"When we meditate, we experience an unveiling, a clearing of our perception, or better, our direct experience of what is the familiar pattern of our thoughts, all the stories we tell ourselves. The fantasies and hopes are unveiled, they become present we see through them." Jim Green We now all know – except those who are strenuously doing their best to deny it – that the Earth is in grave danger. The conditions for human life, even the conditions for life itself, are severely threatened. There have been previous radical shifts of climate as well as catastrophic mass extinctions across the almost 4 billion year history of life on earth. What is unique about this particular crisis is that we have no doubt what is causing it.
This is an audio extract from module 1 Now/Apocalypse as part of the online course 'Contemplating Earth' by Jim Green
This course has a particular scope and intention. We want to focus on a fundamental aspect of the human response to this stark uncovering of our current endangered situation. Because the challenge now facing us is so total – so immediate and vast – there are many ways of trying to approach and understand it. The course will not ignore the different perspectives on this global existential threat: scientific, political, social, ecological, cultural and economic languages are all central in addressing the great danger of our times.