Category: Life
-
Victoria Safford on freedom
You know, we do it every day. Every morning we go out blinking into the glare of our freedom, into the wilderness of work and the world, making maps as we go, looking for signs that we’re on the right path. And on some good days we walk right out of our oppressions, those things…
-
Mae-Wan Ho on the autonomy of organisms
Mae-Wan Ho, is best known for her pioneering work on the physics of organisms and sustainable systems. Here’s what she writes on the autonomy of organisms in her book The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms (in italics, my emphasis in bold): Organisms are never simply at the mercy of their environments on…
-
Norm Hirst on a life-itself science
Prologomena of Life-itself Science by Norm Hirst at The Autognomics Institute is an introduction (or prologue) to a life-itself science. Below are some axioms from the paper: All life is connected All living entities are autonomous All living entities are complex All living entities are self-referential Self-referential implies self-observation and awareness Living entities survive by…
-
Book Review: Sky Above, Earth Below
Principles John Milton wrote Sky Above, Earth Below: Spiritual Practice in Nature in the hope that the practices and principles he shares will “greatly enrich your life” (p.229). Over the years he has identified the following principles for natural liberation (pp.8—15): The fundamental truth: All forms are interconnected, constantly change, and continuously arise from and…
-
Preservation of the soul
Here is Jeffrey Mishlove’s interview with David Whyte on the preservation of the soul, waking up, and saving our lives. LOST Stand still. The trees ahead and bushed beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here. And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and…
-
Corageous conversations
Here is a short video with David Whyte on Courageous Conversations at Kripalu. By definition, the courageous conversation is the conversation you are not having now, and also by definition, the courageous conversation is the conversation you don’t want to have.
-
Keeping your heart alive
When we are present in our work as human beings, when we are connected to the lives around us, and the stories around us, the work itself will sustain you, and inspire you, and even heal you. — Rachel Naomi Remen Notes: Keeping Your Heart Alive: Rachel Naomi Remen talks about the importance of connecting…
-
Christopher Alexander on real beauty
When you come face-to-face with real beauty it changes you, and it changes the other people who are witnessing it, or who are thinking it, and they will take a different road. … Although this is so simple, it’s extremely powerful, because it only comes from the heart. … If you take this advice ……
-
Dee Hock on control
Life is not about control. It’s not about getting. It’s not about having. It’s not about knowing. It’s not even about being. Life is eternal, perpetual becoming, or it is nothing. Becoming is not a thing to be known, commanded, or controlled. It is a magnificent, mysterious odyssey to be experienced.1 … I have long…
-
Organisms are self-creating, not just self-organizing
Organisms are born to create and maintain their own life. They are self-creating, i.e., autopoietic; they are not just self-organizing. They maintain their own life by constantly recreating it. Their purpose is not to become machines fulfilling some external task. Thus they are autonomic, i.e., obeying self-law. They are autonomous. An organism’s purpose is to…