Wisdom in All Life

Featured photo by Bogomil Mihaylov

Dear Reader,

I saw a meteorite yesterday evening, the full arc of her trajectory. She was the brightest celestial object I have ever seen, except for the sun and moon. With a tail like a blow torch, the meteorite appeared to fall close by, yet apparently could be seen from Virginia to the Delaware Bay. I have been trying to sort out my thoughts about this object and her fiery plunge.

Earlier, I encountered a fawn. The sun had barely risen, yet a ray of light caught his twitching white tail, alerting me to his own alertness.

Do a deer and a meteorite have anything in common? They are connected, of course, in our awareness of them as phenomena, in the flash of awe each evoke in us. Yet, there is something ineffable, a shining authenticity of being that belongs to them alone. All things have this essence, this glowing inherent nature. A meteoroid can travel many millions of miles before encountering Earth’s atmosphere. It can be billions of years old. A fawn has lived only a few months and its range is less than 100 acres. But the Universe makes no hierarchical distinction between them. Each has their origin in the same primordial mystery.

Panpsychism is the belief that Mind is everywhere. And while I’m not convinced that trees have ‘thoughts’, I know that when I open myself to their essence, I can sometimes feel their intuitive awareness of themselves. There isn’t a label for that, but it is one definition of intelligence. Not that trees or rivers care about our labels and definitions. Nor do they ‘need’ our human regrets, our shame, or our grief. I think what we need is to see them in the fullness of their being, to witness their shining authenticity, take heed of their wisdom and remember their songs.

Our beloved animals, the rocks and streams, the forests, have too long been missing from the conversation about what is happening here. While we humans lament our mounting losses, when do we actually stop to ask what the wheat wants, how the birds feel, where the waters wish to flow? That requires deep listening. Most of us stopped listening long ago and the ancient songs are nearly forgotten.

The title of this issue of Kosmos is Wisdom in All Life. I struggled to find the right phrase, aware that any name will only get in the way of the unnamable. Here, I hope you will find a respite from perilous predictions and rigid rationalities, and instead touch a quality of lightness, the imaginal, and reverence for the inherent order at the heart of our living Universe.

Phenomena arise, sometimes persist, and then transform. But they don’t arise from nothing – they co-arise with everything. That goes for deer and meteorites alike. In her billions-of-years journey, a cosmic messenger delivered these wonderful tidings – “I am not separate from you; we are here for each other.”

In Gratitude,
-R. Fabian

Kosmos Journal Volume 2023 Issue 3

Animals

Should I have Children? | Lessons from Brown Bears

By G. A. Bradshaw and Darcia Narvaez

While female Bears may parent on their own, they are partnered at every step with Mother Nature. Every aspect of a Bear is shaped in relationship with Nature’s grain. This refined union of self with surroundings has been passed through innumerable generations over millions of years. To optimize their children’s security and wellness, mothers-to-be must be aware of external states as well as their own internal states.

Stewardship

Thomas Berry on Intuition

By Carolyn Toben

“You can’t understand the universe simply through science—it is one way of knowing directed toward analysis and use. The intuition is another way of knowing through the heart—the song of the birds, the sky at night, the magnificence of mountains and seas.' - Thomas Berry

Cosmic Mind

Depth Cosmology | New Paradigm Physics

By Arabella Thaïs

The fundamental principle of depth-cosmology is that the universe is a Mind, but it goes way beyond pan-psychism. This is not a static and transcendent universe, but dynamic, process oriented and – just like humanity – self-actualizing. Furthermore, it supports the possibility of cosmic personalisation; the idea that the universe, in its unfolding evolution, is developing an increasingly individuated ‘character’, or identity.

Interview

Mind and Music

By Andrew Lipke

Written music - you're creating a thing that will never actually happen. It's a soundless music that is essentially just a set of instructions that everybody who plays it will to some degree approach but never land on because it's not possible. That's why you can play classical music for two hundred, three hundred years and never be done, because there is no definitive version of the piece of paper. The definitive version doesn't exist in sound. It exists written on the page. Written music is unrealized.

Nature

Listening for the Long Song

By Andrea Mathieson

Before energy manifests as form it lives as a frequency, a vibrating song within a womb of silence. We all have an innate capacity to perceive a far wider range of frequencies than we generally engage but most of us have lost our ability to hear the subtle sounds of the Earth and the voices of all her creatures. This collective deafness reinforces the belief that the Earth is mute.

Living Earth

Ocean of Wisdom

By Emelina Corrales

I call the Ocean ‘grandmother’ because life was created in her waters some 3.5 billion years ago, and a little bit later the continents also emerged. These are the beginnings of the Biosphere as we know it today, whose secrets lie deep within her. Slowly but surely, the first photosynthetic organisms started releasing tiny bubbles of oxygen from her depths into the atmosphere. The ocean’s oxygen production continues to this day and according to NOAA, phytoplankton produces up to 50% of the oxygen on Earth.

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