We mourn and repair what has been lost; Sangha!

Author, Marc Siepman

I mourn that I never see the Milky Way again, which I spent so many hours staring at as a teenager. I mourn the fact that I can no longer drink from a stream. I mourn the dying woods. I mourn that I can no longer experience the silence, that I cannot breathe fresh air. I mourn the polluted and decayed soils. I mourn the lost species and the billions of animals in cages. I mourn the children who are no longer allowed to play, but who have to learn things that will be of no use to them later. I mourn the lost vitality. I mourn the people who live out of connection with themselves, other people and the rest of the living planet.

Everyone is mourning for something lost. It is a sign of love when you mourn something. Unfortunately, there is no room to grieve in our culture, everything has to be hidden away or suppressed. We cannot bring back everything that has been lost, but when we mourn something, we owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to get it back. There are few things we can really do on our own.

Thich Nhat Hanh says that the new Buddha will not be an individual, but a Sangha: a group of people who practice together by doing. There is a profound truth to this. Everything in nature lives in complex communities, even the species we call solitary. We cannot live without the species that collect nutrients for us, store energy and produce oxygen. It is no different in human communities.

We cannot do without people who help us unconditionally. We cannot be happy and develop without other people who listen carefully to our ideas and ask in-depth questions.

But more importantly: this is how we learn what is real, what is important and what is necessary in life. We are going to see what it takes to bring back as much as possible the things we miss. We make the forests vital again, the soil, the water, people, animals, the air,… everything we mourn now, we give our life energy. Not out of fear of what the consequences will be if we don’t, but out of love for what we’ve lost. Not by exercising more control over it, but rather by letting go of control.

We are going to give space to complexity by removing fences, cages and other physical and mental barriers. By letting people be who they really are and restoring relationships; by giving plants, animals and people back their wildness. Only then will self-organization arise and the planet can heal itself. We must not hide our grief, we must allow it space and mourn together. Then a more beautiful world arises from love.

Translated into English. Original text from Marc Siepman

Marc Siepman is committed to a planet on which we feel interdependent again. Where everything and everyone has free access to healthy food, clean water, clean air and shelter. He currently writes, translates and gives lectures, courses and workshops on soil, systems thinking, permaculture and economics. He no longer work for money, but a donation is always welcome as money is needed to be able to do what needs to be done. Look on his personal website for more info.