※ 前言：約翰‧席德(John Seed)2011全國NGOs環境會議的貴賓，他是澳洲雨林資訊中心的創始人，自1979年起，一直親身參與澳洲雨林保護行動。1984年在美國首次巡迴展覽之後，更發起美國雨林行動網路，繼而在南美洲、亞洲和太平洋，開創很多保護雨林的計畫，及在世界各處撰寫和講授深層生態學，舉辦「眾生大會」、「重新接觸大地」（re-Earthing）等工作坊。他與瓊安娜．梅西（Joanna Macy）、佩徳．福連明（Pat Fleming）和阿恩．內司（ Arne Naess）合著有《像山一樣的思考：走向眾生大議會》(Thinking Like a Mountain - Towards a Council of All Beings)。
以下為他在此次會議演說稿全文：
儘管現代人類有些奇端異想，總覺得自己與活生生的地球是分離的兩者，但事實上我們並不是外星人，我們屬於這裡。人類是由地球所生，40憶年來不斷演化的結果，而這些讓我們能夠出現的這些複雜、細緻微妙生物學的起源無可避免的──仍然是這個母體，也是所有智人的根基。
我們都聽過一些相關的新聞。舉例來說，Raymond Dassman博士，加州大學的生物教授宣布第三次世界大戰已經開始：對抗地球大戰。
最近，2009年底，Kevin Anderson教授、Tyndall氣候變遷中心總監、也是英國最資深的氣候科學家之一，聲明如果地球氣溫上升4度，只有不到1/10的地球人口，也就是大約是5億人口能夠存活下來。
2年前，IPCC 聯合國政府間氣候變遷委員會告訴我們按照目前石化氣體排放量增加的速度，到本世紀末，全球的平均溫度將會上升6度，大量生物將會滅絕，地球將成為無法居住的星球。接著國家科學院NAOS的報告也指出，現在的石化氣體排放量已經超過最壞的情境假設，並且在2010年八月NAOS宣布氣候變遷的科學理論已經被非常完整的檢驗測試，且有眾多獨立的觀察結果可以佐證，因此他們預測錯誤的結果幾乎等於零。這樣的結論代表氣候變遷導致地球滅絕的理論幾乎等於既定事實。
我們都聽到這些新聞報導，但我們的行為因此而有所改變的卻很少。
所以我們怎麼樣才有可能改變我們的想法和行為呢？什麼是一定要改的？當然我們不需要再瞭解更多嚇人的統計數字，這些我們早已知曉。我們覺得無助又無力。科學家警告，我們可能是能夠扭轉生物崩解與支持地球運作的複雜生命系統毀滅的最後一個人類世代。Paul Ehrlich教授警告我們「正在鋸下我們現在坐著的樹枝」，對我來說這代表某種心理層面的問題—不論砍下的這個樹木能讓我們賺多少錢，但這卻是我們唯一擁有的樹木（譯註：砍了就什麼都沒有了）
我在1960年代中於雪梨大學心理系畢業。一開始在倫敦擔任IBM系統工程師，到了1979年因著一個機緣，我發現自己捲入後來成為澳洲或全世界開始第一個直接保護雨林的行動中。
Terania溪谷是這個行動發生的地點，而且這個地點剛好位在我住了五年的社區旁邊。我發現自己介入保護雨林的抵抗行動中，突然間，所有事情都變了。我聽到樹林在尖叫，我聽到他們呼喊我們，求助於我們，我無法抗拒這些呼喊。如果那時我去看精神科醫師，然後告訴他我聽到地球在尖叫，難道我的這些體驗不會被簡化為一種純屬個人的病理現象？這些體驗會顯現的好像我有些異常，也許他會叫我談談我的童年經驗？
一開始有這些體驗時我的反應是害怕與迷惑的。樹木怎麼會尖叫？怎麼可能？後來幾年間當我開始研究這個事件，我發現我當時保護的這片雨林是屬於澳洲原始林的一個部分。1億3千萬年前，當澳洲還屬於偉大的岡瓦納古陸，涵蓋南美洲與南極洲，在南半球各大洲分離之前，所有的大陸都覆蓋著雨林。的確，我的祖先是從這1億3千萬年來自雨林裡演化出來，而我們開始開鑿地底寶庫也不過只是數百年來的事情。因此，能與雨林有某些心理上或靈性層面的接觸好像也不需要這麼的驚訝，而漸漸的讓我們驚訝的--反而是多數人們都無法有這樣的體驗。
Terania小溪抗爭事件後，我成立了雨林資訊中心。這是全世界第一個把保護雨林列入工作項目的NGO，我們足跡遍布各地，從印度到厄瓜多爾，從幾內亞到西伯利亞。
然而，很快的我們就明白我們無法一次只拯救一個雨林。
儘管我們成功的保護了幾個雨林，包括1981年我們搶救了新南威爾士的亞熱帶雨林、1982年塔斯梅尼亞島的溫帶雨林、以及1986年極北昆士蘭的熱帶雨林。但我們很清楚的看到成功搶救一個雨林的同時，世界上有千百個雨林消失了。
當然，我們不能以一次解決一件事的方式解救地球。當我們保護森林的同時，有更多的生命在大量滅絕，以每天100個物種的速度消失。而同時人類也被自己製造排放的氣體及其他進步文明帶來的副產品， 弄得無法呼吸。
1980年代初我就體認到，除非我們可以點出那扭曲當代人性，讓我們幻想自己可以從破壞自己的維生系統中受益，潛藏在此背後的心理及心靈病因。 除非我們可以處理這種瘋狂的想法，否則我們所有的努力及行動都只具有象徵性的意義，並救不了雨林。眼前只有兩條路，不是成為一個綠色星球、就是化為一堆灰塵。
這時我第一次接觸「深層生態學」，我找到分析我們目前狀況的方法，這協助我了解為何我們會走到如此糟糕的地步，或許我們可以有辦法解決這個問題。
深層生態學是近年來對環境運動有極深刻的影響的一門哲學。
在過去的幾千年裡，現代人類發展出一套人類是宇宙中心的觀點。我不清楚台灣的歷史背景(雖然我很想知道)，但我成長的社會裡，這樣的想法來自於猶太及基督教教義，以世界是為服務人類而產生的論調為基礎，建制現代社會的精神及制度層面。只有人是依神的形象創造的，只有人有靈魂及內在的價值，其他物種、河流、森林、洋及山脈的價值，只是工具層次，只有提供資源給人使用的價值。基督教的聖經宣稱，人類的角色是征服並統治萬物，而萬物必須心懷恐懼臣服於人類。
在這樣的說法裡，世界是一個舞台，我們人類是舞台上的主角，其他的都只是小角色。
在生態學(包括有智慧的原住民)都否定此種說法，這世界不是一個人類位於最上端的金字塔，而是一個網，人類不是居於網中央的蜘蛛，而是其間的一股蜘蛛絲，我們如果毀掉其他的絲，就是毀掉自己。
經過數千年的訓練，我們已承襲這種淺薄虛假的自我，和自然脫離。
James Lovelock，這位提出蓋婭假設（認為地球不只是一大塊充滿資源的岩石，而是一個生物體）的科學家，談到我們對地球做的事，是把人類視為身體中最重要的器官─腦，對其他的器官，例如：肝，則不在乎，挖掉亦無妨。
即便最近十幾年來，我們已經改變想法來擁抱某些生態學洞見，但想法不只是存在我們的腦中，它們還顯示在這個世界被如是安排的樣貌。所有我們社會裡的機關行號和我們所說的語言，共謀以這些過時而且現在（結合強大科技與成長的人口）已變成瞭解我們所處世界的致命觀點來困住我們。或許我們的想法已經改變，但我們的機關行號與個性想法已鍛造成這種模式，我們似乎無法給我們所認知新的生態學願景一些實質的內涵。
Arne Naess，奧斯陸大學的榮譽哲學系教授，就是將「深層生態學」這個詞定名的人，曾寫下「只擁有生態學的想法是不夠的，我們必須有生態性的認同，也就是生態我」。他指出有責任感或義務感就是會對自然保育背棄的根源。我們有多少人能利他？只要我們還陷入地球跟我們自身是不同的假象影響，我們能為自己的生活與社會作出非常困難改變---以便在現有生態系統限制下過的安心的假設看起來便不太實際。
如果我們可以認同地球，我們就不需要利他主義。如果我們可以體會我們不是孤立、分離、壓縮在皮膚下的「我」而是地球這個大身體的一部分，對自然的抵抗變成只是一種自我防衛，而這不需要高張的道德名聲。自私變得很「自然」，而這比起突然幻想大部分的我們都變成不自私（對抗我們現在所能理解的自私來保護自然），用此觀點來擴展自我感觀以涵蓋空氣（我的呼吸）、水（我的血液）和土（我的身體）就變的更有希望了。
然而，過了幾千年從我們出生第一天就開始的潛移默化的制約，我們已經成功的創造出這令人驚訝、到處都是的幻相– 與自然分離。
現在，有關這些其實全是幻象的事實可以很簡單的以憋住呼吸5分鐘這件事來得到證明。也就是，我不是在講特別神秘的事情，這是昭然若揭的。我們將之命名為「空氣」，我們會說「這是一個多好的人呀～願意犧牲自己的利益，不為賺很多錢而是為保護空氣工作」，這樣說法好像在說空氣是「在外面的」。但空氣不在外面，所有空氣都不在外面，不論是空氣，水或土，它在我們裡面不斷的移動循環著。沒有所謂的「外面」，全部都是「裡面」，但大部分的現代人都沒這樣的感覺。
只要這個環境是用「在外面」的這種思維來經驗，我們會把保護環境的工作留給某些特殊的利益團體如環保團體，我們仍繼續追逐成為第一。這個情況只有在我們深刻的體認到自然不在外面而是在我們裡面才有可能改變，也唯有這樣的改變持續下去，我們這種無所不在的疏離感才真的是個幻相。
為了回應此事，Joanna Macy和我發展了一個體驗深層生態學儀式的工作坊– 「眾生大會」。並且和Arne Naess我們在1986年合寫了一本書叫做《像山一樣思考– 眾生大會實錄》（現在已被翻譯成12國語言）。
在這個工作坊中我們重新回想起我們在自然中的根，回溯我們生命整體的進化旅程，並釋放在我們DNA內緊閉的記憶。我們經驗到我們身體內的每個細胞是過去40億年來從未間斷的傳承的這個事實– 從魚類開始學會在陸地行走，爬蟲類的鱗片進化成毛皮然後繼續演化成哺乳類，再繼續演化到現在。
我們進一步在眾生大會中擴展我們自我的感知。我們在自然世界中找到自己的伙伴，做一個面具來代表他，並且允許這個動物或植物或景物透過我們表達意見。我們驚訝的發現從這些對話中生出了對這個世界非常不同的觀點。有很多人類可以做的行動很有創意的被建議出來，並且我們祈求其他生命形式的力量與知識在我們生命中給予我們支持。
直到最近，我們都還記得，人類進行這樣的儀式已經有很長的一段時間了，也許幾十萬年。很令人驚訝，它是如此簡單和自然。我們總是對從來沒有聽過的聲音感到震驚，因為真相揭露了。
眾生大會中有一個「追思」的儀式：我們哀悼所有已經消失的事物、物種的滅絕、景觀的破壞。只有讓我們親身體驗地球的痛苦，我們才能有效地去療癒她。這就是為什麼越南的一行禪師(Thich Naht Hanh) 說，為了醫治地球：「最重要的事、我們所能做的，就是從內心深處去聽到地球的吶喊。」
我們極端渴望與地球重新連接，但這個渴望被潛抑（repressed），因此出現大量的替代性活動（displacement activities）。我們處處感到苦悶和空虛，試著用各式各樣的「東西」來填補撕裂的傷口，這樣的過著日子。我們只好去挖掘和破壞地球，來製造和供電給吹風機、微波爐、電動牙刷，但卻無法填補這個裂口。
我們想要的其實不是這種物質性的「東西」，而是某種我們以為會隨之而來的心理狀態。當然，它從來沒有出現，而任何數量的「物質東西」，也不能帶給我們寧靜。
針對「如何擴大身份認同？」這個問題，阿恩內斯這樣回應：現在需要「社群療法」來發展生態我。
起初我很興奮，因為這讓我對眾生大會有新的體認，雖然我已經辦過很多這種工作坊，但從來沒有這樣想過。
但是過一段時間後，我用「治療」這個比喻而看到某些缺點。在新墨西哥州的第三台地（Third Mesa），我有幸參加一個古老的美洲原住民霍皮族（Hopi）的儀式。這是在社區廣場舉辦，此地一直都有人居住，他們是西半球最古老的社群。這個儀式跟眾生大會有很多一樣的地方，只是面具更精彩，鼓聲更自信，而且他們定期舉辦這種儀式已經有好幾千年了。
但治療不應該持續數千年這麼久，這些典禮和儀式還會沒完沒了。也許我們和地球失聯的傾向，古已有之，或許從我們懂得思考那天就開始了？不然，如何解釋，為什麼每個我們看到的完整原住民文化，都有一系列這樣根深蒂固的典禮和儀式，讓人類社會得以承認、更新、而且滋養人類與這塊土地、以及地球上其他社群相互連接的關係？
所以，儘管參加眾生大會的人，都認為這無疑是經歷一趟治療，我認為它代表一個更深的意義，這讓人想起Joseph Campbell的警告：今天人類焦慮的主要原因，是神話和儀式已經消失。我們必須醫治我們的文化，讓它再次提供人類靈魂與地球之間真正的連接給我們。對我來說，真正要做的工作，必須包括重辦儀式和回復它所賦予的力量，且把這個力量落實在我們的生活中，來找出許多服事地球的方式。
這項工作主要是一些體驗而非想法，所以在談我的自然保育之前，我想向大家作一個簡短的深層生態學體驗過程。
正如我在《像山一樣思考》中所寫，我這個觀點的轉變：從人類中心主義到深層生態學，是從我代表「地球母親」採取行動後，產生的結果。
在奮力保護我家附近的雨林時，我發現：
「我在保護雨林。」
改變為
「我是雨林的一部分，在保護我自己。這個想法，新近浮現在我腦中。」
好棒的解脫啊！想像了幾千年的分離已經結束，我們逐漸憶起我們的真實本質。
此外，參與保護雨林所帶來靈性覺醒，讓我無需用任何其他形式來體驗神 ─ 地球本身已經成為我的聖典。
但是，明顯地，很多人的愛地球是由於偉大的傳統信仰，在這些傳統的教誨和禮儀中，有許多關心生態和愛地球的表達。
近年以來，地球受害於市場宗教的奴役，它是這段黑暗時期的主要精神模式。
在經濟宗教的衝擊下，自然和傳統的信念都產生動搖，我相信這是全世界最虔誠的宗教，在高聳的廟堂和購物商場裏膜拜財神，不是一週一次，而是天天。那些無知狂熱的崇拜者，他們的所謂的世俗主義，其實是一種深刻的精神信仰。這個議題，我去年曾為文刊載在西雪梨大學的《社會生態手冊》中。
我認為，我們不但要在偉大傳統信仰中，培養正在成長的生態關心；同時也要保育運動中，培養精神上的諒解和尊重。
我也一直在探索基督教、猶太教、伊斯蘭教、佛教和印度教中，對生態的共同看法。
地球是這些偉大的信仰交會地，它們在這個星球的土壤成長，在這裡互相協調。我從印度教和佛教中、舉兩個例子。
Arunachala山，在泰米爾納德邦，是印度最神聖的一個地點。印度教的傳統故事說，最崇高的神─濕婆，現身為一片無限廣闊的光，光芒耀眼到令其他神抱怨說無法忍受。
濕婆心生悲憫，於是換個形式，化身為Arunachala這座山。一千多年前山腳下蓋了一間龐大的寺廟，許多人認為，開悟的最快方法，是繞著Arunachala這座山步行十一公里。因此自古以來，來此朝聖的人超過好幾百萬。
在Arunachal的山洞修行的眾多顯赫的聖賢中，20世紀的RamanaMaharshi，是其中最著名的印度教神秘主義，他在50年代過世。
1987年，雨林資訊中心收到一封信，拉瑪納聚會所的比丘尼告訴我們，當時年輕的拉瑪納來到此地，這裡還是叢林密佈，甚至在山的一側都可以看到老虎。但現在，除了荊棘和山羊，什麼也沒有，我們難道不能做點什麼嗎？
我們幫助她成立了一個非政府組織，同時向澳洲政府援的助機構籌募了2筆資金，而來自澳洲的志工，花了7年時間，讓此聖山重披叢林綠意。
若干年後，寺廟當局請我們把苗圃移入寺內，並讓我們使用他們珍貴的水。從此，廟裡重新有一座花園，種花來給祭典用，以及種植每年幾千棵的本土樹苗。
去年12月我又來到Arunachala，我很高興地發現，山腳下迸出十幾個新的非政府組織。這些被感召的團體，完成了本土樹種苗圃的建設，並推廣植樹、環境教育、防火和滅火。我不僅能在這些我們種了20多年的陰涼樹影下散步，我還能夠親眼見到我們的想法已經紮根，一個重新編織生態長袍、讓人頂禮濕婆神的想法。您可這部短片「重新編織濕婆的長袍」，其中有這個專案計畫的詳細介紹。
※ 本文為作者於2011年4月10發表於NGOs環境會議之演說稿。
In spite of the modern delusion of alienation, of separation from the living Earth, we are NOT aliens, we belong here. The human being is Earth-born, the result of 4000 million years of continuous evolution, and the complex, exquisite biology from which we emerged inevitably remains the matrix, the grounding of any sane humanity.
We have all heard the news: For example, Dr. Raymond Dassman, Professor of Biology, University of California announced that "The 3rd World War has begun: it is being waged against the Earth."
More recently, at the end of 2009, ProfessorKevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change andone of the UK's most senior climate scientists, stated that only around 10 per cent of the planet’s population – around half a billion people – will survive if global temperatures rise by 4C.
Two years earlier, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told the world that at current rates of increase of fossil fuel emissions, we were heading toward a rise in global average temperatures of around 6C by the end of this century, leading to mass extinctions on a virtually uninhabitable planet. The Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences (NAOS) has reported that current fossil fuel emissions are exceeding this worst-case scenario and, in August 2010 NAOS stated that the science of climate change is in the category of those theories that had “been so thoroughly examined and tested, and supported by so many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found to be wrong is vanishingly small. Such conclusions and theories are then regarded as settled facts.”
We have all heard the news. Yet it has not changed our behaviour except in rather trivial ways.
So how will we change our thinking and our behaviour? What is needed? Not more horrifying statistics surely. Everybody already knows. We feel helpless and disempowered. Scientists warn that we are the last generation of humanity that may have the chance to avert biological collapse and the destruction of the systems that support complex life on Earth. Professor Paul Ehrlich warns us “ that we're sawing off the branch that we're sitting on”. To me this indicates some kind of psychological problem no matter how much money we can get by by selling thee timber in that branch.
I graduated in Psychology at Sydney University in the mid-'60's. After a stint as an IBM systems engineer in London, in 1979, by chance, I found myself embroiled in what turned out to be the first direct action in defense of the rainforests to take place in Australia or indeed, anywhere the world.
Terania Creek was this site of this action and it happened to be adjacent to the community where I had been living for five years. I somehow found myself involved in the defense of the rainforest there and suddenly everything changed. I heard the trees screaming. I heard them calling us to us for help and I couldn't resist that call. If I went to see a psychiatrist and said that I heard the Earth screaming, wouldn't my experience be reduced to a purely personal pathology? It would show that there was something wrong with me. Perhaps he would want me to talk about my childhood?
At first my experience was frightening and bewildering. The trees screaming? How could this be? In later years as I studied the matter , I discovered that this rainforest that I had found myself defending was part of the original flora of Australia. 130 million years ago when Australia was part of the mighty super continent Gondwanaland, joined to South America and Antarctica, before the continents drifted apart, all of it was covered in rainforest. Indeed, my ancestors were evolving within this very rainforest for nearly all those 130 million years, and it is only during the last few million years that we sought our fortunes down on the ground. So it became less surprising to see how some kind of psychological or spiritual contact with the rainforest was possible, and it became rather more surprising that more people didn't seem to be experiencing it in this way.
After Terania Creek I went on to start the Rainforest Information Centre, the first NGO in the world to have the rainforests as its agenda with projects from India to Ecuador, from New Guinea to Siberia.
However, it soon became apparent that the forests could not be saved one at a time.
In spite of our successful direct actions defending the sub-tropical rainforests of New South Wales in 1981, the temperate rainforests in Tasmania in 1982 and the tropical rainforests of far north Queensland in 1986, it was clear that for every forest protected during those years, thousands disappeared around the world.
And of course the planet could not be saved one issue at a time. While we were protecting forests, a mass extinction of life was underway - 100 species a day lost from the planet - and humanity threatening to choke on our own exhaust gasses and the other "byproducts" of our progress.
By the early '80's it was obvious to me that unless we could somehow address the underlying psychological or spiritual disease that afflicts modern humanity and allows us to to imagine that we can somehow profit from the destruction of our own life support systems. Unless we could deal with this madness, all of our actions and projects were merely symbolic. You can't save a forest. Its either going to be a green planet or a bowl of dust.
It was at this point that I discovered deep ecology and for the first time, found an analysis of our situation that helped me understand how we had come to this awful situation and perhaps what we can do about it.
Deep Ecology is the name of a philosophy of nature that has been exerting a profound effect on environmentalism in recent decades.
Over thousands of years, modern humans have developed an anthropocentric or human-centred perspective. I don’t know anything about the historical antecedents of this in Taiwan (though I would love to find out), but where I come from this anthropocentrism stems from the Judeo-Christian tradition. The modern psyche and all the institutions it has created are based on the idea that the world was created only for the benefit of human beings. Only humans were created in God’s image, only humans have a soul, only humans have intrinsic value. The only value that other species, rivers, forests, oceans and mountains can have, is instrumental value as a resource for humans. The Christian bible claims that it is humanity’s role to “subdue and dominate” all the other creatures and that they are to be “in fear and trembling” of us.
Within this paradigm, the world is a just stage and we humans are the star of the drama, everyone else is just “bit players”, scenery.
Now the science of ecology (as well as the wisdom of indigenous peoples) denies this perspective: the world is not a pyramid with humans on top, but a web. And we humans are not the spider in the middle, we are just one strand in that web and as we destroy the other strands, we destroy ourselves.
After thousands of years of conditioning, we have inherited shallow, fictitious selves, disconnected from nature.
James Lovelock, the scientist who proposed the Gaia hypothesis (which says that the Earth is not just a lump of rock with "resources" growing on it but is a living integrated being), has said that what we are doing to the world is as if the brain were to decide that it was the most important organ in the body and started mining the liver.
Even though in recent decades our IDEAS may have changed to incorporate the insights of ecology, ideas are not just in our heads, they’re embodied in the way that the world is arranged. All of the institutions of our society and the very language we speak, conspire to bind us in this outmoded and now (wedded to our powerful technologies and growing populations) deadly way of perceiving our world. Our ideas may change yet our institutions and personalities were forged in this mold and we seem incapable of giving substance to our new, ecological, vision.
Arne Naess, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Oslo University, the man who coined the term "Deep Ecology" wrote "it is not enough to have ecological ideas, we have to have ecological identity, ecological self".
He pointed out the a sense of responsibility or duty is a "treacherous basis" for conservation. How many of us are capable of altruism? As long as we are in the grip of the illusion that the Earth is other than our very self it seems unrealistic to suppose that we can make the very difficult changes in our lives and societies that would be needed to live contentedly within the constraints of the ecological systems.
If we can identify with the Earth we don't need altruism. If we have the experience of ourselves not as isolated, separate, skin encapsulated egos but as part of the larger body of the Earth, then the defense of nature becomes merely self-defense and this does not require a highly elevated moral stature. Self-interest comes "naturally" and it seems more hopeful to expand the sense of self to include the air (my breath) and water (my blood) and soil (my body), than to suddenly imagine most of us becoming "selfless", acting against our perceived self-interest to protect these things.
Still, through thousands of years of conditioning absorbed by osmosis since the day we were born, we have succeeded in creating this incredibly pervasive illusion of separation from nature.
Now the fact that this is entirely an illusion can be demonstrated very simply by holding your breath for about 5 minutes. That is, I am not talking about anything particularly mystical, it is very straight forward. We can name it "the atmosphere" and we can say "oh what a good person that is sacrificing their self interest by working to protect the atmosphere instead of making lots of money" as though the atmosphere was "out there". But it is not "out there". None of it is "out there". It is all constantly migrating and cycling through us, whether it's the atmosphere, the water, or the soil. There is no "out there", it is all "in here", but most modern people don't feel that.
As long as "the" environment is experienced as “out there”, we may leave it to some special interest group like the greens to protect while we look after number one. The matter changes when we deeply realise that the nature "out there" and the nature "in here" are one and the same, are continuous, that the sense of separation no matter how pervasive, is nonetheless totally illusory.
In response to such things, Joanna Macy and I developed a workshop of experiential deep ecology rituals called the Council of All Beings and, with Arne Naess, wrote a book in 1986 called Thinking Like A Mountain - Towards a Council of All Beings (which has been translated into 12 languages)
In this workshop we REMEMBER our rootedness in nature, recapitulate our entire evolutionary journey and release the memories locked in our DNA. We experience the fact that every cell in our body is descended in an unbroken chain 4 billion years old, through fish that learned to walk the land, reptiles who's scales turned to fur and became mammals, evolving through to the present.
We further extend our sense of identity in the Council of All Beings itself where we find an ally in the natural world, make a mask to represent that ally, and allow the animals and plants and landscapes to speak through us. We are shocked at the very different view of the world that emerges from their dialogue. Creative suggestions for human actions emerge and we invoke the powers and knowledge of these other life-forms to empower us in our lives.
We remember that, until quite recently, humans have been doing ceremonies like this for a long time, hundreds of thousands of years perhaps, and to our surprise, it comes very easily and naturally to us. Invariably we are shocked to hear voices that we have never heard before, profound truths revealed.
One of the rituals at the Council of All Beings is a mourning: we grieve for all that is being lost from the world, the species lost, the landscapes destroyed. Only if we will allow ourselves to feel the pain of the Earth, can we be effective in Her healing. This is why the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Naht Hanh, said that in order to heal the Earth, "the most important thing that we can do is to hear, inside ourselves, the sounds of the Earth crying".
We have a deep longing for reconnection with the Earth. With this longing repressed , a host of displacement activities arise. We feel a pervasive anguish and emptiness and spend our lives trying to fill the gaping wound with all manner of "stuff". We have to dig up and chop down the Earth to make and power all the hair-driers and microwave ovens and electric toothbrushes with which we try, unsuccessfully, to fill the hole.
t's not really all these material "goods" that we want however, but a certain psychological state that we imagine will follow. It never does follow of course, and no amount of material "stuff" brings us peace.
n response to the question "how is this expansion of identification to be developed?", Arne Naess responded that what are needed are “community therapies” to develop ecological self.
At first I was very excited by this as it gave me a new perspective on the Council of All Beings. Although I had facilitated many such workshops, I'd never seen them in this light.
After some time however,I came to see certain shortcomings in the "therapy" metaphor. While on Third Mesa in New Mexico, I was privileged to witness an ancient indigenous Hopi ritual. It took place in the town square of the oldest continuously inhabited community in the Western Hemisphere. Although the masks were more splendid and the drumbeat more confident, in many ways it was identical to the Council of All Beings and these people had been doing this regularly for thousands and thousands of years.
But therapies aren’t supposed to last for thousands of years. These ceremonies and rituals have no end. Perhaps the tendency to lose our connection with the living Earth is very ancient. Perhaps it began as soon as we began to think? What else could explain the fact that every intact indigenous culture that we look at has, at it's root, a series of such ceremonies and rituals whereby the human community can acknowledge and renew and nourish our interconectedness with the land and the rest of the Earth community?
So, although the Council of All Beings is undeniably experienced as being therapeutic by participants, it reveals I think, a deeper significance; One remembers Joseph Campbell's warning that the chief sources of anxiety in our age are the loss of myth and ritual. We must heal our culture so that it once more provides us with authentic connection between our soul and the Earth. For me, the real work must include reclaiming these rituals and the empowerment that they offer, and to take that empowerment and spread it through our lives, finding ways to serve the Earth.
This work is much more about experiences than ideas so, before moving on to talk about some of my work in the conservation of nature, I’d like to share with you a short experiential deep ecology process.
As I wrote in “Thinking Like a Mountain”, for myself this transformation of perspective from anthropocentrism to deep ecology resulted from my actions on behalf of Mother Earth.
In struggling to protect the rainforests near my home, I found that the sense of
“I am protecting the rainforest”
Changed into
“I am part of the rainforest protecting myself. I am that part of the rainforest recently emerged into thinking.”
What a relief then! The thousands of years of imagined separation are over and we begin to recall our true nature.
Furthermore the spiritual awakening that took place while participating in the defence of the rainforests has obviated the need for any other form through which to experience the divine - the Earth itself has become my sacred text.
However, it is clear that many people's love of Earth is mediated thru one of the great faith traditions and that each of those traditions has within its texts and liturgies, many expressions of ecological sensibility and love of Earth.
These days, the Earth suffers under the thrall of the religion of the market place which is the dominant spiritual mode of these dark times.
Both nature and the faith traditions falter under the onslaught of the religion of economics, which is, I believe, the most pious religion the world has ever known, worshipping Mammon in skyscraping temples and shopping malls not just one day a week but seven; with worshippers all the more fervent by virtue of being completely unconsciousness that their supposed secularism is, in fact, a profound spiritual faith. I have written about this at some length last yearfor the University of Western Sydney’s “Handbook of Social Ecology.”
I believe that we need to to nourish both the growing shoots of ecological concern within the great faith traditions and also nourish spiritual understanding and respect within the conservation movement.
Part of my work has been exploring the overlap of ecology with Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
Earth is where all these mighty faiths meet, each has grown from the soil of this planet and it is in the Earth that they are reconciled. I will give two examples from Hinduism and Buddhism.
Arunachala, a mountain in the State of Tamil Nadu, is one of the most sacred sites in India. In the Hindu tradition, the story is told that their supreme deity, Shiva, manifested as a column of light stretching from infinity to infinity. He was so dazzling that the others gods complained that they were being dazzled beyond endurance.
In his compassion, Shiva took on a new form as this mountain, Arunachala, and more than 1000 years ago a vast temple was built at its base. Many believe that walking the 11 km around Arunachala is the fastest way to enlightenment and pilgrims by the millions have thronged there since time immemorial.
In the long line of illustrious sages who have taken up abode in caves on Arunachala was Ramana Maharshi, one of the most celebrated Hindu mystics of the 20th century who died in the '50's.
In 1987, the Rainforest Information Centre received a letter from one of the nuns in Ramana's ashram telling us that when Ramana had arrived at the mountain as a young man, it had been clothed in a mighty jungle and even tigers could be met walking along its flanks. But now, nothing remained but thorns and goats, couldn't we please do something?
We helped her set up an NGO and raised funding including two substantial grants from the Australian Government aid agency while volunteers from Australia spent more than seven years helping to reclothe the sacred mountain.
After some years, the authorities from the main temple invited us to move our tree nursery inside the temple walls and allowed us the use of their precious waters. Consequently, we initiated the regeneration of the temple gardens, growing flowers for their ceremonies as well as hundreds of thousands of native tree seedlings each year.
When I returned to Arunachala last December, I was heartened to find that more than 10 new NGO's have sprung up around the base of the mountain. These inspired groups have constructed native tree nurseries and are engaged in tree planting, environmental education, fire prevention and fire fighting. Not only was I able to walk in the cool shade of the trees our project had planted for over 20 years , but I was able to witness also that our idea had taken root, the idea that Shiva could be worshipped by reweaving his ecological robes. A short film about this project, “Reweaving Shiva’s Robes” may be viewed here.
