dear Marianne, what a WONDERFUL quote from Carl Sagan!!! I love what you are pointing to here: "It’s to our detriment if we don’t get over this high school level of disrespect for things we can’t explain. The planet isn’t in the trouble we’re in due to a lack of scientific discovery or intellectual think tanks. It’s in trouble due to a lack of reverence, and ethics, and heart." I am VERY much looking forward to quoting YOU on this!!!
And more: you wrote, "if the heart is not the ultimate decider, in life or politics or anything else, then we are headed for disaster. [...] Science illumines our understanding; it’s love that saves our lives." Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! You are right, mystics don't usually put down science, but too many people these days ARE putting down science... in part as an unfortunate response to the arrogance of "scientism"... science pretending it can be the only arbiter of knowledge, rather than recognizing that there are multiple ways of knowing...
We desperately need BOTH... renewed respect for science, and renewed respect for mysticism... may we develop the maturity, to understand the complementarity of these two valid ways of knowing... and THANK YOU for your lifetime of work toward this end.
The dog does not have the tools necessary to understand how the refrigerator works or even how to open the door. BUT, it does have the tools necessary to know how to be a good dog and get the human to open the door and get the dog a treat.
We also do not have the tools necessary to understand ultimate reality. BUT, we can be good doggies and be happy. We DO have the tools necessary to love one another and open the door to happiness, even if we do not understand it.
Yes, I, too, felt like quoting and quoting, then didn't know where to start. Thank you for this. And thank you, Marianne, for this piece. I've been thinking all of this for years, but couldn't quite get it together. Beautiful, how you did it.
Marianne, this feels like the deeper continuation of what you named when you reshared my essay earlier this year—that love isn’t the opposite of structure, but the force that gives structure its coherence.
Your reminder that science provides the alphabet and mysticism provides the language is exactly the bridge so many of us are trying to build now. Thank you for articulating the intersection where meaning and mechanism finally meet.
Love requires no rules to manage. It provides magic, instead, and it all works.It wastes our energy to search for the right rules........Let us put our energy into magic. Our angels can do their job of taking care of our needs better when we focus on our job of loving one another. Let's stay in our lane.
Once again, you've shed light on our emerging sense of reality. Those who now study physics deeply describe a world of energy exchange and connection, of fluidity and 'miracles' that would have made anyone's head spin a quarter century ago. Many leading scientists now believe that some sort of consciousness forms the basis of everything. Call it God if you like.
Ooof! Right to the heart (and science) of the Truth here! What's curious for me is that spreading love and praying for those too weak to trust in spiritual truth was never exhausting before. It's interesting that just at the same time our nation is showing some really scary colors, my clients (I'm a trauma therapist) are showing me how truly horrible people can be to each other in ways I thought we're unimaginable. 😞 You have been such a help to me reminding me of the importance of staying true to our hearts and ideas in the face of such powerful toxicity. Marianne, I pray your love wave gets bigger and bigger and creates a truly revolutionary movement! We may need to gather in person again just to keep each other buoyed up! Thank you! And Bless You!
Thank you Marianne for a cogent dialogue with the 2 ends of the description of life.
What your article shows so clearly is that every living person and thing is fully connected.
To me that means what we do to one of us effects all of us. We need to LOVE each other - AND we don't have to "LIKE" each other! That means work together for the common good. well done!
I was blessed to experience an idyllic childhood running around our floral and vegetable gardens in my backyard that also had a view of a pond and lake below the hill at the back of the yard, where I would go exploring Nature. It was the early '60s but one environmental thing that concerned my family--sometimes during the summer a helicopter would fly overhead spewing DDT into our backyard, a chemical to kill the dandelions and other needed life forms too!
My insightful mother, always attentive to her surroundings and concerns for life, including her daughters, came across and read the popular book: "The Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. Ms. Carson's best-selling book ignited a national movement to help Nature in America--she became a pioneer in the U.S./world by educating folks about the harms of pesticides. Then, the helicoopters quit coming.
Years later, I went back to college and became accredited in sustainable agriculture inspired by my recollection of Carson as well as by Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." I have used my acquired knowledge but in recent years have become deeply discouraged at how our global oligarchy has squashed so much good progress--going backwards! So Marianne is correct when she writes that our planet is "in trouble due to a lack of reverence, and ethics, and heart." It's my wish that humanity will, sooner than not, riseup to evolve beyond this terrible chapter and help repair Mother Earth.
Thanks Marianne for writing about the important processes of life in this post! Joan
I read tech stuff. All the science and tech that we need is at our fingertips. We are not waiting on tech breakthroughs. We need to focus on our job, to love one another. AND WE ARE!
I feel really good about it.
And I love you.
Now, I will go back to breaking up some adobe to expand my flower garden.
Hi T Mark Commons, indeed, loving one another helps first. But we also need to voice our concerns to those supposedly-in-charge since power and money seems to be the misguided rule on our planet--sadly. But I totally agree with you that we have all the technology needed to reverse the awful damage impacting Mother Earth but it takes the total will of the collective to truly support it and get the job done! So I get concerned we may be too late in the game.
Meanwhile, are you demolishing an adobe fireplace or fence to expand your flower garden? I was intrigued with what you wrote. Also, you must live in a warm weather climate. I am gazing out my window at eight inches of snow so I can only dream of flowers:)! Joan
I moved to Ecuador from Mammoth Lakes, where I had been for 30 years (we had a record of over 700 inches of snow, in town, a few years ago). The dirt in Vilcabamba is so hard that they make fine houses directly out of it, no baking.
Wow, thanks for your feedback. I so admire those who venture to live in other lands on our planet! I hope you are enjoying it. Amazing the soil you are describing too. Best to you, Joan
When, in Spring, 2020, a "top Progressive commentator", with whose views I sometimes agree, said you were "breathtakingly unqualified" to serve as President, I was all the more inclined to cast my vote your way. Simply put, all my life I have been castigated as "impractical" or "head in the clouds". Now, though, the same people seem to have reached a 'road to Damascus' moment, and are "amazed" at my "insight". You are spot on, in your assessment of what is ailing the American public.
Autobiography of a Yogi is in my top 3 books of all time. As you have shown in the past you are bang on. I've always felt science and religion were very close. I think of my own spiritual experiences and then think quantum physics.
You’re a visionary ahead of your time. You will be vindicated. You might be dead by then, but people will know you were right. Keep talking. Hang in there. You are loved.
dear Marianne, what a WONDERFUL quote from Carl Sagan!!! I love what you are pointing to here: "It’s to our detriment if we don’t get over this high school level of disrespect for things we can’t explain. The planet isn’t in the trouble we’re in due to a lack of scientific discovery or intellectual think tanks. It’s in trouble due to a lack of reverence, and ethics, and heart." I am VERY much looking forward to quoting YOU on this!!!
And more: you wrote, "if the heart is not the ultimate decider, in life or politics or anything else, then we are headed for disaster. [...] Science illumines our understanding; it’s love that saves our lives." Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! You are right, mystics don't usually put down science, but too many people these days ARE putting down science... in part as an unfortunate response to the arrogance of "scientism"... science pretending it can be the only arbiter of knowledge, rather than recognizing that there are multiple ways of knowing...
We desperately need BOTH... renewed respect for science, and renewed respect for mysticism... may we develop the maturity, to understand the complementarity of these two valid ways of knowing... and THANK YOU for your lifetime of work toward this end.
Totally agree. And thank you
The dog does not have the tools necessary to understand how the refrigerator works or even how to open the door. BUT, it does have the tools necessary to know how to be a good dog and get the human to open the door and get the dog a treat.
We also do not have the tools necessary to understand ultimate reality. BUT, we can be good doggies and be happy. We DO have the tools necessary to love one another and open the door to happiness, even if we do not understand it.
Yes, I, too, felt like quoting and quoting, then didn't know where to start. Thank you for this. And thank you, Marianne, for this piece. I've been thinking all of this for years, but couldn't quite get it together. Beautiful, how you did it.
Marianne, this feels like the deeper continuation of what you named when you reshared my essay earlier this year—that love isn’t the opposite of structure, but the force that gives structure its coherence.
Your reminder that science provides the alphabet and mysticism provides the language is exactly the bridge so many of us are trying to build now. Thank you for articulating the intersection where meaning and mechanism finally meet.
Wow, that's really beautifully put!
Love requires no rules to manage. It provides magic, instead, and it all works.It wastes our energy to search for the right rules........Let us put our energy into magic. Our angels can do their job of taking care of our needs better when we focus on our job of loving one another. Let's stay in our lane.
I love you
Once again, you've shed light on our emerging sense of reality. Those who now study physics deeply describe a world of energy exchange and connection, of fluidity and 'miracles' that would have made anyone's head spin a quarter century ago. Many leading scientists now believe that some sort of consciousness forms the basis of everything. Call it God if you like.
Ooof! Right to the heart (and science) of the Truth here! What's curious for me is that spreading love and praying for those too weak to trust in spiritual truth was never exhausting before. It's interesting that just at the same time our nation is showing some really scary colors, my clients (I'm a trauma therapist) are showing me how truly horrible people can be to each other in ways I thought we're unimaginable. 😞 You have been such a help to me reminding me of the importance of staying true to our hearts and ideas in the face of such powerful toxicity. Marianne, I pray your love wave gets bigger and bigger and creates a truly revolutionary movement! We may need to gather in person again just to keep each other buoyed up! Thank you! And Bless You!
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Robert Persig was right!
Art+science are equal
Yep
Yes we need a politics of love. Love is the answer.
Thank you for every word you write.
Thank you Marianne for a cogent dialogue with the 2 ends of the description of life.
What your article shows so clearly is that every living person and thing is fully connected.
To me that means what we do to one of us effects all of us. We need to LOVE each other - AND we don't have to "LIKE" each other! That means work together for the common good. well done!
Dear Marianne
All of us that have followed your teachings, Deepak, Wayne, etc.
Know to stay on hope/love is real. Make it so.
Sincerely
Marianne
In Canada
Marianne Williamson you’re my hero :)
Likewise as well ...
I was blessed to experience an idyllic childhood running around our floral and vegetable gardens in my backyard that also had a view of a pond and lake below the hill at the back of the yard, where I would go exploring Nature. It was the early '60s but one environmental thing that concerned my family--sometimes during the summer a helicopter would fly overhead spewing DDT into our backyard, a chemical to kill the dandelions and other needed life forms too!
My insightful mother, always attentive to her surroundings and concerns for life, including her daughters, came across and read the popular book: "The Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. Ms. Carson's best-selling book ignited a national movement to help Nature in America--she became a pioneer in the U.S./world by educating folks about the harms of pesticides. Then, the helicoopters quit coming.
Years later, I went back to college and became accredited in sustainable agriculture inspired by my recollection of Carson as well as by Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." I have used my acquired knowledge but in recent years have become deeply discouraged at how our global oligarchy has squashed so much good progress--going backwards! So Marianne is correct when she writes that our planet is "in trouble due to a lack of reverence, and ethics, and heart." It's my wish that humanity will, sooner than not, riseup to evolve beyond this terrible chapter and help repair Mother Earth.
Thanks Marianne for writing about the important processes of life in this post! Joan
I feel good about it!
I read tech stuff. All the science and tech that we need is at our fingertips. We are not waiting on tech breakthroughs. We need to focus on our job, to love one another. AND WE ARE!
I feel really good about it.
And I love you.
Now, I will go back to breaking up some adobe to expand my flower garden.
(fellow hippie, born 1955, ACIM since 1983)
Hi T Mark Commons, indeed, loving one another helps first. But we also need to voice our concerns to those supposedly-in-charge since power and money seems to be the misguided rule on our planet--sadly. But I totally agree with you that we have all the technology needed to reverse the awful damage impacting Mother Earth but it takes the total will of the collective to truly support it and get the job done! So I get concerned we may be too late in the game.
Meanwhile, are you demolishing an adobe fireplace or fence to expand your flower garden? I was intrigued with what you wrote. Also, you must live in a warm weather climate. I am gazing out my window at eight inches of snow so I can only dream of flowers:)! Joan
https://photos.google.com/search/CgAiCgoAEgYKBHICCgAox7PXr60z/photo/AF1QipMo3NqiUGgZiiMZO_29HhngoHtERZ3Gw5X1ewnV
I moved to Ecuador from Mammoth Lakes, where I had been for 30 years (we had a record of over 700 inches of snow, in town, a few years ago). The dirt in Vilcabamba is so hard that they make fine houses directly out of it, no baking.
Wow, thanks for your feedback. I so admire those who venture to live in other lands on our planet! I hope you are enjoying it. Amazing the soil you are describing too. Best to you, Joan
When, in Spring, 2020, a "top Progressive commentator", with whose views I sometimes agree, said you were "breathtakingly unqualified" to serve as President, I was all the more inclined to cast my vote your way. Simply put, all my life I have been castigated as "impractical" or "head in the clouds". Now, though, the same people seem to have reached a 'road to Damascus' moment, and are "amazed" at my "insight". You are spot on, in your assessment of what is ailing the American public.
Who was this "breathtakingly unqualified" commentator? I wonder if I have seen through them?
Jessica Craven, who believed at the time in liberal orthodoxy. I am not sure she folds fast to that orthodoxy anymore.
Autobiography of a Yogi is in my top 3 books of all time. As you have shown in the past you are bang on. I've always felt science and religion were very close. I think of my own spiritual experiences and then think quantum physics.
You’re a visionary ahead of your time. You will be vindicated. You might be dead by then, but people will know you were right. Keep talking. Hang in there. You are loved.
So true and so well said. We need to change first (collectively) in order to change anything else. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️
“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” - Albert Einstein