1) Gaia is the ancient Greek word for Earth; some refer to her as the ancestral mother and claim that she gave birth to all of the elements of the world. Gaia is the personification of Earth, Ma-Ka or Ma-Go, both of which mean Mother Gaia.
The modern onslaught of ‘divisive preaching’ and academic focus only on Materialism instead of on ‘innate selfless spiritual goodness’, has killed the holistic ideal of ‘one, interconnected, intelligent conscious world of Mother Earth’. Modern so called rational, anti-god, 3R’s educated society now believes only in self-centered independence.
We’ve forgotten the idea of Gaia, of our oneness, inter-dependence and inter-connectedness and our ideal of ‘selfless work for good of whole world’, which isn’t a part of Teaching or Evaluation for leadership!
2) As far back as 1979 had come a book “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth” by Lovelock, a British scientist that modelled Earth as a complex ‘living’ system, behaving if it were a single organism with interacting parts. He shows that soil, water, air, earth are linked to the biosphere thru feedback mechanism that maintains optimal conditions for life with a theory which claims that both inorganic compounds and living organisms on the planet work together! The hypothesis gained attention from those interested in preserving the environment as this concept would minimize the risk humans had on the world at large considering that humans cause more damage to the environment when they attempted to protect it.
3) For the Stoic philosopher Roman Emperor Aurelius (121-180 CE), happiness of the people was the sole object of governance, and he claimed that not just earth, but the entire universe exhibits an organizational principle, as if one living being – having one substance, one soul. He says, observe how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist (law of cause-effect that governs us all); see its continuous spinning and interconnections in all its parts! How all things get implicated with one another, and that which bonds them together is divine, holy; and there is hardly anything unconnected with any other thing.
The Roman ruler also advises How to Practice the ideal, more as a Wrestler than a skilled dancer, towards the only goal of being good, Virtuous i.e. practical application of Stoicism. Why Wrestler? Because the path to virtue needs us to cultivate quick thinking, caution, constant vigilance, courage, and wisdom of a wrestler, who also have to be relaxed, easy, firm with strength, cunning, grace and balance.
He advises us to ‘Retire, look within, introspect and note that nothing external touches our soul…’; all things, people, situations are ‘outside’ and may not be in our control to manage, so learn to just be a witness, note they don’t touch our soul. Our influence is over our mind, on our internal opinions, views, beliefs, that worry and disturb us! My opinion is under my control if I learn to accept that my mind, my thoughts are under my control whereas all outer things are subject to change (meaning of jagat), they come and go (meaning of sansar). We can’t change nature, and nature works perfectly (and in any case we can’t change the forces of nature, because they are perfect as per law of cause-effect!).
He says, Laws of nature are good, Perfect; tie it to human goodness. Our moral nature is linked to the nature that produced us. And nature can teach us the rules of engagement with life… Reason is all we possess, and commonsense is for all. Accept divinity of nature, as we all come and return to nature. We are integrated with each other thru’ the active principle of nature. From cradle to youth to grave the universality of laws govern nature, of which we’re an integral part. We’re all subject to same universal laws of cause-effect. And peace, tranquillity comes to us when we act in conformity with nature… reaching out in compassion to the distressed. What is good for me is good for all. Freedom and happiness rest solely in actions in harmony with nature because they conform to divine and eternal in us. Free of self-interest, conforming to our duty, is to be social and reasonable.
My and your standard of Beauty may differ but the ultimate Gold standard is that virtue, which is perfect, good, right, for all… and only when we follow our respective duties, do we live according to the gold standard…; we are good when we act according to laws of nature in accordance with the ruling divine intelligence.
He says, as we’re Social and our mind is governed by a perfect law of cause-effect, we ought to live in accordance with nature knowing our environmental interconnectedness and interdependence that ties all to one and one to all thru benign universal intelligence or divine reason. All things have been coordinated to form the same universe, one-song; one ruling intelligence, one substance and one law and common reason, that pervades all and everything and is in all intelligent creatures as reason and one truth.
Attitudes for Reflection: We must now recognize the idea of an Intelligent-cause-effect governed universe that governs our Mind thru faculty of Reason. So preaching and education must ensure that we learn and strive to build powers of mind to Know and engage in that karma which takes us towards feelings of oneness with all. We must recognize that we suffer the consequences of our every choices, intentions, actions, ‘karma’ and so, we must be intellectually convinced in power of virtue and goodness, which alone can guarantee peace, joy, bliss that we seek.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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