Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wisdom of the earth

David Korten author of The Great Turning writes:

[We are] "blessed to have a surviving storehouse of Earth Community wisdom and experience that indigenous people have managed to preserve despite all the best efforts of the institutions of Empire to eliminate it. 

Indigenous peoples lived close to Earth and were deeply aware that their security and survival as individuals depended on their deep bond to tribe and nature. As modern societies awaken to the reality that for all our technologies our security and even our survival depends on reconnecting to one another and Earth, we are just beginning to realize that we have much to learn from the indigenous wisdom and experience. 

We must join with indigenous peoples in a common effort to create a new Earth Community synthesis of indigenous wisdom and values with the capabilities of beneficial modern technologies."

In Decolonizing Religion, I will periodically offer examples of Indigenous Wisdom.  On can find some of my entries related to learning from indigenous peoples by clicking the Tag "Indigenous Wisdom."

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

For opening words at a church gathering

The approach of a one’s life out of the past is history, and the approach of time out of the future is mystery. Their meeting is the present, and it is consciousness, the only time life is alive. The endless wonder of this meeting is what causes the mind, in its inward liberty of a frozen morning, to turn back and question and remember. The world is full of places. Why is it that I am here? —Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

Monday, April 6, 2009

Seven Sins

Gandhi's Seven Sins: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Commerce without morality; Science without humanity; Worship without sacrifice; Politics without principle