RIPPLES

Over a trade bonanza – the North Atlantic Route for shipping – arguments clash bringing up climate change. Deniers and confirmers grapple like Sumo wrestlers around a ring of ice that melts into the sea, leaving ripples. At the same time, there are also heat waves, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, the sea itself rising amidst a torrent of broken records. The arguments become a flock of migrating birds.

A biosphere through eons of evolution, this earth has produced human consciousness, thought that leaps earth-bound forms to imagine infinity, taken by investors to mean limitless growth, a sense of freedom, wealth and power. These are the struggles of a limited self, the iron mask of ages striving against imprisonment. The inner journey of evolution has become an external battle to conceal costs which must not reach the bottom line. This has succeeded in producing a paradox. A finite sphere must nonetheless be expected to support limitless growth.

A good summary is provided by system analyst Rodrigo Castro. He is quoted by Naomi Klein in her book, “This Changes Everything” (p161):

“It is our predicament that we live in a finite world, and yet we behave as if it were infinite. Steady exponential growth with no limits on resource consumption and population is the dominant conceptual model used by today’s decision makers. This is an approximation of reality that is no longer accurate and [has] started to break down.”

Domination? Without this planet we cannot exist. While hopping from form to form, reaping differences in valuation, our imagined mastery is being countered by extreme weather, impersonal, across the board, everywhere. There is no puzzle, just the mirage, which is belied by a simple reality: Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.

Reality slips around and through the words, artifacts of intelligence that necessarily yield to a realization, not a dream, not a mirage, but a recognition by those who are completely awake: The mask is empty.

So then – infinite growth. And why not? Well . . .

Ice melts. Emptiness is form.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

A change in the climate has come with the delusion of limitless, accelerating growth. The teacher has caught a fever. With all due respect, it seems time to throttle back. And we can learn more about the fuels we've been provided all along. The current disaster is also an opportunity to restore appreciation for our home in the universe, to trade the delusion of domination for co-operation in our biosphere, especially with each other. Our teacher has not shown any personal interest in whether or not we learn but will provide guidance in accordance with how we pay attention.