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Old 14-04-2019, 07:26 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 192
 
As the naturalist in me is a bit of an animist also, I sense the anima within Nature all the while with my feet firmly on the ground.

It’s a bit of a conflicted feeling I have.

There’s a part of me that feels rooted to the Earth and another like I’m a figment or fragment of Creator passing through, either to once again reincarnate or transmutate.

You may be right about the less spiritually inclined among us (e.g. atheists) seeming to be more tethered to terra mater, what with their mortal outlook on life their gravitational force. This planet is all they have and, understandably, they wish to preserve it as best they can for their descendants. They don’t think of Earth as a stopover.

Obviously, this is not to suggest that a hope or a belief in a hereafter should somehow serve as an excuse in not being mindful and responsible planetary custodians, as we all should be, only that the nurturing spark within tends to keep the host of his tabernacle inward and centered on the nexus of his being, as the stylite, meditative monk, and abstract contemplatives of yore, who naturally lived this way prior to all the environmental concerns brought on by the Industrial and Modern ages.

(Here I think of how the biblical God created a paradise Earth and yet for most of the faithful they anticipate a heavenly reward.)

Beyond the innate distractive nature of the inner-directed soul, the problem, imo, becomes compounded by the times we live in, with its many diversions of electronic immersion. My opinion is that there are those who cannot see the forest for the trees on account of their PDAs and other digital doodads obstructing their view.

One naturalist has noted how, in order for one to truly be mindful and take the initiative to want to be and live green, he must first feel a connection to the Earth, apart of the interconnected web of creation, of which the distractions of urban living – with its crowded living conditions, ubiquitous concrete, noise, razzmatazz, and omnipresent telescreens – make this difficult to do for even the most spiritually minded of us at times.

That’s why you’ll sometimes hear a sage or sapient say how man must return to the land – be it field or forest. And, yet, the agrarian way of living is waning and people are relocating to cities where the food is for the most part processed and can be eaten while watching nature programs on plus-60-inch screens in 3D.

I also wonder if it’s not so much a matter of indifference as one of apathy, or more accurately a feeling of resignation, that despite all one’s personal efforts in contributing to ecological awareness and improvement, that in the end these efforts may be too insignificant when the powers-that-be are for the most part living in ecological denial. Whether this is a defeatist or simply a realist position to hold may be a debatable one.

While still others simply go about doing their own individual part, all the while patiently waiting for God to intervene. (Revelation 11:18.)
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