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  • From: Mitra Ardron <mitra_lists@earth.path.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture spirituality
  • Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 20:02:50 +1100

This is an interesting discussion ...

The overlap between Earth-based spiritualities and permaculture doesn't surprise me. Though like others on the list I hope that we can all take care not to let Permaculture and its gatherings be exclusive.

I think if you start from an interest in permaculture, and you are seeking spirituality in some form (i.e. not just blindly following whatever path you were brought up in) then as you are looking at nature closely, and looking for ways to work with it, rather than against it, then I think there is often going to be an inclination to look for a spirituality that is also honoring nature, and works with it, rather than treating the land as something we have dominion over.

I think the reverse is also true, if you are already interested in an Earth-based/Pagan or Native American spirituality then there will be a tendency to look favorably on Permaculture as the dominant monoculture agriculture hardly honors the spirit of the land.

My own spirituality is meditation based, rather than earth based, so why are many people who share my spirituality, interested in permaculture. I think the issue is about open-mindedness, the "New Age" is anything but a mono-culture, there are wide ranges of belief systems, and generally people are pretty open to each other's beliefs.

On the other hand - many (though luckily not all) people from monotheist religions, especially in countries where they are dominant (e.g. Christianity in the west, Islam in N.Africa or Middle East, though in my experience less so Hinduism or Buddhism) are often closed minded about other people's beliefs.

Although some permaculturists can get pretty dogmatic, permaculture is not really the dominant agricultural system anywhere, you have to be thinking "out of the box" to be attracted to it, I think therefore it also attracts open-minded rather than closed-minded people.

So I think that explains the attraction, at least in my mind, but it need not be an exclusivity , except sometimes in the mind of the person feeling excluded ..

What I means is that in my experience of permaculture gatherings (in the west) people of any spirituality who are open-minded are welcome, but someone who turns up expecting to convert anyone to their own belief system, or who is uncomfortable with expressions of spirituality other than their own is likely to find themselves feeling unwelcome, however welcoming their hosts are.

Obviously someone trying to teach or communicate permaculture to a particular community in a particular culture is going to have to be sensitive to the spirituality of that community. But I don't find it strange that gatherings of permaculturists in the west would have a predominance of people who are also open-minded about their spirituality.

- Mitra

--
Mitra Ardron: Natural Innovation & Zelfo Australia
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Life is a Mystery to be Lived, not a Problem to be Solved



  • Re: [permaculture] permaculture spirituality, Mitra Ardron, 02/01/2007

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