Worth reflecting: Inquiring mind vs. acquiring mind; Acquisitive vs inquisitive.
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.” --- Charles Darwin (19-century English Naturist)
(Glad to have this correct quote. :))
Very inspired by Gitanjali’s work in one of the major red light districts in India. “Instead of resenting what caused the women and girls a life of prostitution, Kat-Katha focusing on bringing out aliveness, love, creativity out of those women and girls in such a harsh condition.” (Parabola) Reflection:
Mama’s grief: No matter how hard she works and serves the family, she can not earn their respect; and knowing no other alternatives, she keeps doing things the same way and suffering the same way.
Maybe I should help her find more joy and creativity in life, instead of reaffirming her all the reasons why things are not working.
“The first law of travel and of life: You are only as strong as your readiness to surrender.”(source?)
(John Molloy, interviewed by Richard Whittaker) “You revere everything. You learn the wind is sending you a message. You start honoring the invisible world.”
“Don’t get involved in politics and economics. Learn your language. Learn your dances. Learn your stories. Learn your songs. That’s the only thing that’s going to protect the sky and the Earth.”
(Notes from Lakota Country. by Jason Mark) “Such knowledge of native economy makes a landscape legible. Story enlarges scenery. It’s a way of putting 'home' back into the science of ecology. When we restore memory to the landscape, then we make the wilderness less innocent. The romantic bubble is popped. To put the wild into historical context is to evolve from scenery, the landscape, to arrive finally at place.”
“The first memories of America, I’m convinced, are still speaking. They have important things to say if we are prepared to listen.” New definition of wild: "a constant co-creating space among all lives who live there."
(A native view on the Indigenous perspective by Kaimana Barcarse) “It’s an interdependent way of coexisting with one’s environment, a connection with one’s surrounding that is neither destructive nor invasive. The backwoods ethic recognizes that we humans are not superior beings that have been given authority over all things on this Earth to do with as we please."
(Earth Island Journal) The Haudenosaunee: Iroquois Confederacy, the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (people of the Long House), whose territory once encompassed most of New York, Pennsylvania, and part of Ohio in the US, Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Also known as the Iroquios Confederacy. The Six Nations include: Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscorara nations. The Haudenosaunee form of government is based on a more than 1,000-year-old oral constitution called the Great Law of Peace, whose democratic ideals served as inspiration for the frames of the US Constitution.
“What you people call your natural resources our people call our relatives.” --- Oren Lyons, Faith Keeper of the Onondaga
“Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the Earth, he does to himself.” --- Chief Seattle
Reflections:
- How can I feel intimately connected to the land where I grew up? Hint: a little history of the human settlement in my hometown? Searching indigenous ways of living in my own hood, not the commercial, superficial, and destructive version. Traditions give us glimpses of our roots and should not be showcased to merely attract tourism and consumerism.
- Real indigenous peoples are life-keepers for humankind. Their way of living in harmony with Nature is treasures to us all. So much gratitude. Worldwide indigenous peoples are the saviors of the humanity. There is no we or they; we are all in this together.
- Today many traditional foods are on the verge of extinction. Revitalize native foodways. Food is a gift, a life force. Emerging native food sovereignty movement. From polite protest to direct action
(Deep Times) Adelaja, interviewed by Anne Symens-Bucher:
I believe that racial healing stems from the deconstruction of race and needs to be deconstructed along with sexism, queer-phobia, ableism, ageism... There is so much that needs to be dismantled and ultimately it all stems from the capitalist system.
“When tension arises, we feel pain, we feel anguish at the very root of ourselves, and then we cover that over, that grief, that horror, with all kinds of distractions--with consumerism, with addictions, with anything we can use to disconnect. But if we can open to that grief, that pain, there is a possibility of embracing it in a way that it becomes a strength, a power to respond."
--- John Robbins, Diet for a New America
“If all we do is take out the dirty power system... and just replace it with some clean stuff, but we don't deal with how we're consuming water, we don't deal with how we're treating our other sister-and-brother species, we don't deal with toxins, we don't deal with the way we treat each other... If that’s not a part of this movement. let tell you what you’ll have. You’ll have solar-powered bulldozers, solar-powered buzz-saws, bio-fueled bombers, and we’ll be fighting wars over lithium for the batteries instead of oil for the engines, and we will still have a dead planet. This moment is deeper than a solar panel. Don’t stop there! We’re gonna change the whole thing. We’re not gonna put a new battery in a broken system. We want a new system!” --- Van Jones, The Green Collar Economy
“The next American revolution will be radically different from the revolutions that have taken place in per- or non-industrialized countries like Russia, Cuba, China, or Vietnam. As citizens of a nation that had achieved its rapid economic growth and prosperity at the expanse of Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and peoples all over the world, our priority has to be correcting the injustice and backwardness of our relationships with one another, with other countries, and with the Earth.” --- Grace Lee Boggs, Founder of Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
Reflection:
There are individual karmic debt and our collective karmic debt. By only focusing on doing our individual goodness is not enough to speed up the process of our collective healing. We cannot just "ignore" history to "move on."
There is no real moving on without thorough examination and acknowledgement of the truth at this present moment while looking at the past and the future, inwardly and outwardly.
(Active Hope) "Develop our inner resources and our outer communities. With active hope we consciously choose to draw out our best responses."
"Active Hope is a practice, like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. First, we take a clear view of reality; second we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d love to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction."
(Deep Times: “The soundscape is a crucial part of what makes an ecology tick.”)
(from Sustainable World Sourcebook)
Culture of Simplicity (Moving toward voluntary simplicity)
“A culture of simplicity would encourage each person to find meaning and fulfillment by pursuing their true passions, fostering loving relationships, and living authentic, reflective lives rather than by seeking status and material possessions.”
Voluntary simplicity is the most effective way to reduce consumption and spare the Earth. (Inquiry: How can I skillfully and effectively get other people to start the path without alienating them?)
"A new definition of progress: Living in balance with self, others and bioregion, deriving a sense of fulfillment from relationships and nature. The focus is on developing talents, creativity and community rather than status and materialism."
"We throw away more than nature can absorb, and extract more than it can regenerate. This means we’re not living off the Earth’s 'interest,' we are draining 'principle.' We are in a process of bankrupting nature."
“In Networks, everyone is a leader. Power if distributed, not concentrated. The Network’s need for weaving never ends, especially in its early days. Someone has to be weaving connections and doing it well. You can’t leave it to chance. The work has to be done.”
“Instead of arguing about the symptoms, get to the root of the social issues.”
“Sustainability is the ability of the current generation to meet its needs, without compromising the ability of future generations to met theirs. --- United Nations, 1987
"Living sustainably means whatever we do, we can do indefinitely."
“If everyone lives as North Americans do, we would need five Earths to sustainably maintain our way of life; if everyone lives as Europeans do, three Earths. China and India are just under the one earth consumption level, but with rapid industrial development in those countries, that proportion is increasing steadily.”
Transition Towns (Five Stages)
- Starting Out: Coming together as a group; visioning and awareness raising; building partnership
- Deepening: Skill building for local resilience; development of local food initiative; education for transition process
- Connecting: Forming networks of transition initiatives; working with local business; engaging young people, pausing for reflection
- Building: Localize the community’s economy; new skills and ways of thinking; social enterprise and entrepreneurship; scaling up; strategic local infrastructure.
- Daring to Dream: Setting up food networks, solar energy, skill-sharing networks.
Reflections:
How can I simplify my own lifestyle without feeling uncomfortable or making them uncomfortable, while interacting/visiting my family and friends living in the world of Business-as-Usual? (Well, I guess I'll just need to deal with the discomfort. Avoiding discomfort is the problem.)
Because I was afraid to be myself, making it harder for others to be themselves too.
I can no longer bear living this life with the division among human hearts. But it’s so hard to communicate this suffering of mine to those innocent numbed souls.
Remember: The logic of control tells us that by shaming the perpetrator, we actually drive them deeper into their story. Never shame anyone!!! It will only make things worse. Respect everyone in whatever situation. Yelling and insulting will not work
* * * * * *
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” --- Mother Teresa
“The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.” --- Joanna Macy
“The irony of American history is the tendency of good white Americans to presume racial innocence. Ignorance of how we are shaped racially is the first sign of privilege.” -- Time Wise
“Real wealth is ideas plus energy.” --- Buckminster F?
"The spiritual fulfillment is a two-fold path-the inner path of our own personal journey, and the outer path of compassion and caring for others."
"Spiritual practice is really about weaving a network of good relationships."
Mountains, Mother Earth’s livers, rainforests, Mother Earth’s lungs, Coral Reefs, Mother Earth’s blood purifier.
How did we get here? Cultural drivers and unexamined assumptions.
Cooperatives: membership-based banking and business
One member, one vote. --- A co-op principle
Reflection:
From individual self, to social self, to ecological self, to cosmological self. It’s not about disregarding the self and becoming altruistic, but expanding the sense of self, from individual self to cosmological self.
Do not scatter my energy. Stay focus on my path.
My interest in experimenting with food is my active experiment with life (Per A)
Grow native plants in your backyard. See: The National Wildlife Federation. (We need systemic change, but systemic change starts at home)
Be aware of my tendency of getting bored with those whose light is dim and soul disconnected, and yet feeling inadequate while facing those who are alive on the right path, but have little interest in connecting with me. Remind myself: see magic in everyone everywhere and treat everyone equally, including myself, instead of falling into the trap of comparing mind and suffering from biased views and illusion.
Help unleash the good wolf in humanity. Help feed the good wolf in everyone. Some of the good wolves are locked up in a dungeon, wounded, scared, and lonely.
Think more critically about our vocabulary, such as:
Cheap: Is it really “cheap” if human, environmental and ecological costs are considered?
Wealth/Poverty: Keep reminding myself of the different forms of wealthy and different forms of poverty. Do not be limited to the unexamined assumption that financial means are the only means that count.
Civilized: What does that mean? Is owning the land, killing or mistreating those who are different civilized behavior? Or is living simply in harmony with Earth more humane? What is civilized anyway? A very disturbing term.
How about progress, development, 1st world, and 3rd world?
(I have been brainwashed so deeply)
Questions:
How indigenous were my ancestors? How far back does it need to go? Did agriculture revolution mark the end of my ancestors’ indigenousness? Are the Chinese traditions the so-called civilized ways of living not indigenous ways of living?
Distinctions between the following terms: indigenous people, aboriginal people, native people, and first peoples.
Comparisons between: indigenous/Native farming, natural farming, and permaculture.
10月31日 在上海书城 (Shanghai Bookstore) 养心是养生的最高境界。“万病由心生，万病由心灭。” Nurturing the heart is the highest form of nurturing life. "All illness is originated from the illness of the heart and will recover from the healing of the heart.)
忽然惊觉：喜鹊！好久没听到喜鹊叫了！
(Suddenly, I realized that I haven't heard Magpie, the bird I used to see so often as a child, singing for so long! Where did they go? Sad. So many species left us.)
(父母家中) 凌晨3点起来上厕所，听到远处仍旧传来卡拉ok声。在这个各顾各的寂寞城市，除了在歌声中发泄还有何处？我要加入捍卫地球母亲，拯救人类灵魂的一场全球运动中，说是一种运动其实说小了。这是远超运动所能解释的。可是用什么方式的。想起鲁迅的文集《呐喊》。当看到或听到骗子横行，环卫工人在路上被压成薄薄的肉饼，偷小孩子并挖掘其内脏卖之类的事情，会怀疑呐喊是否有望。我自己又如何打开自己处处防范的心呢？包括与亲戚朋友中的交往。我出生于这样的家庭是被交予了一项特殊使命，但我必须首先从自己的经历中领会到那个指引我的重要信息。这个重要信息是什么呢？
(at my parents' house) Getting up at 3 am to go to the toilet, I still heard karaoke singing in the distance. In this lonely city, besides singing, where else can give the lonely souls an outlet to express? I want to join the global movement of safeguarding the Mother Earth and rescuing human souls. To refer to it as a movement is an understatement. This is beyond a movement. But how? Remember Lu Xun's essay collection Call to Arms. (Lu mentioned his hesitation before he published his first essay collection. He said it was like sleeping in a sealed iron house, a few wake up and shout for taking actions. But what action would make any difference? Maybe it's better fall back to sleep.) When I read or heard about the prevailing street hoaxes, a street cleaner being crushed into a thin layer on the road by the having-no-time-to-stop traffic, or stealing little kids and selling their organs, I began to feel the stuffiness as if I were in that "sealed iron house," wondering what's the point of calling to arms. How can I open my own well-guarded heart and be authentic to others including my own blood family and relatives? I want to choose to live my life with active hope. I've been handed a special mission by being born into this specific family of mine. In order to carry that special mission for humankind, I need to get that important message from my very own experience and that message will guide me.
* * * * * *
Books to Explore:
Diet for a New America by John Robbins
The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones
Lifecycle of Emergence: Using Emergence to take social Innovation to scale by Margaret Wheatley, Berkana Institute.
1491: New Revelations of the America Before Columbus.
木村秋则的《苹果教我的事》
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Organizations and Films to Check Out:
Documentaries on water: FLOW, Blue Gold, The Water Front, Kogi, The Spark (sustainable farming and community building after Katrina.
Pam Warhurst’s TED talk on a community-based movement to promote urban agriculture in the town of Todmordon.
Paul Hawken’s talk (6’) on the current global movement that has no name
The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, www.therightsofnature.org
Boggs Center to Nature Community Leadership
Van Jone’s greenforall.org
Engagement circles (swcoalition.org/progress); Be the change circle (bethechangeearthalliance.org/circles); What’s your tree? (whatsyourtree.org); The Transition Network (transitionnetwork.org); Women’s Earth Alliance, Berkeley (womensearthalliance.org)
Time Banks (timebanks.org)
The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (bealocalist.org). The Living Economy Principles are excellent roadmap for creating sustainable communites.
ic.org: building intentional community
Localharvest.org to find CSA’s nearby; American community Garden Association (communitygarden.org)
Food Not Lawn; Food Not Bombs
Three model communities: Sirius-Shutesbury, Massachusetts, Hammarby Sjostad, Stockholm, Sweden (Note: this model has been exported to China), Los Angeles Ecovillage
Green Building: The Living Building Challenge (livingfuture.org/lbc) requires that a building generates all of its own energy with renewable nontoxic resources, captures and treats all of its water and operates efficiently and for maximum beauty.”
www.populationconnection.org
Global Action Plan
Awakening the Dreamer, Change the Dream Symposium
Real Wealth community Project
Circle of Life (Oakland); Gratefulness.org
Wisdom of the World: Greenbrae, CA, produces musical solutions that support people to face their life transitions in an emotionally sustainable way.(wisdomoftheworld.org)
Kaistart 开始众筹
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