Just hang in there & don't worry
tag > Philosophy
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What does a 21st century version of Animism look like?
Animism is the world's oldest religion, starting in the Paleolithic age. Its view is that all phenomena have agency, that there exists no distinction between the spiritual & material, and that sentience exists not only in humans, but also in animals, plants, rocks, rivers, etc.
Beyond the naive & outdated interpretations of Animism as "primitive" superstition, one can think of it as one of humanities oldest still active cultural lineages. Beyond the spiritual domain, Animism has highly relevant views on socio-political, ecological & technological issues
In a sense, one can think of Animism as a *holistic framework* which elegantly encompasses ecology, culture, art, politics, technology, science & spirit. It is age old & battle proven yet still alive & in flux. Animism is not a belief system, but a world view and a value system.
Among the many positive and highly practical affordances that Animism offers us today, here are a few: It addresses the "people-in-nature" (opposite the current "people-VS-nature") question heads-on, which is critical in times of climate change & mass species extinction.
Animism is fundamentally *process-oriented* & *relations-oriented* (VS our current cult-like obsession with consumption & dead artefacts). Looking at human-environment interactions as processes and relationships is indeed the way to get out of the "people.VS.nature" trap.
And finally, by re-enchanting our worldview, Animism invites us to feel deeply at home in our own skin & reality - and not live in an constant state of alienation and fear of the "other", which results in our current pathological need to control, model & predict everything.
To conclude, i like to invite you to earnestly meditate on this: Fairies, Ents, Elfs, Gnoms, Jinns and Water Spirits are real! As real as the spirit in plants, animals & humans. Animism has much to offer for the 21st century. Let's embrace it & re-enchant our world.
Related: Animism: a belief among indigenous people, young children, or all religious people!
#Culture #Religion #Philosophy #Regenerative #Magic #Comment #History #Ideas
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"The center of the universe is really everywhere, within each of us." - Black Elk
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"The obvious is the hardest thing of all to point out to anyone who has genuinely lost sight of it." - Owen Barfield
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Maybe
There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "May be," the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "May be," replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "May be," answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "May be," said the farmer.
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Thoughts on the fundamentals of inquiry and shortcomings of western science
When i have the opportunity of deep-diving into a research rabbit hole in the context of western science (e.g for work), i frequently return to the realization that while such ideas are very complex and fascinating, they ignore and utterly confuse the all important fundamentals of inquiry - where things like Qigong, Yoga, Meditation, etc. effortlessly excel. It's peculiar.
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taiji heartwork said...
Don't resist; don't assist. Resisting is saying I don't want to play the game. Assisting is saying I'll play the game but only if I can be in control. (link)
Intuition operates in real time whereas intelligence takes a moment. Intuition is of the spirit; intelligence of the mind. Intuition puts us in things instead of leaving us outside. (link)
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"Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them." - David Hume
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Today is the 90th anniversary of Kurt Gödel's 1931 paper, which laid the foundations of theoretical computer science, identifying fundamental limitations of algorithmic theorem proving, computing, AI, logics, and math itself. - Text by Jürgen Schmidhuber
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Move to your attention away from Artifacts ("things"), away from Process ("making things"), to Being ("I am - here and now"). Real respect, learning, relaxation, meaning, love and peace requires a unwavering focus on being. Just be, and everything will flow from there.
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Taking infinity to heart has profound implications: Everything exists - including nothing.
