Nature and the Human Soul 1st entry

I hope this works.....

Circle and Arc

1." True adulthood rooted in Transpersonal experience--a mystic affiliation with nature,experienced as a sacred calling--- that is then embodied in soul infused work and mature responsibilities. The mystical affiliation is the core of maturity"..... I would like to know whose mystic affiliation it is to be my garbage man?

Random Thoughts

He seems very plugged into the indigenous people as saints idea, or is it just me? Not that great things can't be learned from more primitive societies whose contact with nature is more immediate and visceral, but, having acknowledged that, there is something to be said for flush toilets and indoor plumbing in general.:)

On a serious note. There is something also to be said for living closer to nature, We are as a society pretty far removed, for instance, I think if more people took tours of modern factory farms and saw what happens to what they eat, it could drastically impact how people see food. I don't mean go veg or anything like that, I mean buying from small, maybe family owned farms who use more humane and healthy farming practices...remember you are what you eat ;) Thats why I choose skinny people as my snack of choice! just kidding...

The Wheel of life

His model incorporates most major models I ever read about in college, though he puts them together and adds his bit to them in an unique way. His addition of the Nature element to the more traditional developmental one is interesting.

The loss of rites of passage I think has merit.

I feel his idea, that our lack of intimacy with the natural world is in large part what is keeping us, as a society as well as on an individual level, stuck and unable to reach our full maturation, is worth exploring.

At the end of this part he talks about both nature and the soul being unvalued in modern society and my sense of what he is trying to get us to see is the importance of them in combination, working in concert to enlighten the world and make it , us as individuals, and society in general better and sustainable for the future. All my words and understandings of what he said, though I could be way off..

Becoming Fully Human

Seems to be a call to take ecology seriously and be proactive about it. He goes on to use big words for awhile. This is one of the times he beats you with vocabulary!

He addresses how we can become fully human , the big thing it seems, is to get out of the patho-adolescent lifestyle of conspicuous consumption. Some sort of initiatory passage into the "underworld" to uncover a vision ,dream or revelation that will then provide the focus for a persons future... I think.

The Patho-Adolescent Society

He gives his definition of what it is. Could be a definition of anyone in Gov, entertainment, "captains of industry" people in your own environment, you get the pix. I do feel many people get stuck in this stage and never move forward. He gives a good description in the book.

I liked this part and the next, where he talks about the "Hope of Adolescence".

He thinks that "Ego- consciousness is our greatest liability as well as our greatest power". I tend to agree that ego, that essential part of us that allows us self awareness, is the part that can cause us the most trouble for obvious reasons.

I would like to know what "psychospiritual adventure" is.. and what it is supposed to accomplish.Anyway, moving on..

Page 21 Where he talks about the holistic approach to healing, I like the underlying concept but his use of it is different.. a little. His use is much broader and is more focused on the psyche and less on the body systems than a traditional understanding of the word would normally imply, though the foundational premise is the same. To treat as a whole system and not just the separate pieces. He focuses on what you can add to rather than cut out of yourself. I have subscribed to a similar philosophy for a while now, more focus is placed on what positives can you add to your self that will hopefully, displace the negatives aspects you want to resolve. It is a work in progress, but so far has been helpful..

The holistic approach seems to be one of the foundational pylons his theory is based on and is essential to understanding the rest of the message. I feel he sees the universe, our world and everything in it including ourselves as ultimately, one entity and seems key to understanding his idea of wholeness and maturity. That if one system is out of balance then the rest are in jeopardy as well..

Then again I could just be blowing smoke....you tell me:) Cheers!

Doyle-Nature and the Human Soul

Contents

Chapter 1: Circle and Arc - The Wheel of Life and the Great Turning

Chapter 2: The Power of Place

Chapter 3: Overview of the Wheel of Life

Chapter 4: The Innocent in the Nest - Early Childhood (Stage 1)

Chapter 5: The Explorer in the Garden - Middle Childhood (Stage 2)

Chapter 6: The Thespian at the Oasis - Early Adolescence (Stage 3)

Chapter 7: The Wanderer in the Cocoon - Late Adolescence (Stage 4)

Chapter 8: The Soul Apprentice at the Wellspring - Early Adulthood (Stage 5)

Chapter 9: The Artisan in the Wild Orchard - Late Adulthood (Stage 6)

Chapter 10: The Master in the Grove of Elders - Early Elderhood (Stage 7)

Chapter 11: The Sage in the Mountain Cave - Late Elderhood (Stage 8)

CODA: The Eyes of the Future

I am reading this book because of VHIP Book Club. I bought the book late, so I'm behind the power curve... I listed the chapters for those who are not reading, but interested in hearing what the poor souls forced to read this thing have to say.

From the title of the book and the names of the chapters, I am making a presumption about the author. I think he is a hippy with a ponytail that does yoga in the mountains and talks about mystical energies of the body and soul. It does not help my opinion that he has lived in Boulder, Colorado. Living in Colorado for about nine years myself, I envision someone from Boulder as a nature loving, dreadlock wearing hippy. I left out the pot-smoking comment because I don’t think they all smoke pot, just a large amount of them... and I am trying not to be too judgmental.

I am only five pages into this book and already I am irritated. As a reader, I feel this dude is scornfully condemning my way of life. He must not know how to influence people... or maybe he assumes that only people who agree with him will buy his book. I’m really trying not to judge what he has to say—Why? I have not finished his book, so I should just shut up and read—but I’m having a hard time doing the shut’n up portion.

Page one starts with (skipping the hippy poetry) with a subtitle of: “Crisis and Opportunity.”

Within two paragraphs, he is preaching about the destruction we are causing, and how most of the destruction is because of the, “industrial civilization...relentlessly undermining Earth’s...life systems” (Plotkin, 2). I have to disagree with Mr. Plotkin. We started destroying the ecological balance of everything a million years of so ago. It doesn’t take a civilization with an industrial anything. All it takes is displacing flora and fauna to locations they do not belong.

Within another paragraph or so Mr. Poltkin says, “True adulthood, or psychological maturity, has become an uncommon achievement in Western and Westernized societies...” (2).

Now he is telling us we are not mature. For him to tell us this, however, he is saying he is mature. He would have to be better than us to have written a book telling us how we need to be more like him and his kind.

You know, my friends at work joke that I want to move back to Colorado so I can run around in the mountains wearing a loincloth while throwing rocks at people. If this were true, I would love to throw rocks at this guy. I would love to act a Neanderthal, a primitive ape-man—Uggg! The problem is, he’d probably love me for such a thing.

Next he starts to discuss his premise starting with, “a more mature human society requires more mature human individuals,” (Poltkin, 2). –See! Told you he was calling us immature... or did I say that, I know I was thinking it.

Later he talks about, “our current egocentric societies materialistic, anthropocentric, competition based, class stratified, violence prone, and unsustainable,” way of life (Poltkin, 3).

Last time I checked, materialism was a major part of Democracy. I also believe it is human nature to be materialistic, competition based, and violent.

Wow, I feel a little better for getting that off my chest. I’m still going to try and read this book. I’m going to try my best to turn my little voice off (the caveman voice prompting me to throw rocks). I really don’t think this guy understands though... humans care about self interest and less about virtue. A few people, those few who want a change, have to figure out how to make the rest of the world want to change in a way that is appealing to each individual. Don’t believe me... it took a war to end slavery and slavery involved humans. Humans who we can relate to because we are them—humans who can also be enslaved. Yet it took a war—Why? The self-interest of slave owners was more important than the virtue of human equality and ethics. Now we are asking a materialist society to change based on something they cannot perceive.

Plotkin, Bill. Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. California. New World Library. 2008. 1-2.

NOTE: I'm posting this first draft with no edit...so I probably made mistakes. I'm also yelling at the kids everyother sentence, so I know I made mistakes. I'll fix them sometime later... Please excuse my mistakes.

Human Condition

I have read pieces of the book - here is what I have to say thus far;

We humans tend to personify things in an effort to mold and shape our world in our image. It tends to add an emotional content which enables us to feel closer to things, concepts, etc. Speeches usually will intertwine their messages with an emotional content to "lure" or persuade. Sometimes, the emotional piece is what gets us humans into trouble. A good example is if your car dies on the highway - you can get upset, mad, but it is not going to help your situation. Religion and spiritually have always been tied together with emotion. Good things (joyous) are attributed to being favored by the Divine; negative things tend to be attributed to some nebulous default "things happen for a reason," I must be going the wrong way in life and needed a wake up call, forces of evil are assailing me to drag me down, etc.

I believe that belief makes one's reality - but beliefs can change - so our perceived reality can change! Reality here not pertaining to physical things - fire will still burn, bones will still break, people will still die, taxes must get paid.

In getting back to nature, which sets the stage for our reality, we can appreciate the framework that is given to us. Our bodies and minds are complex - regardless whether or not you are religious, believe in intelligent design, it is a wonderment to behold. Trees that make oxygen, animals to provide food, water, spouses and kids, the miracle of birth, pooches to keep us company, etc. Religion consists of beliefs - religions tend to be exclusionary by and large. This reflects human nature to classify reality around us into categories (many by exception) - we need differences in order to discriminate to make choices. But discrimination isn't always a good thing. We humans tend to use group consensus to make seemingly unpalatable decisions and facts more comfortable and acceptable. Two examples - Native Amercans and slavery. When expanding west and slaughtering/displacing the Indian tribes, things like progress, manifest destiny, considering them less than human (savages) helped make these actions more acceptable. Slavery also used the concept that slaves were less than human, worth less due to the color of their skin. These two examples both were used to accumulate land, wealth and power, on both the individual and national level. I believe that many people (especially the people in leadership positions) knew these things were wrong at a base level, but greed, groupthink, fear, divine cause/direction, and arrogance contributed to why these things occured and were encouraged.

But our beliefs about these things changed. So too did our beliefs about women's rights and their abilities. There is a certain arrogance about pushing beliefs (projection) onto other peoples simply because they are different - the assumption is that their beliefs are wrong, not different. I guess it's human nature to want to expand and look beyond rather than maintain status quo - we get bored easily. Example - gay rights - marriage, etc. Looking at beliefs ten years ago, beliefs today, and beliefs ten years from now, what do you think the result will be? Gays in the military - policy is to "don't ask, don't tell" - members who are gay couldn't be open about it, but this technically didn't preclude gays from serving! So if this rule changes, and gays are openly allowed to serve in the military, why did this change? Beliefs changed - and an authority directed (and captured it in policy) that it happen.

Projection of beliefs is a strong part of the human soul - I think the author tries to get away from this fact.

Rob

Nature & The Human Soul (entry 3 Kimberly T)

(from Monday's reading)

ADOLESCENCE:

· Plotkins says that adolescence is a Newly evolved staged in human development.
· My thoughts- adolescence is just a newly thought up term to describe what has always been there. People like labels- the more the merrier. The more steps they can break things down into the better they feel they can understand something.
· The earth doesn’t imagine a future for itself. Why does he keep personifying the planet? It’s a planet. It’s not a person.
· Rites of Passage- I wonder what ll the author considers a rite of passage. It seems he only views things like sweatboxes and vision quests to be rites of passage. Personally I think 8th grade is one of our Modern Rites of Passage.
· New Species? Wow. That seems a bit out there to me. We may have changed a lot from the beginning of mankind- but I don’t thin I can go with becoming a New Species.

Nature & The Human Soul (Ch2-entry2- KimberlyT)

more of my thoughts and notes on this book. Still in chapter 1. I need to just read and stop taking notes or I'll never get through this book.


THE GREAT TURNING-
- Author says we can’t predict the outcome. I say the Bible tells us the outcome (though we can’t predict the time)
- Cataclysm is a neat word.
- I don’t think the earth dreams. It is a not alive. It is a planet. The trees don’t have dreams of what they want to become and the rivers and rabbits don’t dream of all they can be. But God does have plans for us. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
- In this section the author talks about taking care of the earth. God talked about that too, and made man the caretakers of what He created.
- Some terms. Ecozoic.
o ECO- from the Greek for Housekeeping or relationships of life.
o ZOIC from the Greek ‘zoo’- meaning animals or living beings.
o Paleozoic. Pale from Greek for Ancient. So this word means Ancient Life.
o Cenozoic/Cainozoic- Greek~ Kainos- new. This word means New Life.
Wheel of Life- no real comment here.

BECOMING FULLY HUMAN
- These things the author views as symptoms of arrested growth/lingering adolescence are things I view as deviations from God’s plan for us. Deviations from God’s order. Basically, they are symptoms of our sin nature.
- The author doesn’t view these as part of our natural human nature. They are not part of our natural human nature as God designed for us, but they are part of our sin nature.
- So, in conclusion, I agree to what things are wrong with society and I just disagree as to the underlying cause of these issues.
- Uh-Oh… they are starting to uses phrases like ‘politicians’. I don't do politics in any way shape or form.
- inscendence (noun) : the state of fully inhabiting each moment of life by consciously entering into each aspect of the lived experience, the physical, emotional and intellectual
- “The Great Turning must be overseen by true elders like Thomas Berry and Joanna Macy and others like them……[this venture] cannot be guided by … adolescent politicians… not even by mature initiated adults…but by genuine council of wise elders”
Ø Really? The word “exclusivism” comes to mind here. ONLY genuine followers of the elders Thomas and Joanna(and others like them, which I assume means think the same and have the same viewpoints) can carry out what is needed to change the world?
Ø I think this one quote really almost turned me off for the whole book. The concept of ‘We alone have/can interpret/underderstand the truth’. But I will get past it and continu to read the book and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Nature & the Human Soul (ch:1 Entry1) by Kimberly T

This will hopefully be a blog with other writers; members of the book club. So I am putting my name in the title of the entries I write and also adding my name as a tag label. Hopefully this will help us keep straight who wrote what about the books.

BOOK: Nature & the Human Soul By Bill Plotkin
Chapter 1: Circle& Arc – Crisis & Opportunity
-- this is a book I am reading with a book club of friends. It was said by some that it is good to keep a book journal or write thoughts & notes about what I read. So here it is.

A few quotes and my thoughts or ponderings in relationship to them

First, I want to mention that the title of this chapter makes me think of geometry.

Quote; “This book is my contribution to the global effort to create a viable human-Earth partnership.”

Thinking on the author’s purpose reminds me of what my Anatomy & Physiology teacher uses to say.
“Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
I say this because though I don’t fully agree with the author’s purpose, I do agree that God made us responsible to take care of His creation and to use good stewardship with what He gave us (the earth and its resources) as well as to have good relationships with people. I guess that’s somewhat similar to what the author is saying.

Quote; “...how we might raise children, support teenagers, and ripen ourselves…”

1st- “ripen ourselves" sounds funny. Like we are all tomatoes hanging on a vine or something.
2nd- he says something here that is in sync with how I view parenting. Notice he says RAISE children and SUPPORT teenagers. We raise our children, but when they become teenagers (young adults) we move from the realm of raising them to supporting and guiding them through their transformation into adults. Honestly, I don’t think one can really ‘raise’ a teenager. The raising is done before they reach that age and once they get t that age, their mind is pretty set in some regards and trying to ‘raise them’ (like we do a child) is just not going to work. They will fight being raised like a child. It is time to support and guide. This doesn’t mean there is no discipline, there still is (even adults are disciplined for wrong doings). Maybe it’s just a mindset.

The author says his 2nd premise I for us to embrace nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides. God is my wisest and most trust worthy guide. God did, however, create nature and our souls and He created us in His image and all He made is good. He says we need to not be egocentric but we need to be soul centric. I prefer God-centric. The author describes soul centric as “imaginative, ecocentric, cooperative based, just, compassionate, and sustainable”. I think all of those pretty much line up with being God Centric, except maybe the ecocentric part- but God does want us to take care of the earth He created.

The author’s 3rd premise for the book is that "every human being has a unique and mystical relationship to the world, and that the conscious discovery and cultivation of that relationship is at the core of true adulthood”
Again, though I agree we all do have our individual purposes (as well as the purpose for all of us) and we are made to have a relationship with the creator of this world, we are to be caretakers of the world He created, and knowing and cultivating God's purposes for us & our relationships are what makes us more complete, I’m not going with ‘mystical’ jazz. It is not mystical. It is laid out in God’s word that we were created for a purpose and we have our own uniqueness in purposes and talents and that we are to be cultivating a relationship with God and with others.
I guess I can go with ‘transpersonal’- because it does take us beyond just ourselves. It is not just about US.

Well, that was basically the first 2 pages. I’ll go lighter in the rest of the book. I won’t do page of notes for each section from here on out.