A new phase of our journey begins
together
cultivating genius through deep
ecology
Part 4 of 4
Robert Muller Center For Living Ethics
340 Country Club Road
Fairview, Texas 75069
Artwork
by Elena Sanna
Deep
Ecology
A decade ago Frijof Capra coined an apt term for the planetary paradigm shift
that is now gaining momentum - Deep Ecology. The term unveils life's
gestation and emergence from nested, interdependent wombs or 'holons.' From
Cosmic to planetary, to human, to microscopic, to molecular, and to sub-atomic
realms, dynamically interdependent worlds sustain life. Deep Ecology resounds
with life's spiralic dance through primordial spheres of all-embracing
creativity, impelled by Cosmic Love. It reaches into the human family's
long forgotten co-evolvement with Nature's other children-groups of furry,
winged, and flowering entities that form planetary biomes. The term Deep
Ecology reaches into the ethics of the human family's reciprocal relationship
with every tiny green shoot spiraling sunward; every mineral journeying through
mountains, pebbles, rivers and biological entities; every creature swimming,
creeping, crawling or flying across the face of Earth.
Deep Ecology echoes the harmonies of the World Core curriculum, offered more
than a quarter of a century ago by Robert Muller, Undersecretary General to the
United Nations, as a philosophical umbrella for centers of teach/learning
worldwide.
Fortunately, for a planet on the cusp of momentous changes, a new worldview is
emerging. Gradually and imperceptibly to a public focused on possessions,
entertainment thru media, the biggest and the glitziest, and immediate
gratification, the new paradigm is shifting from mechanistic rationalizations
to attunement with the Cosmic Heart. Intuition and scientific research
are unifying to completely transform the prevalent worldview.
Deep Ecology delves into the astonishing synchronicity between the pulse of the
seas, and the pulse of life-blood. It reverberates a harmonic resonance
as close as a mother's heartbeat to that of her child. Yet, the ethics of
Deep Ecology bids us delve even deeper-Into hidden co-relations with familiar
landscapes. Freshly awakened sight is beholding a new frontier for the
realization of Deep Ecology. Intimately interwoven with our relationships
to nature's gardens, are emerging perceptions of the interior landscape of the
hearts and souls of humanity's children.
Fortunately, for the fullest and most joyful emergence of our children's potential,
Herculean efforts are bringing to light the distorted views and debilitating
solutions of the mechanistic paradigm. Fortunately, for the future of
humanity, enlightened consciousnesses are exposing the labels coined to
designate childhood maladies, as more accurately evidence of serious social
pathologies. Take for example the most popularly touted childhood
'malady' ADD and its almost universal antidote, Ritalin. A minority is noting
the hue and cry that is flooding bookshelves, urging parents and educators to
shift our focus from effects to causes.
Lucy
Palladino, Ph.D. entitled her book The Edison Trait-Saving the Spirit of Your
Nonconforming Child. Her work and a multitude of biographies portray the
lives of geniuses, which have gasped for psychological breath in
traditional, factory model schools. Palladino has noted three categories of
Edison trait children - the Dreamers, the Dynamos, and the Discoverers.
These children are diverse and intense; have minds that are holistic; focus
with determination; and are driven by intrinsic motivation. Like the Edisons
and Einsteins before them, these budding geniuses cannot sit still or refocus
from inner dreams and inventions to attend to hours of meaningless lessons.
What professional in his right mind would want to drug into zombie-like
compliance these architects of the future? Likewise, instead of suppressing
budding geniuses, wouldn't the world be blessed by ardent cultivation of more
Dreamers, Dynamos and Discovers?
Deep
Ecology challenges us to create learning environments that are diverse and
holistic with opportunities for intense focus driven by intrinsic motivation.
Let all children benefit from such environments, even those who docilely
conform to factory school specs, unaware of slumbering potentials. The spirit
of Deep Ecology reveals an urgent task for centers of learning - to delve
deeply and compassionately into the psyches of our children to mine the
treasures of inherent genius.
This
emerging paradigm for the cultivation of true genius only faintly resembles the
homogenous soup of traditional schooling. Life enhancing environments celebrate
diversity, creative energy, and the purposeful honing of talents. Howard
Gardner has shaken us from the illusion that two narrowly defined aspects of
intelligence, verbal/linguistic, and logical/mathematical, ought to override
all others. Gardner discerned the links between high interest, joyful
involvement, natural talent, and correlative motivational keys to individual
genius. To date the delineated intelligences have expanded from the
original seven (musical, kinesthetic, verbal linguistic, logical mathematical,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial) to include nature and ethical
intelligences.
Lifting
the scales of societal bias from our newly opened eyes, we realize the stark
contrast between the life dulling consequences of schooling and the
life-enhancing opportunities of holistic teach/learning. Entrenched schooling's
relentless treadmill, dispensing and testing meaningless facts, has deadened
itself to the voice of the Soul. The Soulful response of Education of the New
Era is to retrieve the long exiled arts and imagination. Academic partitions
are crumbling-yielding to whole brain intelligence as science, art and ethics unite
in one grand synthesis.
The
clarion call of Deep Ecology impels authentic centers of education to dig deep
in the soil of consciousness. The regeneration of life on this planet
requires retrieval of hidden talents for self-expression and innovation. It is
the discovery of these treasures that evokes a thrill of response from the very
Soul of the child.
According to ecology's inescapable Law of Reciprocity, we achieve fulfillment
through striving to apply unique talents for the benefit of the sustaining
world. The cultivation of these hidden treasures correspondingly enriches
human society, raising our collective consciousness to the level of True
Culture. Societies imbued with the ethics of high culture invade neither
nations nor nature - they harmonize with all Life in Brotherhood and
Stewardship.
There's still more to Deep Ecology and the interior terrains of
our children. Recent scientific research is proving the veracity of intuitive
insights and aboriginal wisdom regarding Nature's children. Interior and exterior landscapes are
irrevocably intertwined. This brings us to yet another thrilling aspect of the
paradigm shift that is bringing us to a New Era of Education. Budding geniuses need play, lots of play.
And where do they derive the most benefit of this play? In nature. Not on specially designed play equipment
surrounded by concrete or mats.
Especially, not under the constant direction of adults. Rapidly
expanding intelligence requires spaces for reflective solitude, creative
freedom and child collaboration. Last Child in the Woods - Saving our
Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv, shakes readers
awake with the realization that "our children are the first generation to
be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world...."
Scientific studies of the few schools that are providing naturescapes for
child-play evidence a strong correlation between intelligence and play in
nature's gardens.
Children naturally
recapitulate the steps of the human family as they instinctively find secluded
places for shelters and secret getaways.
Researcher Louise Chawla lifts the appreciation of play to an even
higher realm in her elaboration of 'ecstatic places.' Transcendent childhood experiences in nature, whether in tree
protected hideaways or alluring patches of weeds, remain 'as radioactive jewels
buried within us, emitting energy across the years of our lives....' Ample
opportunities to play in nature offer ecstatic memories. These in turn anchor an internalized core of
calm, a sense of integration with all life, and the psychic roots from which we
create Beauty.
Through the lens of
Deep Ecology, the Law of Reciprocity reveals itself to extend beyond the Human
Family to include Creation itself. Just
as the oxygen provided by Nature's trees, grasses, and plankton breathe life
into our physical bodies, the essence of nature, sometimes called prana,
breathes life into our Soul bodies.
Those who play, collaborate, and ponder close to Nature's bosom are the
most likely to revere her and protect her.
In a beautiful dance of reciprocity, Nature's most intimate associates
reap her treasures and become her stewards.
Deep
Ecology is the Science and Art of the cultivation of heart genius. How blessed
are we to be alive in the generation that confirms scientifically what
aboriginals and intuitives have always known - the heart is the seat of
consciousness. In The Biology of Transcendence Joseph Chilton Pearce describes the
billions of heart cells as generators working in unison to produce enough
electrical energy to light a small electric bulb. This heart amplitude is forty to sixty times that of brain waves.
Experiments at the Heart Math Institute have proven the heart's intimate,
ongoing dialogue with our brain, body and world. Indeed, the heart anticipates significant events in advance of
the brain. Amazingly, like the electromagnetic field of the Sun that supports
all life on earth, this microcosmic Sun-heart extends a magnetic field in the
form of a torus. When the
electromagnetic fields of friends converge, their hearts entrain .
The consciousness in
the heart communicates that which is most sacred, that which is most integral
to our well-being. The re-emergence of this paradigm, the Sense of the Sacred
in all Life, evidences the Creator's grand and unifying scheme. Thread by thread the spindle of human
yearning for meaning and purpose is unifying aboriginal wisdom, spiritual
revelations, and scientific discoveries. Few are the conscious weavers. Yet, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, additional
threads are intertwining to form a golden cord, our conscious link with the
Source. Always Nature, dressed in gowns
of beauty and abundance, has bespoken a silvery link with the Guiding Voice of
Compassion. Now along the golden rays
of the heart the prodigal son returns to participate in dynamic harmonies with
the human family and our planetary and Cosmic home.
We are living in the pre-dawn of a New World. Those who so choose are destined to be the
conscious midwives of an Ethical Ecological World. Whether it is a rough or smooth delivery depends on us
collectively. Let us unite under the philosophy of Deep Ecology. Let us remove the scales of
institution-generated myopia to see our children as life's yearning for itself. Let the first and foremost request of
caregivers and mentors of our children be that they Educate the Heart and Speak
to the Soul of our progeny. Sacred
Scriptures tell us that seven generations will feel the repercussions of
present thoughts and actions.
May Centers of Living Ethics
cultivate true genius,
the Genius of the Heart.
Vicki Diane Johnston
9/24/2006
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