Earth centered spirituality (Stephen Harrod Buhner)

[wegge]

He is making a point for a earth, not human centered spirituality.

Description of his newest book "Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception Into the Dreaming of Earth":

"In Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, Stephen Harrod Buhner reveals that all life forms on Earth possess intelligence, language, a sense of I and not I, and the capacity to dream. He shows that by consciously opening the doors of perception, we can reconnect with the living intelligences in Nature as kindred beings, become again wild scientists, nondomesticated explorers of a Gaian world just as Goethe, Barbara McClintock, James Lovelock, and others have done. For as Einstein commented, "We cannot solve the problems facing us by using the same kind of thinking that created them." Buhner explains how to use analogical thinking and imaginal perception to directly experience the inherent meanings that flow through the world, that are expressed from each living form that surrounds us, and to directly initiate communication in return. He delves deeply into the ecological function of invasive plants, bacterial resistance to antibiotics, psychotropic plants and fungi, and, most importantly, the human species itself. He shows that human beings are not a plague on the planet, they have a specific ecological function as important to Gaia as that of plants and bacteria. Buhner shows that the capacity for depth connection and meaning-filled communication with the living world is inherent in every human being. It is as natural as breathing, as the beating of our own hearts, as our own desire for intimacy and love. We can change how we think and in so doing begin to address the difficulties of our times."


heart perception as the tool to join this cascade

[wegge]

about the ego as a part of our inner council of "ego"(consciousness) states which make up our personality, keep our body running etc.:

"It is not possible to "get rid" of the ego.
It´s an evolutionary innovation; it exists for a reason.
(No, the devil did not put it there.)
You have a right to be alive... and yourself
Don´t ever let anybody convince you otherwise.
This recognition of the Gaian source of all internal modules
and their evolutionary necessity and our inherent capacity to love them
is the difference between an Earth-centered spirituality
and all the others

The "ego," in the simplest definition, is the part of us that monitors our survival. It monitors for safety and it initiates behaviors designed to keep us safe in response to what it is perceiving.
It is, at root, a healthy and important part of us that wants to keep self-organization intact. It, however, has no morality. It has one function and it will do it whether we want it or not.
It decides behavior and initiates it without regard, often, to consequences.