular, out-of-date thinking and reaction. We need to reconnect with the deep, innately holistic, human yearning that is calling us to develop new ways of thinking and creative response to our troubles.

The physical body of the earth, including its many – and, again, invisible – underground layers that descend to the core of its being, is communicating a powerful message that humans continue to ignore, at our peril.

Whether within the body of our planet, or within our individual human bodies, we tend to ignore a key quality of the feminine principle – what resides beneath the surface and is invisible is namely that which bestows both life-giving and death-wielding as well as regenerative powers.

Tsumamis, for example, repeatedly are telling us, visibly and materially – because that seems to be the only language to which human beings will pay attention – that something profound needs to die. What needs to die is the selfish, exploitative abuse of everything that sustains life on this planet.

What needs to be birthed by us, as fellow human beings – and some among us, bless each and every person, already, are dedicated to the task – is a new, more respectful, way of existing on this earth, as a biological/spiritual species.

The orientation of human thought that needs to shift radically is our collective mentality of control. This is true in every walk of life, whatever we do and whatever we believe. Instead, how can we acquire the lessons of humility, so essential through our life journey in order to access, through ongoing efforts, deeper levels of spiritual maturity?

As film story consultant Tom Schlesinger pointed out at his June workshop in Toronto: “As earthlings we like to control things.” For that reason, he also emphasized that the first thing that a good storyteller must be willing to do is to let go of the linear, analytical control of trying to force a story into a certain shape. Instead, develop awareness of where the real power of the story resides by opening intuitively to one’s muse, to enable the `invisible’ layers of the characters’ unconscious to be expressed through their emotional truths.

In the real day-to-day world, we need to pay attention to the voices, and the stories, that the earth and all life forms on it, are trying to tell our species, in order to help us remember that we depend on the health of all earthly forms of life to survive.

That fact, physiologically and psychologically, is why our ancient stories and mythologies hold so much importance today, to relearn the messages they have been telling since initially created. For the original ethos of stories resides in their role to awaken the human heart and spirit to make meaning of everything that befalls us, no matter how daunting.

Therein resides the reason why ancient epics remain so popular, such as in Hollywood movies, and why documentaries that show the tenacity of the human spirit in confronting adversity similarly win our hearts, and inspire us – viscerally and psychologically, through awakening the feminine aspect of our consciousness.

The feminine and masculine aspects of human consciousness are innate within every single person regardless of gender, or any other forms of identity and category that the human mind has constructed since our earliest ancestors created images on rock.

But even stone – and whatever images have been carved into it or painted on it – have an invisible energy that continues to provoke the `awakened’ human mind to try and understand the meaning of images in new and different ways. Some archeologists today, for example, are more open-minded, in recognizing that what initially was assumed by earlier scientific investigations now is being rethought, more holistically.

Please read two of my blog posts published earlier this year titled, Environmental Wisdom Shown in Ancient Symbols and Unearthing the Feminine – Marijas Gimbutas’ Work. In my ongoing research to understand human consciousness, I continue to find other thinkers and practitioners who appear to concur with my own conclusion made two decades ago: The `fractured’ consciousness in Western culture has a long history. Indeed, the fracture resides in the split between the feminine and masculine principles.

I once heard an Indigenous friend refer to the rocks as “our grandfathers,” because they are the oldest form of life on the planet, and contain knowledge still to discover. Is it not interesting that in the sacred sweat lodges of Indigenous peoples, rocks are placed in the central fire, their energy transformed into heat, while smoke rises toward the Great Spirit from matter that originated from the earth – from the sacred feminine, evoking a natural, transformative process interrelating elements.

Is it also not interesting that a common expression in Western culture, “written in stone,” implies that anything `written in stone’ is permanent, rigid and static. This expression definitely is in contrast to the examples that I provided above. It raises the question, where does the expression `written in stone’ originate?

In my next blog post (after Canada’s Thanksgiving weekend), I will make an educated guess, based on a fascinating book that I am plowing through. I invite your suggestions.

By the way, I hope that no one feels as if you want to run screaming into the hills because you perceive that `awakening the feminine’ is comparable to riding in the centre of a psychic cyclone. Not at all.

I intentionally chose a focused, long term journey to grapple with, and transform, counterproductive relationship patterns, moving through a series of emotional layers that took seven years. This period included interludes of reflection to make peace with each layer of newly revealed psychological material, as well as dealing with the inevitable and the unexpected, as day-to-day life unfolds. With that experiential knowing, I felt equipped to be a more holistically awakened helper for fellow travellers.

I thoroughly enjoy facilitating workshops and teaching courses about, and based on, my model of transformative learning that integrates the feminine and masculine principles. Please look up my workshops, to see the diversity of what I have offered, while I develop further offerings through the future.

Marion Woodman Dancing in the Flames is an extraordinary documentary life story of a Canadian Jungian analyst who pioneered the exploration of the `Sacred Feminine.’ The film speaks eloquently and powerfully to this historic moment, in a poetic approach that illustrates, as much as tells, how the inner and outer life of each human being mirrors the sacred and visceral life force energies of our planet Earth.

Marion Woodman‘s down-to-earth, personal narrative is powerful in and of itself and, more so, accompanied by renown mystic scholar, teacher and author Andrew Harvey, as “guide through the labyrinth of Marion’s life,” and also by her husband Ross Woodman.

Ross, her life partner, has stood steadfast on the shores of her inner and outer travels to welcome her home each time. Nevertheless, he found himself transformed as well, in the continuing journey of their inner and outer marriage in which each partner was awakened, singly and together, to negotiate an ever-evolving relationship. The film, then, also presents to us an incredible love story.

The poetry of the storytelling is enhanced by visual and musical elements that enable the drama and poignancy of the story to enter our bodies, touch our hearts and resonate with our souls. Woven through the fabric of the film story are dynamic, brightly coloured, mythical animated figures from the amazing art of the late Academy Award winner Faith Hubley. They holistically bring alive the telling of a deep, multi-layered story, as does original music by Canadian composer Jim McGrath.

The playfulness of Hubley’s animations, and McGrath’s music, together offer the perfect counterpoint to the dramatic content of Marion’s life, whose series of life crises that she has navigated are jaw-dropping. Playfulness also is evident in the working relationship between Marion and director/editor Adam Greydon Reid, who first became enchanted by Marion through taking one of her workshops.

During the 1990s, after reading several of her books, I also took one of her weekend workshops, focused on the body and movement. What really floored me at the time was, here was a woman, labelled by our society as a senior citizen, showing movements through her own graceful physical example, after a period of being in a wheelchair as the result of cancer. Wow! I was impressed then, and Adam apparently still is impressed, as we see and hear in one of his off-camera responses to Marion’s lively spirit. Adam gives a hearty chuckle, exclaiming, “Man!”

Why I understand Marion’s story as so important is, it takes me back to a significant transformative threshold in my own life, when I began a seven-year journey focused on how to connect my body with my soul. Initially, of course, I did not have the language to understand my disconnectedness and the necessary journey to change my life or, otherwise, experience total breakdown. I could have ended up severely broken if I had not set out to discover the wilderness of the soul. This trip to deeper understanding never really ends.

Indeed, Marion shows us that a life journey that embraces a fuller discovery of the layers of our unconscious – and how to live and to relate more fully in the larger world – never ends as long as we have breath in our body and, essentially, a willingness to keep learning. The latter, in fact, is what keeps the spark of being alive so vibrant.

Andrew Harvey is introduced to us in a film scene that shows his passionate style of public presentation to an audience. This presentation serendipitously frames the heart of the discussion between Andrew and Marion in Dancing in the Flames. For her life story speaks to the dance of opposites within us, and the possibility of their eventual unity, parallel with the same dance of death and rebirth unfolding on our planet:

“Everyone knows there is a tremendous crisis going on, and that there is a great death happening now, – environmentally, socially, politically, economically – and that this great death potentially threatens the whole of nature and the whole of the human experiment. There is also a great birth of a new kind of humanity.”

Well, perhaps the “everyone” in that audience was aware of such a crisis – and I certainly am. If so, his audience undoubtedly yearned to hear the other part of Andrew’s expansive proclamation, that there is good news in the hope for the birthing of a new kind of humanity. I totally am on board with Andrew, in my own professional work to help fellow humans awaken to the much-needed evolution of consciousness at this moment.

The problem is, a lot of folks are in denial of any crisis. They do what Marion and Andrew point out in the film: become more acquisitive and oblivious to environmental harm caused by obsessive consumerism – the sadly prevalent reaction to an inner hunger for a sense of security and wholeness that all of the material possessions in the world can never fill.

Why Andrew has such deep respect for Marion Woodman resides in his recognition of her as “a sign of this birth… a sign that it is possible to live a full, passionate, dignified, deeply concerned human life, with profound mystical awareness and really embody the Divine.” Andrew is quick to add that Marion’s down-to-earth saltiness shows us, furthermore, that the qualities of rebirth are not grand and fancy, but instead “very embodied and real.”

The film’s title Marion Woodman, Dancing in the Flames is very apropos, because we hear, and see, animated through the art images, how Marion’s life journey took her through several fires of purification – metaphorically speaking – from her first major crisis of life-threatening anorexia as a young woman, to coming close to dying of dysentery while travelling alone in India and, later in life, receiving the diagnosis of terminal cancer then proving the doctors wrong.

My golly! Just surviving one of those crises, let alone three crises, illustrates to us a very determined woman who mentally, emotionally, viscerally, and spiritually, took the bull by the horns to journey through a series of transformations that reduced her to the core of her being. Yet, the ultimate gift, needless to say, has been the hard-fought and hard-won gift of life itself – and grace and gratitude for it.

We walk with Marion through the story of her life, as she matter-of-factly describes it. She experimentally knows a profound truth, the very message that she wants to communicate:

“Death is going to happen often in your lifetime, or you are going to have to go through a death of the soul. But, out of that, something new will be born. That is what I think about the Earth right now. We are going through a death. But, for that to manifest, something is going to have to happen to the soul of human beings, and we are going to go through anguish to get there. But, that is life… If I could look back through my life, I could see what had to die, in order to give me life, painful though it was at the time. I thank God for that.”

The film story, in fact, presents what had to die in Marion’s life, and engages us emotionally, regardless of where each of us might be on our own respective journeys. Her honesty and bravery are humbling. For she speaks directly from her own awakened experience rather than pontificating from some philosophical or psychological pedestal.

Marion Woodman, in fact, illustrates how the wisest and best healers among us are those who have done their own healing, authentically, before assuming the mantle of healer and spiritual teacher.

Indeed, she knows, from the deepest part of her being, the ways in which addictions are the plague [my term] of our dominant economic system today, in which materialism and perfectionism are two foremost addictions, visibly evident through eating disorders and chemical abuses.

Marion relates her “step by step by step” journey to change from working as a creatively gifted, unconventional school teacher to training at the Jung Institute in Zurich in midlife, in order to help people with addictions and to expand on Carl Jung’s work to pioneer a feminine psychology.

In doing so, Marion points out in the film how her life pursuit to find, and manifest, the feminine principle is not solely for the benefit of women yet, moreover, “an emotional vibrancy that comes from the body right through the whole being” that both men and women can discover and express, to be more fully human.

The reason is, the connection with the feminine principle is related with discovering a different, fuller masculine principle that moves beyond the limited and disconnected masculine of patriarchy that demands power, control and submission. Those self-serving, misguided forces undermine the feminine and, in turn, destroy the planet’s life force.

Watching the film simply to enjoy the creative spirit and beauty evident in the animated art images, that evoke an emotional and visceral understanding of the power of dreams, makes viewing the film worthwhile. Do not feel that you need to comprehend Carl Jung’s archetypal language about our dream world.

As an example of Marion’s down-to-earth examination of her life, click Two Marions to witness her experience of how a split in our identity often happens in early childhood – a phenomenon to which I bet many people can relate. I sure can.

Indeed, you might surprise yourself in regard to what you could discover, if you really pay attention to Marion’s own personal telling, about how dreams, and related experiential learning, awakened her inner life to facilitate healing and renewal. In doing so, she unites the dance of opposites within and heals the split in consciousness that occurred in her childhood.

The uniqueness of Capri Vision’s Marion Woodman, Dancing in the Flames is how it interconnects a deeply personal story with the story of the Earth, particularly at this moment in time – and from a position of love, joy and reverence rather than anger, pain and despair.

Passionately and compassionately, the film speaks to the soul woundedness that calls us to begin and understand the multiple levels in which human and planetary healing relate and – most importantly – that a `new humanity’ is possible.

As Andrew Harvey points out, Marion Woodman is a living example.

The inspirational power of Paul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest resides in the book’s content, outlined on the cover as “How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World.” Hawken also identifies why doing so is essential. This book is a must-read for anyone who seeks deeper and broader understanding about humanity’s condition and the ways we can remake our world.

What is so refreshing is a book that not only identifies the peril confronting us if we continue on the dominant, economically and socially unjust, and environmentally destructive, trajectory of an outdated industrial capitalism. But, importantly, Blessed Unrest also acknowledges, and promotes, the phenomenon of under-recognized accomplishments and brave pursuits by organizations and groups globally.

Paul Hawken has earned an excellent reputation through many years, wearing the unconventional double mantle of entrepreneur and environmentalist, as well as consultant to businesses and writer. He has produced a number of books similarly worth reading, as a practitioner and messenger, such as The Ecology of Commerce and Natural Capitalism.

Always heartening for me to discover is how my own holistic quest and soulful concerns are shared by highly esteemed thought leaders such as Hawken, who writes:

“Healing the wounds of the earth and its people does not require saintliness or a political party, only gumption and persistence. It is not a liberal or conservative activity; it is a sacred act. It is a massive enterprise undertaken by ordinary citizens everywhere, not by self-appointed governments or oligarchies” [Hawken, 2007, p. 5].

Indeed, Blessed Unrest points out the fact that it is the bravery and advocacy of thousands of ordinary folks where the hope resides to remake a healthier and more equitable world worth living in. Hawken emphasizes the extraordinary power when human beings come together to take a stand: “this unnamed movement… has been capable of bringing down governments, companies and leaders through witnessing, informing, and massing…

“The movement has three basic roots: environmental activism, social justice initiatives, and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization, all of which are intertwined. Collectively, it expresses the needs of the majority of people on earth to sustain the environment, wage peace, democratize decision making and policy, reinvent public governance piece by piece from the bottom up, and improve their lives – women, children and the poor.” Note how Hawken highlights who represent the majority, our fellow human beings who conventionally “in our upside-down world we consider to be minorities” [p. 12].

What is most unique of all, writes Hawken, about this movement is that it is the first time in history that a large social movement is not bound together by an “ism.” “What unifies it is ideas, not ideologies… ideas question and liberate, while ideologies justify and dictate” [p. 16]. Hawken cautions about the present day ideologies most evident in terrorism and economic and religious fundamentalism.

In his critique of the dilemma facing us, Hawken particularly focuses on  “market fundamentalism.” He provides superb, detailed examples of it in various chapters to illuminate the longstanding destructive consequences of the market economy of the West in recent centuries that continue unabated today – with the difference of the current, and growing, movement of global citizens who challenge it.

Again, this book’s well-researched evidence and ethical position warms my heart, because of my own many years of journalism and teaching in which I spoke to the abysmal treatment of Indigenous peoples, and the flaws in Western institutions including the mainstream media. Most insidious has been the widespread, often unconscious bias, even cultural racism, which weaves its dark, invisible threads into the consciousness of each school generation that, in turn, perpetuates misinformation.

That is why I argue, relentlessly, for more media literacy to be taught in schools, not only in Language Arts, yet, as well, in several other curricula, to develop critical thinking skills in all students. Furthermore, ecological literacy also is imperative as a second life skill today. It is high time that Western education bears witness to those voices that for too long have been marginalized if not silenced.

All students in a properly functioning democracy, moreover, ought to be encouraged to critique and debate the strengths and imperfections of the current economic model, and explore alternatives. Indeed, media and ecological literacies are life skills for all ages, and workshops ought to be created in various community settings outside of schools too.

The good news in Blessed Unrest is the evidence presented how thousands of grassroots people of every culture and nation are proactively taking the responsibility to be better informed and take a stand against forces destroying their very survival. These folks are the true champions of a world worth living in. In the most repressive and violent regimes, they are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the larger good – namely, the cause of protecting and restoring the planetary life that sustains all of us.

To illustrate cultural racism, I refer to Hawken’s description of being interviewed by one American reporter who asked him who were the leaders behind the protest against the World Trade Organization conference, in Seattle, Washington, on November 30. 1999. Hawken patiently explained there were no leaders other than “thought leaders” globally, whom he began to name. She replied that she could not use these names. Hawken asked why not. “Because Americans have never heard of them.” [p. 126].

Among these eminent “thought leaders” was the late Wangari Maathai, who received the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, and whose life and contributions were honoured in a wonderful documentary film Taking Root. My April 2nd blog post, titled “The Environmental Legacy of Wangari Maathai,” focuses on the example she sets for us all.

As for the Seattle news reporting, Hawken next outlines how it was distorted and reduced to focus on the violence of a few anarchists and characterized as a riot. The truth, Hawken argues, is otherwise: “the protesters were hardly anarchic, but organized, well-educated and determined. The vast majority were human rights activists, labor activists, nuns, indigenous people, people of faith, steelworkers, and farmers… They were citizens” [p. 123].

Constructing images of people to look ridiculous is nothing new, however, by the media or by industry whenever the latter feels threatened. Hawken describes Rachel Carson‘s ground-breaking accomplishment in her book Silent Spring (1962), “enlarging the conceptual framework of the environmental movement from conservation to include human rights and the rights of all living beings… [and] by revealing the pollution inside our bodies, not just in nature” [p. 58].

When modern industry could not counter Silent Spring‘s thesis with facts, it resorted to undermine the book’s popular acclaim on an emotional level. Montrose Chemical Corporation made slurs against the author’s intelligence, while Monsanto satirized Carson’s work in a pamphlet titled “Desolate Spring.”

Another tactic used by industry to undermine environmental truths, writes Hawken, citing ExxonMobil as one example, is “to corporatize how science is perceived and understood by the public, creating doubt and fear whenever possible, but always couched in the language of reason. To do so, Exxon funds so-called think tanks that work diligently to create skepticism, if not cynicism, about efforts to mitigate climate change” [p. 65].

Inserted throughout Blessed Unrest are marvellous examples of famous and lesser known “thought leaders.” The author credits Ralph Waldo Emerson with planting the seeds of American environmentalism by focusing on “two disparate concepts that animate our daily existence: how we treat nature and how we treat each other” [p. 73].

Hawken introduces us to a number of brilliant individuals, in business, the sciences and technology, whose innovations and practices clearly demonstrate the possibility of evolving toward a “zero waste society” in the foreseeable future.

I genuinely believe that the more the wider public becomes aware of what is possible, the more we can support and co-create functioning on this planet less destructively and choose what protects life.

In the closing pages, Hawken responds provocatively to the oft-stated sentiment that we cannot save our planet unless human kind undergoes a widespread spiritual and religious awakening. “What if there is already in place a large-scale spiritual awakening and we are simply not recognizing it?” Hawken asks.

He refers to acclaimed author Karen Armstrong’s The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions (2006). “The point Armstrong strongly emphasizes is that the early expressions of religiosity during the Axial Age were not theocratic systems requiring beliefs, but instructional practices requiring action… No one in the Axial Age imagined that he was living in an age of spiritual awakening. It was a difficult time” [p. 184-5].

Hawken sees the parallels between then and now, such as how the prophets from ancient times, that we now enshrine, were ridiculed in their day. He also points out what distinguishes today’s movement from “the massive failure of the Axial Age.” Today’s awakening “sees the feminine as sacred and holy, and it recognizes the wisdom of indigenous peoples all over the world, from Africa to Nunavut” [p. 185].

What Hawken hopes is for the underlying values, at the core of the organizations in today’s global movement, to permeate global society. These are ancient principles that include the Golden Rule and the recognition of the sacredness of all life. He writes:

“To salve the world’s wounds demands a response from the heart. There is a world of hurt out there, and to heal the past requires apologies, reconciliation, reparation and forgiveness. A viable future isn’t possible until the past is faced objectively and communion is made with our errant history… Making amends is the beginning of the healing of the world. These spiritual deeds and acts of moral imagination lay the groundwork for the great work ahead” [p. 188].

Go to WiserEarth, the Social Network for Sustainability online, to find out the most recent news, participants, and updated database of organizational categories initially published in the Appendix of the book.

To see an excerpt from Paul Hawken’s presentation about the message in Blessed Unrest, click 2007 Bioneers Conference.

The title of this blog post was composed in the spirit of being cheeky. The post itself has serious intention. First, however, I would like to apologize to my readers (steadily growing in number) for being less regular through August in my posts. But, life happens.

The title’s cheekiness is my response to one person’s criticism, albeit well-intentioned, that my blog posts are too long; hence, she is not reading them nor will many other folks, she suggests. I wrote her, politely, that my blog is intended for more reflective readers. Reflection requires time. Ergo, reading a thoughtful piece of writing takes time.

She also advised me to “target” my audience, for example, academics or clients or friends, and so on. Good heavens, such is the marketing mindset so ubiquitous today, which I resist. My blog’s foremost purpose is not marketing but rather to inspire, to educate, and to develop awareness in creative ways.

I truly worry about communication trends that segment and atomize human beings, and also reduce a person’s concentration level to that of a gnat. Therefore, I write about matters of our time that deeply concern me, to an inclusive global audience, which I look forward to growing, organically.

In turn, my blog `The Yin-Yang of Life’ welcomes thoughtful and deeply felt responses, some of which potentially could begin a mutually informative conversation.

Meanwhile, for this post, I raise the question: How do we get through difficult moments, particularly those that stretch through months, remaining unresolved and/or the whammy of multiple upsets?

Well, one strategy is to try and lose your “self” in intellectual pursuits, which can be an escape for a while. You can pretend you are coping. Regardless, I learned a long time ago that remaining stuck in one’s head, as if somehow our rational mind was disconnected from our body, feelings, and soul, is a misguided way of existing in this world. Instead, connecting with, and learning intentionally through the years how to function more holistically, is wiser and healthier.

For our emotional state of mind and our physical body eventually pay a terrible price, whenever we rationalize away, and ignore, causes of stress. My golly, pick a number. The sources of stress are endless, from overwork or no work to pay the bills, or family distress, losses and grief, to chronic health conditions and internalizing the world’s woes, or all of the above. I speak from hard-won lessons.

The fact is, such common stresses get internalized into our bodies at a cellular level. Doing so causes havoc, sooner or later, physiologically and psychologically. Believe me, in regard to those consequences, there is no escape. There is, however, always the possibility of healing and renewal, by transforming the ways in which we negotiate reality.

As for individuals who choose to shut down or shut out any of the above causes of stress, guess what, you are not as immune to your attempts not to respond to the world around you – whether family, workplace or planetary environment – as you may “think.” Contrary to Descartes’ credo: “I think, therefore I am,” (which has been too narrowly interpreted), the fuller functioning of the human being is holistic rather than linear and disconnected. We cannot escape the human condition nor our planet’s situation. The choice always is ours, instead, to do something to improve the quality of life, at various levels.

My blog posts are intended to encourage and inspire readers to believe in themselves and make a difference in the larger world. Do not let the surrounding dominant voices, in your personal life or beyond, make you small and feel dispensable. I include the news media and popular culture that focus relentlessly on celebrities, and reduce the meaning of life to consumerism.

To clarify, I have no bone to pick with fellow human beings who are celebrities, some of whose creative talent I appreciate and admire, as I do their respective humanitarian activities. My critique instead is directed to the media and public obsessions that reduce creatively talented human life to commodities to sell in the marketplace. On this topic, please read an earlier blog titled “Messengers of Compassion – A Pop Diva and A Monk.”

Similarly, I am not criticizing fellow journalists, whether mainstream or otherwise, who retain their integrity in truth telling despite the pressures of corporate or other specific ideological gatekeepers. My critique is in regard to the corporatization of mainstream media as well as a cautionary note not to rely on limited sources of information, particularly which have agendas that divide humanity and degrade the planet’s life support system.

Using a personal narrative style is my blog approach to communicate a wee bit of wisdom from the heart as well as the head. Such wisdom, thereby, is based not just on many years of formal education, professional experience, and a fair bit of globetrotting. And, yes, sometimes I resort to my well-honed investigative journalism skills, to address certain issues, responsibly, in some of my posts and suggest further resources difficult to find.

But, moreover, any accrued wisdom evolves from honest self-reflection and taking ownership of one’s own human imperfection and fragility. In other words, I prefer to present myself, and walk with you, as a fellow traveller, who continues to learn and grow in the ongoing journey to be a better helper in the world.

Indeed, through a dreadfully challenging four months I have plowed through production of several blog posts, trying to contribute some insights useful for other people. But, then, I hit a wall. And I should know better. For I know the reason why.

I have been twisting myself into an intellectual pretzel in doing too much analysis, both in my writing and my research, and neglecting the essential self-care of my emotional and physical energies. But, hey, I can admit it, and do so with a chuckle in considering one of my immediate remedial measures – mowing a quarter acre of grass yesterday and today.

That is why you are getting this blog post and not a different one, for which I went overboard in several days of analytical preparation – a post to publish at a later time.

I now return to the question that I raised near the beginning: How do we get through difficult moments? First of all, do whatever it takes to connect with your body as well as your feelings. Perhaps find a guide or several teachers to facilitate a transformative journey, through stages. Take mind/body workshops, and train yourself in a meditation practice.

Make time for loved ones, good friends, also people who need your kindness. Do not neglect the nurturing of your own soul – with beautiful music, a stroll in a quiet place of natural beauty, maybe alone, maybe shared with others. Slow down and make space for moments of reflection.

Model gentle and compassionate qualities to the children, and allow them to experience joy, beauty and peacefulness. Help them develop resourcefulness and perceptiveness, to enable them to pay attention to what really matters.

In these practices, we together collaborate and co-create a life worth living, for everyone, on our fragile and wounded planet.