Episode 12: Awareness & Language with Myra Jackson
Marti & Todd welcome guest Myra Jackson. As an Electrical Engineer, Organizational Development Professional and Systems Thinker, Myra has found that her studies in electrical theory, music, power generation, the sciences and the natural world deeply informed her spiritual life.
Marti, Todd, and Myra have an extended conversation about awareness and language. They discuss moving beyond being stuck in an individuated state, entrepreneurs as “undertakers,” entropy and centropy, and Myra’s story of advocating with the United Nations for one important capital letter.
From the Edge: Shinrin Yoku (Todd)
Conscious Rant: Self-Referential Madness (Marti)
Guest: Myra Jackson
A Native of bio-region California Mediterranea, Myra has lived abroad and traveled the globe. Today, she devotes her time in service to communities and organizations focused on bringing forth public policies focused on the wellness of people and planet as a consultant, donor activist and philanthropic legacy builder. In her UN role as a focal point on climate change and the United Nations Expert Platform on Harmony with Nature, Myra links public policy, civic awareness, values of caring and sharing in action from the global to the local amplifying all 17 sustainable development goals.
Timeline
1:46 Marti’s opening thoughts
3:48 Stewardship and ownership
6:42 Rights of Nature
8:36 Igniting a bridging language
11:31 Myra’s optimism
12:24 What is the value of humanity?
14:48 Myra’s connection to indigenous wisdom
20:41 Limits of the English language
22:01 Nature vs. nature at the United Nations
27:57 Neurology of language
29:30 Entrepreneurs as “undertakers”
35:22 Acknowledging the presence of death
38:56 From oceans to ocean
39:46 Climate change as invitation
42:32 Contacting Myra
44:01 From the Edge: Shinrin Yoku (Todd)
48:53 Conscious Rant: Self-Referential Madness (Marti)
Quotes
“I think we have to admit that our stewardship has gradually shifted to ownership, and our drive to create has become individualized and competitive and compartmentalized. All of these things, I think, are really in service to diminished states of consciousness.” — Marti Spiegelman
“We talk about granting Nature her rights because our language is self-referential. Everything is understood in terms of the human self, the human identity, our seemingly top row seating in the food and power chain.” — Marti Spiegelman
“How do we look at these issues from a point of view that is not so human-centric and hold on to the value of humanity at the same time?” — Todd Hoskins
“We don't really recognize that we're related to a living Being and that we are embedded in that Being. That's the journey we're on.” — Myra Jackson
“Words that we use shape how we see.” — Myra Jackson
“Entrepreneurship at the highest level is the creative act of being able to see what needs to be brought to rest, and doing it in a sense of reverence; a sense of the sacred. Whatever is spent from that life force can also point to what's emerging.” — Myra Jackson
“Whenever we are in such full presence that we acknowledge also the presence of death, we acknowledge life and death together in the same moment . . . This wild, totally new life force surges through us, into the world around us.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Why are we calling these things oceans? We know better. It's ‘ocean.’ So we struck out the ‘s’ and no longer referred to oceans by name or territory.” — Myra Jackson referencing the UN Ocean Conference
“While the earth could live without us, her future in the activity includes us. What we're getting from climate change is a lot of feedback that is inviting us into recognizing the relationship in this larger Body that we're a part of.” — Myra Jackson
“Peter Senge wrote, ‘The further human society drifts away from nature, the less we understand interdependence.’ As much as I love Senge and this quote, I would change one word: The further human society drifts away from nature the less we remember interdependence. It is in the experience that we remember, that we are part of Nature and Nature is part of us.” — Todd Hoskins
“The human ego structure requires a relationship with something larger than itself in order to remain balanced and open and properly functioning.” — Marti Spiegelman
“Consciousness operates in part by maintaining complimentary relationships. To be truly, fully functional in a system, we must have connection to both outer and inner, to both light and dark, life and death, positive and negative charges.” — Marti Spiegelman
“If we don't also have our awareness connected to the world around us, the ego will bind all awareness to itself.” — Marti Spiegelman
“What happens if our awareness is still bound to that ego structure? We respond by driving, pushing back, subduing anything we can to somehow control those larger forces. We ended up doing that to Nature.” — Marti Spiegelman
“We fell in love with our capacity to discover and control, but we no longer allowed ourselves to be guided by the wisdom of Nature or benefit from our actual membership in the system of life.
Instead, we set out to out-think, outmaneuver, and command everything. We developed hierarchical societies with all the power at the top and all the weakness at the bottom. We began our own style of building great buildings, paving over landscapes instead of building within them. And it's true, like many civilizations before ours, we built great structures, but we were heading down a road that would leave us totally separated from everything that had previously supported us.” — Marti Spiegelman
“It is dangerous to think in sunlight.” — Heraclitus
Links
Pachamama Alliance and Ecuador’s Constitution