Many / One

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Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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The Way of The Earth, Encounters with Nature in Ancient and Contemporary Thought
T. C. McLuhan

1 "The old adage, We are the microcosm of the macrocosm, suggests that everything which exists in the universe also exists in the human body. This supports the fact of the interrelationship of all things."

2 "The whole of nature is contained within each of us." Kichizaemon Raku XV, contemporary craftsman

3 "In all that they did, our Indian ancestors acknowledged the goodness of the Creator and of all creation, including themselves." George Tinker, Osage-Lutheran scholar, 'Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation', speech given to the World Council of Churches in Seoul, Korea in 1991

4 "The whole sees, the whole perceives, the whole hears." Xenophanes (ca. 580 bce), Greek philosopher

5 "This earthen womb knows unerringly the worth of each of her children." Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), 'Report to Greco'

6 "Aboriginal tradition…is a system of knowledge that regards man and nature as one corporate whole, sacred and eternal. In Confucian terms, its goal is 'to unite hearts and establish order.'"

7 "Make us find ourselves again in our love for you, brotherly earth!" Minas Dimakis (1916-1980), Greek poet and essayist

8 "A persistent relatedness determines every factor of the universe and casts its mandate upon every detail of living."

9 "Look to each other, respect one another from the vantage point of a shared Earth – Earth as partner, not object; as Master Teacher, as the ideal One."

10 "Each object is imbued with invisible fibers of light that reach out into the universe and are connected and related to all things and all times." Alex Jacobs, Iroquois (Native American) artist

11 "'In Homer, the whole world is a woof of organic umbilical cords,' writes the modern Greek poet and scholar George Seferis. He is describing a unifying experience of life whose expression is found everywhere in the belief systems of the world's traditional societies."

12 "The early Christian mystics referred to the quest for wholeness as the way of 'oneing'. Oneing is active everywhere: in art, poetry, the human body and psyche, the eternal wisdom in a great many of the world's traditional cosmologies….and above all in Nature."

13 "Human nature – across all lands and all time – displays a striking consonance. Our similarities as human beings are far more deeply rooted than our differences, especially when we consider the most profound themes that people of all eras and all localities have pondered: our relation to the planet we share; to the earth we walk upon and its fruits that sustain us; to the limitless cosmos that we observe in the great dome of sky above us; to the mysteries that confound us as a species; to the fears and exaltations that unite us."

14 "The beginning of all things is one and the end of all things is one, and the end and the beginning are the same." Hippocrates

15 "The One Force, the All-Powerful Source of existence and the prime mover of the activities and motions of beings…is inside each being." Amadou Hampate Ba, 'Aspects de la civilisation africaine'

16 "The wise is one only." Heraclitus

17 "Everything on earth, every creature and plant wants to live without pain, so do them no harm. Treat all people in creation with respect; all is sacred." Linda Hogan, 'Mean Spirit'

18 "When a child is born into the world he is related to every other human being that lives. He finds himself in a constellation of belonging." The National Aboriginal Conference, Canberra

19 "I have found that the eye which sees the whole circle expresses our soul simply and perfectly." Nikos Kazantzakis

20 "The Universe is basically good and throughout it great forces are at work striving to bring about a greater unity of all living things." Kenneth D. Kaunda (b. 1924), former president of the Republic of Zambia

21 "All humanity are brothers." Takeichi Moritake, Ainu elder and poet

22 "In the 'Li Chi', the (Chinese) Book of Ritual, we are given the definition of the human as the 'heart and mind of heaven and earth.'"

23 "The earth and the self are one. The roots of the earth are the roots of one's own existence. The earth is oneself." Daisetz Suzuki, Japanese Zen Buddhist scholar

24 "The earth is mother of all." Ugandan proverb

25 "(We have) the deep conviction that everything in the universe is connected, nothing stands alone." Amadou Hampate Ba (b. 1901), sage of Mali, West Africa

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite