“Produce a unitary picture of the world.” This is the starting point of Jung’s answer to the question of meaning. Meaning is not philosophical or theoretical. Meaning is the power that comes from daily experiences and necessities. Meaning is the experience of totality. Experiencing meaning depends on awareness of life’s transcendental or spiritual reality, which complements empirical reality and together forms a whole. A soul suffers that has not discovered meaning; suffers from a sense of futility and spiritual emptiness. Reality is lived in both time and timelessness, in ego consciousness as well as in the transcendent, thus Life is lived only when it is a touchstone for the Truth of the Spirit. The meaning of life is the realization of the self, or, “to make what fate intends to do with us entirely our own intention.”
(Jung paraphrased)

I am an Earth Man.

The word “humus” means the organic composition of soil, and is also the root word of ‘human.’ I know my human being-ness is in the land, not in an ideology. My Soul was born from the Earth; the Earth is the Mother of my Being. The Earth gave birth to my Soul. I belong to the Earth. I am an Earth Man. I am not alone; my tribe is vast, there are Earth People everywhere. We find our spiritual revelations in Nature. I place altars at those places of revelation. I am not alone in doing this. My altars, also, do not belong to me. I'm just a broom pusher here..
-the broom pusher-

In a traditional story of the People of the Long
House; it is told, so they say, that human beings
moved to an area and discovered it was the territory
of a large wolf pack.  They knew that with great
effort over a period of years, they could kill all the
wolves, but this would make them a changed people, no
longer members of Earth’s natural order.  So the human
beings chose to move away and leave the land to the
wolves.  In later years, when faced with a critical
decision, someone from the tribe would stand up and
ask:  “Tell me my brothers, tell me my sisters!  Who
speaks for the Wolf?”   I’d say that’s what it means
to be a human being.”

Being emerges from Being.  It emerges out of nowhere.
We bear the Universe in our Being just as the Universe
bears us in its Being.
-Teilhard de Chardin-

What shall We do to be invoked, to be remembered on
Earth?  Let Us try to make from the fabric of the
Earth obedient, respectful Beings, who will nourish
and sustain the Earth.
-Popol Vuh-

… that humans are rational, intellectual, spiritual,
self aware, creative, conscientious, moral and godlike
seems to be a myth we have created to which we cling
in defiance of the evidence.  However, if we want to
be human beings through the changes we face; the thing
to do is not discard the myth, but live up to it.

To think, to feel, to laugh, to cry;
To consider the boundaries of my own mortality;
To feel the pain of others and reach out to them;
To wish good things for my friends and loved ones;
To have hope for those who do not believe as I do;
To love and, yes, even to hate;
To consider the road ahead and plot the route I want
to travel;
To consider the road behind and learn from its ruts
and potholes;
To count my blessings as I bemoan my misfortunes;
To teach the young to be a better than I am;
To yearn for the best that our world can achieve.
These are the things that make me a human being.
-- Steve Marshall, Little Rock, Arkansas, February 3, 2008

WISDOM IS THE RENDERING OF KNOWLEDGE

Wisdom is the rendering of Knowledge.  When wisdom is
used as if it is the effect -- as indirect experience;
then we are in beta state conscious and acting as
humanoids.  When Knowledge employs wisdom through
ceremony; ceremony produces the direct experience of
wisdom.  It takes wisdom to give to the next
generation the experience of Knowledge.  Without
wisdom passing from generation to generation there can
be no phenomena called human beings.  Without wisdom,
we cannot answer the question “What Does It mean to Be
a Human Being?”

To answer this question, focus more on the question
than on the answer.  The power of a question exists,
not so much in the answer, but in the state of
consciousness that opens it.  By asking a question we
let go of thinking we ‘know’ the answer.  The act of
letting go is an important as the answer.  Information
is not knowledge.  Learning is not knowing.  No answer
is the final one,; in fact, answers condense as our
knowledge of the world expands.

"There are only two lasting bequests

we can hope to give to our children.

One is roots; the other, wings."

(Hodding Carter)

"Another world is not only possible,

she is on her way.

On a quiet day, if you listen carefully,

you can hear her breathing."

(Arundhati Roy)

"We never change things by fighting the existing reality.

To change something; build a new model

that makes the existing model obsolete."

(Buckminster Fuller)

If you wish to persuade

you must appeal to interest,

not intellect.

(Benj. Franklin)