The Chinese philosopher, Chuangtse, hearkens us back to that time, just after we slipped the bonds of the natural landscape, but before the human landscape enslaved us.
“After the Tao (the Way) was lost, then arose the landmarks and pathways of humanity, justice, character, and manners.”
Jesus, too, expected us to free ourselves from social order and social control. This is what is meant by his surprising scold:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
It is not that we should not love our families, our communities or our culture, but one can only find the truth within. A Christian does not follow Jesus, but opens the heart to him, and the power of God fills the soul, and spreads out through the world.
Just so, when we open our minds to the beneficence of ecosystems, qualia fills the inner consciousness
The Greek philosopher, Socrates, also warned his pupils not to put his trust in that
“which is external and depends on signs that belong to others.”
He wanted his students to “remember” from the inside, completely on their own. He commanded his students, and all of us, to “know thyself.” Only within oneself could the truth about right and wrong be found – nobody can tell it to us.
The flowering of inner consciousness has evolved with the human landscape, as its shadow. The greatest minds have always attempted to show us the error of our material ways.
If we pay attention and ritual consciously, ecosystems will pour qualia into our inner landscapes – our minds. The pure, clear-minded self is connected directly with the power of ecosystems.
Ecosystems will help us in our hour of need!