Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
peace with the Earth that greatly enrich our rationality and our science. To act well, we
need to experience the Earth not as 'nature' out there, nor as an 'environment' that is
distinct from us, but as a mysterious extension of our very own sensing bodies that nour-
ishes us with an astonishing variety of intellectual and aesthetic experiences—with the
roar of the sea and with the wonderful sight of the night moon reflected in a calm lake.
Right action requires us to
live into
the body of the Earth, so that we feel just as com-
fortable with the air, water, rocks and living beings that are the life of that wider body as
we do in our human-made environments. If we could only do this, our focus would shift
from the endless fascination with human affairs to a wider, more fulfilling perception of
the animate Earth in which these affairs take place. We would then encounter a broad-
er, Earth-centred view in which every breath we take and every decision we make is a
pledge of service and allegiance to the greater personhood of our planet. A contribution
to this task is to discover new ways of speaking of our scientific insights about the Earth
that allow their animate dimensions to emerge, as we have tried to do in this topic. With
our reason satisfied, our intuition, sensing and feeling are free to forge a connection so
deep that we no longer need to think of it. Only when our four ways of knowing are
fully engaged in this way can right action emerge—and it is only the summed effect of
billions of right actions by people across the planet that may eventually lead us into a
genuinely fruitful relationship with Gaia, our animate Earth.
