Gaia Consciousness

This is my first posting on this new blog.  I hope to stimulate discussion as to what we can and what we cannot say about spirit,  Earthen Spirituality and Gaia consciousness. By Gaia consciousness I mean the idea or realization that there is only one consciousness available to us as an Earthling and it is Gaia.  So I suggest that our assumption that we are a separate conscious being looking out onto a separate world is an illusion.  We are more ‘being lived’ than living.  Now let me make it clear at the outset.  Yes, we all, all creatures to an extent, have a thinking function.  But, we are not our thinking function. Thinking is a tool, a wonderful tool.  However, we seem to be content to eat the icing off the cake and ignore the cake.  Why does that ancient text, the Hsin Hsin Ming, by the Third Chan patriarch say: “Stop thinking and there is nothing that you will not be able to understand?”  Why because our thinking function is limited and is not at all in touch with our deeper reality, our deeper connection with Gaia and the creative spirit that forms the basis of life as we can experience it. The Psalms say – “Be still and know that I am God.”  The word still is probably not a very accurate translation.  But turning it around the other way, one can perhaps agree that we don’t engage in endless debate over the nature of God.  The thinking function is totally inadequate.  However, intuition is a subject for further enquiry at another time.

Please post your ideas.

Choosing accurate and meaningful words for what I am getting at is difficult because our acceptable language terminology has been determined largely by our world view. As we feel deeply into what it is to be alive; what it is to be an Earthling and learn more and more about the intelligence and wisdom of Gaia, we discover how utterly limiting our vocabulary is. What a barrier it is to thinking out of the box so to speak. Traditional science has been very little help by defining truth as that which fits into their measuring instruments and worshipping certainty as it emerges from their measurements.  If phenomenon does not fit the instruments, then it is worthless and any thoughts on the subject lack certainty. I have a lot more to say about certainty.  Moving on however, Let me suggest a question, a discussion item perhaps.

How would our worldview change if we saw ourselves as actually IN the planet, integrated like the roots and the trunk of a tree?  An ancillary question.  Is it not probable that a planet such as Gaia, has great spiritual power?  The kind of power that fuels the immense diversity and creativity, not to mention the sometimes awesome, breathtaking beauty that some of us have experienced. What is the whole philosophical subject called aesthetics but simply Gaia’s loving energy? 

Unfortunately, our vocabulary is limited to the accepted scientific and philosophical terminology largely determined even before the world was proven not to be square and that the sun did not circle the Earth.  Don’t we still speak of sunrise and sunset?  I don’t have a problem with that but does it not illustrate how we tend to hold on to outdated terminology and ways of thinking? 

I have a lot more to say about how our ways of seeing the world limit our ability to learn deeper meanings and relationships. 

Please post your ideas, I would really like to hear them.  

I find it difficult to keep myself constantly aware that Gaia has wisdom, intelligence and a huge spiritual envelope. My concern is that we continue our destruction of other lifeforms because we don’t love the Earth. We don’t love the Earth because we have not been taught that the Earth is lovable. How much of the loveliness we feel outdoors comes to us through Gaia as a Mother being?

Spirituality and certainty, now there is a provoking subject.  I recently discussed global warming with a chap at a private art and sculpture showing.  The word certainty came up.  Where was the certainty when it comes to global warming.  I didn’t have time to develop my thoughts on this.  However, when we consider that Gaia is a living being, then we should recognise that living beings simply do not conform to mathematical certainty.  Consider:  When your medical doctor says that he/she does not know exactly what is wrong with you but puts you on a course of medicine, do you ignore it out of hand because the diagnosis lacks certainty? When scores of research projects link smoking to cancer do you totally deny the probability because the math has no absolute certainty?  Will you certainly awaken tomorrow morning?  Smog in Tucson Arizona is a certainty.  It wasn’t there just after World War II.  Are you going to tell me that humans did not cause it?  Phoenix Arizona was the place where asthmatics, hay fever sufferers and people with breathing problems were told to move to in the period before 50 years or so ago.  Not now. No, for humans by the thousands sunk wells into the precious acquifer and sprinkled blue grass while farmers ploughed and watered the desert.  That was called making the desert “bloom.” 

Is it certain that humans caused these changes?  I think so, don’t you?

Again, concern for the human interference with the manner in which Gaia maintains our health – her health is our health – is earthen Spirituality practice.  One last question with this post:  Can we damage the planet without damaging ourselves?

Randazzo, Sicily

Randazzo, Sicily 2011