Category: Uncategorized

by Joanna Tomkins

COMING FROM GRATITUDE

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.

Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.

Breathing in, I notice my in breath has become deeper.

Breathing out, I notice that my out-breath has become slower….

Thich Nhat Hanh

HONOURING OUR PAIN FOR THE WORLD

In recent years, societies worldwide have faced unprecedented challenges—economic upheavals, political crises, and environmental disasters, and the heightened awareness of these through fast-speed internet. These crises have deepened a growing division between ideologies and communities. The roots of this divide are complex and its impact on resilience—the ability of societies to withstand and recover from sudden change—is profound. When people become entrenched in ideological or social oppositions, their ability to collaborate and find common ground weakens, making it harder to respond effectively to crises. With the acceleration of the Great Unravelling, which we perceive everyday in our lives, as division within ourselves, and separation from our collective Web of Life, we know that it is time now to find unity, if we want to have any chance of moving through this Great Turning in a good way.

This fragmentation is not a new phenomenon. Some trace its epicentre back to the bloody era of pre-industrial Western colonial and religious territorial invasions, cultural annihilation and societal plunder in the XVth and XVIth Century. Soon after, the scientific introduction of the predominant concept of Cartesian Split, generated originally by René Descartes, reinforced a worldview that separates mind from body, reason from emotion, human from nature, individual from collective, soul from reality, right from left, etc, etc. Most will agree that that era was most terrorific and machiavellic in terms of unravelling of moral values. Thereafter ensue four centuries that lead us to now this disastrous and compelling threshold for humanity; and this is infinitesimal in the wider view of Deep Time – which sees humans arriving on Earth less than a minute ago. And yes, indeed, many saints and great leaders proceeded these times and others have blossomed like lotus from mud throughout human history. We follow in the footsteps of these wise men, relearning the wisdom of pre-colonial Bodhisattvas.

Modern formal education reinforces these mental divisions through rigid structures that prioritise competition over collaboration. Standardised testing, hierarchical grading systems, and strict disciplinary measures condition students to equate self-worth with performance and single mindedness. Instead of being encouraged to explore different perspectives and develop emotional intelligence, children are often taught to seek external validation and fear failure. The system rewards obedience rather than curiosity, fear rather than love, creating individuals who hesitate to question authority, challenge assumptions, or engage in nuanced discussions. A student who learns that disagreement leads to punishment rather than understanding will later struggle to accept perspectives different from their own.

The consequences of societal fracturing are vast in our established institutions too. Political division makes cooperation on critical issues—such as overpopulation, mass production overshoot, lack of integral healthcare, disregard of human rights and the rights of our planet —nearly impossible, as factions focus more on defeating each other than solving problems. Cultural and social globalisation together with fragmentation erodes the fabric of local communities too, making collective action more difficult. Community resilience—our ability to support one another through crises—relies on strong social bonds. However, when divisions grows, following this detrimental programming, the willingness to collaborate diminishes when it is most needed, leaving societies vulnerable in times of uncertainty.

SEEING WITH NEW AND ANCIENT EYES

To rebuild resilience, we can actively cultivate the qualities that transcend social division. These values are not abstract ideals but essential human traits that, when nurtured, have the power to transform individuals and communities. Empathy allows us to connect with others beyond ideological differences. It enables us to see the world through another’s eyes, fostering understanding and reducing hostility. To cultivate empathy, we can engage in active listening, expose ourselves to diverse perspectives, and create spaces for open, nonjudgmental dialogue, role-playing, myth and story-telling and writing, art and poetry, community gatherings and rituals, nature immersion, etc, which will all challenge us to see the world from another’s perspective.

Compassion moves us to act, fostering a sense of shared responsibility that encourages people to support one another rather than compete. To reinforce compassion in society, we must create environments where acts of gratitude, kindness and service are valued as much as personal achievement. Recognising and rewarding cooperative efforts in schools, workplaces, and communities can shift the focus from individual success to collective well-being.

Adaptability is vital in an era of uncertainty. Rigid thinking leaves individuals and societies at continuous risk of collapse, whereas adaptability ensures resilience. Encouraging lifelong learning, curiosity, and openness to new experiences can help people embrace change rather than fear it. In education, fostering interdisciplinary learning—where students are exposed to different fields of knowledge and ways of thinking, beyond the rigidity of the classic classroom—can promote intellectual flexibility and innovation. I visualise a sense of excitement as we see the old unravelling and catch its threads in time to reweave them into something different, unknown, yet promising.

A society divided by ideological entrenchment struggles to work together in times of crisis. Strengthening collaboration means prioritising shared goals over individual or ideological victories. This requires a shift in how communities function, promoting cooperative projects, dialogue-based decision-making, and inclusive leadership. Encouraging collective problem-solving in schools, workplaces, and governance fosters a culture where people learn to work together despite differences.

How can we encourage education to shift away from rigid curricula and move toward fostering open-mindedness, emotional intelligence, and dialogue? Many educational initiatives, in particular small community based schools or extracurricular programmes so encourage critical thinking, teaching students not just to absorb information but to analyse and question it. Life skills such as emotional intelligence, a basic requirement for psychological and integrative health and thriving, could be integrated in formal education too, helping young people develop self-awareness, empathy, and conflict-resolution skills. By shifting from a system based on individualism, isolation and fear of failure to one that encourages exploration, trust and cooperation, we can raise generations better equipped to navigate the differences that we inevitably face in these times of radical shift rather than watch them fall victim to ideological entrenchment again, repeating the destructive cycles of our past.

GOING FORTH

I’m sure you perceived its tingling as you read these paragraphs that call us to Go Forth, for you will indeed notice that perhaps the most powerful force in sustaining resilience is hope. In times of crisis, hope gives us the strength to carry on, to envision a better future, and to find meaning in struggle. Hope is not passive optimism but an active commitment to creating positive change. To cultivate Active Hope, societies can nurture creativity, celebrate progress (however small), and build narratives that emphasise possibility and a sense of individual and collective purpose. By showcasing stories of resilience, reconciliation, and innovation, instead of doom and negativity, we reinforce the belief that healing is possible. We all know the limitless power of our beliefs when we put them into action and the exponential power that comes from doing that as a group. acting on behalf of our world.

The “Great Unraveling” threatens to divide humanity when we fight for survival, yet our resilience depends on choosing unity over separation. By strengthening our ability to listen, understand, and collaborate we can prepare for the challenges ahead. Going Forth in the “Great Turning” requires transcending the ignorant divisions of the past and the patriarcal competition enabled by our current Industrial Growth Society and embracing our collective responsibility to foster understanding, connection, and shared humanity. In doing so, we do not merely survive the future—we shape it.

By Diony Lalieu, Ocean Pledge founder and director,

After the workshop held in Kalk Bay on 6th March 2025

“A single tear can carry a heart of many emotions. When it falls, it’s not just about sadness, it’s about letting go. Sometimes, after we cry, we find ourselves smiling because we’ve allowed ourselves to truly feel, to release the weight we’ve been carrying. Now, picture a group of people coming together in a safe space, each person with their own story, their own journey, their own struggles and challenges. But they’ve arrived here, together, to share their hopes for a better world. In this space, they can talk about their sadness without guilt or shame, and share their dreams without fear, knowing they’re supported and their vision for a better tomorrow is held. In the Work that Reconnects, there is a deep acknowledgment that each person’s journey has shaped them into who they are today. Some paths were hard, others full of joy, but all have led them here, where they can listen, understand, and re-connect with themselves, with the planet and with all forms of life who share the planet with us. As they share their hopes, they realise that by being open with one another, they’re not only healing themselves but helping to support each other in shaping a better world. With deep gratitude to Joanna Tomkins from Gaia Speaking for holding this space. And for the Shark Centre for a gloriously educative morning of learning about sharks and interacting with life below the ocean.”

For more information on these groundbreaking Ocean-based leadership initiatives, please contact Ocean Pledge https://www.facebook.com/OceanPledge,

For more info on the Shark Centre and SOSF programmes visit https://saveourseas.com/sosf-shark-education-centre/

by GaiaSpeaking.com

Indra’s Net, a profound metaphor from Mahayana Buddhism, illustrates the universe as an expansive web where each node holds a jewel reflecting all others. This imagery encapsulates the concept of radical interdependence, suggesting that every entity is interconnected and mutually influential. Joanna Macy, a scholar of Buddhism and deep ecology, draws upon this metaphor to articulate our intrinsic connection within the web of life. She describes Indra’s Net as “a huge net where at every node is a jewel, and each jewel reflects the other jewels and catches the reflections back and forth,” emphasizing the tapestry of universal interconnectedness.

​This vision resonates with contemporary understandings in systems theory and deep ecology, which recognize that life is not organized hierarchically but through intricate interdependencies. Macy highlights that “nature doesn’t work that way, and great mystics of many traditions have seen this radical interdependence of all life.”

By embracing this perspective, we acknowledge that our actions ripple throughout the entire web, affecting all beings and the environment.​

In the context of the Great Turning—a term Macy uses to describe the essential shift from an industrial-growth society to a life-sustaining civilisation—recognising our place within Indra’s Net becomes transformative. It fosters a sense of mutual belonging and shared responsibility. Macy asserts, “We belong to each other. We belong to the living body of Earth and nothing can ever separate us. We are already home.” This understanding compels us to act for the well-being of the whole, knowing that individual and collective destinies are intertwined.​
(Source: Article on the Deep Time Journal of the Work that Reconnects International Network)

By internalising the metaphor of Indra’s Net, we move beyond the illusion of separateness and embrace our role as active participants in the web of life. This shift in perception is vital for the Great Turning, as it encourages actions rooted in awareness, compassion, and a deep commitment to the flourishing of all beings.​

For a deeper exploration of these concepts, you may find Joanna Macy’s talk “Waking Up in Indra’s Net: Acting for the Sake of Life on Earth” insightful.​

Listen to Audio on dharmaseed.org

By Fritjof Capra, August 27, 2024

I recently found a completely nontechnical way to summarise it in terms of four ‘principles of life’, which, according to the systems view, constitute its very essence. They are principles of organisation shared by all living systems, from the smallest bacteria through the wide range of fungi, plants, humans and other animals. In other words, these four principles are embodied in all forms of life, including social systems and ecosystems.      

I am happy to announce that my article on the systemic principles of life, which I developed over the last two years, has been published in Resurgence magazine, Issue 346, September/October 2024. I found this new language, summarizing my synthesis of the systems view of life, in conversations with the students of my online Capra Course. I am very grateful to them for countless stimulating discussions.

I was trained as a physicist and spent twenty years doing research in theoretical high-energy physics. I left physics in the mid-eighties and turned towards the life sciences, where a new conception of life has recently emerged. It involves a profound shift in perspective from seeing the world as a machine composed of elementary building blocks to understanding that it is a network of inseparable patterns of relationships.

Over the last few decades, I have developed a synthesis of this new understanding, a conceptual framework that integrates four dimensions of life: the biological, the cognitive, the social and the ecological. I have presented summaries of this framework, as it evolved, in several books. My final synthesis is published in a textbook entitled The Systems View of Life,which is co-authored with Pier Luigi Luisi (Cambridge University Press, 2014). I call my synthesis a ‘systems view’ because it requires a new kind of thinking – thinking in terms of relationships, patterns and context. In science this is known as systemic thinking, or ‘systems thinking’.

What is systems thinking?

Systems thinking emerged in the 1920s from a series of interdisciplinary dialogues among biologists, psychologists and ecologists. In all these fields, scientists realised that a living system – an organism, ecosystem, or social system – is an integrated whole whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller parts. The meaning of this statement is actually quite subtle and is often misunderstood. There is nothing wrong with saying that the structures of all living organisms are composed of smaller parts, ultimately of molecules. But this does not mean that their properties can be explained in terms of molecules alone. The systemic properties derive from the processes and relationships in which these molecules are involved. Systemic properties are properties of the whole, which none of its parts have. Thus, systems thinking involves a shift of perspective from the parts to the whole. The early systems thinkers expressed this in the now well-known phrase ‘The whole is more than the sum of its parts.’

Thinking in terms of relationships is crucial for ecology, because the word ‘ecology’, which is derived from the Greek oikos (‘household’), means the science of the relationships among various members of the Earth household. I should also mention that systems thinking is not limited to science. Many Indigenous cultures embody profound ecological awareness and think of Nature in terms of relationships and patterns.

During the 1980s, systems thinking was raised to a new level with the development of complexity theory, technically known as ‘nonlinear dynamics’. It is a new mathematical language, involving the use of high-speed computers, which allowed scientists for the first time to handle the enormous complexity of living systems mathematically. The new nonlinear mathematics is a mathematics of visual patterns – strange attractors, fractals, and so on.

During the last forty years, there has been a strong interest in nonlinear phenomena, which has generated a whole series of new and powerful theories that have dramatically increased our understanding of many key characteristics of life. They embody what I like to call ‘advanced systems thinking’, based on complexity theory rather than on the classical systems theories of the 1930s and 1940s. My synthesis of these recent theories is what I refer to as the systems view of life.

Systemic principles of life

Naturally this synthesis involves quite a few technical concepts. However, I recently found a completely nontechnical way to summarise it in terms of four ‘principles of life’, which, according to the systems view, constitute its very essence. They are principles of organisation shared by all living systems, from the smallest bacteria through the wide range of fungi, plants, humans and other animals. In other words, these four principles are embodied in all forms of life, including social systems and ecosystems.      

Principle 1: life organises itself in networks

My first principle is that life organises itself in networks. This actually contains two ideas. One is that the network is the basic pattern of organisation of all living systems: wherever we see life, we see networks. This realisation originated in the early 20th century in ecology with the concept of food webs. Subsequently, network models were used at all systems levels, viewing organisms as networks of cells, and cells as networks of molecules, just as ecosystems are understood as networks of individual organisms.

A network, as everybody knows, is a certain pattern of nodes and links, of relationships. Therefore, in order to understand networks, we need to learn how to think in terms of relationships and patterns, and this is what systems thinking is all about. Please note also that networks are nonlinear – they go in all directions – and since all living systems are networks, this means that all living systems are nonlinear, or ‘complex’, systems.

In recent years, social networks have become a major focus of attention, not only in science but also in society at large and throughout a newly emerging global culture. Indeed, networks are the dominant social feature of our age. The profound change of metaphor from seeing the world as a machine to understanding it as a network lies at the very heart of the systems view of life.

The second idea implied in my first principle is that life organises itself: the network pattern is not imposed on a living system by its environment, but is created by the system itself. The concept of self-organisation originated in the 1940s and was used in many different contexts and with different meanings during the subsequent decades. Today, describing living systems as self-organising means that they create structures and processes organised by the internal rules of the system, rather than by external imposing forces.

This does not mean that living systems are independent of their environment. On the contrary, they depend for their survival on continual flows of energy and matter, or food, from the environment. In fact, these continual flows, known as metabolism, provide a key distinction between living and nonliving systems. The great microbiologist Lynn Margulis liked to say: “If it metabolises, it’s alive; if it doesn’t metabolise, it’s not alive.”

Principle 2: life is inherently regenerative

My second principle is that life is inherently regenerative. Living networks continually regenerate themselves by transforming or replacing their components. In this way they undergo continual structural changes while preserving their web-like patterns of organisation. This coexistence of stability and change is indeed a key characteristic of life.

The continual regeneration of life in Nature is, of course, well known. We only have to think of the turn of the seasons with new growth every spring. That’s regeneration. The novel insight in the systems view is that regeneration operates at all levels of life, down to the molecular networks in cells. Regeneration is the very essence of life. When regeneration stops, life stops. In a more philosophical vein, we might even say that regeneration is the purpose, or the meaning, of life.

The continual process of regeneration, of transforming and replacing components of the system, is only possible with continual metabolic flows of energy and matter through the living network. Indeed, we all need to breathe, eat and drink to stay alive. In other words, metabolism – that defining characteristic of biological life – is an integral part of regeneration.

As I have mentioned, life in the social realm can also be understood in terms of networks, but here we are not dealing with chemical reactions: we are dealing with communications. Social networks, as everybody knows today, are networks of communications. Like biological networks, they are regenerative, but what they generate is mostly nonmaterial. Each communication creates information, ideas and meaning, which give rise to further communications, and thus the entire network continually regenerates itself.

As communications continue in a social network, they form multiple feedback loops that eventually produce a shared system of knowledge, values, and rules of conduct – a common context of meaning, known as culture, which is continually sustained by further communications.

Principle 3: life is inherently creative

The fact that an organism’s metabolism involves flows through networks of chemical processes has the important consequence that these metabolic flows include cyclical pathways. These cycles can act as feedback loops. Because of that feedback, living organisms are able to regulate and organise themselves. Feedback loops can be either self-balancing, maintaining the organism in a state of dynamic balance known as homeostasis, or they can be self-amplifying, or ‘runaway’, which may result in the entire system becoming unstable.

At this point, the system may either break down, or it may break through to a new form of order. This spontaneous emergence of new order at critical points of instability, often referred to simply as ‘emergence’, is in my opinion the most important discovery of complexity theory. The process of emergence has been studied in great detail and has been recognised as the dynamic origin of learning, development and evolution. In other words, creativity – the generation of new forms – is a key property of all living systems. This is my third principle of life: life is inherently creative.

This means that, as human beings, we are creative not only if we happen to be artists or designers. All of us are creative simply because we are alive, because life itself is inherently creative.

Principle 4: life is inherently intelligent

My fourth and final principle is that life is inherently intelligent. This is based on a new conception of the nature of mind, which is one of the most radical philosophical implications of the systems view of life, since it finally overcomes the Cartesian division between mind and matter that has haunted philosophers and scientists for centuries.

In the 17th century, René Descartes based his view of Nature on the fundamental division between two independent and separate realms – that of mind, which he called the “thinking thing”, and that of matter, the “extended thing”. Following Descartes, scientists and philosophers continued to think of the mind as some intangible entity and were unable to imagine how this “thinking thing” related to the body. The decisive advance of the systemic understanding of life has been to abandon the Cartesian view and to realise that mind is not a thing but a process, known as cognition (the process of knowing).

In the systems view of life, cognition denotes a particular way in which a living organism interacts with its environment. The organism responds to environmental influences with structural changes, and it does so autonomously, specifying which influences to notice and how to respond according to its nature and previous experience. Continual cognitive interactions with the environment are an essential part of an organism’s metabolism, and thus life and cognition are inseparably linked: life is inherently intelligent.

This is a radical expansion of the concept of cognition and, implicitly, the concept of mind. In the systems view, cognition manifests at all levels of life, whether or not an organism has a brain and a nervous system. Plants, for example, and even bacteria, neither of which have nervous systems, are constantly engaged in cognitive activities involving their sensory apparatus and various self-organising processes.

Another way of describing this situation is to emphasise that all living organisms interact with their environment through sensory organs. To use an old philosophical term, living beings are sentient beings. In the systems view, their sentient interactions are identified as cognitive interactions. As the structures of the sensory organs become more and more complex in evolution, so do the corresponding cognitive processes. Eventually we have the evolution of brains, nervous systems and human consciousness, involving self-awareness, language and conceptual thought.

The ability to form abstract concepts, symbols and mental images is a key feature of our consciousness, and human intelligence today includes the abstractions we associate with mathematics and with computers – algorithms, mathematical models and the like. However, from the systemic perspective of life at large, these mathematical abstractions are peripheral to the intelligence inherent in all living organisms. Living intelligence is tacit and embodied. Its key quality is the ability to be in the world, to move around in it, and to survive in it.

With the recent rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), we have overemphasised algorithms and other mathematical abstractions and have neglected our tacit, embodied, living intelligence. As a consequence, our ability to be in the world – in other words, our wisdom – seems to have diminished dramatically. Indeed, a civilisation that sees making money rather than human wellbeing as its main goal and in the process of doing so destroys the natural environment on which human survival depends can hardly be deemed very intelligent.

The critical question, in my view, is which uses of AI are helpful and appropriate, and which are inappropriate because, although they enhance the mathematical aspects of human intelligence, they may diminish our tacit, embodied intelligence or wisdom of how we should live.

In conclusion, I want to emphasise that advanced systems thinking will be critical in order to solve the major problems of our time, which are systemic ones – all interconnected and interdependent. In particular, systems thinking will be essential for building ecologically sustainable communities, designed in such a manner that their ways of life do not interfere with Nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. The first step in this endeavour must be to become ecologically literate – that is, to understand the principles of organisation that ecosystems have evolved to sustain the web of life. These principles of ecology are grounded in the four principles I have introduced, and so – to summarise the new systemic conception of life – life organises itself in networks, and these living networks are inherently regenerative, creative and intelligent.

We urgently need to put life at the centre of our businesses, economy, technologies, physical structures and social institutions. As the political activist and author David Korten admonishes us, “We will prosper in the pursuit of life, or we will perish in the pursuit of money. The choice is ours.”

—

Fritjof Capra is a physicist and systems theorist and the author of several international bestsellers, including The Tao of Physics and The Web of Life. He is co-author with Pier Luigi Luisi of the multidisciplinary textbook The Systems View of Life, on which his online course is based. www.capracourse.net

What you usually refer to when you say “I”, is not who you are. By a monstrous act of reductionism, the infinite depth of who you are is confused with a sound produced by the vocal cords or the thought of “I” in your mind and whatever the “I” has identified with. So what do the usual “I” and the related “me”, “my”, or “mine” refer to? (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth)

I am called Joanna, and I call myself I, and I strongly believe that I am identified with that name and my possessions, individual skills and my past, etc. And I believe that I must prove that to the world. But should that be my truth?

I have a friend who has memories from the womb. She remembers when she saw her feet and realised for the first time that they belonged to her. In awe she was of the individuation of her own body. Isn’t that just beautiful!? She remembers making use of her power to make her first somersaults… In glee!

And this same friend remembers, later, the first time she understood that her mother was telling her she was a good girl, as she did not cry, or fidget on the changing mat. And she thought aha!, I should do what others tell me to be ‘good’. We are introduced to all these wondrous, interconnected worlds of awe and wonder, good and bad,  belonging and separation, and the dual worlds of wrong or right from a very young age and it has become increasingly difficult to disentangle what has been dictated through millenia of conditioning from the natural incline of humanity at its source.

I have little memories as a child, maybe because I travelled around a lot, losing a sense of geographical, social and even linguistic reference. I do remember numerous moments when as a teenager and a young adult I felt pressured and conditioned by the system of following the crowd and therefore the credo “more is better” too. I felt pressure to assert my individuality in competition with others and was saddened by that. Even in social circles. And then in Business (as Usual) you are told things are meaningful if they sell in high numbers, to the masses – generally not things that have a life-enhancing purpose. It was all about what I could prove, not about who I wanted to be naturally, shutting up those inner voices. If I had been offered the freedom to choose “less is better” in the doing, yet more is better in the inner listening, I certainly would have a deeper knowledge of I today.

In this a world of exponentially fast, massified systems, information highways are flowing through our fingers but true wisdom is fleeting, It started a short while back on our human chronology and it started a while back for each of our current conditioned human lives.

The Great Turning wants us to actively demonstrate that demise is not a fatal human destiny and that we are here to learn from our errors and to participate in this exciting shift towards a new story.

We don’t need to do what we are told. We don’t need to strive for individualisation. We don’t need to pretend this Great Unravelling isn’t happening. We need to use our inner and outer voices.

I prefer an injurious truth to a useful error.
Truth heals any pain it may inflict on us. (Goethe – 1801)

There is an exercise in the collection of practices of the Work that Reconnects (WTR), in the book “Coming Back to Life” by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown, that is called “Who Am I?”. There, one participant asks another that question repeatedly, allowing us to drop thought constructs surrounding our identity and naturally wind down to a few simple words, that can hold and express the most essential truth of our being,

When I saw a phrase by WTR facilitator Lydia Violet appearing in my email inbox last week it stopped me in my momentaneous flight. I felt grateful for this short sentence: “One thing I know is that I can sing.”

Today I want to play with that sentence: “One thing I know… In this crazy upward-plunging crazy unravelling world of uncertainty I could also begin the sentence as “One thing I DO know…” as I know little else… Let me try it… One thing I do know, is that I know how to sing, yeah. One thing I do know is that I feel love. One thing I do know is that I am a living being… One thing I do know is that I am moved by nature… One thing I do know is that I love this Earth… One thing I do know that I am connected to a myriad of other beings… How expansive is simplicity?!

I know these answers makes up my true, collective identity. And we all are conscious of the same common essence if we can pause long enough to remember. What we identify with as connected individuals, how we speak our truth individually and what we DO with it all defines our role in this new human chapter, one of great responsibility, and possibly one of great simplicity.