We Do Not *Think* Our Way Into Our Belonging — We Embody Our Belonging
“There is a vast difference between believing something intellectually and knowing in the body, all the way down, deep into cells and neural networks — and into psychospiritual marrow. If our caring for the world is embodied, not just an abstract idea or an unrooted thought bubble, does it change our response when we become aware of yet another harm against Earth’s life support systems (or to our Earthly companions)?”
We do not think our way into our belonging. We embody our belonging. Our belonging exists in our soma, in our ‘psychospiritual marrow’. When we acknowledge that we belong, we become aware of, and responsible to, an embedded, interdependent relationship of being. If I acknowledge and embody my belonging, I live with the awareness that what happens to you – and to the Earth, and to my neighbors, and to the generations yet to come, and to everything else – all deeply impacts me. As I embody my belonging further, I naturally concern myself with your experience and your wellbeing. I begin to behave in ways that support your wellbeing while I attend to mine.
Once we acknowledge and embody our belonging – and therefore consciously accept this responsibility to act, to listen, to speak, to see, to feel from this place – we begin to develop our erotic intelligence. As our erotic intelligence develops, we grow an intimate body of ethics. Our belonging nourishes our Ethical Self. They are inextricable.
Of course, even from this place, in our humanness, we are still capable of causing harm – moments that turn into actions (or a lack of action) that create a distortion between the intention of our (in)action and its impact out there. Being ethical is as much about sensing and tending to the harm we inevitably cause, as it is about not causing harm in the first place.
We are here. We will have impact.
Sometimes that impact is beneficent. Sometimes it is damaging. Sometimes it is both at the same time. The Web of Life is complex. Yet, we are monumentally more likely to cause harm if we refuse to accept that we belong to each other and everything else. Worse yet, in our refusal to acknowledge our belonging and the responsibility that comes with it, we are far less likely to lean in and attend to that harm.
This is the primary terrain of our upcoming 8-week course, The Source of Embodied Ethics, starting on Thursday March 4th at 9am (Mountain Time). As we directly identify and grapple with specific ethical conundrums and complexities, we will explore our intimate experiences of belonging. We will explore the landscape of erotic embodiment as we weave our own desires with the dignity inherent in all other beings.