{"id":696,"date":"2006-10-10T04:58:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-10T04:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life\/"},"modified":"2006-10-10T04:58:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-10T04:58:00","slug":"philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy: ecology, connections, and life."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cWho are you and why are you here?\u201d \u2013 the questions; introductions as we stood at the trailhead, primitive tools strewn neatly upon the moist dirt before us.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Justin Whitaker. I\u2019m a life-long Montanan. I studied philosophy at UM-Missoula and earned an MA in Religious Studies (Buddhist Studies) from Bristol, UK. Now I\u2019m here again in Montana, studying philosophy, trying to make up for my woeful ignorance about the state I\u2019ve grown up in. I\u2019ve lived amongst these woods, climbed these mountains here and there; but my mind and heart have always been elsewhere. I\u2019m here to see for the first time what has always surrounded me.<\/p>\n

The urge of spirituality, religion done properly, is a reconnection to something greater than oneself in reality. Our Ecology<\/span> class is much about just this pursuit. Of course it moves in directions seemingly directly opposed to those which I have pursued so far in life: away from people and into the wild<\/span>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the wild, the senses come alive<\/span>,\u201d they say. Fear for one\u2019s life, knowing that here you too are prey, and that this land will outlive us all are all supposed to awaken new energies within, hieghten awareness, and breathe life into a relationship with the earth that our ancestors (supposing we have European<\/span> ancestors) abandoned long ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood never tastes so good as it does deep in the back-country.\u201d Food, this life-giving substance with which we engage our whole body, our whole being, all five bodily senses is transformed by wildness. Eating here, far from civilization, we share our meal with mountain lions and grizzlies, with field mice and lady-bugs, with deer and skunks, with the trees and grass.<\/p>\n

Here, away from humanity, we feel connected with a past that had been denied to us, a time when people lived as part of<\/span> nature, not apart from<\/span> it. Connected to that history we find peace. We see the smallness of ourselves, our problems, our selfish desires in the grand scheme of the earth and time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one to three words, what is wilderness?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHome,\u201d says one.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace,\u201d says another.<\/p>\n

\u201cSublime mystery.\u201d\"Crystal<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cWho are you and why are you here?\u201d \u2013 the questions; introductions as we stood at the trailhead, primitive tools strewn neatly upon the moist dirt before us. I\u2019m Justin Whitaker. I\u2019m a life-long Montanan. I studied philosophy at UM-Missoula and earned an MA in Religious Studies (Buddhist Studies) from Bristol, UK. Now I\u2019m here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilosophy: ecology, connections, and life.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""Who are you and why are you here?" - the questions; introductions as we stood at the trailhead, primitive tools strewn neatly upon the moist dirt before\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philosophy: ecology, connections, and life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Who are you and why are you here?" - the questions; introductions as we stood at the trailhead, primitive tools strewn neatly upon the moist dirt before\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-10-10T04:58:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/static.flickr.com\/79\/265719620_8002a6e1ff.jpg?v=0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html\",\"name\":\"Philosophy: ecology, connections, and life.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2006-10-10T04:58:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2006-10-10T04:58:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Who are you and why are you here?\\\" - the questions; introductions as we stood at the trailhead, primitive tools strewn neatly upon the moist dirt before\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2006\/10\/philosophy-ecology-connections-and-life.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Philosophy: ecology, connections, and life.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. 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