A Wisdom Story From The Time Of The Ancients - Dick Rauscher
It was only a momentary break in the misty fog that flowed like writhing snakes through the ancient valley. But that moment was all the young man needed to see the fork in the path leading up the granite mountain to the Cave of Wisdom.
Many had searched over the centuries for the cave that legend said was hidden somewhere on the mountain. Many had perished in the harsh terrain of that unforgiving mountain, but no one had ever found it. Had fate not reached out to alter events for the young seeker, this story would never have been written. And the history of the world might have entered into the darkness of time.
As the young man stumbled in exhaustion up the steep trail, he knew he was moving on will alone. His strength had all but disappeared hours earlier. A fortnight on the trail had taken its toll. He had little left except his dogged determination and exhaustion when the wooden entrance to the cave appeared without warning before him. He braced himself on the granite wall as he reached out to turn the weathered bronze latch. Though covered with a green scale from years of exposure to the harsh weather, he was amazed that it turned so easily.
Putting his shoulder to the ancient oak door he swung it open to reveal a large room. The room was empty except for a gray stone tablet covered with writing leaning against the far wall. His heart beating with excitement he walked slowly toward the tablet. For the first time in thousands of years, the story and wisdom of the ancients would be available to the few humans still surviving on the planet.
The tablet contained three cautions for future generations. The cautions were clear evidence as to why the civilization of the ancients had failed to survive so many eons ago.
Caution #1.
Beware the human tendency to think dualistically. The tendency to use an I – IT thinking that turns everything in creation into an object to be exploited. Only an I – THOU consciousness has the spiritual wisdom to see the sacred interconnectedness of nature and all life. Survival requires an unwavering I – THOU consciousness.
Caution #2.
Beware the dangerous illusion of exponential thinking and unlimited economic growth. This section of the tablet contained many words, but for the sake of brevity, it essentially told a story about a very large “stadium” where the ancients apparently gathered for festivals. One of the ancients was bound to a seat at the top of the stadium. Then a magic water dropper put one drop of water on the floor of the stadium. A minute later it put two drops of water on the floor. At minute three it put four drops of water. It doubled the number of drops each minute. At minute 45 the stadium was still 97% free of water. The man at the top of the stadium drowned at minute 50.
Survival requires knowing that nothing can grow forever! Unlimited economic growth is not possible on a finite and fragile world.
Caution #3.
No human culture, empire, or human civilization in history has survived without a vision story that has the spiritual power to lead its people forward into sustainability, hope, and possibility.
The 13.8 billion years big-time creation story of the universe is the only vision story with the power to embrace infinite possibility. The only story that speaks of the Initiating Consciousness as the power of infinite “becoming” incarnate in every aspect of creation.
It is the only vision story that reminds us that all forms emerge, all forms change, and all forms return to the energy of the universe that created them. Your survival will require an unwavering commitment to sustainability and a right relationship with nature and reality. Nature writes the rules, not humans. Nature is not an “IT”.
The last section of the tablet was a personal plea that the reader of the tablet go into the world and share the wisdom contained on the tablet with those that still survived.
The fact that you are reading this story is proof that the young man spent the rest of his life sharing the wisdom he’d learned from the tablets with every tribe and clan that he encountered.
To this day, no one knows when the Ancients lived. Or for how long. Some say the young man lived over 6000 years ago. What we do know is that without his story of hope, and the wisdom of the ancients found on that tablet, the few humans alive at that time might not have learned to live in a right relationship to reality….and survived.
The Inevitable Ecological Crises And Reckoning That Will Come From:
centuries of living outside a right relationship with nature and reality on a finite and fragile planet,
intentionally ignoring the dangers inherent in the illusion of unlimited economic expansion that Wendell Berry, Thomas Berry, and other environmentalist have been warning us about for decades,
Include:
Soil depletion (industrial agriculture systematically destroying microbe rich soil and replacing it with microbe-less dirt)
Major forest depletion through fires, harvesting of trees for lumber, and the destruction of forests to build palm oil plantations
Freshwaterdepletion and pollution
Overuse of natural aquifers
Massive extinction of other species
Exponential population growth
Water and land pollution
Carbon pollution of our atmosphere,
World hunger
Peak (cheap) oil and the resulting destabilization and economic disruption of governments and human civilization
The destabilization and economic disruption of world governments created by droughts and the global hunger that droughts will create
The massive cost and economic disruption of relocating millions of people living in coastal communities,
The destabilization and economic disruption created by the suffering that results from living on an increasingly hostile planet
And economic disruption created by resource depletion (cheap resources)
