Quips, Quotes and Quantum Leaps
Celebrating the Earth
Dear Earthlings,
Welcome to this special Earth Day edition of Quips, Quotes and Quantum Leaps!
And yes, the earth gave birth to all of us: the microbes and the macrobes, the ferns, frogs, fish, finches, four-leggeds, you and me and we are all together. And Earth Day is everybody’s Mother’s Day.
The earth continues to suckle us all, with air and water, food and shelter. And even though we are spinning through space at many thousands of miles an hour, we don’t even have to hold on — because the earth is holding on to us with her strong arms of gravity. She is the ground of our being, our rock of ages.
On this Earth Day, I share some articles and videos from the archives. Check them out! I hope they will energize your Earth Day celebrations and inspire you to do something more to help heal and protect our mother.
No matter what you choose to do, at some point in your Earth Day celebration, or your any day earth celebration, take off your shoes and dance on the ground, touching your mother skin to skin. Or just lay down flat, ignore your inner cynic, and give your mama a great big hug. As always, she will kiss you and forgive you, and welcome you home.
All praises to the earth. Long may she spin!
And as always, if you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own.
Love,
Wes
Watch: Your Ancestor Was a Fish
Watch, Earthlings
Unearthed from the Archives
Ancestors of Awakening
The time has come to delight in the fact that we are part of this grand unfolding and unfinished revelation, to take our place as members of the extended family of life on earth. (READ MORE)
The Veritable Vertebrate – A Guided Meditation
Lately I’ve been reflecting on my bones; even meditating on them. This is part of a general study I have undertaken to try to understand what we inherit from biological evolution and how that knowledge can inform our practice of dharma. The best way to explain this work is to offer you a sample of it, a guided meditation exercise. Give it a try. See if you can feel it in your bones. (READ MORE)
Life Lines
In the next hour, three species of life will become extinct. All beings of three particular types—maybe they have a distinct shape or coloring, a wiggly orange stripe down their backs or a certain size of mandible, a special call or way of sensing the world— whatever it is, all beings with those specific characteristics will have vanished. And by this time tomorrow, seventy-five more unique forms of life will be gone, presumably forever. In short, Nature’s handiwork is being decimated. (READ MORE)
“Within the Buddhist tradition there exist powerful, time-tested, and accessible methods for healing our perceived separation from the world around us. The techniques of Buddhist insight meditation were specifically designed as ways to explore and experience the natural forces working through us at ever moment.”
The Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the soil
of Turtle Island,
and to the beings who thereon dwell
one ecosystem
in diversity
under the sun
With joyful interpenetration for all.
Gary Snyder
Happy Earth Day to You!
Happy Earth Day to you!
Happy Earth Day every-body —
(keep holding the note) — regardless of kingdom, phyla, class, order, family, genus or species; regardless of color of skin, fur, feathers, scales, leaves or bark — (Resume singing) —
Happy Earth Day to you!”
