Ecological Recovery Lies in Praising Creation "Addiction is a progressive process that begins with inner psychological changes, leads to changes in behavior and life style, and finally ends in total breakdown and sometimes death." This definition applies not only to alcoholism and other substance addictions. It could equally apply to the sense of the separate self. The sense of the separate self, unconnected and unrelated to the whole, is off the mark, in error. It is a fatal error. There is something about that error which is progressive, produces psychological changes to maintain itself, leads to unhealthy behavior and life styles, and creates a profound alienation and death of spirit. The sense of the separate self is addictive. The Alcoholics Anonymous movement was a pivotal point in history. Originating in a religious vision, it provided hope and transformation to a group of people for whom there seemed to be no hope. It thus proved its practical power. It also offered a vision of spirituality and a method of living that spirituality that made sense to many people for whom religion had lost its meaning. Most problems in contemporary living have some roots in the illusion of the separate self. These problems create a sense of helplessness. A spiritual solution is the treatment of choice. By adopting the framework of the recovery-from-addiction model provided by A.A., a ready-made nondenominational, generic, hard-hitting spirituality is at hand. Therefore, it is possible to understand why the recovery movement has achieved the status of a major spiritual movement. What do you get when a group of people, each of whom has an addictive sense of the separate self, come together to create a society? Western Civilization! That’s the thesis presented by ecopsychologist Chellis Glendinning, Ph.D. who has recently written the book, My Name Is Chellis and I’m in Recovery from Western Civilization (Shambhala). By looking at the root assumptions of our civilization in terms of the disease model of the addiction of the separate self, Dr. Glendinning hopes to sound a more effective alarm for saving planet Earth and the life on it. She bases her model on the recovery movement and uses terminology from the Native Americans and their ecological consciousness, but the result echoes the heart of Edgar Cayce’s vision for a return to spirituality. The ecological crisis parallels our personal lives of individual dysfunction. Our symptoms are growing faster than our efforts at healing. We must recognize that we need to make fundamental changes now in order to have hopes for recovery. So there is some shock value in her approach. Native Americans teach that all plants and animals know their role in life, but humans easily forget theirs. We take life for granted. Our illusory separate self sees life as ours for the taking. But by taking it for granted, we first forget, and then lose, our relationship to life. How can we recover this relationship? The path to recovery is a network of interconnectedness—"all our relations," to use a phrase from Native American wisdom. Whether it is developing awareness of our oneness with the wildlife or our oneness with our neighbors, it is the awakening recognition of our interconnectedness—ending the dream of illusory separateness—that is the path of healing. We develop greater awareness of all our relations by remembering our role in life. The role of the human, Native Americans teach, is to "praise creation." If we learn the moment-to-moment habit of praise, we will cease exploiting nature and become companions to creation. |