Page 3 - Contunuing Studies Calendar 2015-2016

When you try to pick out anything by itself,
we nd it hitched to everything else
in the universe
John Muir, 1911
Buddhist monk and peace-activist Thich Nhat Hanh teaches we are “interbeing” – made from the very same minerals, air, water, sunshine and earth that the forests, beaches and mountains are. We are comprised of the same elements as the universe itself yet each of us particular in our unique combination and con guration.
Photographer Luke Gram’s metaphoric double-exposure on the cover reveals that we consist of – are part of – the whole planet. As poetic and soulful as this sounds, this insight aligns with both systems thinking and deep ecology where it is understood that every living organism is a holon made up of both the whole and its parts; each essential
for completeness. In effect, we hold the same energies, elements and patterns found in other earthly beings in our bodies because we are part of the body of Earth herself – holons within holons. Nevertheless, we are perhaps the only “part” that refuses to see itself within the whole, acting as a privileged species.
Quantum science now knows what the ancient spiritual traditions, countless poets and artists, and all indigenous peoples have always understood – that we are entangled in an in nite web of wild intelligence where there is no phenomenon in the universe that should not concern us. It is however, taking us a long time to understand the implications of this reality and comprehend that how we decide to live, how we behave in relationship to everything else, will either be our salvation or our undoing.
When we begin to see the pattern of the on-going whole and ourselves produced from within that pattern, we divest ourselves of the illusion of separateness and recognize how we t within the ongoing relationships of the world. This implores us to correct our double- vision, shift our perceptions of radical separateness
and dominance borne of dualistic thinking and move
to more deeply identify with, and develop compassion for humans and more than human beings alike, respect multiple and diverse perspectives as necessary for wellbeing and wholeness, and in effect, engender an ethos of mutual interdependency.
An education of inner signi cance that makes provisions to reunite intellect and instinct can provide potent, life-changing effects; can help forge (cor)relations and consistencies between what students come to understand and value, and what they ultimately aim to contribute to the world through their actions and future work plans. No matter the content, at the crossroads of critical thinking and deep imagination, when links are made between the interiority of the person and the external world, learning rises to a new and integral level.
There is nothing more powerful than the human spirit in its courage to make things happen, to make real change, but it always starts from within. If we begin to consciously act like a planet, if we quiet ourselves, and listen at the edge where thought, not attributed to language but found in pattern, takes on an elegant and healthy process, Nature will bathe us in information, clues, and re ective mirrors that reveal more our own true natures. Students with the knowledge and con dence enough to express their authenticity as bravely and beautifully as they can go on to make necessary and informed changes that act in alignment with their life’s deeper purpose and hold implications for a truly sustainable future.
Opportunities within these pages initiate the opening
of doors where none existed before, facilitate new perceptions and relationships and invite a move toward the natural element in you that gives you resilience and grace – those true gifts within ourselves that are not for ourselves but are meant to be given away and in so doing better equip us to fully participate in the future that is upon us. We are stardust after all, the journey-work of 13.7 billion years of creativity and wisdom. Isn’t it time we acted our age?
Dr. Hilary Leighton
Director, Continuing Studies
Royal Roads University Continuing Studies 2015-16 1