The Garden of Eden has been lost to the realities of most modern people, but lives on as a spiritual myth in their hearts. I have witnessed the myth come to life in the gleeful eyes of Hawaiian visitors when I would hand them the tools to harvest their own breakfest. Again I have felt the myth stir in their hearts as they listened to stories of living deep In the Hawaiian forests. There, nestled into a Guava grove on a point of land jutting 2,000’ above the Paciflc Ocean, I made my home. The lifestyle was straight from Eden as I strolled fearlessly shopping for food amoungst nature’s reserves. Walking naked along the deserted paths, bathing in waterfall pools, and feeling at peace with life allowed my conscience to rest from my city upbringing. After resting, my conscience opened to life’s possibilities and it's wonders.
When I re-entered modern life as a city dweller there was a new perspective, a fresh view of life to greet me. Where once there was only foliage in the trees, now there was food. Where once there was overwhelming fear and anger in the people, now I could feel their hopes, dreams and aspirations. My taste buds had adapted to the sweet wild and the forest had uplifted me in everything that I attempted. After experiencing nature in an intimate way, I now feel a part of a greater whole and that wholeness strengthens me.
The message of the Garden of Eden is that humans are a part of nature. We are at our best when we connect with nature and thus sense our own nature. Whether we assign ourselves the task of planetary custodians or overlords to nature, we must recognize that we are all a part of everything and everybody else. What happens to our world happens to us personally. It is not up to us to take what's personal and make it universal, but to take what is universal and make it persoanl. To the people of the modern world I say, "own your world".
In this way our world either makes us safe and secure or fearful and lonely. Harbored in the seeds of the garden are thoughts of nurturance and provision. The garden represents all that is right about a naturally occurring good life.
When we see a forest and an entire eco-sphere disappear we must also recognize that something in our hearts disappears as well. When we see a project or lifestyle that creates or maintains the garden we must honor that and hold it sacred.
The Navajo and Hopi Indians have regular dances to honor the world they live in. The people always dress in their best. The big difference being that they dress to honor their friends and fellow co-inhabitors of the land, not for their own vanity. This is a way of culturally demonstrating that somewhere on the planet we must also recognize that something within our hearts is created and maintained also. When people and societies become separated from the garden, it becomes the responsibility of those that see, to do what they can to bring it back into those hearts that have lost sight. This does not propose a mission of proselytizing, but rather, an offer of inspiration for hearts to know their nature again.
The Garden of Eden is still a reality to millions today. To many native peoples their lives are woven Into nature on a daily basis through their cultures. Living this reality allows these people to relax in the knowing that they are taken care of, they are safe in the bosom of nature. There is always enough and seldom have want for more. To the city dweller this is rarely the case. The modern city dweller is always hungry for happiness. I doubt if there has ever been a world so hungry to survive.
But now there is an increase in the people that do not have enough and the liquidation sale at the planet’s gardens is like hordes of shoppers attacking a bankrupt department store. Get it while you can before it’s gone, get it even if you don’t need it or want it. Get it because everyone else is, don’t be left out. It's a feeding frenzy!
Modern humanity doesn't get it! What the city dweller really wants Is what he is destroying. The myth in his heart, the Garden of Eden exists in the remaining virgin forests, it exists in the lives of the people that live there as an integrated part of nature. Yet it lies buried in the hearts yearn ing to purchase it. The Garden of Eden cannot be bought, coveted or hoarded, It can only be lived. The opportunities to do so are dim inuishing as you read this. The opportunity to truly know your place in nature and ultimately your own nature are disappearing
Today, even the best of intentions are fraught with ethnocentric nievete. For example, when the organization "???????????' went to Brazil and set up a nature reserve for animals only in an area of forest dwelling natives, represents a cultural blunder. The people in these areas have no concept of a nature preserve and no words for ‘Keep Out’. The style of dealing with environmental problems in the US must change when considering other cultures.
the American environmentalist is seen in Brazil not with the respect of a crusader for a noble cause, but with indignant humor. The nievete or the modern environmental savior is the brunt of ethnic jokes and is portrayed as a hapless nerd trouncing through the jungle and through Brazilian culture in blissful ignorance. Thus there are well intentioned crusading interests that are mindful of one thing "Save The Rainforest", and not mindful enough of the people living in the rainforest.
Americans must be flexible in their strategems. The strategies that work well at home will seldom work in someone else’s culture. We must find allegiance with the residents of the land to create lasting and effectual policies in Brazil, for example, the Seringueiros (rubber tappers), the natives, the resident townspeople will not support ‘Keep Out' signs and will never come to your aid when the Bagunsas (the hired thugs) from the cattle ranchers come and want your nature preserve for grazing.
A more proper and effective strategy is to fuel the environmental groups already in force in the areas needed saving. Whether it be the Penaan in New Guinea or the Yanomani in Brazil, these groups must find a way to support the natives and their strategies. In each situation we are talking about protecting habitats, habitats that include people that are interwoven with their environment. People that are living examples that the Garden of Eden is alive. If you are going to save the forest you must save everyone involved.
The Gogol Naru people of Papua New Guinea are involved in a struggle to stop the Jant Pty. Ltd., a susidiary of the Honshu Paper Co. of Japan, from clearcutting any more of their tropical rainforest. They have already cut 170,000 acres destroying sacred tribal grounds, and polluting rivers with fuel and sediment. After waling up the fact that Jant was not honoring their contract with them, they shut down operations with road blocks and are now demanding that their government review the contract. Here is a direct action taken by a local group that concerned planetary citizens can support without any cultural invasions. See address below.
Two such groups in Brazil are ‘Medicina Da Terra’ and ‘Associao De Novo Encanto’. These groups are in the center of the maelstrom in the Amazon. They know what consequences their actions will have upon the future. The Seranguetros, under the leadership of the late Carlos Mendes, have been able to establish a new concept on the political scene called "extractivist reserves". It is a system of landholding in which the Brazilizan government expropriates rainforest to allow the commercial use of it’s renewable resources such as the harvesting or fruits, nuts, oils, rubber and medicinal plants. These reserves give people a legal right to be on the land, whereas berore they were squatters on the huge feudal estates of cattle barons and big land owners. However, this still leaves the land in the hands of the government and subject to the whims of those in power.
‘Novo Encanto’ (the New Enchantment) takes it a step further by turning privately held land into a research center. The people livino on the land become a source of knowledge. The scientists Involved then study sustainable agriculture, ethnobotany and botany. They also promote social programs for co-operative producers of rainforest products and health clinics. The knowledge from these studies is disseminated by "Medicina Da Terra, a group of several hundred western medical scholars and Amazonian shamans dedicated to enlightening the world to the medicinal values of the forest. In May, 1991 they sponsored another international conference in Brazil to help achieve this goal. These two groups share in the growing argument that tne rainforest is more valuable and profitable alive.
When the time comes that an alive forest can make more of a monetary income than a dead forest our virgin forests will be protected and sustained. We are witnessing this in Africa today as tourists pay to see a live and wild habitat. Now all the shooting that takes place in these parks is with a camera.
Rubber tapping and collecting Brazil nuts, incence and other renewable raw materials from the Amazon is not very lucrative for the native people at this time. There is a growing interest in products from the Amazon, but most of the money goes to middling profiteers, leaving the natives, the people that need the money the most, unable to make the forest their source of income. The native residents are in dire need of the funds that are required to fend off the cattle ranchers and developers. Picking Brazil nuts for 1 to 2 cents a pound will not work. So the great work that Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream is doing by promoting Brazil nuts in a new save the rainforest flavor does nothing to help the native pwople save the forest. Try again Ben.
To the rescue are cottage industries and more businesses that are giving the lions share of the profits to the native people. One of them is a company called ‘Cultural Survival’, based in Cambridge,Mass. They buy jungle products and resell them abroad charging a 5% environmental premium that is used to help forest peoples.
Another proven way to help these grass roots organ izations is tithing. Tithing in Its own way places one’s conscience in touch with the Garden. It tells the mind that in giving without loss that there is enough, life is secure. Abundance flows toward this way of thinking, and it’s proof is ages old. I make this personal plea to the receivers of the wealth in our society to tith to worthy projects that you have researched to know are doing the right thing. Consider contacting these two groups below and continue in the process of people helping people.
The natives are restless. Their nature, our nature, is being destroyed. Will we listen to them or cast them off as untamed savages, kill a few and enlist the rest to be our bellhops and maids. They must be respected for who they are. Listening to them is important, for their message points the way home.