Learning to be silent is far more difficult and far more important than learning to recite prayers.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I Of ConstantinopleRead
... the ecological problem of our times demands a radical reevaluation of how we see the entire world; it demands a different interpretation of matter and the world, a new attitude of humankind toward nature, and a new understanding of how we acquire and make use of our material goods.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for a fundamental change in our perception and interaction with the environment.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I highlights the urgent necessity to rethink our relationship with nature and material possessions. He calls for a transformative shift in how humanity views the world, advocating for a deeper understanding and respect for ecological systems, which is crucial in addressing the pressing environmental issues we face today.
In practice
During a climate change conference, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for a new mindset towards environmental conservation.
Learning to be silent is far more difficult and far more important than learning to recite prayers.
Arrogance and fanaticism cause the hardening of positions taken and entrenchment can only lead to a dead end.
Nature has an economy, an elegance, a style, that if we could but emulate it we could rise out of the rubble we are making out of the planet
What is now the foliage moving?_x000D_ _x000D_ Air is still, and hush'd the breeze,_x000D_ _x000D_ Sultriness, this fullness loving,_x000D_ _x000D_ Through the thicket, from the trees._x000D_ _x000D_ Now the eye at once gleams brightly,_x000D_ _x000D_ See! the infant band with mirth_x000D_ _x000D_ Moves and dances nimbly, lightly,_x000D_ _x000D_ As the morning gave it birth,_x000D_ _x000D_ Flutt'ring two and two o'er earth.
It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities.
The ecological crisis we face is so obvious that it becomes easy...to join the dots and see that everything is interconnected. This is the ecological thought. And the more we consider it, the more our world opens up." The ecological thought "...is a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge. It is radical intimacy, coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise.
I stared up at the ebbing quarter moon and the stars scattered like a handful of salt across the faraway sky.
A narrow pond would form in the orchard, water clear as air covering grass and black leaves and fallen branches, all around it black leaves and drenched grass and fallen branches, and on it, slight as an image in an eye, sky, clouds, trees, our hovering faces and our cold hands.
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