The Limits of Cartesian Thinking on ‘Everything is Connected’

Posted on March 15, 2008
Filed Under Awareness, Spirituality |

I’ve always found the idea that everything is connected, to be a profound thought. Even though that maybe, it took many years for that idea to sink into my being - to become something more than just an abstract intellectual notion. Sometimes it takes a jolt into the core of our individuality to shock us out of our Cartesian thinking. In many ways, most of us in western culture have a ‘blockage’ which prevents us from feeling our connection with reality - instead we try to comprehend it in objective and sometimes abstract terms. There’s nothing wrong with that as such, but it does limit us somewhat.

I remember hearing a story about a small tribe in the Amazon, as with many of these tribes they lived an isolated existence - away from ‘civilization’. That was until the government needed the land for development. Government lackeys were sent out to talk with the tribal people about a specific bridge - they wanted to know who owned it. Of course there was a cultural dissonance…the tribe had no concept of ‘ownership’.

My thoughts have come back to that story again and again over the years. If they had no notion of ownership then how did they relate to the world? In my Cartesian mind I imaged them seeing the land as a single totality; that the land was their home - I considered they must have felt about their land the same way we feel about our house.

Yet that doesn’t do them justice. The land was a part of them! I thought then how I felt about parts of me; my arms, my legs, my body. I don’t think of my body in terms of ‘ownership’, that would be totally ridiculous. My body is me. I imagined that tribe considered the bridge and land in much the same manner.

When your sense of “I” incorporates your environment - you take on a very different sense of reality. This is one of the reasons there is such a massive cultural dissonance between modern ‘civilized’ culture, and those who still hold true to the ancient ways.

I find that a truly eye-opening realization.

Comments

3 Responses to “The Limits of Cartesian Thinking on ‘Everything is Connected’”

Leon Basin on March 15th, 2008 10:02 pm

Hello! I would like to just say…. Your site is wonderful. It has so many interesting ideas. I love reading it. Please, continue sharing your thoughts. Thanks
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Marcus on March 15th, 2008 10:49 pm

Thanks for your words Leon! Really appreciated!
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johnblend on March 17th, 2008 10:07 am

If only everybody would consider and think about their environment as part of them selves.

It would probably abolish all wars, environment problems etc.

be happy//john
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