Up And Around

Move Up The “Beanstalk” And Around The “Wheel.”

EartHearts seek to make the meeting of Eco-Soul-centric elders a regular part of life. Thinking of oneself as primarily a worker or a consumer is a pathological aberration, akin to class stratification and the exploitation of women, children, the poor, and nature. Eco-centric elders deserve uncommon respect because they move up the Beanstalk of Spiritual Development and go with the flow around the wheel of eco-centric development.

EartHearts seek to make the meeting of Eco-Soul-centric elders a more common event, indeed a regular part of life. When this happens, the work of such eco-centric elders will mean that those who relate to only a small part of life––such as one’s possessions or one’s job––will no longer be the only option.

With the clear alternative of the mindset of an eco-centric elder, thinking of oneself as merely a worker or a consumer will be seen as a pathological aberration. Other unhealthy forms of self identification have to do with class stratification; power differentials; and the exploitation of women, children, the poor, and nature.

Moving up to higher branches on the Beanstalk of Spiritual Development means that a person is going through a process of transcendence. While that is certainly a necessary series of steps towards becoming an eco-centric elder, it is not the only way one will need to go.

Along with spiritual transcendence, an eco-centric elder will need to have a mature ego, one that “understands the occasional necessity of surrendering to or being defeated by a force greater than itself . . .” (Plotkin, 2008, p. 59). This overcoming of the Ego is fraught with difficulty, one reason why those who are seeking a complete self are not and never will be perfect. They will still at times have confusion, make mistakes, and cause tragedies. They will remain challenged and troubled, even as they seek wholeness.

Despite their human frailties, eco-centric elders will offer more-than-typical help to others. As we will see in Ethos, they will attain and deserve their uncommon respect because, instead of just, symbolically speaking, moving up the Beanstalk of Spiritual Development they will, metaphorically speaking, also go with the flow around a quadrated circle.

Briefly speaking, this flow is the process of maturity as one transitions from birth to death. It will be described as a wheel because many of the qualities of one’s younger years––playfulness, for example—return in one’s older years.

Just as one can scramble blindly and slowly or more consciously and rapidly up the Beanstalk of Spiritual Development one can also either muddle around the circle of life or, knowing what stages come next and what hindrances have to be overcome, move more consciously, more swiftly, and more effectively to future stations on the wheel of life. Attempting to skip a Beanstalk Branch or a section of the wheel of life is pointless and counterproductive. Neither can be done successfully.

While one’s age plays a significant role in one’s development, in knowing what comes next and what has to be done to move up the “Beanstalk” or around the “Wheel,” one can expedite all passages successfully and without undue delay. The Heartwood Path will help with both ways of looking at your development––both up and around.

The details of the Wheel Of Life were presented in the first course: “Kosmos.” The main point of the present waypoint/substack is that successful eco-centric development requires too kinds of map-reading: one that represents the process of moving up to one’s own potential––whatever that may be without any malice towards lower levels of development––and the other—the Wheel Of Life–– which is a map to “elderhood.” In using these maps remember that it is pointless to attempt to skip a branch of development and a quadrant of the Wheel. Do not, for example attempt to skip ahead to being an elder without properly processing childhood and young adulthood. Before we describe this wheel of Eco-Soul-centric development, there are many other topics that need to be addressed, beginning in the next waypoint with the topics of “flow” itself.

HumaNatureConnect Activity

Photo by Tristin Le, Pexels.com.

Generating Patterns Of Human-Nature Interaction # 3: Recognition By The Nonhuman Other

For this activity, prepare to be recognized by an animal near your attractive natural being. You could be trying to get the attention of a monkey in a zoo (a perverse interaction pattern) or you could be calling your dog to dinner (a domestic interaction pattern). By choosing instead to swim with the manatees or other attractive aquatic beings (a wild interaction) you are doing something that has a more positive psychological affect on you. In your journal, write down what meaning you derived from this wild interaction pattern (swimming with a natural attractive being); what joy, if any, it produced; how, if at all, it built within you a bond between your mind and nature; and how, if at all, the wild version of this interaction pattern was better for you than the perverse or domestic instantiation of the same interaction pattern; and how not being allowed to participate in this sort of wild interaction pattern––swimming with an attractive natural being–– would make you feel? How does swimming in the presence of your attractive natural being make you feel? How would it feel to swim without the presence of your attractive natural being? In writing down these responses you will be adding to our collective nature language, so important to rekindling the bond between humans and nature. Look over your impressions and think about them as you fall asleep—possibly outdoors—tonight before dreaming.

Nocturnal Pilgrimage

Photo by Campus Production

Second Stabilization Technique For Lucid Dreaming

You learned about staying calm as a dream stabilization technique at Waypoint 2.21. Now, after more practicing with lucid dreaming initiation, it is time to make sure you can hold on to your nocturnal lucidity. Here’s another tip, useful for when you want to keep a dream from fading:

Simultaneously interact with Dream Characters while also remembering that you are dreaming. The Bible, while not talking about lucid dreaming, offers the most poignant words for what I mean here : “Be in the world, but not of it.” In East St. Louis as a child, I would also say something that is also applicable: “Keep one foot in, and one foot out.”