23 Comments
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Cat Cat's avatar

We are not from Earth, We are Of the Earth

Jonathan Shearman's avatar

Profoundly important talk. It suggests the 'dependent origination' of Buddhism, which Thich Naht Hanh called 'interbeing'. It is the only principle that any kind of equitable political and ecomomic model could be founded on.

David L Samson's avatar

How to convey this to the multitude of people who think that their perceptions of the world are the reality?

Elizabeth Beggins's avatar

And how do we convey this to those whose power and profit depend on not seeing the Earth as alive, finite, or sacred?

David L Samson's avatar

Arguably the more important challenge.

Ruth Swords's avatar

Remove them from the world of profit and power. Space might be a humbling place…

Ann Cheeks's avatar

Thank you for posting this. I wish each and every human could understand how fragile and interconnected life is – and how UNimportant most things are.

Eunjoo's avatar

Loved this article. Reminded me of the phenomenon of man by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Thank you for sharing this.

jerry's avatar

Easy to see why. The earth itself is the reservoir of everything, incluging us and our so-called "exceptionalism". Nothing happens on earth without a direct interaction with the earth itself and everything on it. We can screw it up or make it better but eventually we come out of the earth and go back into the earth for recycling.

Maksim Raskolnikov's avatar

No, we are not living a lie. We are barely even able to discover a truth.

Sadly, knowing a problem exists is not enough.

And possibly knowing the solution to a problem is still not enough.

As long as a tiniest minority of people are allowed to twist wrong into right, and are capable of making laws for all, that tell us that being right on something is a crime, and treat us as criminals,

just because we want reason and fairness and peace, we don't have that much of a chance to provide positive contributions. We can try, certainly, but we know there are limits

On top of that, while we all can project and calculate into the future what is going to happen if things keep going the same way as they have over the last 200, 300 or 500 years, we still cannot be certain that our solutions are even remotely enough to make a difference. This only sounds depressing and defeatist, but if you ask yourself and others what you really know, you can only come up with one answer: Not enough!

Ruth Swords's avatar

Some world leaders need to spend some time in space.

Gareth Evans's avatar

But only if we have the option to facilitate their staying in space if they perhaps need more time - a whole lifetime's worth perhaps - to really appreciate the dolly zoom experience, say for example, from the perspective of looking back at the earth on their way to Mars :)

Ruth Swords's avatar

I wonder if it would ever shift the perspective of nationhood to one of planethood. Perhaps an Earth or planetary committee is necessary for global issues like distribution of resources, war and climate change. This committee would benefit from the dolly zoom. Maybe their residence of governance would be in space?

Michael Bellamy's avatar

"He hangs the Earth on nothing" perspective from God.. Job 26:7

The only one who told us; who we are, where we came from, why we are here and where we are going..

Angela Claudia's avatar

we’re not in the universe, we are the universe. We are the universe becoming conscious of itself...

rebecca leveque's avatar

The last two paragraphs really resonate with me. I too am optimistic about the awareness that we are ALL ONE reaching critical mass. Might I suggest putting psilocybin in all the world’s water systems as a way to speed up the process of ‘awareness spreading’. So we can finally work together to fix the planet and put ourselves on a more natural, sustainable trajectory.

Stephanie Larsen Sex Therapist's avatar

This was powerful, thank you.

Michael ryan's avatar

The problem is the non white races should have been eliminated in 1900 now it will be harder

rebecca leveque's avatar

Hahahahahahaha is this a real comment..are you a real person 😂🤣

Michael ryan's avatar

Yes instead of missionaries causing their numbers to explode they should have been allowed to die out in their little mud huts they are useless mouths they are expensive and endlessly troublesome

Tasnim Hassan's avatar

We are the universe!

I am in awe of this piece of video article.

The way it helped us change our perspective of being weaved into the horizon of the earth's protective layer... that metaphor was everything for me!

Kat A's avatar

Thank you for sharing this message of wisdom and hope.

Kat A's avatar

Thank you for sharing these wise and hopeful thoughts. "We are the universe becoming conscious of itself." Keep on keeping on.