Be the tree you wish to see in the world
Most religions began, it is suspected, with animism and nature worship. It took hundreds of thousands of years for monotheism, and organized religion, to begin to see the creation as something apart from humanity.
For most of our human history, then, our species has seen the Earth as a polytheistic set of beings, interactive with arranged systems of nature, and other micro and macro beings, ourselves thriving among them.
The idea of separating the existence of the flesh from the spirit, even today has been skeptically questioned. And now, more so than ever, because the idea of domination, colonization, and genocide, are no longer seen as in any way “natural” orders, the question of supremacy looms.
If we breathe by the grace of our living kinship with plants and animals, and if we eat, shelter, love, and thrive only if we protect these things, how can there be a separation? The twentieth-century genetic sciences, along with a fuller view of various cultures across the world, have allowed us to be certain of our kinship.
There is the reality of your material being. You are atoms of fruit you eat, and oxygen molecules you breathe. The electricity and elements, within you, originally come from the power of the stars, and the ongoing process that allows us to live in the geosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere.
That is, we have life because we are these things, moving through one another.
The hole in our “whole”
But the “one-ness” of our world should not be confused with the one idea of a monotheistic God, or even a trinity. That all are one and one is all is more than a catchy Led Zeppelin lyric, it’s the living truth, for as long as we can sustain it.
Religions and faiths, run by rulers, infamously, have been at one another’s throats for centuries. However, introducing Humanism and enlightenment has also failed to unite the world in a religion that has a sharp focus on our united belonging to the living planet.
Creation care, one Christian perspective that promotes the idea that our creation deserves our love and protection, does not get as much press as deeply divisive churches in what we call western culture.
Sadly, conflict sells. But our short time left on Earth does not afford us time for the sensational, divisive, or wars we wage on one another.
The ever-wary media and critics look at greedy televangelists, extreme pundits, politicians who are hypocrites, or non-inclusive intolerance to our shared belonging. Wedge issues about gender, LGBTQ+, race, and wealth seem to constantly be in our news cycle whereas our actual, literal belonging to one another as Earthlings, does not.
There is another issue for some faiths that do not necessarily see Earth as anything other than a temporary stepping stone to something better.
First, connect, then cooperate, then engage in compassion
Because of where we are with the over-exploitation of Earth, her people, and the biosphere, we must begin to find every possible way to connect with our commonality and interdependence.
A world of suffering has begun. We will need each and every one of us to survive if we do, by engaging in compassion and empathy for all suffering beings. Do this one day at a time.
Start by realizing you, in all humility, could never exist without the planet, systems, peoples, and places that support you. It really should not even be an issue about belief in any particular deity — unless you need that. Just accepting the universe is more powerful than an individual is enough. And, that we know the world supports life on at least one finite planet.
We can all benefit from learning not just from present indigenous systems around the world, gifts of faith and culture from the East, but also by looking at ancient beliefs and archeological, and anthropological evidence from the paleolithic to modern times.
There is much evidence now, that we only survived these few hundred thousand years because we relied upon, cooperated, and innovated with one another. There is evidence that rather than being disposable, even elders and injured, and/or sick people were cared for in united cooperation.
Our modern disposable world is not wholly natural, and if you see that, you are of Earth: one of us.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Kevin Wolf on Unsplash
