Bare Bones Biology 156 – Two Minds

Why does it sometimes feel like nearly everyone is sitting on his hands, of course except me, while we are facing the greatest challenge in the history of human kind?” That’s a question I’ve heard more and more lately. I’m glad the question is finally surfacing. Here are words from a couple of people who are not sitting on their hands. A Buddhist and a biologist who look at the world through their separate disciplines and seem to see the same sorts of answers.

David Loy (Essay entitled Transcendence or Immanence, May, 2013) (http://www.davidloy.org) points: “There is no individual solution to the ecological and social crises that challenge us collectively today.” It’s a good essay, you should read it. After describing his reasons for thinking so, based mostly in logic and his Buddhist tradition, he concludes that: “ . . . the ecological and social crises are just as much spiritual crises, because they challenge each of us to wake up and realize that our own well-being cannot be separated from the well-being of others, or from the well-being of the whole earth.” David Loy is a professor, writer and Zen teacher.

Dr. David Suzuki, (http://www.davidsuzuki.org) a scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He makes a similar point from his viewpoint that is based mostly in logic and scientific fact. First he describes our history of fighting over issues that surround the use of our biosystem resources and our attitude toward the biosystem, and then he suggests that fighting is not a useful way to address these issues, because in every fight there is always a loser, and we can’t afford losers at this time. Rather than fighting with each oher, he says:

“Can we begin from a position of agreement. Let’s agree on the fundamental things on which we will build our platforms of politics or economics. So let’s start by setting a bottom line that is dictated by the laws of nature. We live in a world that is defined and shaped by laws of nature. Physicists tell us the speed of light puts a limit on how fast we can fly a space rocket. We can’t fly faster than the speed of light. Nobody objects to that. We live within that. We know that the law of gravity means we can’t have an anti-gravity machine, and we know that the first and second laws of thermodynamics tell us that you can’t build a perpetual motion machine. We all understand that. That’s the real world that we live in.

“In biology it’s the same thing. We know that there are carrying capacities of ecosystems. That ecosystems can flourish as long as predators living within those ecosystems do not undermine the ability of those ecosystems to sustain themselves over time. Human beings are the most powerful predators on the planet and we live at the very top of the ecological food chain, so we must pay attention to what are the carrying capacities of the various ecosystems that we occupy around the world.

“And the most important thing we must remember and agree on is that we are biological creatures, and our biological nature dictates what our fundamental needs are. What delivers clean air, clean water, clean soil clean food and clean energy, from the sun, is the web of living things around the world, what biologists call biodiversity. It’s life itself that cleanses, replenishes, or creates our most fundamental needs.

“Any corporate leader, politician, even the T party I’m sure, would have to agree, that as biological beings, air, water, soil, photosynthesis and biodiversity have got to be in our best interests, our most fundamental needs that we must protect and nourish. That’s how we begin to define our system of needs, upon which we then can ask how do we create an economy.” Complete audio available from me or from Making_Contact, http://www.radioproject.org/sound/2013/MakingCon_130605_Ax.mp3.

This is Bare Bones Biology 156. The podcast is available at:

http://BareBonesBiology.com

David Loy (Essay entitled Transcendence or Immanence, May, 2013) (http://www.davidloy.org)
David Suzuki http://www.davidsuzuki.org

Bare Bones Biology 154 – Compassionate Earth Walk with Jessica

Astronauts, in space, often report a life-changing impact of recognizing our place in earth – and it’s place in us – as they looked down upon a reality that is inconceivably more every person does have that same deep dependence upon the living earth.

Renowned Canadian scientist Dr. David Suzuki has referred to the Tar Sands development as a great wound upon the face of the Earth.

Shodo Spring, founder of The Compassonate Earth Walk http://www.compassionateearthwalk.org/, explained that our “intention,” through walking, is to face that great injury in the earth (the tar sands) as an expression of a brokenness in our collective human spirit – and to heal and transform that brokenness through the power of love and awareness. That is one reason for walking, but the reality is that every person on earth has spiritual and physical reasons to walk the path that leads toward the welfare of planet Earth.

Jessica is one who is walking with Shodo. Here is a a portion of her reason for walking the route of the Keystone XL Pipeline that begins at the Tar Sands development and splits the heart of North America.

“We are using the Keystone XL Pipeline as a symbol of the pain that we’ve been facing as a society, literally sucking ourselves dry in an effort to fuel our future. In my study of energy as natural medicine, there’s a principle that I return to with almost all of my clients, and that is putting their feet on the earth. The Earth has such a powerful grounding polar charge, and in our bodies and in our lives has so much of this grounding polar charge in our bodies and in our lives, and holds so much of this high-powered rajasic, this outward movement of energy, driving us forward, driving us toward our goals and destinations, and oftentimes we can forget that there is a moment of stillness that we can find within us. A very good way of connecting with that stillness is by just placing our feet on the earth. After I finish a treatment session with any of my clients I’ll normally have them take their shoes off. We’ll walk downstairs and we’ll walk outside and put our feet on the earth, just for a few moments. I’m always so surprised by the response. I’ve had people be very uncomfortable with that. “You expect me to walk without shoes downstairs? You expect me to stand on the dirt?” But then after a moment of feeling that connection to the earth, underneath their feet, there’s always a noticeable difference in the energy of the body. They take a moment; they take a breath; they are able to release the tension and the stress; able to release the pain in their body, or in their heart, or in their spirit. Just finding this connection with the earth is such a powerful healing transformative practice.

“On the compassionate earth walk I’m hoping to bring that powerful healing and transformative energy. We are going to be building a community consciousness along the way. That’s really what this is about. It’s about connecting with nature through connecting with our community, or connecting to community through connecting with nature.”

In other words, we are it. Even though Jessica’s story sounds so foreign to me that I can barely imagine it – because I was brought up most of my early life running the earth in my bare feet – nevertheless that last sentence speaks for everyone. And so does the Compassionate Earth Walk http://factfictionfancy.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/ bare-bones-bio…ate-earth-walk/.

Again, from another source in another culture, here is a story told by Jack Kornfield: “I remember asking BuddhaDassa, a wonderful teacher in the southern forests of Thailand, I said, you have been teaching westerners for 25 years now, and I’m sure you’ve noticed, as I have, how many of us come to meditate with a lot of grief and wounds and trauma and unworthiness. What do you do? What’s the best way to work with that? He said, what I see for those who are wounded, most importantly, is to bring them into the forest. To bring them out into the world of the trees and the rocks, of the clouds and the streams, and let them live in this world of nature until they feel held by it, made of it, until they know themselves to be connected with it.” (DVD, Meditation for Beginners)
The Compassionate Earth Walk is a spiritual pilgrimage toward our true home in the community of life.

This is Bare Bones Biology, a production of FactFictionFancy.wordpress.com and KEOS Radio, 89.1 FM, Bryan, Texas. The podcast of this episode can be downloaded at:

Bare Bones Biology 006B – Frames

If you sit in one of the places in Downtown Bryan, for example, where people are discussing ideas, you can notice that most arguments that come up are caused by people using the same words to mean different things. Of course this has always been true. But in today’s world it’s more important than ever to be aware of the fact, because in addition to accidental confusions, we have to deal with intentional ones. There are campaigns to take perfectly good words and turn their original meanings upside down. It’s very confusing.

I was about to say I can’t imagine why, but in fact I can. People in power know that the real power lies with the people. If they can keep us yelling at each other over things that we basically agree about, that is one less worry for them.

So, boring as it may be, I will spend quite a lot of energy defining words and worldviews. And since I’ve recently been told that the new word for worldview is “frame,” I’ll call them frames.

My first frame is that we all need the same things, and I think the best way to get these things would be to work together to find a way to make them available.

My second frame is the concept introduced by James Lovelock in his several books. That the earth ecosystem is a unit of life — just as you and I are units of life, but a good deal more complicated than we are. The earth biosystem has the same basic life needs as all other units of biological life on earth. There is ample biological evidence to convince me of this, but for not everyone cares about the biology. For you who don’t know the concept of the living earth ecosystem — or if you believe something else might be more important, I’m going to point you to the NASA pictures that were taken of Mars, and ask you to compare that red with the blue marble picture of the living earth that was taken from the moon. That is the difference between life and death on a planetary scale.

So ecosystem is a scientific word, but surely we cannot believe that the ecosystem is a scientific thing. Any more than you are a scientific thing. Biology is a science that studies life, but the ecosystem is the real deal — a real living thing that we require for our own survival.

My third frame is that our living earth exists in and is a part of the universe. If you have been following Bare Bones Biology, you know that I believe there is a basic law of cause and effect in the universe. So if the universe exists, there is a good chance that it was created or is in process of being created. And now we bump into ideas about God and Creation that are way outside of my expertise, and probably quite controversial, so I will quote the experts.

Let’s begin with God. I heard Pastor Jeff Hackleman say that: God is “the one that created the universe.” It was on KBTX, so it must be true, and I don’t have a problem with putting a name to a creator.

That leaves only to define what we mean by creation. To create. That which is created. Doesn’t sound complicated to me, but rather than argue with anyone, I will quote another of our most renowned Christian religious scholars, Huston Smith, who says that the Creation is: “everything, as it is.” That’s also hard to argue about.

Next, we probably can also agree that we human persons did not create The Creation, and we do not understand everything about it.

So what is the problem here, folks? I sincerely believe that we all really need the same thing, and that is the living earth ecosystem that makes our air, water, soil and climate. This human-friendly environment is not available on Mars or on the moon, and if we have any idea that we humans can create any ecosystem anywhere — well in my lexicon that comes under the heading of excuses for not trying to take care of the one we already have.

Lynn Lamoreux

This is Bare Bones Biology, a production of FactFictionFancy.wordpress.com and KEOS Radio, 89.1 FM, Bryan, Texas.
The podcast of this episode can be downloaded at:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/Bare_Bones_Biology_-_006-Frames-Final.mp3

Bare Bones Biology 153 – Compassionate Earth Walk

Shodo Spring is leading the Compassionate Earth Walk along the route of the Tar Sands Pipeline, beginning July 1, 2013.  If you want to participate in this walk, contact Shodo at www.compassionateearthwalk.org/

I asked for the story behind this walk, and here is her answer.

Shodo Spring – “Let’s go back to about 2005.  At this point I had heard about global warming.  I had heard about peak oil.  And I wasn’t sure my facts were correct.  I went to a talk by Richard Heinberg (http://factfictionfancy.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/), and after the talk I thought — not only I was right, but it’s a lot worse than I thought it was.  And then I went into a state of sort of horror and depression for a couple of years, and then there was a new baby in our family.

I went to visit them when he was five months old.  He laughed all the time.  I would look at him laughing, and he was completely trusting and confident, and I thought:  “How can we do this?  This is just so bad.”  A year or so later I took a permaculture class, and I realized that we already have the technologies.  It has nothing to do with developing technologies.  It simply has to do with political will.

I started learning to garden.  I became involved with the local transition group, and everything I was doing was local and small.  There’s a lot you can do at the level of the local community.  It’s called resilience, and it’s a matter of preparing to be ready when bad things happen.  (Note from LL – folks in our Brazos Valley Community who want to become involved with a resilience group get in touch with Charlie Lindahl.  Everyone else, check out Rob Hopkins’ publications and his Resilience movement, which started in Great Britain and now is nearly everywhere, at http://www.transitionculture.org/).

Our focus was mostly on peak oil (http://PostCarbon.org) because that’s a little easier to deal with and because climate change wasn’t as obvious then as it is now.

So now it’s 2013, and on a national and international scale there has been essentially no action to do the things that we already know how to do that we could do without even denting our life style, that we could do and create lots and lots of jobs.  For instance rehabilitating housing stock, stopping the subsidies to agriculture and moving them to a sustainable kind of agriculture, stopping the subsidies to big oil and moving it to alternative energy.  None of this stuff has happened, except in a few countries.  Germany has done some good things.  Basically, our country and most of the rich countries of the world have proceeded merrily along the path to destruction.  So there we are.  I am horrified.

So I was increasingly aware of all these things, and I was in training.  I was living in Bloomington, Indiana, I was studying Zen Buddhism, I had commitments there, and the only way I could handle it was to put my commitments at the temple first.  So I did environmental work around the edges.

When I finished my training, I went, in August 2011, to the White House, to demonstrate against the pipeline.  I got arrested, wearing my Buddhist robes.  The last thing I had to do with my training was to spend six months in monastic training, and I so I then went to California to do that.

In September, I was sitting in the Zendo and I started seeing pictures.  Internal mental pictures of myself walking along the pipeline route.  I had never been there; I didn’t know what it looked like; but I kept seeing these pictures and they didn’t go away.

I thought about it, I considered it, I talked to the teachers, and basically I came to the conclusion that I actually needed to go and walk along the pipeline with a group of people.”

Shodo Spring

 

The Compassionate Earth Walk is a spiritual pilgrimage

honoring our place within the community of life.

The human species is at a crossroads.

Our decisions now will profoundly influence the future of our children and of the whole earth.

The Keystone pipeline has become a poignant symbol of the risks of fossil fuels, the tension between economic priorities and human well-being,
and the threat of climate change to all life on earth.

We trace its route through the Great Plains with peace and compassion,

eager to hear all voices, including the wordless voice of the natural world,

blessing the earth with each step,

listening, witnessing, and offering service.

We walk as a prayer for all earth’s children,

The walk is intergenerational, intercultural  and interfaith. 

Join us. 

 

This is Bare Bones Biology, a weekly production of FactFictionFancy.com, and KEOSradio, in Bryan, Texas. The podcast can be downloaded at:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/Bare_Bones_Biology_153_-_Compassionate_Earth_Walk.mp3

Bare Bones Biology 005B – Gaia

Midafternoon on a shizukana Monday in Niibo Uryuya is quiet and peaceful, but if you walk along the paths and the car-width roads you find a day filled with relaxed activity.  People are meticulously fixing, mending, weeding.  I am sitting, eating an ice cream cone quick, before it melts, and reading Gaia, the new edition. The mockingbird-equivalent screeches long high notes from the electrical wire, while the local hawk paraglides the survey of his territory.

And then I have to try to write about it.Spiders hide in the hedges, behind their webs, apparently with their bellies full of dragonflies, judging by the remains.  In Texas this time of year the dragonflies range under the electrical wires and over the goatweed, about head high to a horse, in territories about two meters square.  Sometimes they switch territories with a neighbor, but they maintain an equidistant cruising mode.  Someone said they are hunting fire ants.  Anyone who lunches on fire ants is OK by me, so I like to sit and read and watch their iridescent air dances in the middle of the afternoon when it’s too hot to do anything else.

Here in Niibu Uryuya there are no fire ants, but I’m sure there is a fire ant equivalent because today for the first time the dragonflies are flashing red over the rice fields in little equally spaced territories, about head height to a horse.  If there were horses.  I wonder if it’s the same species of dragonfly, and then I wonder if it matters.  Amateur naturalists love to learn the names of things, but I’m having trouble remembering Japanese words, which right now I could really use, and I already know there is an animal to inhabit every lifestyle on this earth – the Japanese mockingbird equivalent and the hawk and the dragonflies, all are fulfilling the same purpose, doing the same job here that they do, whatever the species, in Texas, and that is one reason the world does not grind to a halt.  The magnificence of this whole of creation, where every little bit fits perfectly into the whole fabric of life, far surpasses words for explanation.  Gaia indeed.

In fact, that’s why I never read Gaia the first time round.  The so-called “Gaia hypothesis” is one of those beautiful ideas, like evolution, that clicks open a door of the mind to a new view on the reality of creation, as it has to be (or it wouldn’t work).  If you take the time to learn all the reasons why people have discovered these concepts they seem so obvious, after they have been discovered, so elegant, so necessarily true (or we wouldn’t exist) that the reading of the book, which by the way was written by James Lovelock — no matter how well it’s written, is anticlimactic — a comparatively pedestrian recitation of specifics that clip the wings of the beauty of the creation it is trying to describe.

But I am reading the book, so I can give the guy credit for calling our attention to the beauty of our one common reality, the living earth.

And then I have to try to write about it.

A podcast of this episode can be downloaded at:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/BBB-005-Gaia-_2.mp3

Bare Bones Biology 004B – Power of Science

The great power of basic science is that it lets us spend our time doing things that are more useful than fighting about our personal opinions. We can use the elegant immutable facts of life to make technologies, and then we can use the technologies to do something good that we otherwise couldn’t do.

But is that what we usually choose to do? More often, after we have powerful technologies, our heads swell up until we believe our power is the same as wisdom and our opinions are the same as facts. Now that’s just silly, but that’s what some people think. And then we start to fight, we call it debating, about whose opinion is more important. And by that time we are in more trouble than we were before we had the power. Nobody’s opinion is as powerful as an immutable fact, because we can not change the facts.

A fact is a reality that doesn’t change. The most important thing we need to know about science — it’s a method to figure out what is the difference between a fact and an opinion. And it does this by physical measurements. Science is the study of measurable facts using the scientific method. The whole point of the scientific method is to prevent personal opinions from influencing our evaluation of the measurable facts.

An opinion is not any of these things. We do have the power to change our opinions, and in my opinion we should consider our opinions with great care, first on the basis of the facts we must deal with and then on the basis of good choices that reflect our positive human values.

Fighting over facts is like those gorgeous fighting fish that have long trailing fins and all sorts of colors from red to blue, and they live in little aquaria. One fish lives on each side and they are divided by a pane of glass. Apparently the fish believe they are more powerful than the glass, because they never stop fighting to get through the glass so they can tear each other to shreds. They spend their whole lives doing this, and then they die.

That’s very romantic, and I suppose it’s fun if you like nothing else more than you like fighting, or if you think winning is more important than anything else in the world. I don’t. I think winning is mostly a way to hurt other people while pretending you did something good, because whenever you win, everyone else loses. And that makes them mad. Pretty soon everyone is mad at everyone else, and looking for something to fight about, even if it doesn’t make any sense, acting like a bunch of fighting fish and never accomplishing anything more useful than proving we can do something better than somebody else can do it. Well, everyone can do something better than someone else, so what does that prove?

I can accomplish my goal better if I know the difference between the things we know to be facts, and the things we know are not facts, and the things we don’t know. So science is about facts. Technology is also about facts, but technology is not basic science. Technology uses scientific facts to make things to sell or to use. It’s too bad so many people are confused about this, because the difference is as big as the difference between God and man. God made the unchanging facts. We use basic science to study the facts. We use technology to make things to play with.

It’s not much different from a chimpanzee using a stick to dig food out of a hole. God made the tree, the chimpanzee broke it into a stick to use for a technology, but the chimpanzee did not make the tree and he cannot change the way trees are made. Neither basic science nor technology can change the facts, but science can help us to understand them, and technology can help us to do good things without causing harm.

Or not. Our job is to choose.

The podcast of this post may be downloaded at:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/Bare_Bones_Biology_004B_-_Power_of_Basic_Science.mp3

Bare Bones Biology 003B – World Views

http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/BBB-003-100420_copy.mp3

This blog is a repeat from http://factfictionfancy.wordpress.com/2010/04/27; it has been slightly modified to fit into the world of today.

Earth day was great. The weather held, and all these people hustled around trying to find their best way to contribute to our common goals. I’m pretty sure most of them believe that we all have the same world view, working to the same goal, thinking the same way they do. I used to believe that too, until I finally figured out that almost nobody thinks like I do. So today I‘ll talk about world views. Not science.

I believe the human brain is hard wired to be logical. With giraffes, it’s the neck; with peacocks it’s the feathers; with us, it’s a well developed innate capacity for logic. Everyone who starts life with a normal brain, the most normal thing about it is, the brain is always working to make a world view that is logical, at least to itself.

Surely we’ve all had the experience of walking into a room, stopping and looking around because something doesn’t feel right. Something is not part of the normal logic of this room, and we feel uncomfortable until we figure out what it is. That feeling of discomfort drives all people, I believe, to build a logical world view within which they can live in some comfort. Or, if they already have one they like, they will cling to it like their lives depend on their own world view, even if there are real facts to the contrary. We all need to have a world view that makes logical good sense to us.

Well, of course there is a problem with this. Two problems. The first is that we have to build our view of the world around our experience of the world. Everyone has a somewhat different environment, and also the environment keeps changing; therefore everyone has a somewhat different world view. The result is Culture Shock! Culture shock is very uncomfortable, but it’s also exciting, and when we work our way through — it takes about a year — we end with such a sense of competence and security compared with the time when we were afraid of people who are different. A good understanding of how to handle culture shock is something we can learn, and teach to our children. In today’s world it’s a good thing to do. Go someplace different, live there for a year and listen to the logic of the new place. Or, actually, you can do this without ever leaving home. All you have to do is listen to the internal logic in other people’s heads.

The second problem is that everything logical is not necessarily real and true. A good many people don’t know this, but just because your world view is pristinely logical doesn’t mean it is true. For example, in my introductory economics course I was told that the whole economic model is based on four pillars of solid reality. If you believe in the four pillars, the whole construct is beautifully logical, but I guess they don’t know about the fifth one, and that’s too bad. We could have avoided these economic collapses if their world view were more like the real world.

And of course that’s also true of our own world views. Nobody knows everything; everybody is wrong about some things, so we can never build a world view that is perfectly true. Probably if we did, nobody would believe it. But it’s worth trying to get as close as possible to reality, because the safest world view is one that is both logical and true. If we have logical reasons to believe that we can fly, that doesn’t mean we really can. If we could have a world view that is perfectly aligned with the real world – we would have more personal power than anyone else and, barring accident and bad luck we would be much safer in the world.

The problem with growing an accurate world view is that old culture shock that makes us afraid, and that generates denial. Culture shock and other attacks on our world view can be profoundly uncomfortable.

So the moral of this story for you and me is that we are better off with a bit more safety and a bit less comfort. In a world that is full of exciting ideas and scary propaganda, it’s worth the effort to listen carefully to the logic of others, because there is always the chance they are right about some things. If they are, and they are documentable facts –then our world view needs to be tweaked a little. If we want to live in a safer world.

The podcast of this program is available at:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/BBB-003-100420_copy.mp3

Bare Bones Biology 122B – Human Hands

This blog is an expanded version of Bare Bones Biology radio program that played on KEOS Radio, 89.1 FM, Bryan, Texas. The original audio podcast may be downloaded at:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/fff/BBB122-Human_HandsFinal4.mp3

In the current blog, the ending paragraphs have been updated and somewhat modified in honor of Earth Day.

Hold up your hand flat open with your palm facing me. As though you were a policeman trying to stop an onrushing disaster.
Your four fingers and your thumb are all pointing in different directions.

Now let’s think of your four fingers and your thumb as problems or “actions” that you and other socially conscious people are promoting — spending your time, energy and money, using your life to benefit your family, the community and humankind in general. Every person using his/her best skills to address one or other of the major actions, trying to relieve the problems faced by humankind today.

Let’s say your first finger represents hunger, and all the people trying to reduce world hunger. The second finger can represent global warming. The third finger can represent conflict, for example war, politics, genocide, modern economics. And the fourth finger represents religion and spirituality. Your thumb represents overpopulation.

What I notice about this hand is that all five of the digits are pointing off toward different and separate goals. If you added together the five different problems, and the people who are working to address these problems. Well, they are not working together for a common goal – they are going off in five different directions. Often they fight or argue with each other or they simply ignore each other, rather than discussing common goals. For this reason the work of one group often cancels out the gains of one or more of the other groups.

For example, one group is working for compassion in the belief that a compassionate community will not fight. Another group tries to win because they believe that will solve all our problems. The climate change group, after a few hundred years of evidence, is finally beginning to recognize its problem is real and is trying to decide whether to adapt or deal with the root cause of climate change. The hunger group can’t possibly accomplish its goal in the face of climate change and excessive population growth. And the overpopulation group believes that no positive goals can be achieved by continuing the destructive path that caused these problems in the first place.

We imagine if all the groups accomplished their goals they would all add up to a successful community. The reality, however, looks more like a mish-mash of confusing goals and conflicting interests. Efficient and effective problem solving does not jump out into the world in five different directions at once, with the different parts of itself fighting among themselves. Modern business practice has made many serious mistakes, but at least one good concept has come out of it, and that is goal setting. Good business defines its goals, sets its guidelines, and informs all parties involved.

Our basic human goal is to live in a community that is sustainable into the future. Surely it must be, and if it’s not we should ask each other why not, because we aren’t acting as though it were. We have all these five problems, and more, dashing off in all directions at the same time. Don’t you agree that we could organize ourselves in some way that would at least have a chance of growing a positive future? I think such a future is possible. If our primary goal really is the common welfare, then we can align our four fingers to represent of our commitment to the common goal of human sustainability on this earth, in good health, at least through the lifetimes of our grandchildren. If my genuine stated goal is the same as the stated goals of people working in different disciplines – then we will cease to be all working for different outcomes.

Next, we can recognize the physical facts: (1) that nobody can accomplish anything if there is not enough food for them to eat, (2) that all our food comes from the earth, and (3) the earth now has more people than it can feed. If you personally don’t believe these are real facts, then you, as we all do, have an obligation to the hungry humans in the world to fact-check our belief system.

So we then fold our thumb under at the roots of the four fingers, to represent represent the facts: (1) that overpopulation is at the root of all of the other problems. Yes we have had these problems in the past and we did not solve them before. Blame your heritage. Now is now and now we cannot solve them if a large part of the earth’s population is desperately struggling to make a living, and ; (2) therefore, that no other compassionate goal can be accomplished when there are more people than the earth can feed; and (3) therefore, the four other goals cannot be solved in the presence of overpopulation.

Therefore, if we genuinely want to accomplish our goals. If we want our behavior to reflect our commitment to the real goal, and regardless of our personal expertise or our primary interest — hunger, global warming, conflict resolution (community) or spirituality – then it is our obligation to spend a portion of our effort, every day, to help compassionately reverse human overpopulation, first informing ourselves about why it is a problem, and then addressing that problem as it relates to our own special skills and projects. I tend to judge people’s compassion by their behavior. When I see anyone brush off this obligation with a platitude or a blank look — we all do really know how important it is. Then I wonder why they don’t really want to know. Can it be they don’t want to help carry the burden of responsibility that goes with knowledge?

And then – we all work together to accomplish both the root goal and the individual goals by enclosing all of life on earth within the fully informed, goal-oriented, responsible, compassionate hand of human kind.

And then we ask. (Everyone does.): “But it is such a big problem, what can I do?” The answer is –

1- Discuss the issues as a community. Sometimes I think many of us are pouting: “If I can’t have what I want, then I won’t talk about it at all.” This approach won’t work. Neither will war make things better, except temporarily for the profiteers. War is not discussion; debate is not discussion; passive-aggressive conflict in which neither side is willing to listen is not discussion. Anything that involves only two sides or a “winner” is not discussion. The goal of these discussions is not to “win” anything. The goal is to be prepared for what is going to happen.

We are letting the corposystem decide these issues for us. We are even letting our government and corporations decide what opinions we should have and what are the issues of our debates. Often we waste time arguing over who is to blame, instead of fixing things.

2-Educate yourself about how the ecosystem functions to maintain its balance and therefore its welfare and its life. The earth will not bow to human preferences; it is essential that we discuss ideas that will work within the natural laws that function to maintain Life. We are entering the biggest biological crisis in human history, and we are not giving it as much rational consideration as we would the purchase of a car. It’s time to get serious and work together to soften the blow for us all.

We are in a situation like an old-fashioned clock that doesn’t work properly because one of its wheels is missing. When we fail to discuss the issues with people who disagree with us, we cannot make wise decisions because part of the necessary information is missing from the discussion.

Because they hold half of the wisdom;
And we are making half of the mistakes.

If we want to “win” at the end, we must begin by discussing these issues with people who disagree with us.

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Bare Bones Biology 152 – Meditation for an Easter Sunrise

This past Easter, Bitsy and I sat at the picnic table behind Los Sueños Trailer Park in Santa Fe. She upright and watching, I slumping awake with a cup of coffee. It was a wandering meditation and I let it wander.

The solid faithfulness of Notre Dame Cathedral. I couldn’t stay for the services – all that smoke and perfume drove me away, but the building – the building that welcomes all. In the off season I came often to sit inside its truths. I remembered the time I sat behind a woman, just the two of us, widely separated, she weeping and I letting myself feel her tears and return what I could of a blessing. We never spoke, she didn’t know I was there,and I will never see her again, but she is a part of my life, sheltered within that building – not the tourists and not the ceremonies, at least not for me. The building took three generations to build, by hand, in the middle ages, and if you listen you can feel the tears, the millions of human hands, the love, the joy, and the patience. Above all the patience. The stone blocks of the stairs hollowed out by our feet. The building carries forward a truth of human community.

Notre Dame made me think of Jesus, and I wondered what it felt like to be Jesus, the man who cried out: “Forgive them, they know not what they do.” And I thought again of the building, and the tourists who file around the periphery in dumb awe of truth, ignorant of those who weep in the seats under the central dome of real life.

And that made me think of my favorite audio tapes that I carry when I travel. Stereo – with earphones. I pulled it out and plugged it in. One individual, not counting Bitsy, sitting at a picnic table, meditating and watching the sun rise while listening to The Messiah. EC gave it to me. How many individual people and other organisms have given me my life? Back in time and spread out across the living Earth? How wondrous a thing is Homo sapiens. How amazing a creation am I, arising within and nurtured by the glory of God’s Natural Laws. Sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nurtured by a tough Texas lady. Somehow connected with an unknown, weeping French woman.
Eileen Farrell, soprano: “And he shall feed his flock.”

Jesus, representing the facts of life for humans. We are born, we live, we die so that Life itself, the whole churning brew of perfectly interacting processes, may take its rebirth in every moment. Ever changing.

Not even the most brilliant scientists can map that churning brew of Life, but the truths of it are true, no matter who interprets them, be it Jesus or the Buddha or any other saint, or Handel, or science. And what will I give back?

Our job is to sort out the truths from among our own ego trips and corposystem propaganda — greed, hatred and ignorance. Our job is to understand the power that we hold, lest it harm all the generations of our future Our job is to continue to learn about, and not to fight over, any truth of God’s Living system, because – we only understand part of it and a lot of what we do understand is wrong. Because we are not God. We are nothing more than a bit of life in the great stream of God’s system of Life.

And “We, like sheep” go often astray.

God is what it is, not what you or I have decided that it is. Our job is not to war against it or the Life that it is creating in every moment of time, but to honor it’s process and receive its blessing.

“Hallelujah”

And after Easter comes Earth day. I’ll see you there on Saturday, April 20.

This is Bare Bones Biology, a weekly production of FactFictionFancy.com, and KEOS radio, 89.1 FM, in Bryan, Texas. The podcast can be downloaded at:

Bare Bones Biology 151 – May You be Happy

“May you be free from danger
May you have mental happiness
May you have physical happiness
May you have ease of well-being”

If that’s what you really want more than anything else.

That is a mantra that has been translated from Buddhist texts into our American culture, which must have been quite a shock to the Buddhist texts. At least it sounds to me like a very inadequate translation from wisdom toward trivia. But it is useful.

Driving long distances, surrounded by giant boxes moving at 75 miles per hour can be stressful, and so, on my way from northern New Mexico to southern Texas, I fell back on that mantra about one o’clock in the afternoon. By two o’clock it was getting wearisome. Because if happiness is really what you want it should be pretty easy to come by in this rich country, but it’s not really what I want, in fact I suspect it’s an Americanized sales pitch, and so I should not be repeating that mantra, hour after hour.

Happiness is a word without meaning;
In a world that has grown much more complicated.

Then I remembered Tony Hillerman’s novels that are based in the Navaho area of modern Arizona. He tells us about Navajo ideas of community – a community in which you want to be connected together, rather than everyone competing to see who can be “best.” Tony Hillerman’s character, Joe Leaphorn, says/thinks “’We have a curing ceremony to heal us when we start getting vengeful or greedy or, what to you call it, getting ahead of the Joneses.’ . . (He was) remembering how Navaho kids are conditioned to be part of the community . . . in harmony.“

On the contrary, I think many other of our American cultures are based in the belief that I can be “happy” if ever I can prove that I’m better than you are — or at least not worse. I think Leaphorn is more realistic. If we truly want community, it doesn’t make sense that we should try to prove we are better than the people around us. Why would I like you better because you can prove that you are better than I am? I think that is NOT a way to build a positive communal experience for anyone. In fact I’m sure it’s not, because I have seen how people react when they think they aren’t as good. If it continues, it’s the beginning of violence.

In harmony. I really like that concept. Harmony sounds like balance, not better or worse or winners and losers. Balanced acceptance of, and participation in, the reality of how Life functions.

Harmony, I said. Harmony is what I want. Happiness is just another homo-centric, us over them, ego-trip. But HARMONY, what I really need, what everyone needs to survive in peace, is a balance among all the parts in this physiological teeter-totter of mind and body, that I know couldn’t happen without the vibrant realities of the human and biological communities (http://factfictionfancy.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/), all of which operate by balancing the factual laws of nature.

So I decided to substitute the word Harmony in my mantra

Within less than a mile – I swear this is true, on April 6, 2013 – I saw a big green sign by the side of the highway pointing to “Harmony Road.”

Should I have followed the road? Or –

Maybe I am.

May I live in harmony in my mind.
In a viable, vibrant balance: love balancing anger; fear balancing hubris, wisdom and factual knowledge balancing foolish ignorance;

May I live in harmony with my body.
Tending tenderly to its needs;

May I live in harmony with my neighbors.
In kindness, based upon truth and honor, with everyone I meet.

May I live in harmony with the reality of my community.
No matter how badly it sometimes behaves.

May I live in harmony with the factual laws of the creation and the creator;
Sharing in the commons without greed or grasping.
Recognizing that the processes of Life are not anthropocentric,
But must be shared universally.
Or not at all.

Happiness is a word with no meaning; harmony, something I can try to achieve. Even though it’s not easy to live in harmony with toxicity, at least I have a place to go to.

This is Bare Bones Biology, a weekly production of FactFictionFancy.com, and KEOS radio, in Bryan, Texas. The podcast can be downloaded at:

Recommended References

Tony Hillerman, The Shape Shifter – good read; easy to find on line or in the library.

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness, the revolutionary art of kindness. Shambala Classics
(Not so revolutionary after all, is it? Originated 2500 years ago or maybe a long, long time before that, judging by similarity with the Navajo concept for only one. And is pretty much just good common sense community behavior, but – the first time I’ve seen it outlined so clearly.)

Pema Chodron, The Four Limitless Quantities. Audiobook. Omega Mediaworks.