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ENS每週評論:救治我們的世界

Healing Our World: Weekly Comment

我們可以選擇生活 (下)

We Can Choose Life 


作者:傑奇•艾倫•朱利安諾 博士

  創造世界價值觀轉變的最大障礙,是面對生活型態抉擇所產生的後果時,許多人經歷的深沉痛苦與麻木不仁。對於選擇傾聽的人來說,地球哭泣的聲音如此響亮,我們需要志同道合的靈魂支援。

  馬里多瑪.派崔斯.梭梅是西非巫醫,擁有三個碩士學位、兩個博士學位,在他的書《儀式:力量、治療與社區》(Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community) 中,對於目前的混亂指出一些線索。他說:「工業文化賴以生存的本質,是兩種極端危險的現象。一是生產的好處,另一是生產工具缺乏靈性力量的危險。」

  梭梅說:「靈性可以解放人們,與靈魂一起工作。因為沒有接觸到聖靈,『機械』壓倒靈性獲得勝利,並且被當成聖靈般地崇拜。這純粹是人類判斷上的錯誤,任何人如果崇拜自己生產出來的東西,就會處於混亂狀態。」

  我們的文化如何使我們遠離生活的核心價值觀?梭梅對此提出有力的解析。他說:「『西方機械』技術的精神是死的,卻被打造成活的。它使生活變得容易、舒適、安逸,但我們所付出的代價包括失去自己的人性。」他說:「這使自然的生活方式看來原始,充滿飢荒、疾病、無知與貧窮,人們因而感激機器的奴役,甚至讓其他不被奴役的人對自己感到難過。」

  我們唯一的家。伽利略太空船前往木星途中所拍攝的地球。(照片提供 美國國家航空暨太空總署)

  有多少次,你在報紙上讀到一則故事,而為「第三世界」國家的人民感到難過,因為他們沒有漂亮的衣服、洗衣機、與吸塵器?如果反過來,我們羨慕他們與大自然較為親近、與自然循環完全融合的生活呢?

  確實,開發程度較低的世界中,有許多人正在受苦。但他們所受的苦不是因為沒有超級市場和洗碗機,其死亡原因多半是營養不良及水源污染。每年有將近五百萬名兒童,死於飲用水傳染疾病導致的下痢。

  這不該是科技比美國落後的註定下場。這些人民的受苦,多半與政治領導人物所做的抉擇有直接關係,他們選擇了戰爭武器,而捨棄淨水系統。每年死亡的五百萬名兒童,花費大約7億美元就能拯救他們的生命-而整個世界在六小時內就能在軍備費用上花掉這些錢!

  所以將來會是什麼樣子?你願意選擇生活嗎?世界衝擊的隨後效應,從一開始的痛苦、到全然欣賞的震驚,接著將帶給你巨大的平和。

  從小事開始:少開車、少購物、多走路、找到與世界律動的連結。冒點險、參加團隊康樂活動,買點健康食物、退回一張信用卡。

  不要等政治趕上你的腳步,否則你可能要等很久。仔細看看孩子的清澈目光,就能找到一切的動機。選擇生活。

參考資料

1.瓊安娜•梅西的作品將改變你看待世界的方式。看看她與莫莉•楊•布朗合著的書《回歸生活:練習重新與我們的生活、我們的世界連結》(暫譯)。此書相關資訊:http://www.newsociety.com/cblfs.html

2.請參考瓊安娜•梅西的文章:http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC34/
Macy.htm
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/
Macy.htm

3.《儀式:力量、治療與社區》,集結了馬里多瑪.派崔斯.梭梅的智慧精華。

4.參與「呼應祖先」(EchoesoftheAncestors)的工作,這個非營利團體是由非洲學者和社會運動者馬里多瑪.梭梅率領:http://www.malidoma.com/Malidoma/

5.試試新觀點,看看它合不合適你。請拜訪「原住民女人」網絡:http://www.honorearth.com/iwn/

6.其他「救治我們的世界」評論的相關建議,特別推薦:http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/
2000L-06-09g.html
以及 http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jul99/
1999L-07-19g.html

傑奇•艾倫•朱利安諾博士,是西雅圖的教師兼作家。在等待寶寶誕生期間,他嘗試要改變自己的生活方式。請將你的想法、評論與觀察寄到以下的信箱給他:jackie@healingourworld.com,或是造訪他的網頁:http://www.healingourworld.com}


By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

The greatest obstacle to creating the required shift in world values is the deep pain and resulting numbing that so many of us experience when we confront the consequences of our lifestyle choices. The sound of the Earth crying is loud for those who choose to listen. We need support from like-minded souls to sustain ourselves.

Malidoma Patrice Some, a West African medicine man with three masters degrees and two Ph.D.s, in his book "Ritual, Power, Healing, and Community," gives us some clues to our confusion. He says, "Industrial cultures live with the essence of two extremely dangerous phenomena. One is the good side of production; the other is the danger of what happens to the tools for production when they are devoid of any spiritual strength." 

Some says, "The spirit liberates the person to work with the things of the soul. Because this reaching out to the spiritual is not happening, the Machine has overthrown the spirit and, as it sits in its place, is being worshiped as spiritual. This is simply an error of human judgment. Anyone who worships his own creation, something of his own making, is someone in a state of confusion."

Some gives us a powerful clue about how our culture has shifted us away from core values based on life. He says "Western Machine technology is the spirit of death made to look like life. It makes life seem easier, comfortable, cozy, but the price we pay includes the dehumanization of the self." He says, "It has made the natural way of living look primitive, full of famine, disease, ignorance and poverty so that we can appreciate our enslavement to the Machine and, further, make those who are not enslaved by it feel sorry for themselves."

Our only home. Earth from space taken by Galileo spacecraft on its way to Jupiter (Photo courtesy U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

How many times have you seen a story in the newspaper and felt sorry for all those people in "Third World" nations who live their lives without fancy clothes, washing machines and vacuum cleaners? What if, instead, we chose to envy those that are closer to the natural world and living fully in its cycles?

It is true that many people in the lesser developed worlds are suffering. But they are not suffering because of lack of superstores and dishwashers. Their deaths are usually because of nutritional deficiencies and tainted water. Nearly five million children each year die from diarrhea caused by diseases transmitted in polluted drinking water.

This is not a necessary consequence of living in a country that is less technological than the United States. Their suffering can usually be directly tied to the choices being made by political leaders who choose weapons of war over clean water systems. The lives all those five million children who die each year could be saved for about $700 million - what the world spends on armaments in six hours!

So what will it be? Will you choose life? After the initial pain and shock of fully appreciating the consequences of your impact on the world, a great peace can set in.

Start out small: drive less, buy less, walk more, seek out connections to the rhythms of the world. Take a chance and attend a drum circle, shop at a health food store, cancel a credit card.

You don't have to wait for politics to catch up with you. That will be along wait. Just look into the clear eyes of a child and you will have all the motivation you need. Choose life.

RESOURCES

1. Joanna Macy's work will change your way of looking at the world. Get her book, written with Molly Young Brown, "Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World," New Society Publishers, 1998. Learn about the book at: http://www.newsociety.com/
cblfs.html

2. Read articles by Joanna Macy at: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC34/
Macy.htm
and at: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/
Macy.htm

3. The wisdom of Malidoma Patrice Some is beautifully captured in the work "Ritual: Power, Healing and Community," Swan/Raven & Company, 1993.

4. Follow the work of Echoes of the Ancestors, Inc., a non-profit group headed by African scholar and activist Malidoma Some at: http://www.malidoma.com/Malidoma/

5. Try on a new perspective and see how it fits. Visit the Indigenous Women's Network at: http://www.honorearth.com/iwn/

6. Find suggestions in other Healing Our World commentaries, particularly the ones at: http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jun2000/
2000L-06-09g.html
and http://www.ens.lycos.com/ens/jul99/
1999L-07-19g.html

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found trying to clean up his act while waiting for his new baby. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at http://www.healingourworld.com

 
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