Our outer environment can only begin to be healed by our inner, and I'm not sure we can ever truly tend to our polluted waters, our shrinking forests, the madness we've loosed on the air until we begin to try to clean up the inner waters, and attend to the embattled wild spaces within us.
Action without reflection is what got us into this mess in the first place, and the only answer is not action, but, first, clearer reflection. A peace treaty signed by men who are still territorial, jealous or unquiet-Jerusalem tells me this- is not going to reach any real peace at all. A commitment to the environment based on what is outside of us forgets that the source of our problems-and solutions-is invisible, and that "nature" is a word we apply to what's within as well as without.
I turn off lights and make tiny gestures that, if more of us do them more often, can make a tiny difference. But mostly I try to think about how setting the thermostat within can finally be the best constribution that any nonspecialist can make.
Take care of the roots and the flowers will take care of themselves.
-Piko Iyers
Pico Iyers lastest book is The Open Road on globalism and the Dalai Lama. (Knopf)
The above quote is from Orion magazine, which is always an inspiration to me.
www.orionmagazine.org
If you are still wondering if we've got a problem on our hands, check out
OVER: the American Landscape at the Tipping Point by our friend and neighbor, Alex MacLean.
2 comments:
NIce, Barb...and true for sure.
If you like Pico Iyer, I have Sun After Dark. He used to live outside of Tokyo (and may still) which probably compliments his Zen reflecting (get it?) views.
great, Donny. You are cutting edge. I'd never heard of the guy. A Buddhist for sure.
I'll look for his other books in the library.
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