Stephen Harrod Buhner on deeper attunement

The following is from Michael Barticel’s interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner. Buhner talks about developing a deeper attunement with ourselves and the world. He says (paraphrasing):

My work is the movement from dissociated mentation to engaged sensory experience, in particular the response of the heart to what’s presented to the senses.³

Descartes said, “Cogito, ergo sum”, I think therefore I am. I thought about it…and finally decided…[that] I exist because I feel, … “Sensio, ergo sum”. Sensio, to be sentient, actually means to feel. So people…who want to dissociate from their feeling self to be objective are [in a sense] basically making themselves insentient. They are losing their sentience.²

We have…a very potent…capacity to perceive the meaning of things.³ But there’s a reason why the aesthetic sensibility in people has been atrophied.⁴ I’ve started to extend the word brutalism in a lot of directions… There’s this architectural style…called brutalist architecture.⁵ We are being surrounded by this particular mindset. If you walk into a house that feels really rich and warm, like a home, and really loving, you can tell as soon you walk in. And if you walk into one that feels kind of cold and distant, you feel that too. So, then the question is: What’s the difference?⁶
A huge element of it is the amount of love that people put…into the thing they make… It’s as if they’re spending time with their beloved, this person that they love. [And then] something more than the sum of the parts comes into being.⁷

There’s a quality that has to be in every step you take. And if that quality is in the step that you take, then the destination is always assured. It doesn’t mean that things are going to turn out well…, but you never let go of the thread. You’re following the thread,…this thing that’s invisible… The thread can only be felt, it can’t be seen. And so it just takes time to develop the acuity of sensitivity that you need…to follow the thread.⁸

Life is non-linear. It’s not rational or irrational, it’s non-rational. The universe is a non-rational place, and rationality can only get you so far. If you stick with rationality, then it becomes kind of the desert that you’re in.⁹

To me everything is alive,…everything has a personality, and everything is communicating with me all the time. So I’m embedded in this field of interaction. … There is this…feeling connectivity between me and everything else.¹⁰ And that’s actually an accurate ecological statement, because we emerge out of Earth itself into an ecological matrix, a living field of meaning that the Earth itself has been generating… And it generates all of these different forms, and every form that emerges has done so for an ecological reason.¹¹

Finally, I just…quit trying to justify it. … I[‘m] just…following that aesthetic sense and feeling wherever it…goes. … It became my way of living, and being,…and so on.¹²

There’s this other way to gather information about the universe… What happens the more you immerse yourself in this sort of living field of meaning is the field itself begins to share its nature with you.¹³ It’s exactly like shaping a pot. … Really, all of it starts with just a feeling.¹⁴
You start feeling this feeling thing, this aesthetic sensibility, and it feels warm, and it feels rich, and it feels beautiful. … And as you immerse yourself in it, your sensory field becomes richer. The colors become much more vivid. Sounds become more exquisite. The surface of the body becomes more alive.¹⁵ Life itself begins to take on that richness and that depth.¹⁶

When we allow ourselves to care in that kind of a deep way, and interact with the materials as if they’re alive and present with us, some other quality is evoked from them.¹⁷ We are surrounded by meanings all the time. A chair is not just a chair. … All chairs are a little different,…some chairs are going to feel great, and some chairs are not going to feel great. So there’s a sort of an understanding that occurs. Knowledge seems to emerge on its own accord. We’re really into a non-rational frame of reference here.¹⁸

It is a particular skill to be oriented towards the livingness of nature. And there’s a huge demand placed on us to actually do it better than the rationalists do it. … We have to be able to think in their frame…, but also be able to think in our frame, which actually encompasses their frame, but theirs cannot encompass ours.¹⁹

We’re caught between two massive paradigms, the one that has failed…, that dissect the world into all of its parts…, and this other way that understands…that everything is alive, aware, and is communicating. … [The] transition is going to be difficult, because all of…corporate systems and governments are embedded in that initial frame. … The whole thing is failing. It’s not working…and nobody really knows what to do. … Really, it’s far worse than it’s ever being reported.²⁰

How did we get to the place where we had to make a case that love is important…? … All our most important human qualities are the ones that are not talked about. Everything is economically framed now…²¹ Love is a huge part of all of this. This genuine caring for the well-being of…everything around us. And if we extend that caring to…everything else, just imagine what that’s like.²²

We’re in a difficult time, we’re not going to get out of this very easily. A lot of things are going to have to change because there’s not…a congruent relationship between the virtual world that our civilization has created…and the real world itself. The ecosystems of the entire plane are starting to destabilize because too many of the parts have been removed… The synthetic chemicals that have been released…are affecting all biological organisms.²³ So, we’re in difficult times. And the real question is, how do we make our way through this period of time?²⁴
It’s never a top-down process. … I have a lot of faith in people. … There’s a lot of wisdom in each one of us, and so it makes a lot of sense to trust that and see where it can go.²⁵
I have…a kind of faith in life itself. … There’s this other…way of doing science and thinking that still retains our most human qualities… [where] love is enhanced, ethics is enhanced, moral behavior is enhanced, because they are naturally a part of that way of being in relationship to the world. … So many people…are feeling the need to return there and are doing amazing things.²⁶