Thinking Good Thoughts is Not Enough

Increasingly I hear from friends involved with various New Age and traditional spiritual ideas and practices that the solution to our community’s and the world’s increasingly threatening political, social, economic and environmental crises is positive thought. “What we think is what we create,” they say. Many work hard at improving their mental state, but few of them seem to take much interest in practical action in the outside world. They seem to prefer meditating, holistic health practices, therapy, taking workshops or going to yoga classes. All worthy endeavors, of course, but perhaps not sufficient to address our current historical challenges.

Indeed, if we look at history we see that the great positive changes and advances were often the result not only of enlightened ideas but also hard work, tenacious persistence, profound resistance and incredible bravery. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, although highly spiritual, didn’t just think good thoughts about racism or colonialism. In addition to prayer and meditation, they took specific actions to create change.

My personal hero at the moment is deep ecologist/Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy who offers a wise 3-step prescription for turning things around at this critical time in earth’s history. Each of the steps is necessary but not a complete solution by itself. By taking action in all three arenas, we create a powerful synergy that is far more than the sum of its parts. An added personal dividend is that we keep our mental health in balance as we confront seemingly intractable difficulties.

1. Resist one or more of the life-destroying forces that disturb you the most.
2. Create and build life-sustaining alternatives.
3. Raise levels of consciousness.

Number three is a critical component of success, but merely thinking elevated thoughts is not enough.

Comments

[heather]

I completely agree with you, Linda. For those of you receiving MoonLetters, that was Moon 2: Full Moon: 007 of the Joanna Macy "cycle lessons".

:)

[Amy Lenzo]

Linda,

I think you make an important point.

Positive thinking is of the utmost value, and really makes a difference to all sorts of things, so we should never underestimate it, but as you say, positive thinking is only one part of the solution to the problems we face.

Many of us with spiritual paths seem to think that our spiritual practice alone is the answer to everything. We forget (or try to ignore) that we have physical bodies, psychological issues and political realities to deal with, and ultimately find that meditating alone will not resolve them.

Our spiritual paths give us our ground of being, and they can be of crucial help in sourcing solutions, but they are only the beginning. As Macy and so many other spiritually inclined activists say, we need to take concrete actions in the world to bring our own achievements of inner peace into manifestation in the world.

Spirit is part of the world and the world is part of spirit. We need to be able to clarify the difference between them, true, but not to try and subsume one in the other, or privilege one over the other. It's my belief that liberation lies in realizing and living in the clear light that suffuses both realms.

[Linda Buzzell-Saltzman]

Beautifully expressed, Amy, and so true. And I'd like to recommend everyone check out www.mymoonster.com - Heather's wonderful site!

[Elizabeth Harrison]

Thanks Linda for this post; as a person who lives in the Northern Rockies where environmental issues are on the front page of our newspaper every day, it is not easy to not be sentimental about the environment. We are fighting the battle every day here, in the last remaining temperate ecosystem in the lower 48, with its full complement of species -- bears, wolves, bison, etc. The issues are intense, the stakes super-high, and the war is constant.

But it is also easy, living here, to want to just stop reading the paper, because the environmental issues are in our face all day long; development, slaughter of bison due to lack of winter habitat outside of Yellowstone, taking wolves of the Endangered Species list and having Idaho's legislature proclaim they'd like to have zero wolves in Idaho. Aerial gunning of these animals is likely to occur in all three states (Montana, Idaho and Wyoming). There are days when it would be easy to just say, "hey there's nothing I can do myself, so I will just think positive thoughts and make Vision Maps of intended outcomes, etc." and let the Universe take over.

When I lived in other places (New York, Santa Barbara, Boulder), it was much easier to be "spiritual" about the environment. When I first moved to Montana, I swung to the opposite side, and said, "It's all about fighting for the land and her inhabitants -- animal and human -- forget this new age rhetoric." I wrote angry letters to the editor, I took part in Global Warming marches, I attended public meetings with Game and Fish to protest taking the bears off the endangered species list, and I simmered with rage.

It took some time for me to realize that for me, I had to integrate both (a wise spiritual practice in general, I might add). I remember Andrew Harvey talking about how we've had enough ascension, it was time for descension, grounded, practical spiritual work. Being in that place is not easyl it's painful to see what we are doing to the place we love (humans are the only species that actively and consciously "fouls its nest") and to see the wholesale killing of rare and endagered mega fauna.

It's tempting to want to disappear into my prayerful, meditating self.

But I got it, finally, at age 48, that it really is indeed about the middle path. Finally, I am square in the middle, neither solely blasting angry leters to the editor and feeling despair and righteous indignation, nor simply hoping that by believing in a positive outcome, I can sit back and watch the devastation of the ecosystem where I live and just "have a spiritual outlook" on it all.

As a practicing animal intuitive, I work with people who are seeking to deepen their relationship with and understanding of their "significant other" of the four legged kind. I conduct workshops at the local new age shop in my community to mark the changing of the seasons to ground us in the place where we live and conduct group prayer and meditation rituals for our "local" wildlife who are suffering.

I also am very involved in local conservation efforts, doing what I can do (both in terms of activism and financal support) to help non-profit conservation groups use the tools THEY have to stop the madness.

All of this comes together here for me. I am grateful that I have been able to integrate both left and right brain in doing my part to help save what is worth saving.

I encourage us all to find our individual path of uniting right and left brain, blending heaven with Earth, to be able to be "peaceful warriors" for the earth and her residents.

STAY STRONG!

[Steve Salmony]

2007 EXCHANGE OF IDEAS BETWEEN FRIENDS

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Dear B,

In the light of E. O. Wilson’s comments about small creatures and today’s report from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) that more than 41,000 species of animals and plants are now on its ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST, do you think it is too early to consider that the evolutionary success of the human species may not be guaranteed? Perhaps it is not too late to consider how the human species in our time could inadvertently precipitate a "Human Community Collapse" by adamantly insisting upon more unbridled growth of business enterprise and human numbers now overspreading the Earth.

I am concerned that after threatening biodiversity with extinction and the environment with irreversible degradation, and also dissipating the limited resources of Earth, humankind will become an unexpected threat to its own survival.

Sincerely,

Steve

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Hi Steve,

You bring up a very good point, and one that is foremost in the minds of everyone with environmental awareness. The notion of sustainability does not seem to have been infused in equal value to progress made in both the industrial and technological revolutions. When we look closely, it is as if we are but children playing with new toys, not grasping just what they mean nor thinking very far into the future. Anyone who studies simple biology knows that unchecked growth cannot last, that eventually the system that supported whatever it is gets out of balance, and then...well...things change. So at the very least we are looking for sweeping change. How much of it we will see in our short lifespan is uncertain, but what is certain is that even now we are observing first-hand some negative effects of our actions in the past. Nature is very efficient, and certainly will take care of things one way or another. I agree with what you suggest, that we could benefit from applying caution and implementing the enlightened consideration of experts in our approach to the future. Application of knowledge requires official sanction and public policy, which as you know is not so easy to achieve. Hopefully, the brightest minds among us who post their knowledge and recommendations in research & books and who broadcast their views and information on things like TED TALKS will encourage our policy makers to get on the same page, i.e., as stewards of the earth and its abundance rather than exploiters. Ultimately, I have hope, and think a hopeful attitude can have a snowball effect. I’m pretty sure hope is the official stance of this organization, by the way, and why a forum such as this is so encouraging.

Thanks, Steve, for your posts here and elsewhere on our blogs.
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Dear B,

Sometimes it looks to me as if some of our brothers and sisters are so focused on the accumulation of wealth and power, in feathering their own gigantic nests, frequenting exclusive clubs, flying private jets, sailing yachts and visiting exotic hideaways, that the "powers that be" have overlooked the certain requirements necessary for the maintenance of our planetary home, which is soon to become endangered by certain unbridled, distinctly human enterprises now overspreading the Earth.

How do things look to you?

Always,

Steve

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Steve,

I like the idea of everyone coming to see that we are definitely interconnected. Just as the bees and flowering plants need each other, so do we humans need the environment. The sooner we get truly sustainable in our stewardship of the environment, the better. The last 50 years have seen unprecedented wealth and technology, and a few have enjoyed advantages never dreamt of in the past. Hopefully, we will all start doing our part, even the very insulated among us. I’m actually quite optimistic, as I think there is so much positive focus for new energies coming along in young people, and a rededication to creative efforts to make the world a better place in those of us who are older. I certainly can imagine these things building on themselves. It starts right here, wherever we are.

B.

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Dear B,

I share your optimism. With good science as our guide and the adequate use of intelligence and other splendid gifts granted to human beings by God, we can choose to respond ably to the requirements of reality, whatsoever they may be.

Elders like me will hopefully be open to guidance of our young people, as you suggest, and also of the mothers of children, rather than holdfast to the outworn creeds of the children of men among us. The self-proclaimed masters of the universe in my not-so-great generation appear to have lost their way.

On the other hand, we cannot rule out the possibility that I am one of those unfortunate elders about whom I report, who has lost touch with good science, the natural order of living things, and the limitations imposed upon human life by the very nature of the biophysical world we inhabit.

I and my generation can and will do better. Of that I am certain.

Sincerely,

Steve

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ONWARD!

B.
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Dear B,

I believe this is one way to begin. We have to speak of topics that are taboo, just as we do here.

My greatest concern is that the undoing of the human species, and life as we know it, could inadvertently occur as a result of the adamant and relentless maintenance of SILENCE.

Silence is something to be feared. Silence is especially terrifying and potentially ruinous when it is actively employed as a tool for denying good science.

Thank YOU,

Steve

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Steve,

I don’t mean to be flip, but the old saying comes to mind: "The more the merrier!" We can hope more voices will speak up for beneficial uses of our stunning technologies to forge a path to a wise, efficient, and fittingly sustainable paradigm for the future world. There is another saying that comes to mind should we fail to understand what we need to do, and that is, "That way lies madness." I am so looking forward to the tipping point, where all accept as a given the need to create and live in a balanced world. I know it is coming.

B.

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Dear B,

You make wonderful points. Let me see if I understand you well enough.

Would it be correct to say that we have a choice: either we can choose to accept the knowledge derived from the best available, good science and deploy that knowledge to maintain a sustainable world, one fit for human habitation, or we can fail to do what is necessary by holding fast to an unsustainable paradigm for the future world...and by continuing to defend flawed data derived from politically convenient and economically expedient mad science?

Always,

Steve
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...and having the wisdom to know the difference.

B.
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Dear B,

At least in my humble opinion, THIS IS COMMUNICATION!

Perhaps humanity has global challenges in the offing, challenges that are formidable, even as we begin to take the measure of them.

As we steady our focus on these challenges, it becomes evident that there may be no quick fixes to the problems with which we are presented. Business-as-usual brought us to this moment in human history, but cannot take us to the future we picture for our children.

Contemplate and picture in your mind the business-as-usual activities with which we are familiar. We can see that the unbridled growth of economic activities is overspreading the Earth.

Now for the hard part: questions.

Can the seemingly endless growth and the astonishing success of unregulated human production and consumption activities continue in the same old business-as-usual way and at their current scale on a relatively small, finite planet the size of Earth?

If the Earth is round and has physical limitations, is it reasonable and sensible to consider that there are limits to the unrestricted global growth of human activities on Earth?

Are there no alternatives to untethered economic globalization?

Are there no options to the unchecked per capita consumption of Earth’s limited resources?

Who knows, before long questions like these will become a part of open discussions at international conferences, in governing bodies and spoken of by those in the mass media.

I and my generation are going to do better, much better.
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Steve,

Your questions almost answer themselves and wholly appeal to common sense. I believe that love of humanity, passion for life and a strong will to survive will eventually corral all of us into the same camp, which is good because we must work together to solve our problems. We may be lucky that things are getting so blatantly out of hand, because a cry for better will eventually emerge. Hat’s off to any who can keep their heads while some around us are losing theirs. Like a teenager on a joy ride, flagrant environmental abuses cannot have good results and therefore cannot last that long. The trick will be coming to the tipping point. I believe we are very very close. I hope others will participate in this inspiring conversation. We believe in the exchange of ideas and invites it with these blogs. Thanks so much for participating.

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Dear B,

Thanks to you, D., Al and the great scientists of the IPCC, it does appear more and more people are beginning to awaken, finally, with the coming of each new day, to something that is fresh and unforeseen about the world we inhabit.

I and our dearest colleagues have only become awakened just a matter of days earlier than those who are soon, or else eventually, to be released from their slumber.

Once awake, people are going to be able to see that while nothing about the surface of the Earth has changed, not really; everything about the wondrous landscape is different in unexpected ways.

When many in the human community perceive what you and other leaders are saying and doing, it will be as if they are seeing the world God blesses us to inhabit for the first time, I suppose.

That is going to make a difference.

All the best to you,

Steve