I'm a 5th gen. Seattleite, raised with a deep knowledge of the Pac NW. And from early childhood, a sense of what I'd now call nature mysticism. My family was not religious. As a young adult in the late '60s, I was very involved in political and labor union activism, what in theological language is called the prophetic--standing up to repressive powers. That was before the Dem party was usurped by neoliberals, a term meaning support for the current trickle up econopathy.
In my late 40s, (1995) I went back to the U of WA, botany major, forestry minor. Almost all plants, especially trees, grow in symbiosis with fungi on their roots, making cooperation by far the most common mode of life, not competition. But I was shocked to discover people born and raised in Seattle can't even identify the dominant tree species, Douglas-fir. Same in the San Francisco Bay area where they can't ID Monterey cypresses. Colonist attitudes--living on top of the earth with no roots in it, thus no feel for it.
I realized speaking about ecological issues required appeals to morals and ethics. Historically, those are derived from religious and philosophical traditions, so I thought I should try to at least pass as a member of some faith. To my surprise, I was hit by a series of mystical encounters, including seeing and hearing various religious entities. Which reconnected me with a very powerful experience I had at 16, where I was taken across the universe. (If you're interested, I'll give a full account later--too long here; begins with generic Light and Love.)
I tried being Tibetan Buddhist but I could never convince myself I wasn't real and the aim is to escape physicality by merging back into the One. Another set of encounters...and I converted to to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Orthodox have transcendence down. The here and now? Not so much. I ended up going to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,CA. a consortium of various religious traditions. While there, several other encounters; again, involving both visions and voices. In the long run, I decided I didn't really fit with any organized religion because trying to do so required repressing important parts of myself. Later, I made peace with enough of it to identify with process theology.
As you can see, the main takeaway is that I'm saying what you mention as gentle and non-verbal is sometimes quite loud and very visible. Of course whatever IT is is not straightforward as if a set of precise rules to obey without question. Religious trad talks about discernment; it's also about intuition, a function of the right hemisphere of the brain. Another relevant subject that I'd be glad to write about with details, if you'd like. Now an elder in my 70s, I have found that my spirituality is much like the post Einstein and post Heisenberg reality of quantum physicists--about relativity and uncertainty...yet somehow also about meaning and creative participation.
"Our mess becomes our potential."
holy shit bro
I'm a 5th gen. Seattleite, raised with a deep knowledge of the Pac NW. And from early childhood, a sense of what I'd now call nature mysticism. My family was not religious. As a young adult in the late '60s, I was very involved in political and labor union activism, what in theological language is called the prophetic--standing up to repressive powers. That was before the Dem party was usurped by neoliberals, a term meaning support for the current trickle up econopathy.
In my late 40s, (1995) I went back to the U of WA, botany major, forestry minor. Almost all plants, especially trees, grow in symbiosis with fungi on their roots, making cooperation by far the most common mode of life, not competition. But I was shocked to discover people born and raised in Seattle can't even identify the dominant tree species, Douglas-fir. Same in the San Francisco Bay area where they can't ID Monterey cypresses. Colonist attitudes--living on top of the earth with no roots in it, thus no feel for it.
I realized speaking about ecological issues required appeals to morals and ethics. Historically, those are derived from religious and philosophical traditions, so I thought I should try to at least pass as a member of some faith. To my surprise, I was hit by a series of mystical encounters, including seeing and hearing various religious entities. Which reconnected me with a very powerful experience I had at 16, where I was taken across the universe. (If you're interested, I'll give a full account later--too long here; begins with generic Light and Love.)
I tried being Tibetan Buddhist but I could never convince myself I wasn't real and the aim is to escape physicality by merging back into the One. Another set of encounters...and I converted to to Eastern Orthodoxy. The Orthodox have transcendence down. The here and now? Not so much. I ended up going to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,CA. a consortium of various religious traditions. While there, several other encounters; again, involving both visions and voices. In the long run, I decided I didn't really fit with any organized religion because trying to do so required repressing important parts of myself. Later, I made peace with enough of it to identify with process theology.
As you can see, the main takeaway is that I'm saying what you mention as gentle and non-verbal is sometimes quite loud and very visible. Of course whatever IT is is not straightforward as if a set of precise rules to obey without question. Religious trad talks about discernment; it's also about intuition, a function of the right hemisphere of the brain. Another relevant subject that I'd be glad to write about with details, if you'd like. Now an elder in my 70s, I have found that my spirituality is much like the post Einstein and post Heisenberg reality of quantum physicists--about relativity and uncertainty...yet somehow also about meaning and creative participation.