Earth, actually…

What’s the idea behind the website “ActualEarth.org” ?

It’s simple, really.  It’s meant to convey one basic idea — that there is an amazingly beautiful, profoundly intricate world all around us that escapes our everyday perception.

When we’re so caught up in our lives of survival, achievement and satisfaction, how much time is missed in witnessing the perfect, whole and ever-changing natural wonder that is all around us, always?

Zen Buddhists have a unique way of relating to the world.  A traditional Mahayana text titled the Great Scripture on Perfect Insight is wonderfully presented by author Thomas Cleary in his book Zen and the Art of Insight.  It describes the three natures of all experience: the nonexistent nature, the temporary nature, and the true nature.

What’s the meaning of this ancient wisdom?  I’ll try to explain in the context of our planet:

First is the ‘non-existent’ nature.  This is the conceptual vision our mind creates of things in order to simplify, classify and organize.  It is necessary for life and our survival.  It plays a role while we are driving, shopping, choosing, and is the preferred method of the human brain during high functioning and decision making.  It is the male/female cartoon on the restroom door.  It is the stop light at the intersection.  The brain process all of these things in times of functional need, in moments when our mind is focused on arriving, or accomplishing or getting to something more urgent than the present moment.  We may see an interesting tree on the side of the highway, but it is easily categorized and dismissed since we are running late for a meeting.  Basically, it is us on autopilot.

Second is the ‘causal’ nature.  Each event in this world has a unique cause and effect. A tree grows from a seed, is strengthened by wind, is damaged by a fire, is revived by rain, is made a home by birds and insects and eventually dies. Conceptually, this tree is just another tree, but realistically, it’s much more.  Through it’s life it is a result of millions of observable and unobservable events, some microscopic and some as big as a thunderstorm.  These events make the tree a unique entity, different from all other trees in the same forest.  Entirely distinct from any other tree that has ever existed at any time on our planet, and different even from itself as time passes and things change.  This is the infinite complexity and temporary nature of cause and effect.

Third is the true nature.  About this not much can be said.  In our observation and perception of all events, we inadvertently place our own perspective.  But if we didn’t, there’d be the true nature.  As you can see even in my detailed description of the tree above, I use concepts.  I say “grows”,  I say “dies”.  We think we know what these are, but there is something infinitely unique happening in each occurrence that is intimately connected to us, yet free from our personal interpretation.  It is only possible to connect to this reality experientially, in each moment, with an open heart.

For a while now, I’ve had a desktop image on my laptop of the planet Earth.  It is a self-updating animated desktop, which displays the current lit and unlit portions of the globe, the moonlight, and downloads current satellite cloud images to give a real-time representation of a living, moving earth.  ”Cool!”, I thought.  But in the end, it is a set of images on a computer.  Just as a map is not the territory, a concept is not the reality. My desktop Earth, the globe in your classroom, the image in our minds — none of them is the true Earth.

You're bigger than you think

This may appear to be an obvious point — but how often does it impact our decision making?  When we think our planet is something too big for us to worry about, a big colorful map on the wall, we may say, “The planet will be fine!  I’m too small to make a difference!”  It’s easier just to continue on autopilot.

If we think about it, we know that the planet is incredibly complex.  The various interdependent earth systems that act to create snowflakes or a rainbow or milk from a cow are innumerable.  Consider for a moment the importance of the work of a honeybee —  it can send you reeling.  But even with this intellectual understanding, the absolute profundity of the truth lies beyond our ability to conceptualize it or speak about it.  If a bee stings us, we tend to be bothered by that unfavorable event.  We don’t realize that there is an endlessly perfect world in every moment that we are already an intimate and inseparable part of.

This is the Actual Earth.  We just have to allow this deeper knowledge to arise in our consciousness.  If we can learn to act from this place, we can live in unity with our Great Planet.

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