“We are not just a skin-encapsulated ego, a soul encased in flesh. We are each other and we are the world.” ― Charles Eisenstein
You might think when I talk about our ‘genius potential’, it’s driven from a place of ego — “look at me…”.
It’s not.
It comes a from a place where I see people not as they are but as they might become — not a better version but someone who’s intent on discovering their true self.
I could be wrong but, in the process (which is best described as radical self-enquiry — see the work of Parker J Palmer), I believe they will come to see, as I have done, that we are no different to everything that exists. (Thich Nhat Hanh calls this Interbeing.)
I accept I’m going out on a limb, particularly from a Western perspective, but I don’t think myself better than any other living creature or thing. In essence, we are all one.
Even if you don’t buy this line of thinking, you’d be stupid to think that we can survive without animals, flora or fauna, even the ones we don’t eat.
Some call this separation, a state where there’s ‘them’ and ‘us’ or rather there’s the world we see and the world we seek. As to the latter, very few people ever stop to think of the consequences to the earth of living a consumerist lifestyle. It’s not just Nimbyism, it’s simply too remote for most people to fathom that we’re slowly consuming everything on this planet, and God only knows what will be left for our children to enjoy.
In the end, by my writing and speaking, what I’m inviting is a new narrative, one informed by an acknowledgement that we should all be standing up for those with no voice, and not just the human variety. But, being the individuals we are, it’s unlikely that we’re going to change our tune in the near term. If we do, it’s only likely to arise when someone points out that what we took for granted has disappeared right before our eyes.