The Dream of the Earth Audiobook | Thomas Berry | 1988

The Dream of the Earth Audiobook | Thomas Berry | Audible.com.au



Sample

The Dream of the Earth
By: Thomas Berry
Narrated by: Thomas Berry
Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
Abridged Audiobook
Release date: 13-11-2019
Language: English
Publisher: Phoenix Books
4.3 out of 5 stars4.3 (3 ratings)


Non-member price: $9.71or 1 Credit
Buy Now for $9.71



Publisher's Summary


Drawing upon the wisdom of thinkers from Buddha and Plato to Teilhard de Chardin and E. F. Schumacher, from ancient Chinese philosophy and Native American shamanism to contemporary astrophysics, Berry forges a balanced, deeply felt declaration of planetary independence from the sociological, psychological, and intellectual conditioning that threatens the death of nature, offering a path that will avert ecological catastrophe and move our traumatized planet toward health.

Berry builds his case on a comprehensive review of the history of ideas, and he points toward a transformation of consciousness that is needed, if mankind and the planet are to survive. The Dream of the Earth provides the insights, inspiration, and ethical guidance for us to move beyond exploitation and disengagement and begin a restorative, creative relationship with the natural world.
©1988 Sierra Club Books (P)1992, 2019 Audio Literature, Phoenix Books
PhilosophyEcologyShow More






What listeners say about The Dream of the EarthAverage Customer 

Ratings
Overall
4.5 out of 5 stars4.3 out of 5.0
Performance
3.5 out of 5 stars3.7 out of 5.0
Story
4.5 out of 5 stars4.7 out of 5.0

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

C. Haubner
14-03-2021

Powerful book

This is a wonderful book. It’s dense and intense, but it provides invaluable insight to our current condition as humans. A must read.
===

Essays discuss the Earth's evolution, our changing relationship with the planet, the ethics of ecology, and the future of the world

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sierra Club Books (1 September 1988)

Customer Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 stars    52 ratings

===


5 star 79%

The Dream of the Earth
The Dream of the Earth
byThomas Berry

52 global ratings | 25 global reviews
From Australia
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from Australia
From other countries

-----------------------------
Mark Adams
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 February 2016
Verified Purchase
Great!
--
Anita M. Nicholson
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 3 October 2017
Verified Purchase
A true visionary. Berry is remarkable!
--
stew
5.0 out of 5 stars Great thanks. Got here in good time too
Reviewed in Canada on 23 June 2017
Verified Purchase
Great thanks. Got here in good time too.
--
Redhawk
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 9 December 2016
Verified Purchase
love the writing!! a read for everyone.
---
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend!
Reviewed in Canada on 16 August 2016
Verified Purchase
Absolutely Fantastic!! Thomas Berry speaks with so much depth!! I am in awe!
--
Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars The best message I got from this book was that all ...
Reviewed in the United States on 2 November 2015
Verified Purchase
Almost done with this book and although it has some inspiring notes, I found it to be rather repetitious throughout.
It kind of goes in circles about how humans are damaging the earth and how we need to do something about it.

The best message I got from this book was that all the elements of our cultures and personalities come from nature. We basically create our consciousness from our perception of animals, plants, smells, etc....this is a powerful thought because the more species we lose each year limits and basically shrinks our consciousness. The less there is to perceive, the less our cultures can evolve.
12 people found this helpful
---
Nancy Flinchbaugh
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful prose, a plea for the earth
Reviewed in the United States on 16 September 2012
Verified Purchase
Thomas Berry writes beautiful prose, in this incredibly vibrant plea for our struggling planet. If you've never read Berry, this would be a good way to start. He will awaken your admiration for creation and call you out to enter into this, our Eco Age. I hope you will join the ever growing community of those who are working to build a better, sustainable future for the People of Earth. This, he says, is our "Great Work." It's amazing to me that this book, written almost 25 years ago now, explains the challenges of our reality. A Catholic priest, who dedicated his life to this work, lives on in his remarkable writing.
3 people found this helpful
--
Bugs
5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Guide To Earth/Universe Connectivity
Reviewed in the United States on 13 February 2004
Verified Purchase
Thomas Berry has put together in this one book what a thousand other writers have attempted and that is: a complete format for human perception of reality that should and can pervade through all our earthly activities, esp. religion, politics and economy. Let Earth and it's biolgical processes teach and guide us to a rational, sustainable, regenerative, healthy existence.

There are many potent passages all through this work and I picked out one that I felt was inclusive of the gist of the book.

..."This universe itself, but especially the planet Earth, needs to be experienced as the primary healer, primary commercial establishment, and primary lawgiver for all that exists within this life community. The basic spirituality communicated by the natural world can also be considered as normative for the future ecological age."- Page 120


This is an excellent treatise on reverence for the creative life forces that sustain us and treat us daily to a plethora of interactive life processes and our need to acknowledge this gift by treating it with the awe and respect it deserves.
48 people found this helpful
---
Annie Dragonfly
5.0 out of 5 stars The Epitome of Deep Ecology
Reviewed in the United States on 26 September 2009
Verified Purchase
This is THE book on deep ecology. It is beautifully written, requiring slow thoughtful reading - I found myself chewing each sentence 22 times, wishing I could write out each thought and pin it on the wall to consider in every waking moment. In this masterpiece of environmentalism and spirituality, Berry tells how we got Earth into this mess, and how our collective thinking must change to save our one and only Home. It cannot be said any better than this. While I try to rotate other books so as not to hoard wisdom, this cherished book will stay in my library permanently and be read again and again.
7 people found this helpful
--
Jim
5.0 out of 5 stars Berry knew we are Nature.
Reviewed in the United States on 15 September 2011
Verified Purchase
Thomas Berry knew we had to work with Nature itself rather than dictating our needs to Nature. A new book, The Awakened Earth, teaches us how to form a partnership with Nature to heal environments out of balance. It does what Berry said we must do, listen to Nature, then co-create solutions with Nature to rebalance and heal stressed environments. Indigenous people as well as American Indians knew this and did listen as they saw they were part of Nature itself, not a dominator of Nature as many now behave. Berry's principles are realized in The Awakened Earth. (It too, is for sale on Amazon as well as its own website.)
One person found this helpful
Report abuse

====

====

The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry

 4.20  ·   Rating details ·  302 ratings  ·  42 reviews

This landmark work, first published by Sierra Club Books in 1988, has established itself as a foundational volume in the ecological canon. In it, noted cultural historian Thomas Berry provides nothing less than a new intellectual-ethical framework for the human community by positing planetary well-being as the measure of all human activity.

Drawing on the wisdom of Western philosophy, Asian thought, and Native American traditions, as well as contemporary physics and evolutionary biology, Berry offers a new perspective that recasts our understanding of science, technology, politics, religion, ecology, and education. He shows us why it is important for us to respond to the Earth’s need for planetary renewal, and what we must do to break free of the “technological trance” that drives a misguided dream of progress. Only then, he suggests, can we foster mutually enhancing human-Earth relationships that can heal our traumatized global biosystem. (less)

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Showing 1-30

 Average rating4.20  ·  Rating details ·  302 ratings  ·  42 reviews

--

Emily Crow

Apr 15, 2017Emily Crow rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, read-in-2017, nature-writing, modern-life

It took me forever to get through this relatively short book, due to both the dry, academic prose and the sheer number of interesting ideas per page. Although it is a challenging read--and, in some ways, a bit dated--it is definitely worth the attention of anyone with a serious interest in environmental philosophy.

The core of the message is simple: We absolutely have to find a new way of relating to the earth, or we will destroy it, and thus destroy ourselves. All of our current modes of being--in economics, religion, science, politics--are not only insufficient, but contributing to the problem.

Or as Barry puts it: "Our secular, rational, industrial society, with its amazing scientific insight and technological skills, has established the first radically anthropocentric society and has thereby broken the primary law of the universe, the law that every component member of the universe should be integral with every other member of the universe and that the primary norm of reality and of value is the universe community itself in its various forms of expression, especially as realized on the planet Earth."

I enjoyed how he broke down his argument into different segments, such as how science and commerce and our own historical world view (the latter going back to the Middle Ages in the beginnings of this pathology, which provided a new and interesting perspective for me), but the most convincing argument was, for me, the spiritual one:

"We should be clear about what happens when we destroy the living forms of this planet. The first consequence is that we destroy modes of divine presence. If we have a wonderful sense of the divine, it is because we live amid such awesome magnificence." Yes, this!!! A million times over!

I did find it interesting that, although the author was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, his religious views are quite nonconformist and would probably upset many main stream Christians. He believes that the emphasis on personal salvation and the insistence that we live in a fallen world detract from the experience of our connection with natural world--the sort of nature mysticism of traditional Native American religions, for example. He shows how this view helped to lead to the industrial plundering of the earth (sorry about all the quotes in this review, but Berry just says things so much better):

"Just as the doctrine of divine transcendence took away the pervasive divine presence to the natural world, so the millennial vision of a blessed future left all present modes of existence in a degraded status. All things were in an unholy condition. Everything needed to be transformed. This meant that anything unused was to be used if the very purpose of its existence was to be realized. Nothing in its natural state was acceptable."

And:

"The Christian world is the world of the city. Its concerns are primarily supernatural. The rural world is the world of the pagan. The natural world is to be kept at a distance as a seductive mode of being."

Actually, I would be extremely interested to read a thoughtful, ecologically aware Christian response to these arguments, as my gut instinct says that Berry's view would be considered heretical, and yet I know that many Christians are concerned about the environment. I would hate for the Ann Coulters and Sarah Palins of this world to drown them out. And yet Coulter and Palin are obviously building upon a dynamic--and extremely destructive--cultural foundation when they so vociferously insist that the earth exists only for our consumption. I wonder what Berry would say about them if he were still alive today.

I copied down pages upon pages of quotes from this book--the author's insights were just that amazing. It's tempting to keep sharing more of them, but instead I'll recommend that everyone who loves the earth read this book. My one quibble with it (besides the stilted prose) was that I found it to be a complete downer (probably one of the reasons I could only read it in small doses). Writing in 1988, Berry seems to believe that we were on the cusp of a new ecological paradigm. If anything, the opposite is true. Every day I am bombarded with depressing news about more and more drilling, mining, fracking, and logging carried out on public lands. Entire mountain tops are being blown sky-high in Appalachia for coal production. The keystone XL pipeline has just been approved by one of the most aggressively exploitative presidents in history. Native rights are being trampled at Standing Rock and elsewhere. It is enough to make one weep, and I sometimes do. Unfortunately, some thirty years later, Berry's Dream of the Earth seems just that, a lovely dream that never came true. (less)

flag11 likes · Like  · 2 comments · see review

Erik Akre

Mar 14, 2016Erik Akre rated it liked it

Recommends it for: visionary ecologists; shamanic personalities

Shelves: ecology, human-ecology

My first impressions of this book were that it is not particularly "well-written." I had a hard time gelling with Berry's writing style, and I never did quite get the hang of it. It had the feel of being second-rate. I shouldn't say that first off, but there it is.

That said, I must also say that its ideas are powerful and compelling. I will explain by listing the ways it inspired me, the things it inspired me to learn more about:

1. the sequence and detail of the galactic cosmology

2. the sequential phases of human development, from Paleolithic to ecological (into which we are currently transitioning)

3. the great classical cultures of the world and their achievements

4. the scientific-technological phase of human development itself, considering power, harms, helps, and ramifications

5. the possibilities of the new ecological age

6. the rediscovery of foundations for human values

The book provoked a lot of interest in the above, and there are many, many references to further reading in these and other areas. If for no other reason, these inspirations are worth the read. In the midst of everything else in my life, it took me years to explore these things further, but I have in my way, and I still do. I owe something to Berry for the motivation I still have.

In the end, Berry concludes that we need more visionary consciousness and less blind reliance on reason. This conclusion ties things together well. It is the "shamanic personalities" that must be the guides as we move forward to a new relationship with the earth. (less)

flag3 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Andrea McDowell

Feb 05, 2013Andrea McDowell rated it it was ok

Shelves: green, life-is-too-short

I have tried so hard to like Thomas Berry.

I give up. I can't do it. Dense, unreadable prose based on the sketchiest types of half-evidence, stitched together with such slender chains of reasoning that a good sneeze could rip it apart. Nice ideas. Lovely philosophy. A wonderful world would result if, indeed, there were any basis for his proposals or if they were implementable by animals with the sorts of brains human beings have. But they're not, and I can't waste one more second of my life believing that there is anything useful to be learned from a book that makes the argument that there were pre-partriarchal women-ruled societies in which the environment was treated well. Mr. Berry, you meant well, and I respect you as an ally; but to all his successors, I beg of you, please sully yourself with some form of actual evidence, and stop confusing "fact" with "someone else's opinion that you found in print." (less)

flag2 likes · Like  · 2 comments · see review

Eddie Black

Jan 05, 2009Eddie Black rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: pagan, philosophy, environment

We need more voices like Thomas Berry.

flag2 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Sev

Nov 07, 2013Sev rated it really liked it

Shelves: library

It's strange reading a fervent environmental call to action almost thirty years after its publication, sitting in a world worse off than the one which inspired its writing. An important book. (less)

flag2 likes · Like  · comment · see review

Ingrid

Apr 05, 2018Ingrid rated it it was amazing

Very insightful ideas regarding the connections with our planet. I found Thomas Berry's explanations for the dream of the earth and the solutions to our current ecological crisis innovative and encouraging. ...more

flag1 like · Like  · see review

Elizabeth

Sep 26, 2009Elizabeth rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: psychologists and adult devt

now I own it

from the library computer:

Publishers Weekly Reviews

This first volume in a new series, the Sierra Club Nature and Natural Philosophy Library, explores human-earth relations and seeks a new, non-anthropocentric approach to the natural world. According to cultural historian Berry, our immediate danger is not nuclear war but industrial plundering; our entire society, he argues, is trapped in a closed cycle of production and consumption. Berry points out that our perception of the earth is the product of cultural conditioning, and that most of us fail to think of ourselves as a species but rather as national, ethnic, religious or economic groups. Describing education as ``a process of cultural coding somewhat parallel to genetic coding,'' he proposes a curriculum based on awareness of the earth. He discusses ``patriarchy'' as a new interpretation of Western historical development, naming four patriachies that have controlled Western history, becoming progressively destructive: the classical empires, the ecclesiastical establishment, the nation-state and the modern corporation. We must reject partial solutions and embrace profound changes toward a ``biocracy'' that will heal the earth, urges the author who defines problems and causes with eloquence. (October) Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information.

(less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership

Dec 22, 2010Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership rated it it was amazing

Shelves: the-top-50-sustainability-books

One of Cambridge Sustainability's Top 50 Books for Sustainability, as voted for by our alumni network of over 3,000 senior leaders from around the world. To find out more, click here.

The Dream of the Earth is a collection of essays which all advance a deeply spiritual and ecological interpretation of the world, its current woes and potential solutions. Berry believes we understand and interpret the world and our role within it based on our 'story of the universe', our dream or world-view. The story is the source of a society's collective psyche and not only explains the past, but also guides our future. While other animals have their behaviour embedded in their DNA, we humans need stories to find our way and understand what to do.

The underlying theme of the book is that our vision, or dream, of progress has brought a lot of good, but is now sowing the seeds of its own destruction. This is because we have lost our connection to the planet, a connection that has existed since ancient times and today remains only with some indigenous communities. Our story has become corrupted, or empty of deep meaning. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Wendy Babiak

Sep 28, 2009Wendy Babiak rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: books-that-made-me-a-better-person

Thomas Berry, a monastic who chose to use his solitude to study everything from comparative religion and philosophy to agricultural production and particle physics, has synthesized his wide and deep knowledge in this volume with a thoughtfulness rare in this or any age. The book is a call to awaken to a new and more productive geopolitical paradigm involving a recognition of the rights of the earth and all its inhabitants. Reading it is like being blessed with a new set of eyes with which to see the world. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Jonathan Wichmann

Jun 16, 2012Jonathan Wichmann rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Recommended to Jonathan by: Bill Plotkin

Wonderful to read -- he writes with the language of a philosopher, though I think it's clearer and more direct than most people think of as philosophy. I found it beautiful and inspiring. Probably my favorite part is that he reminds us every three pages that humans are closing down the basic life systems of the planet. Awful, but it's surprisingly nice to hear someone say it how it is.

His ideas can be challenging, but I think they're right on. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

Joshua

Jun 13, 2009Joshua added it

Shelves: hippie, summer09

I would rate this as a better book that "The Great Work", if only because it is more prescient (written a decade earlier), as it contains all of the main ideas, developed sufficiently enough.

I am considering using Chpt 8, "The American College in the Ecological Age" (pp. 89-108) as a reading for a freshman seminar discussion. It is as timely now as it was 20 years ago.

...more

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

David Weber

Feb 12, 2012David Weber rated it it was amazing

Berry's eyes, mind, and heart were wide open. He could see the connectivity of everything, he had the ability to convey the unity of all things eloquently, and thus he enabled us to know better the love of the Other in which all must fully live, move, and have our being.. (less)

flag1 like · Like  · comment · see review

JeanAnn

Aug 28, 2020JeanAnn rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: morning-coffee

“We can understand this Peace of Earth, however, only if we understand that the earth is a single community composed of all its geological, biological, and human components. The Peace of Earth is Indivisible. In this context the nations have a referent outside themselves for resolving their difficulties. The earth fulfills this role of mediator in several ways. First, the earth is a single organic reality that must survive in its integrity if it is to support any nation on the earth. To save the earth is a necessity for every nation. No part of the earth in its essential functioning can be the exclusive possession or concern of any nation. The air cannot be nationalized or privatized; it must circulate everywhere on the planet to fulfill its life giving function anywhere on the planet. It must be available for the nonhuman as well as for the human lifeforms if it is to sustain human life. So it is with the waters on the earth. They must circulate throughout the planet if they are to benefit any of the lifeforms on the planet.” (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Ann

Jul 16, 2017Ann rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition

Shelves: conservation

This collection of essays broadly addresses the ecological despair facing all the Earth, how humans are causing this despair and the ways in which it will impinge on human existence. Rather than offer specific analysis or solution, Berry presents some themes of underpinning philosophy arising from Christianity, Western culture and economics in particular that have lead to this state of despair and changes or new directions for creating a viable future. He connects the human past, in historical, cosmological, and genetic senses, as a starting point for this future. These essays are worth a consideration on all counts. (less)

flagLike  · see review

Walt

Aug 30, 2018Walt rated it really liked it

This is a very interesting set of essays, outlining the patterns of life in the world, demonstrating the problems associated with modern cosmology, and proposing a new cosmology. While some essays have become outdated as our understanding of evolution and anthropology changes, the majority have become even more relevant and important to the situation we find ourselves in. The need for a story which integrates us into the community of life on Earth has only grown since this was written. I would recommend this to anyone concerned with spiritual or ecological issues facing the world. (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Emma

Sep 29, 2020Emma rated it liked it

"As Chief Seattle once said of us and our cities: 'When the last Red Man shall have perished, and the mystery of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone.'" (less)

flagLike  · comment · see review

Eileen

Dec 17, 2019Eileen rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

© 1988 ***½. Early book on the subject of ecology and the place of humans in the biosphere. Explains well how a bioregion works as a unit and how all life is dependent on humans working together with the natural forces of the earth. Acknowledges the dignity and respect due to the planet as a whole, and to the awesome diversity of life present here and nowhere else for light-years around.

flagLike  · comment · see review

Aidan Owen

Nov 16, 2017Aidan Owen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mysticism, spirituality, 2017, contemplative-ecology

Extraordinary. If you haven't read this book, read it NOW. If you have, read it again. It changed the way I see myself as a part of the universe and not separate from it, and has helped me to articulate my own vocation. Absolutely essential reading. (less)

 

Joe Moreno

Jan 15, 2018Joe Moreno rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition

A theological basis for environmentalism. Great book!

flagLike  · comment · see review

Autumn

Apr 27, 2018Autumn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books

This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read, shining light on humanity’s place in the cosmos and our role in manifesting a world in which all things thrive in communion and love.

--- 

Joyce

Aug 13, 2018Joyce rated it it was amazing

A thoughtful view of where we are on planet Earth, how we got here and what we need to do in order to save our beautiful Mother.

--

Martha

Jan 22, 2019Martha rated it liked it

Affirmed my view of the living universe. It was depressing that the warnings about species extinction and the destruction of our home were issued in the 80s! Have we passed a point of no return?

--

Brian

Aug 18, 2019Brian rated it really liked it

Read this so long ago I've forgotten when, and the details. ...more

--

S Holthaus

Feb 12, 2017S Holthaus rated it really liked it

Relevant for anyone interested in environmental issues

flagLike  · comment · see review

Lauren

Dec 19, 2014Lauren marked it as abandoned

Fuck it. I've had this out from the library for probably months now and I'm not any closer to finishing it. It wasn't terrible, in fact many of his ideas were very inspiring, but also I just found it to be pretty samey compared to similar books I've read or skimmed through. Which reflects a thousand times worse on them than it does The Dream of the Earth, TDotE being very influential in its field and kind of the jump start for all the Green politics, philosophy, religion etc that you see today that spawned such similar books.

I feel pretty peeved at these successors, actually. Like, when Thomas Berry asked people to recycle I'm p sure he didn't mean that with regards to his own work. Say something new, you hacks. Or at least talk about the parts that haven't aged well in this book. Does the world really need another self-indulgent chapter about your grudge against technology? No. Really, no. Thomas Berry was a visionary and I realise the ideas and questions he poses have no simple answers, but you could at least try to answer them. Or bring new ideas to the table. I'd prefer an attempt at answers, frankly, because so many books of this kind are filled with too much hand-wringing over capitalism and the state of our environment and not much attention given to anything but the same vague, trotted out solutions. Sometimes I think these authors would have a better impact on the environment if they just didn't publish their books in the first place. Save all that paper and resources for a book that isn't pretending to give a shit. It'll be much less hypocritical that way.

So yeah, I'm regretful that I couldn't finish this. Maybe it would have been the same old echo chamber stuff anyway, but if you're going to read it at all it might as well come from the person who wrote it first and, in all likelihood, best.

Oh well. (less)

--

Nicholas Brink

Nov 21, 2015Nicholas Brink rated it it was amazing

The Dream of the Earth has become very central to my own writing. Berry's belief that the avenue to become one with the Earth is through dreaming, waking visions and regaining our shamanic personality I believe is most directly gained through ecstatic trance for which I am a certified instructor and about what I have been writing. Berry makes it clear that where we go wrong in healing the Earth is our belief that we are superior to everything of the Earth and have dominion of the Earth. We forget that we are dependent upon all that is of the Earth and have much to learn from all life, all flora and fauna. All other life have powers that we do not have and in those ways are superior to us. When realizing this, how can we place ourselves superior to all other life and the culmination of evolution? We can't, we are no better than and need to experience ourselves as one with all other life on Earth. (less)

--

Frank Aaskov

Jan 18, 2012Frank Aaskov rated it it was ok

I initially decided to read this book as it was on a list of most important environmental book out something. However I was really disappointed.

The author outlines where he believes there is a disconnect between current philosophical thought and environmentalism / green philosophy, which is an noble task. But he gets lost in loose rambling, vague criticisms, and his love of mysticism. Often he states that we should respect earth/plants/animals/etc for their mystic nature (??), and his causal relationships and explanations are difficult to follow. He furthermore puts great emphasis on theories that even at the time of writing (late 1980s) were disputed such as the population bomb.

Overall, I don't really get why this made any list. It might have made a wave in some parts of the environmental movement when published, but it has certainly not stood the test of time. (less)

--

scherzo♫

Apr 22, 2013scherzo♫ rated it really liked it

Shelves: mundane-fic

p.30 "The ecological vision that we are proposing is the only contexte that is consistent with the evolutionary processes that brought the earth and all its living beings into that state of flourescence that existed prior to the industrial age. Because this earlier situation made serious demands upon the human for the benefits given, the industrial age was invented to avoid the return due for the benefits given. The burdens imposed upon the human in its natural setting, generally referred to as the human condition, established a situation unacceptable to an anthropocentric community with its deep psychic resentment against any such demands imposed upon it, hence the entire effort of the industrial society to transform the natural world into total subservience." (less)

--

Kate

Jun 11, 2016Kate rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, library-books

It was a redundant read for me. This book makes for a good introduction for those who are unaware of the why and how the human communities across the globe are screwed, but only vaguely. Too many references to other books and not enough direct quotations from said books to make the message of the book as a whole stronger. I wanted to know why those books were important, not just that they are deemed important by the author.

flagLike  · comment · see review

===

  

“The Dream of the Earth” by Thomas Berry

written by springmagazine

Published on January 12, 2020

https://thespringmagazine.com/2020/01/12/the-dream-of-the-earth-by-thomas-berry/

When the Catholic priest Thomas Berry died in 2009, obituaries were not sure what to call him. “Cultural historian” was the preferred title. “Theologian” didn’t quite encompass his work, and he had preferred the term “geologian” instead. Born in Greensboro in 1914, Berry studied Asian languages and religions, Native American culture, founded the graduate program on religions at Fordham University, among other studies and work throughout his life — all in the search of a spirituality that combines religion and nature.

In “The Great Work,” Berry wrote about his profound spiritual experience at a meadow when he was 11 years old. The experience was the basis for his spiritual development and intellectual thought for the rest of his life. “Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformations is good, what is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good,” he wrote.

Berry’s writing is soft yet powerful. It flows, and is difficult to quote and pull from. You end up reading the whole book but not being able to describe what you just read, and not wanting to either, but instead just to let the writing settle. The writing flows gently like water or like a breeze, and you delight in his love of the word “numinous.” 

Here is an excerpt from “The Dream of the Earth,” by Thomas Berry, published in 1988.

We are returning to our native place after a long absence, meeting once again with our kin in the earth community. For too long we have been away somewhere, entranced with our industrial world of wires and wheels, concrete and steel, and our unending highways, where we race back and forth in continual frenzy.

The world of life, of spontaneity, the world of dawn and sunset and glittering stars in the dark night heavens, the world of wind and rain, of meadow flowers and flowing streams, of hickory and oak and maple and spruce and pineland forests, the world of desert sand and prairie grasses, and within all this the eagle and the hawk, the mockingbird and the chickadee, the deer and the wolf and the beer, the coyote, the raccoon, the whale and the seal, and the salmon returning upstream to spawn — all this, the wilderness world recently rediscovered with heightened emotional sensitivity, is an experience not far from that of Dante meeting Beatrice at the end of the Purgatorio, where she descends amid a cloud of blossoms. It was a long wait for Dante, so aware of his infidelities, yet struck anew and inwardly “pierced,” as when, hardly out of his childhood, he had first seen Beatrice. The “ancient flame” was lit again in the depths of his being. In that meeting, Dante is describing not only a personal experience, but the experience of the entire human community at the moment of reconciliation with the divine after the long period of alienation and human wandering away from the true center.

Something of this feeling of intimacy we now experience as we recover our presence within the earth community. This is something more than working out a viable economy, something more than ecology, more even than Deep Ecology, is able to express. This is a sense of presence, a realization that the earth community is a wilderness community that will not be bargained with; nor will it simply be studied or examined or made an object of any kind; nor will it be domesticated or trivialized as a setting for vacation indulgence, except under duress and by oppressions which it cannot escape. When this does take place in an abusive way, a vengeance awaits the human, for when the other living species are violated so extensively, the human itself is imperiled.

The Dream of the EarthIf the earth does grow inhospitable toward human presence, it is primarily because we have lost our sense of courtesy toward the earth and its inhabitants, our sense of gratitude, our willingness to recognize the sacred character of habitat, our capacity for the awesome, for the numinous quality of every earthly reality. We have even forgotten our primordial capacity for language at the elementary level of song and dance, wherein we share our existence with the animals and with all natural phenomena. Witness how the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande enter into the eagle dance, the buffalo dance, and the deer dance; how the Navajo become intimate with the larger community through their dry-paintings and their chantway ceremonies; how the peoples of the Northwest express their identity through their totem animals; how the Hopi enter into communication with desert rattlesnakes in their ritual dances. This mutual presence finds expression also in poetry and in story form, especially in the trickster stories of the Plains Indians in which Coyote performs his never-ending magic. Such modes of presence to the living world we still carry deep within ourselves, beyond all the suppressions and even the antagonism imposed by our cultural traditions.

Even within our own Western traditions at our greater moments of expression, we find this presence, as in Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, and even in the diurnal and seasonal liturgies. The dawn and evening liturgies, especially, give expression to the natural phenomena in their numinous qualities. Also, in the bestiaries of the medieval period, we find a special mode of drawing the animal world into the world of human converse. In their symbolisms and especially in the moral qualities associated with the various animals, we find a mutual revelatory experience. These animal stories have a playfulness about them, something of a common language, a capacity to care for each other. Yet these movements toward intensive sharing with the natural world were constantly turned aside by a spiritual aversion, even by a sense that humans were inherently cut off from any true sharing of life. At best they were drawn into a human context in some subservient way, often in a derogatory way, as when we projected our own vicious qualities onto such animals such as the wolf, the rat, the snake, the worm, and the insects. We seldom entered their wilderness world with true empathy.

Thomas_Berry

Berry

The change has begun, however, in every phase of human activity, in all our professions and institutions. Greenpeace on the sea and Earth First! on the land are asserting our primary loyalties to the community of earth. The poetry of Gary Snyder communicates something of the “wild sacred” quality of the earth. In his music Paul Winter is responding to the cry of the wolf and the song of the whale. Roger Tory Peterson has brought us intimately into the world of the birds. Joy Adamson has entered into the world of the lions of Africa; Dian Fossey the social world of the gentle gorilla. John Lilly has been profoundly absorbed into the consciousness of the dolphin. Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez have come to an intimate understanding of the gray wolf of North America. Others have learned the dance language of the bees and the songs of the crickets.

What is fascinating about these intimate associations with various living forms of the earth is that we are establishing not only an acquaintance with the general life and emotions of the various species, but also an intimate rapport, even an affective relationship, with individual animals within their wilderness context. Personal names are given to individual whales. Indeed, individual wild animals are entering into history. This can be observed in the burial of Digit, the special gorilla friend of Dian Fossey’s. Fossey’s own death by human assault gives abundant evidence that if we are often imperiled in the wilderness context of the animals, we are also imperiled in the disturbed conditions of what we generally designate as civilized society.

Just now one of the significant historical roles of the primal people of the world is not simply to sustain their own traditions, but to call the entire civilized world back to a more authentic mode of being. Our only hope is in a renewal of those primordial experiences out of which the shaping of our more sublime human qualities could take place. While our own experiences can never again have the immediacy or the compelling quality that characterized this earlier period, we are experiencing a postcritical naiveté, a type of presence to the earth and all its inhabitants that includes, and also transcends, the scientific understanding that now is available to us from these long years of observation and reflection.

Fortunately we have in the native peoples of the North American continent what must surely be considered in the immediacy of its experience, in its emotional sensitivities, and in its modes of expressions, one of the most integral traditions of human intimacy with the earth, with the entire range of natural phenomena, and with the many living beings which constitute the life community. Even minimal contact with the native peoples of this continent is an exhilarating experience in itself, an experience that is heightened rather than diminished by the disintegrating period through which they themselves have passed. In their traditional mystique of the earth, they are emerging as one of our surest guides into a viable future.

Throughout their period of dissolution, when so many tribes have been extinguished, the surviving peoples have manifested what seems to be an indestructible psychic orientation toward the basic structure and functioning of the earth, despite all our efforts to impose on them our own aggressive attitude toward the natural world. In our postcritical naiveté we are now in a period when we become capable once again of experiencing the immediacy of life, the entrancing presence to the natural phenomena about us. It is quite interesting to realize that our scientific story of the universe is giving us a new appreciation for these earlier stories that come down to us through peoples who have continued their existence outside the constraints of our civilizations.

Presently we are returning to the primordial community of the universe, the earth, and all living beings. Each has its own voice, its role, its power over the whole. But, most important, each has its special symbolism. The excitement of life is in the numinous experience wherein we are given to each other in that larger celebration of existence in which all things attain their highest expression, for the universe, by definition, is a single gorgeous celebratory event.

The Dream of the Earth Quotes

The Dream of the Earth Quotes Showing 1-3 of 3

“Tell me a story, a story that will be my story as well as the story of everyone and everything about me, the story that brings us together in a valley community, a story that brings together the human community with every living being in the valley, a story that brings us together under the arc of the great blue sky in the day and the starry heavens at night, a story that will drench us with rain and dry us in the wind, a story told by humans to one another that will also be the story that the wood thrush sings in the thicket, the story that the river recites in its downward journey, the story that Storm King Mountain images forth in the fullness of its grandeur.”

― Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

tags: community, language, myth, nature, story, wild4 likesLike

Explore content recommended by Goodreads

Join Us for Summer Reading 2021

Join Us for Summer Reading 2021

Want to pick up a great book or two this season? Check out our recommendations of hot books selected by your fellow readers, bestselling authors, and more!

Explore

“We must, however, reflect on what is happening. It is an urgent matter, especially for those of us who still live in a meaningful, even a numinous, earth community. We have not spoken. Nor even have we seen clearly what is happening. The issue goes far beyond economics, or commerce, or poetics, or an evening of pleasantries as we look out over a scenic view. Something is happening beyond all this. We are losing splendind and intimate modes of divine presence. We are, perhaps, losing ourselves.”

― Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

3 likesLike

“For people, generally, their story of the universe and the human role in the universe is their primary source of intelligibility and value. ... The deepest crises experienced by any society are those moments of change when the story becomes inadequate for meeting the survival demands of a present situation.”

― Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology - Theosophical Society in America

The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology - Theosophical Society in America



The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology


By C. Jotin Khisty

Originally printed in the Spring 2009 issue of Quest magazine.
Citation: Khisty, C. Jotin. "The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology." Quest 97. 2 (Spring 2009): 64-69.

In 2005, people all across the world sat up in their seats to watch Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth. They were stunned to see the environmental degradation and destruction that has occurred and the profound threat it poses to all life on the planet. Then, in October 2007, many of us jumped with joy when Gore and the U. N. Panel on Climate Change were jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. This recognition gave us hope of a way to work through our political, economic, and environmental systems in order to reverse the effects of decades of indifference and damage to our planet.

One of the paramount reasons for this degradation is not hard to find. The organizing principle of society for at least the last hundred years has been: What will make the economy grow larger and produce greater profit? But with a new consciousness on the horizon and a transformation of the human heart all around the world, it is very likely that for the next hundred years, the organizing principle may be: What will make the planet more sustainable? This has to be the new lens through which we look at the world. After all, the voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new vistas but in having new eyes.

This article aims to explore the connections between two important disciplines: spiritual systems, particularly Buddhism, and deep ecology. Spiritual systems are more than a belief in a transcendental deity or a means to an afterlife. They are a way of understanding both the cosmos and our role in its preservation. In this way they are closely connected with ecology, which embraces a cultural awareness of kinship with and dependence on the natural environment for the continuity of all life.

Buddhism, one of the world's great spiritual systems, offers a well-developed philosophy of our connection with nature. Deep ecology is focused on the survival and self-renewal of all living beings. (It is so called in contrast to "shallow" ecology, which is essentially anthropocentric and technocratic.) Celebrating the marriage of spiritual systems and deep ecology fosters a moral and cultural awareness of the kinship of the natural environment and the continuity of life.

We hear of ecological disasters occurring around the world almost on a daily basis. Almost all of these crises are a result of human neglect, apathy, and greed. They range from resource depletion, species extinction, pollution growth, climate change, to population explosion and over consumption. As far back as 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists, consisting of over 100 Nobel laureates and 1600 other distinguished scientists from seventy countries, warned us of the deepening ecological crisis caused by human activities on this planet. They warned that a great change in the stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required if vast misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated (Uhl, 124).

Almost all such warnings have been ignored and ridiculed by our politicians. One prominent source of disinformation about global warning, for instance, has been the Bush-Cheney administration. It has silenced scientists working for the government about the extreme danger we are facing, and has appointed "skeptics" recommended by oil companies to government positions as our principal negotiators. The world has been thunderstruck by the arrogance and ignorance of such political leaders and their cronies (Gore, 264).

The reasons for this disconnection from nature, especially in the West, are not hard to detect. Spiritually and psychologically we live inside a bubble of the "self," as though we are "in here" and the rest of the world is "out there." According to Buddhist thought, this sense of separation manifests itself in the form of the Three Poisons—greed, ill will, and delusion. Examples of these poisons can be seen everywhere in the current ecological crisis. Greed rooted in untrammeled economic growth and consumerism is the secular religion of advanced industrial societies. Similarly, the military-industrial complex promotes ill will, fear, and terror, while propaganda and advertising systems are well known for deluding the public about everything under the sun. A fundamental question of our time is whether we can counter these forces by developing attitudes of respect, responsibility, and care for the natural world and so create a sustainable future.

From its origins in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ, Buddhism spread throughout Asia and is now exerting an ever-increasing influence on Western culture. We in the West are awakening to the fact that there is a more ancient science of mind than our own. The well-known philosopher Alan Watts pointed out that historically the Buddha (563-483 BCE) was the first great psychologist and psychotherapist. He not only recognized the meaning of existential anxiety or suffering that we all experience but offered ways of treating it. Many psychologists, psychiatrists, and scientists regard the discovery of Buddhist philosophy in the West today as a kind of second renaissance (Varela, 22).

Contrary to popular belief, Buddhism is in essence a philosophy and not a religion. Buddhist philosophy over the centuries has been very carefully thought out and documented by some of the best scholars and practitioners across the world. A starting point is the central tenet concerning the interconnectedness of all life—human beings, animals, plants, birds. Buddhist ethical teaching emphasizes that this interdependence comes with a moral component. For humans, that means maintaining a sense of universal responsibility in whatever we do.

The cornerstone of all Buddhist teachings is the Four Noble Truths. The first truth is that of suffering (or existential anxiety), starting with birth and continuing on through aging and then on to the inevitability of death. The second truth is the realization that human craving and greed are at the very root of our suffering. The third truth stresses that it is possible to eliminate craving, greed, and suffering by transforming the mind. The fourth truth is the Eightfold Path, the Buddhist formula of practices for cultivating this transformation, leading to the extinction of both craving and suffering (Rifkin, 101). Buddhists assert that mindful awareness of existential anxiety produces compassionate empathy for all forms of life.

Two other concepts form the bedrock of Buddhist thinking: impermanence and interdependence. All phenomena are impermanent, because everything is in transition. Interdependence refers to the fact that everything is a part of everything else.

The philosophical roots of the deep ecology movement can be found in the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roszak, Lewis Mumford, Rachel Carson, and others, going back to Baruch Spinoza and the Buddhist philosophers. But it was in 1972 that the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess coined the term to distinguish it from "shallow" anthropocentric and technocratic ecology. Since then, Naess has spelled out a comprehensive platform describing the meaning and scope of deep ecology, as outlined in an eight-point summary:


1. The well-being of human and nonhuman life on earth have value in themselves.
2. The interdependence, richness, and diversity of life forms contribute to the realization of these values.
3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.
4. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.
5. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with substantial decrease of the human population. Moreover, the flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.
6. Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies will affect basic economic and technological structures.
7. Ideological change is required in order to emphasize quality of life rather than striving for an ever-higher standard of living.
8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation to help implement these changes (Naess, 68).

To imagine oneself as a separate ego, separate from everything else, locked up in a bag of skin, is a hallucination. Everything is indeed connected with everything else. Given the profound similarity of Buddhist thought to deep ecology, it is not difficult to realize that the "egocentricity" of an apparently isolated self needs to be replaced by "ecocentricity."

How can we harness this obvious interconnection between Buddhist thought and deep ecology in order to tackle the urgent problems that continue to threaten the sentient beings on this planet? As Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, wrote: "The only option for us is a change in the sphere of the spirit, in the sphere of human conscience. It's not enough to invent new machines, new regulations, and new institutions. We must develop a new understanding of the true purpose of our existence on earth. Only by making such a fundamental shift will we be able to create new models of behavior and a new set of values for the planet" (Uhl, 307).

Like Havel, scores of philosophers, economists, and politicians have recognized that the advancing human crisis is result of the lack of deep spiritual roots, brought on to a great extent by the divorce of spiritual meaning and identity from life. But how can we wake up to face this human crisis?

Today there is already evidence of an emerging cultural shift as millions of people and their leaders are stirring, as if from a trance, to deal with these issues. Here are some possible avenues of approach:
Collective awakening. Spiritual awakening in an individual is sometimes called the "opening of the third eye." When this awareness occurs collectively, it can be called the "opening of the fourth eye." Evidence of this collective awakening started in the 1960s and has matured in subsequent years, dealing head-on with problems as diverse as postmodern anomie, free-market globalization, and global terrorism.
Building sustainable systems. The great challenge of our time is to build and nurture sustainable communities—social, cultural, and physical. This goal is best attained in four steps: (1) introducing "ecoliteracy" in order to understand how ecosystems evolve for sustaining the web of life; (2) moving toward "ecodesign" by promoting organic farming, energy- and resource-efficient industries, nonmotorized transportation, and low-cost housing, and by reducing energy consumption; (3) thinking in terms of relationships, contexts, patterns, and processes for ecodesign; (4) striving for resource efficiency, service-flow economy, and energy conservation in order to reduce ecological degradation (Capra, 230-32). So far the records in these areas of nurturing have been deplorable.
Transforming the world economy. According to free-market capitalism, all values are monetary values determined by buyers of goods and services in a competitive market. The prime movers of this system are the transnational corporations (TNCs), whose economic powers frequently surpass that of many sovereign states. To grow, these TNCs must make enormous profits and consume the world's raw materials. TNCs and their advocate, the World Trade Organization (WTO), have been largely able to get what they want because of their influence in manipulating the global market for their own profit. Poor countries and the poorer sectors of the world are the worst victims of the WTO. Today, one-third of all economic activity worldwide is generated by only 200 corporations, which are linked to each other by strategic alliances. While the WTO was initially hailed by nations rich and poor as an organization that would produce huge economic benefits which would trickle down to everybody, it failed to live up to this promise, instead creating fatal consequences such as the breakdown of democracies, the rapid deterioration of the environment, and increasing poverty and alienation.




Consumerism is now recognized as the most successful religion of all time, winning more converts more quickly than any previous belief or value system in human history. Philosopher David Loy has pointed out that the strategies of the WTO and the World Bank have been exposed, with the result that there are regular riots whenever their meetings are held. These two organizations are clearly ill-suited for building a just, sustainable, and compassionate society that can nurture sufficiency, partnership, and respect for life and its values. Naturally, a new kind of civil society, organized to counterbalance globalization is gradually emerging, embodied in powerful nongovernmental organizations such as Oxfam and Greenpeace.
Transforming ethics. Activists devoted to peace and social justice acknowledge that there is a spirit of coerciveness that is present in all cultures, manifesting particularly in violence and crime. This coerciveness can be counteracted by several strategies.

Creative nonviolence in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Buddhist ethics is one well-documented possibility. Essentially this means that one does not struggle against the opponent but rather against the situation. Political and social adversaries are seen as potential partners rather than as enemies. Satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance, also pioneered by Gandhi, is one form of such creative nonviolence. The principle of ahimsa (harmlessness)—the refusal to kill any living beings—has also been put to use in stopping armed conflicts.

It is said that when people saw the Buddha soon after his enlightenment, they were so struck by the extraordinary peacefulness of his presence that they stopped to ask: "What are you? Are you a god, a magician, or a wizard?" Buddha's reply was stunning. He simply said: "I am awake." His answer became his title, for this is what the word buddha means in Sanskrit—one who is awakened. While the rest of the world was deep in "sleep," dreaming a dream known as the waking state of life, the Buddha shook off the slumber and woke up (Smith and Novak, 3-4).

Although the Buddha's wake-up call was issued a very long time ago and has since been repeated time and time again by almost every known spiritual system, it is unfortunate that a mistaken metaphysics has led us to an alienation between us and the earth and between us and other sentient beings. It is essential that we reestablish and restore an awareness of this interdependence. Naturally, such a transformation requires profound reeducation at every stage of our lives. Private foundations, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, academic institutions, and religious organizations have an equal stake in setting priorities in this endeavor. In this context the advice of the Dalai Lama is particularly poignant:


The Earth, our Mother, is telling us to behave. . . . If we develop good and considerate qualities within our own minds, our activities will naturally cease to threaten the continued survival of life on Earth. By protecting the natural environment and working to forever halt the degradation of our planet, we will also show respect for Earth's human descendants—our future generations—as well as for the natural right to life of all of Earth's living things. If we care for nature, it can be rich, bountiful, and inexhaustibly sustainable.

It is important that we forgive the destruction of the past and recognize that it was produced by ignorance. At the same time, we should reexamine, from an ethical perspective, what kind of world we have inherited, what we are responsible for, and what we will pass on to coming generations (Hunt-Badiner, v).

References

Capra, Frithjof. The Hidden Connection. New York: Doubleday, 2002.
Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale, 2006.
Hunt-Badiner, Allan, ed. Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology. Berkeley, Calif.: Parallax, 1990.
Jones, Ken. The New Social Face of Buddhism: A Call to Action. Boston: Wisdom, 2003.
Loy, David R. A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002.
Naess, Arne. "The Deep Ecology Movement." George Sessions, ed., Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.
Rifkin, Ira, and David Little. Spiritual Perspectives on Globalization: Making Sense of Economic and Cultural Upheaval. Woodstock, Vt.: Skylight Paths, 2003.
Smith, Huston, and Philip Novak. Buddhism: A Concise Introduction. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.
Tucker, Mary Evelyn, and John A. Grim. "Introduction: The Emerging Alliance of World Religions and Ecology." Daedalus, Fall 2001.
Uhl, Christopher. Developing Ecological Consciousness: Paths to a Sustainable World. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Varela, Francisco, Evan T. Thomson, and Eleanor Rosch. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.
Watts, Alan. Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion. Boston: Tuttle, 1995.

C. Jotin Khisty, Ph. D., is professor emeritus in the department of civil, architectural, and environmental Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has published extensively in the areas of urban planning, transportation engineering, and systems science.

The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology - Theosophical Society in America

The Marriage of Buddhism and Deep Ecology - Theosophical Society in America

Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered by Bill Devall | Goodreads

Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered by Bill Devall | Goodreads





Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered

byBill Devall,George Sessions
3.92 · Rating details · 205 ratings · 18 reviews
Practicing is simple. Nothing forced, nothing violent, just settling into our place. "Deep ecology," a term originated in 1972 by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess, is emerging as a way to develop harmony between individuals, communities and nature. DEEP ECOLOGY--the term and the book--unfolds the path to living a simple, rich life and shows how to participate in major environmental issues in a positive and creative manner.
--

roduct description

From the Inside Flap

Contents Preface Nothing Can Be Done, Everything is Possible Minority Tradition and Direct Action The Dominant, Modern Worldview and Its Critics The Reformist Response Deep Ecology Some Sources of the Deep Ecology Perspective Why Wilderness in the Nuclear Age? Nature Resource Conservation or Protection of the Integrity of Nature: Contrasting Views of Management Ecotopia: The Vision Defined

From the Back Cover

Deep Ecology explores the philosophical, psychological, and sociological roots of today's environmental movement, examines the human-centered assumptions behind most approaches to nature, explores the possibilities of an expanded human consciousness, and offers specific direct action suggestions for individuals to practice. Widely read in it first printing, Deep Ecology has established itself as one of the most significant books on environmental thought to appear in this decade.

"Deep Ecology is subversive, but it's the kind of subversion we can use." --San Francisco Chronicle

"This book is an attempt at codifying a scattered body of ecological insight into a philosophy that places human beings on an absolutely equal footing with all other creatures on the planet." --Stephanie Mills, Whole Earth Review

"Difficult and (to some) unfamiliar insights on nature and human beings presented with simplicity and clarity, Deep Ecology rattles a cage full of occidental presumptions and yet it all seems almost like common sense." --Gary Snyder

Bill Devall has studied the social organization, politics, psychology and philosophy of the environmental movement for fifteen years. He teaches at Humbolt State University in California and is active in many environmental groups including Earth First! and the Sierra Club.

George Sessions teaches philosophy at Sierra College California. He was appointed to the Mountaineering Committee of the the Sierra Club in 1962, has served as a philosophy consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is editor of the International Ecophilosophy Newsletter.

About the Author

Bill DeVall has been a guest lecturer and featured speaker at universities in the United States and Australia and at national and international environmental conferences.

No Information Available.

--






Paperback, 267 pages
Published January 19th 2001 by Gibbs Smith (first published 1985)


Write a review

Jul 07, 2009Gayge rated it liked it
You know, I kind of feel bad giving a book on deep ecology only three stars, especially where deep ecology is really central to my politics. But, one, I think this book would have been much more meaningful to me years ago - the principles of deep ecology are second nature to me at this point. And two, there's a lot of racism in this book, mainly referring to indigenous peoples of the Americas as "primal peoples" and viewing them as all the same, and massive, massive creepy appropriation and romanticisation of several Asian cultures.

If you aren't already well-versed in deep ecology, and you're up enough on anti-racism to know that this book is really racist (and, yes, portraying POC as special magical harmonious with the rest of Nature people and not involving actual current POC voices is hella racist), this will give you a clear intro to deep ecology. But especially given the racism that is part of some sections of the radical environmental movement, I'm looking for a better introduction to direct people to. (less)
flag8 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review



Jan 04, 2020Atticus rated it really liked it
Shelves: ecology-and-primitivism
At its core, this book is quite simple; everything present within it is, more or less, an accompaniment to the principles of Deep Ecology that it outlines. I would consider this to be more of a handbook than an actual book, and really it resonates with me more as a piece of aphoristic literature than anything else. There are a plethora of good quotations and sources and interesting bits of related artistry (Snyder's Smokey the Bear Sutra stood out for me, quite a wonderful piece), but in terms of the actual message the book is better suited as an introductory work. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but don't expect a "deep" reading from it. Still, it is good to consult and look over every now and again, as it is a pretty good introduction and does encompass a lot of important talking points. (less)
flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review



Sep 18, 2017Brett rated it liked it
Shelves: environment, philosophy
It takes this book 200 pages to say that people need to refocus their conception of the world away from being human-centered and toward a conception that places humans, other life, and even natural environments on the same level.

I consider myself to an environmental advocate, but I'm not really willing to go as far as Deep Ecology wants to me to go. It may be possible for humans to live deeply satisfying lives with much reduced technological convenience but I don't think the vast majority of humans are seriously interested in trying this out. There is just very little grappling with the details of what the philosophical changes the authors want us to embrace would mean in actual effect. Instead, there are lots of sweeping statements and generalizations. Some of it is compelling; some of it not.

The authors also intersperse lots of snippets of other books, essays, and poems throughout the text, aiming for a general introduction to other thinkers and writers on the topic. In some ways, this is useful for those of us who are new to the topic, but in other ways it seems to prevent the authors from fully fleshing out their own thoughts. They introduce a topic, and insert the appropriate quote from another writer, then leave the topic. For a book that seems to want to be a comprehensive treatment of Deep Ecology, there is surprisingly little meat on the bones.

Rather, there is a lot of spiritual flim flam about the importance of nature and how mountains or rivers are living things that deserve to be valued intrinsically, even at the expense of humans. Nature is of course extremely important and by preserving nature, we greatly increase the odds of preserving the human race as well, but the fact of the matter is that mountains and rivers themselves are not living, and that humans will need to make informed, thoughtful, far-reaching judgments about development. To say that development is unacceptable in the vast majority of circumstances doesn't seem like a tenable position in the debate to me.

One other detail that seems strange, but has to do with when Deep Ecology was published in 1985. There is no mention at all of climate change in the book. Climate change was not understood of course in 1985 the way it is now, but it feels odd to read a book on environmentalism that doesn't speak at all to what has become the pressing environmental issue of our time.

I've been pretty hard on this book in this review, but there were several parts I greatly enjoyed, and I'm not even closing myself off entirely from the position advocated by the authors. The fact is that we are coming to a point in human development where we have greatly jeopardized our position on the planet through mindlessly burning fossil fuels, even decades after it became incontrovertible that doing so was causing serious harm. In the discussion of what it is that we can do now to try to stave off disaster, there is a place for someone to make the Deep Ecology argument. But I hope they can do it more effectively than this book does. (less)
flag1 like · Like · 2 comments · see review



Jul 08, 2009Joshua added it
Shelves: hippie, summer09
This is a good overview of the philosophical underpinnings of Deep Ecology. It does a better (more polished) sales job than Naess's books, says something deep (better than Berry's book), and at least attempts a synthesis (unlike Milbraith). I particularly enjoyed the discussion of different types of ecotopias that have been proposed/presented.

This would make a good starter book to get someone interested in DE. Once they are hooked, then point them to Devall's "Simple in Means, Rich in Ends" for some practical advice.

(less)
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review



Feb 05, 2008Jessenoah rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: budding biophiliacs
lots of good quotes and standpoints regarding environmental philosophy. examining the myriad ways of looking at current issues, through the lenseseseses of poets and scientists alike.
check it out on the toilet.
flag1 like · Like · comment · see review



Aug 02, 2020Brandon rated it did not like it
I don't know who this was written for, but it wasn't for me. I got 2/3rds of the way through before throwing in the towel. I wanted to learn what deep ecology meant/stood for, but I walked away having learned little to nothing.

The organization and structure is terrible. The book is a hodgepodge of jumbled together thoughts with little rational order or flow, frequently interspersed with bulleted asides or excerpts that detract from any sort of cohesive argumentation.

The ideas presented are so vague and immaterial that they don't offer any real insight into what deep ecology means. Perhaps in the last 3rd of the book they actually lay out and develop this idea. The first 2/3rds of the book consisted of supremely self-sanctimonious finger wagging at every other section of society except the authors and indigenous peoples. And indigenous peoples are treated as a monolithic mystical nature cult who all live in complete harmony with the natural world and had solutions to all of life's problems - i.e. the authors are spouting the same racist 'noble savage' bullshit that Rousseau was spewing 200 years ago, only dressed up in new wave garb.

Relatedly, the authors never develop an argument that convinces the reader of the soundness of their position or the demerits of the so called 'professional ecologists', whom they depict as a bunch of number crunching nerds who don't understand the soul of nature. They frequently state that they are in the right and that corporations and foresters are in the wrong, but they never actually do the work of developing an argument and supporting it with evidence. This is lazy, self-righteous environmentalism at its worst and does nothing to actually promote conservation. The authors clearly weren't trying to convince anyone, so I suppose this book was intended to be a primer for people who already believed that a mystical ecology was the proper direction. Even in that though, it fails (b/c of the aforementioned vagueness).

I'm still interested in the concept of deep ecology, but won't be circling back to it for a while thanks to this drek. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



May 17, 2021Mauro rated it really liked it
Deep Ecology is still our only, albeit tenuous, hope to survive the Anthropocene.
flagLike · see review



May 09, 2018Emma rated it really liked it
Indeed the book's terminology is dated, as is the formulation of some ideas, however it's of its time. I don't think that this should detract too much from the neat and accessible means of introduction Sessions provides into deep ecology thinking. It is fairly comprehensive, drawing together key contributors of the time, and providing impetus for further thought... It is interesting to consider the sense of urgency three decades prior, the predictions/fears for the future, and how, unfortunately, so little has changed by way of dominant ideology that parts could almost have been written today. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



Sep 19, 2008Jake rated it really liked it
Great stuff. This book is a natural extension of the mass self-loathing we all deserve as destroyers of the otherwise perfect Earth. Well, it wasn't really that sort of book, but it does discuss the emotional implications of a nature-centered life. I think we could all benefit from a more thoroughly realized sense of community. Technology is a good thing, but what's the hurry? A more deliberate path would allow us to maintain the wisdoms of the past while integrating those of the future. Utopian? Of course, but why the hell not? (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



Dec 20, 2007Kelly rated it really liked it
This is a great book. I originally read it to use in an environmental justice paper, and found that it provides a good basis for the environmental movement in general. Parts of it tend toward a self-righteous tree hugger mentality, but I liked it. It's inspiring. It's one of those books that I bought for school but have actually picked up since. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



Jan 27, 2010Kate rated it liked it
Shelves: environmental
Parts of this book I really love—some keen insights on how we relate to our world, and to the non-humans (creatures, landscapes) that share it with us. But then other parts are intensely policy heavy and don't add much to the discussion, and then some parts a lil too new agey. So certain parts definitely 5 stars, and worth the read. But I have to give it a 3 stars overall. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



Nov 30, 2014Ruth rated it it was ok
I'm not sure why I picked this book up again after reading it sometime in the 90's. It's very cut-and-pasty and weirdly written with all these quotes and bullets. I think I liked the appendices the best, because they were actual reprints of articles and a little easier to read. (less)
flagLike · comment · see review



Nov 08, 2010Lorelei Yang rated it really liked it
Shelves: philosophy-polisci
As a philosophy, deep ecology is both compelling and perplexing: hence the necessity of reading this volume.
flagLike · comment · see review