THOUGHT, CONSCIOUSNESS & ECOANXIETY, a dialogue tape [part I]

IMAGE: The”DRY GULTCH FIRE,” Eagle Valley, and the town of RICHLAND, OREGON, IX.13.2015. The (Muted) POWDER RIVER & Reservoir in foreground. This is the first part of a longer dialogue tape. There are many species of anxiety, which we can think of, for the sake of the dialogue, as a troubled mind caused by some external threat. So with Ecoanxiety, the external threat is big, very big—ecos or household—as big as the Earth itself. The fear of climate collapse. The fear of mass extinction. The fear of nuclear winter. The key point will be taken up in Part II: Instead of complicated psychiatric jargon, I think the mechanism in thought which causes ecoanxiety is very simple: the is the FACT, say, of thinking for clear scientific reasons that we have crossed a tipping point. Like the self-reinforcing death spiral of arctic sea ice. So we have that fact. And then—and this is crucially important—we have the REACTION to the fact. Once I see this mechanism clearly, instead of becoming depressed, or losing all hope for a livable future, one simply—as a form of Yoga and Alexander Technique—suspends the reaction. So instead of getting caught in a closed loop of self-destructive energy, the mind is simply motionless in its awareness. In a way, this is what the Bhagavad-Gita is all about. It is a part of karma yoga and non-attachment to the results of our actions. This is, I believe, one of the reasons why my Mahatma Gandhi at times in his life said he studied the GITA daily, and also composed a commentary on it. This mechanism of thought of the fact and the reaction to the fact is frequently touched upon in the great dialogs of Krishnamurti and David Bohm. And, in closing for now, it is an essential part of the mountaineers wilderness repertoire, of not reacting to difficulties encountered along the way. They simply are what they are. Neither hopeful nor optimistic nor full of dread. They simply are what they are.