Naming, Once Again, this World as Holy

The insights and experiences that enable us to make this shift [in perception and values] may arise from grief for our world that contradicts illusions of the separate and isolated self. Or they may arise from breakthroughs in science, such as quantum physics and systems theory. Or we may find ourselves inspired by the wisdom traditions of native peoples and mystical voices in the major religions; we harken to their teachings as to some half-forgotten song that reminds us again that our world is a sacred whole in which we have a sacred mission.

 

Now, in our time, these three rivers — anguish for our world, scientific breakthroughs, and ancestral teachings — flow together. From the confluence of these rivers we drink. We awaken to what we once knew:: we are alive in a living Earth, the source of all we are and can achieve. Despite our conditioning by the industrial society of the last two centuries, we want to name, once again, this world as holy.

 

Joanna Macy and Molly Brown

from Coming Back to Life