Recognizing our intimate dependence on the natural environment allows us to see its true value and treasure it. One reason that people living in cities nowadays need to be told so much about the importance of caring for the earth is because they did not grow up feeling direct, unmediated connections to it. For them, nature is something that one visits in city parks or on excursions out into the countryside. When we are raised in urban environments, our sense for the natural environment is more remote because we rarely witness our fundamental reliance upon it. Nature seems like a pretty backdrop to our lives, something that adds to the scenery but is basically optional. We are obstructed from seeing how the natural environment is the very stage on which our lives play out. Without the conditions that arise from our environment, nothing whatsoever can take place.
17th Karmapa
from the book Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society
Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.
Further quotes from the book Interconnected:
- Our closest and most reliable allies
- Interdependence at work
- Touching the core of our equality
- His Loneliness
- The deeper common ground all living being share
- Collective actions and attitudes
- Delight in positive thoughts
- Gradual change
- Interdependent individuals
- Opening up to the view of interconnectedness
- A main condition for our selfishness
- Outer and inner world
- Self-reliance
- The best way to love oneself
- Everything and everyone is benefiting you
- Limitless aspirations
- When we ignore our interdependence
- Freedom
- We hold nothing back