“Humility and compassion are infinite. They are our only refuge and redemption.” CompassionHumility Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“Life-forms are like the molecules of H20 that push against each other to propagate the energy of the wave. We must die in doing so. There is no tragedy in that simple fact. The tragedy is in not knowing it and not seeing its meaning for each other and all life-forms.” LifeCompassion Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“It is not that species become extinct – all species will eventually become extinct. It is that we hasten extinction for so many species before we even know them or understand them, before we have grasped the way of the world and our place in it – when so much suffering could be avoided, with just a little pause and meditation on this journey of life. We are not wiser than the animals we kill and the species we are driving to extinction. We are like rampaging bulls, goaded into action by forces we do not understand, trampling through fields full of priceless treasures. We are able to deviate from this thoughtless, violent mediocrity. We must if we are to survive.” LifeCompassionExtinctionBiodiversity Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“many religions have too often failed on their own terms; they are, or have often been, unholy. Their doctrines and structures have been misused to kill, hurt, or steal from non-believers and even those with only slightly different opinions on certain aspects of the ‘truth’. Preachings of the community of woman and man, of love and compassion, have given way to violence and holy perfidy. This is similar to how communism’s intended remedy for inequity was more than outweighed by its violence and reduction in our humanity and freedom in the name of equality.” TruthReligionCompassion Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“Isn’t much of our great poetry just a rich description of the ‘self’ in fall? The art keeps alive the feeling of complete control. Yet it is only lyrical mastery of the destruction of the place we thought our home. Our universal lament, the unwantedness of a world where a soul must suffer to grow. The beloved song, resonating the reverberations of a breaking heart.” SelfPoetrySuffering Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“Quick spinning seasons Where everything speeds Achingly open spaces Free for next year’s trees Identities distilled To essence Sapping slowly Dissolving memory Hinting of patiently Waiting eternity All living things decay They cannot stay. Be Carefully To gain your Salvation Cleave The bonds That bind. Reflect, refract The undying light Though we may grieve There is no staying grief We are life’s loves Labours lost That leaf Then leave” LifeBirthPoemDeath And Dying Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“The continuation and chance of life, with all its light and dark, is the only good in itself – including its freedom for pain and suffering” Freedom Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“We are desperate to start a new axial age which will involve a re-flowering of common spiritual customs and communal practices, science and art (i.e., our whole cultural technology) that bind us together and which incorporate the benefits of holiness and reason.” ReasonHolinessAxial Age Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“Unless, by chance, you long: To hear the Soporific susurrating Tumbling bumble Bees at glean in Myriad-hued meadows Or the startling Murmuration of Starlings curling Shadows Athwart the twilit sky; To scent the earthy musk arising Whenever tear shaped water falls From heaven To cleanse the dust That blinds us (Sharp coppery hint Of a spilt heart)” NaturePoem Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“Palpitating Shiver of sea Sparkling splinter of Numinous ocean Gifted personality The Great Green Divested of all terror Its playfulness distilled to Living livery of wave” PoemDolphin Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity
“The concept of humility derives from a word for the soil, humus. A new humility for humanity would enrich us – all we need to do is allow ourselves the happiness that comes when we fall down to the blessed Earth and praise it as one life-form of many. It carries us all, whether we think it or not.” Humility Book:Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity Source: Ethics of Life: freedom and diversity