Our crucial task is to incorporate these principles of traditional wisdom into an integrated system of values that can redirect humanity away from catastrophe, and toward a flourishing future. One where our shared identity expands beyond parochial boundaries to include, not just all humanity, but all sentient beings, and the vibrancy of the entire living Earth. Ultimately, it is our values that guide our actions—and will shape our future.
Torn between worlds. Longing to belong. Always struggling to navigate all the things I inherited: the money, the karma, the love, the possibility, the heart, the values, the society, my place in it, all of it.
I wonder how we got so accustomed, as human beings, to being separated from the earth. How we can live surrounded by concrete, work in buildings with pumped in air, and practice habits of buying food wrapped in plastic from the grocery store, with little thought to how our lifestyles affect the living earth, which provides for us all of life.
The vision lasted only a few seconds but it left me dizzy and I held the table to steady myself. Glancing around, the dining hall still looked the same but it felt new. I felt new.
Modern-day safe houses comprise a worldwide wisdom body, though each part has no full knowledge of the whole. This is the essence of their brilliance, and their generative wealth.
Three miles and four hours later we creep back to the starting point, our eyes exhausted, necks stiff, but our curiosity only whetted. Savoring this feast as we drive home, I’m reminded of Thoreau’s words: Wealth in-doors may be the inheritance of few, but it is equally distributed on the Common. Today I am a rich woman.
