thegreatstory | Ganga Devi Braun: Post-doom with Michael Dowd @thegreatstory | Uploaded September 2019 | Updated October 2024, 6 hours ago.
Ganga Devi Braun conversation with Michael Dowd, Sept 2019, as part of Dowd's Post-doom Conversation series. Title: "Regeneration and Ritual." Timecoded list of topics:
01:37 - GDB: Background: born in early 90s; raised in an interspiritual ashram in Florida; preparing now for interspiritual ministry based in Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics, with a focus on grief work.
06:08 - GDB: Preferred term: "Regeneration" includes decay and death.
09:16 - GDB: "Doom is not part of my vernacular, when I'm able to step back and look at things through the lens of deep time.." ... "Regeneration is the universal principle that more life, meaning, and evolutionary potential can and will always come from death, decay, and entropy." Syntropy.
12:16 - GDB: key principle in her interspiritual community: kindness. Pluralistic Hinduism has immense deep time sense.
15:40 - GDB: "I feel like I always knew that we were doing something out of whack" (and how different her community was from the rest of society). As children, we were taught to be "environmental stewards." "Existential dread" came only when she entered college — and that was social more than ecological. Facing up to her racial, social, and educational privileges (white guilt). "Getting clear on how I can use everything that I am to serve the healing of all of the trauma and all of the wounds of this world."
18:56 - GDB: "All of these cascading problems are totally related. Social injustice is not separate from ecological injustice. They are all part of the same system of domination and extraction."
19:48 - MD: can't follow her level of "idealism" for healing the global problems, especially wherever there is "population pressure." Also, "we've been out of right relationship to the future, too: intergenerational injustice." "White supremacy is grounded in a deeper human supremacy." "The Age of Great Reckoning."
22:24 - GDB: Thesis was on Buddhist women's activism. Inspired by Vandana Shiva and Joanna Macy. Samsara, Dukkha, in excess (factory farmed animals). Jiyul Sunim activism for "rights of nature."
27:28 - MD: Thomas Berry wrote about "Earth jurisprudence" and biocracy. Joanna Macy as mentor, too (including importance of deep-time story).
29:35 - GDB: studied Madhyamaka philosophy of interdependence. Macy's "The Work that Reconnects." 9/11 impacted her generation and so not surprised at collapse. Karma is cause and effect within the web of interdependence.
32:46 - MD: Important to distinguish "ecologically sane cultures." "We belong to the land." Indigenous. Dukhka was different in sustainable cultures.
34:26 - GDB: shift from domination thinking to "spherical consciousness" (feeling within the planet system) can shift everything else.
35:55 - GDB: recent conversation with Ram Dass. Clarity that "for me my guru is the Earth... Every time I stop to listen, she's there communicating to me." Native Hawaiians protect mountain. Update: 3 months after this conversation was filmed, Ram Dass died.
37:53 - MD: Quotes Joanna Macy on broader sense of self-interest. John Seed identity shift.
39:22 - GDB: "That perspective is the defining perspective of indigeneity." Concept of ubuntu in South Africa, collective identity precludes violence. Seeks to reconnect with indigenous roots of her European heritage. Her work includes helping people reconnect to place and roots, deep ecology, deep time.
43:36 - GDB: used to think about "if only humans had done ..." Can learn about causes of previous civilizations turning lands into deserts. "But I don't think of it as useful any longer." Instead, "What can I do now?" Her goal now: "bringing a deeper sense of meaning, and connection, and love, and deep listening..."
46:17 - GDB: key practice is "getting my feet and my hands in the earth every day." Relationship with a particular orchid bee. Bhakti community values of love, community, beauty. Spiritual music and dance begin the day.
49:38 - GDB: special economic problems for her generation; student debt; existential dread
50:46 - GDB: "Life is definitely worth living, but you have to be living as if you were alive, as if you are a part of the wider ecosystem that is absolutely interdependent. As soon as you make that shift you start to have mystical experiences all the time." "The permaculturalists are the happiest people that I know." "Feeling despair means you are paying attention; allow yourself to feel it." She creates rituals for individuals to help them feel their feelings, eg., a "heartbreak ritual."
55:04 - GDB: "I'm not determining the future; all of us are determining the future." "Whether or not humans have a place in it, there is a future for this planet."
56:04 - GDB: "Hospicing humanity" - importance of "dying really well."
Access the full playlist of Post-Doom Conversations: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE
GangaDeviBraun.com
PostDoom.com
Ganga Devi Braun conversation with Michael Dowd, Sept 2019, as part of Dowd's Post-doom Conversation series. Title: "Regeneration and Ritual." Timecoded list of topics:
01:37 - GDB: Background: born in early 90s; raised in an interspiritual ashram in Florida; preparing now for interspiritual ministry based in Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics, with a focus on grief work.
06:08 - GDB: Preferred term: "Regeneration" includes decay and death.
09:16 - GDB: "Doom is not part of my vernacular, when I'm able to step back and look at things through the lens of deep time.." ... "Regeneration is the universal principle that more life, meaning, and evolutionary potential can and will always come from death, decay, and entropy." Syntropy.
12:16 - GDB: key principle in her interspiritual community: kindness. Pluralistic Hinduism has immense deep time sense.
15:40 - GDB: "I feel like I always knew that we were doing something out of whack" (and how different her community was from the rest of society). As children, we were taught to be "environmental stewards." "Existential dread" came only when she entered college — and that was social more than ecological. Facing up to her racial, social, and educational privileges (white guilt). "Getting clear on how I can use everything that I am to serve the healing of all of the trauma and all of the wounds of this world."
18:56 - GDB: "All of these cascading problems are totally related. Social injustice is not separate from ecological injustice. They are all part of the same system of domination and extraction."
19:48 - MD: can't follow her level of "idealism" for healing the global problems, especially wherever there is "population pressure." Also, "we've been out of right relationship to the future, too: intergenerational injustice." "White supremacy is grounded in a deeper human supremacy." "The Age of Great Reckoning."
22:24 - GDB: Thesis was on Buddhist women's activism. Inspired by Vandana Shiva and Joanna Macy. Samsara, Dukkha, in excess (factory farmed animals). Jiyul Sunim activism for "rights of nature."
27:28 - MD: Thomas Berry wrote about "Earth jurisprudence" and biocracy. Joanna Macy as mentor, too (including importance of deep-time story).
29:35 - GDB: studied Madhyamaka philosophy of interdependence. Macy's "The Work that Reconnects." 9/11 impacted her generation and so not surprised at collapse. Karma is cause and effect within the web of interdependence.
32:46 - MD: Important to distinguish "ecologically sane cultures." "We belong to the land." Indigenous. Dukhka was different in sustainable cultures.
34:26 - GDB: shift from domination thinking to "spherical consciousness" (feeling within the planet system) can shift everything else.
35:55 - GDB: recent conversation with Ram Dass. Clarity that "for me my guru is the Earth... Every time I stop to listen, she's there communicating to me." Native Hawaiians protect mountain. Update: 3 months after this conversation was filmed, Ram Dass died.
37:53 - MD: Quotes Joanna Macy on broader sense of self-interest. John Seed identity shift.
39:22 - GDB: "That perspective is the defining perspective of indigeneity." Concept of ubuntu in South Africa, collective identity precludes violence. Seeks to reconnect with indigenous roots of her European heritage. Her work includes helping people reconnect to place and roots, deep ecology, deep time.
43:36 - GDB: used to think about "if only humans had done ..." Can learn about causes of previous civilizations turning lands into deserts. "But I don't think of it as useful any longer." Instead, "What can I do now?" Her goal now: "bringing a deeper sense of meaning, and connection, and love, and deep listening..."
46:17 - GDB: key practice is "getting my feet and my hands in the earth every day." Relationship with a particular orchid bee. Bhakti community values of love, community, beauty. Spiritual music and dance begin the day.
49:38 - GDB: special economic problems for her generation; student debt; existential dread
50:46 - GDB: "Life is definitely worth living, but you have to be living as if you were alive, as if you are a part of the wider ecosystem that is absolutely interdependent. As soon as you make that shift you start to have mystical experiences all the time." "The permaculturalists are the happiest people that I know." "Feeling despair means you are paying attention; allow yourself to feel it." She creates rituals for individuals to help them feel their feelings, eg., a "heartbreak ritual."
55:04 - GDB: "I'm not determining the future; all of us are determining the future." "Whether or not humans have a place in it, there is a future for this planet."
56:04 - GDB: "Hospicing humanity" - importance of "dying really well."
Access the full playlist of Post-Doom Conversations: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE
GangaDeviBraun.com
PostDoom.com
