What is the biggest threat to humanity and the planet today? Charles Eisenstein presents a radical take on this question that subverts both the dominant narrative of global warming, as well as the narrative of the skeptics. Moving beyond the conventional framing of the ecological crisis, he recasts it through the "Living Earth" paradigm, opening the door to a deeper ecological consciousness that is part of humanity's initiation into a new role on Earth.
About Charles:
Born in 1967 as a very sensitive, intellectual, and dreamy child, Charles Eisenstein was always consumed by questions like, “Where did I come from?”, ”Why am I here?”, “Where am I going?” so of course, embedded as I was in a culture that sees science and reason as the source of truth, he tried to “figure out” the answers. Graduated from Yale University with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy.
He went to Taiwan, learned Chinese, and worked as a translator and spent most of his 20s there, educating hisself broadly in Eastern spiritual traditions. I also read voraciously: books on health, nutrition, globalization, spirituality, physics, and biology. Translation led to other business opportunities, and I became familiar with this dimension of the human experience.
In his late 20s he entered what was to be a long period of intensifying crisis: “It started when all my professional work became intolerable. It became excruciating to do work I didn’t care about. Even though a million reasons told me why it was irresponsible, impractical, and foolish to quit, I eventually could not make myself do it anymore. An irrepressible feeling, “I am not here to be doing this!” took control of my life. So I entered a long period of searching. I did a yoga teacher training and discovered I definitely didn’t want to teach yoga. I taught at Penn State University in a very marginal position – my official job title was “temporary employee type 2” – and reaffirmed my aversion to academia. And I stayed at home a lot taking care of our little boys.”
“Then one day the big questions in my life were answered at once, when the answer to my question crystallized inside me. As often happens with such questions, the answer was bigger than the question. It dissolved its premises and began reordering my world. I spent the next four years pouring my heart and soul into a book, The Ascent of Humanity, that lays out what crystallized that day.”
About His Books:
“Sometimes people ask me which of my four books they should read first. Usually I suggest the most recent, The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible, because it offers a more highly distilled exposition of our society's transition in its deep stories. Sacred Economics explores the transition as it applies to the world of money, economy, and gift. It has a lot of actual economics along with material on the psychospiritual dimensions of money. It starts with the question, "Why does money seem to be a force for injustice and destruction? After all, it is just a system of agreements, a story." And, "What would a new story, a new system of agreements look like that were aligned with a healing planet?"
“The Ascent of Humanity was where I first articulated the idea of a tide of separation generating a convergence of crises that is giving birth to a new age. It traces multiple crises -- ecological, medical, educational, political, and more -- to a common origin. It was the culmination of a lifelong quest to answer the question, "What is the origin of the wrongness?" by which I meant the wrongness that seems to have permeated every institution of modern civilization. As often happens with such questions, the answer transcended the question.”
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"Climate. A New Story"
With research and insight, Charles Eisenstein details how the quantification of the natural world leads to a lack of integration and our “fight” mentality. With an entire chapter unpacking the climate change denier’s point of view, he advocates for expanding our exclusive focus on carbon emissions to see the broader picture beyond our short-sighted and incomplete approach. The rivers, forests, and creatures of the natural and material world are sacred and valuable in their own right, not simply for carbon credits or preventing the extinction of one species versus another. After all, when you ask someone why they first became an environmentalist, they’re likely to point to the river they played in, the ocean they visited, the wild animals they observed, or the trees they climbed when they were a kid. This refocusing away from impending catastrophe and our inevitable doom cultivates meaningful emotional and psychological connections and provides real, actionable steps to caring for the earth. Freeing ourselves from a war mentality and seeing the bigger picture of how everything from prison reform to saving the whales can contribute to our planetary ecological health, we resist reflexive postures of solution and blame and reach toward the deep place where commitment lives. Buy "Climate" here.
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