The Purple Mango Tree

  image credit:  Andraz Lazic on Unsplash Us versus them--that is the essence of the civilized, industrialized, fractured world. It is the absolute antithesis of the pantheistic nature of spirituality and spiritual aspiration. The pantheistic sees everything natural as “us,” indistinguishable from “us” and therefore an integral part of the Universal whole and the param-atman: The Supreme Atman, the Source, the Primordial Energy from where we came and into which we will, ultimately, merge. Sustainable development is only possible when we realize the interdependence of every atom that participates in the expanding and contracting of the Universes. Sustainable development comes from the spirituality of the recognition of the oneness of the Universe; of the knowledge that the same string ties the entirety of creation together and that a tug here is bound to create a pull someplace else. This knowledge is instinctive in animals and seemed to be visceral in all ancient and tribal societies.