A working knowledge of the natural world is the greatest root for rational thinking. If left to the intellect alone there is no limit to what will be concluded as fact (Aristotle and his belief that heavy objects fell faster than lighter objects). Knowledge is vulnerable to the powerful and historically has been used as a tool for oppression, whether by direct information/misinformation or the suppression of. Einstein would of said it is imagination that inspires knowledge, he would of also spoke of the importance of the milky way to gaze upon to grow imagination.
The imagination is a natural thing capable of creating that which has never been known before. Imagination, just as the night sky, has been greatly effected by industrialization and media. Children are awe inspired by movies rather than the true mysteries of nature. They enter into the world led by technology and understand nature to be a city park or tract of land surrounded by highyways or neighborhoods.
Unlike the intellect, nature is limited. It cannot be controlled by man like an economy. This is why greedy men must destroy it rather than allow the people to understand it. Nature is where we were once free, and it is though nature that we can overcome the capitalistic oppression. First world culturalization has been a process of removal from the natural world; you can't control a people who know how to live off the land.
There is a subtlety to nature as well that cannot be known by any other means than in-depth experience. This requires a great level of discipline and time. It requires one to transcend the notions of comfort and ego, to face fears and find a greater sense of connection; sense of self in the community of creation, rather than alone in the narrow minded race of mankind. If one never tastes fresh water from a mountain stream they will not know the purity of nature. They will know only manufactured purity: acceptable levels of pollution; cancer and disease. Just as a polluted river is undrinkable, the men and women of modern culture are polluted in their mind and body.
We must transcend mind and body to learn from the spirit. If the body is unhealthy with pollutants and the mind corrupt with lies, it leaves one anchored to ego/attachment, ill equipped to let go and flow into the soul. "The burdens of the body weigh heavy upon the mind. A mind weakened with lies cannot overcome these burdens and will seek attachment to ego rather than letting go. Religious dogma will cauterize this wound. It will satisfy the seeker's unrest due to the broken connection and suppress the imagination through symbolic belief. A slave in mind and body will call confuse spirit with intellect and love with attachment." The most unique human characteristic is the ability to convince ourselves of anything- to believe anything.
What about the evolution of culture; "the children born into this without a choice". When balance is lost there is no choice but to go with the fall. A child has no choice because they have been removed from nature and are subjects to the will of the contrivances of intellect alone. Author Richard Louv writes on this in his book "Last Child In the Woods" . The result of a "denatured" being can be seen at the zoo: animals in cages estranged from their instincts. On a cultural level we see succeeding generations with increasing numbers of distracted, maladjusted children. A child will see clearly if distractions are removed- that is nature, which we are at odds with. Instead of acknowledging distractions we administer psycho-active drugs to chemically adjust the natural function of the brain. This is the product of unchecked intellectual domination of nature, both of the land and of our species.
We must transcend mind and body to learn from the spirit. If the body is unhealthy with pollutants and the mind corrupt with lies, it leaves one anchored to ego/attachment, ill equipped to let go and flow into the soul. "The burdens of the body weigh heavy upon the mind. A mind weakened with lies cannot overcome these burdens and will seek attachment to ego rather than letting go. Religious dogma will cauterize this wound. It will satisfy the seeker's unrest due to the broken connection and suppress the imagination through symbolic belief. A slave in mind and body will call confuse spirit with intellect and love with attachment." The most unique human characteristic is the ability to convince ourselves of anything- to believe anything.
What about the evolution of culture; "the children born into this without a choice". When balance is lost there is no choice but to go with the fall. A child has no choice because they have been removed from nature and are subjects to the will of the contrivances of intellect alone. Author Richard Louv writes on this in his book "Last Child In the Woods" . The result of a "denatured" being can be seen at the zoo: animals in cages estranged from their instincts. On a cultural level we see succeeding generations with increasing numbers of distracted, maladjusted children. A child will see clearly if distractions are removed- that is nature, which we are at odds with. Instead of acknowledging distractions we administer psycho-active drugs to chemically adjust the natural function of the brain. This is the product of unchecked intellectual domination of nature, both of the land and of our species.
Spiritual existence thrives through a connection to nature as well as physical health and stimulated intellect.
Knowledge can be contrived, nature cannot- this is balance.
The body acts out what the mind thinks- this is balance.
The soul is timeless, the self is in time- this is balance.
"I am not the energy, the energy is me."
"I am not the energy, the energy is me."
