The Rainforest Information Centre presents DEEP ECOLOGY with John Seed, Carl Broman & Juliano Cerasani

Tickets are sliding scale from $150-$600 ($150 for students or unemployed, $600 if you're well off, or somewhere in between)

Accommodation is in your own tent or van. Or stay in your own home if within 1/2 hour or book a nearby b&b.

Vegetarian meals provided, gluten-free and vegan options by request

25% of the proceeds will be donated to the conservation of rainforests

FROM JOHN SEED:

I have worked for worldwide rainforests since 1979. Although many of our efforts succeeded, for every forest saved 100 have disappeared. Clearly, you can’t save the planet one forest at a time. It's one green Earth or a bowl of dust. Without a profound change of consciousness, we can kiss the forests goodbye, the ones we’ve "saved" alongside the rest.

Deep ecology is key to the change we need. To deep ecology, underlying all the symptoms of the environmental crisis lies a psychological or spiritual root – the illusion of separation from the rest of the natural world which stems from anthropocentrism or human-centeredness.

Conditioned since the Old Testament to “subdue and dominate” nature, the modern psyche is radically alienated from the air, water and soil which underpin life and this is reflected in the rapid shredding of all-natural systems in the name of economic development. Deep ecology reminds us that the world is not a pyramid with humans on top, but a web. We, humans, are but one strand in that web and as we destroy this web, we destroy the foundations for all complex life including our own.

While we maintain a self-image created in the matrix of anthropocentric culture, a shrunken and illusory sense of self that doesn't include the air and water and soil, we will experience nature as "outside" our self and fail to recognise that nature "out there" and nature "in here" are one and the same.

Many people INTELLECTUALLY realise that we are inseparable from Nature and that the sense of separation that we feel is socially conditioned and illusory.

But as the late Arne Naess, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Oslo University, the man who coined the term "Deep Ecology" wrote: "it is not enough to have ecological ideas, we have to have an ecological identity, ecological self".

But how can we nourish our ecological identity? In answer to such questions, Joanna Macy and I developed a series of experiential deep ecology rituals called the “Council of All Beings” and in 1986, with Arne Naess and Pat Flemming, wrote a book called Thinking Like A Mountain - Towards a Council of All Beings (which has been translated into 12 languages). Along with others, we have been facilitating these workshops around the world since then.

In this workshop we remember our rootedness in nature, recapitulate our evolutionary journey and experience the fact that every cell in our body is descended in an unbroken chain 4 billion years old, through fish that learned to walk the land, reptiles whose scales turned to fur and became mammals, evolving through to the present.

We further extend our sense of identity in the Council of All Beings itself where we find an ally in the natural world, make a mask to represent that ally, and allow the animals and plants and landscapes to speak through us. We are shocked at the very different view of the world that emerges from their dialogue. Creative suggestions for human actions emerge and we invoke the powers and knowledge of these other life-forms to empower us in our lives.

One of the rituals we will share is honouring our pain for the world: we grieve for all that is being torn from our world, the species lost, the landscapes destroyed. Only if we can allow ourselves to feel the pain of the Earth, can we be effective in Her healing. This is why the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, has said that in order to heal the Earth, "the most important thing that we can do is to hear, inside ourselves, the sounds of the Earth crying".

This workshop enables us to find an end to the illusion of separation and experience our rootedness in the living Earth.

Carl Broman has been exploring the innate desire to change current systems throughout his life. This has led to many pathways of attempting to disrupt and create transformation; including activism, political art, working in community development, systems thinking, then moving toward the realization that meaningful change starts from within. Carl has traveled around the globe studying ancient lineages of wisdom through the lens of modern Industrial growth society for over 20 years. Diving into spiritual traditions, modalities and embodiment practices such as buddhism, Daoism, yoga, Qigong and many earth based Indigenous cultures. The Deep Ecology movement synthesizes the essence of re-remembering our human desire for regenerative living and expanding our relationships to the interconnection of self and all life. He has been a trainer and facilitator for many years, currently supporting a range of retreats, workshops, rituals, rites of passage and ceremonies focused on changing people's inner and outer landscapes. Carl has completed the facilitator training for the ‘Work that Reconnects’ and is inspired to share these transformative processes co-facilitating alongside John Seed.

Juliano Cerasani was first introduced to Deep Ecology through his partner Khush Devi. Khush’s close family friend, John Button, would tell her stories throughout her younger years of the regeneration project of Mount Arunchala with John Seed in 1998. Ramana Maharashi has an ashram near the mountain, and his teaching on the nature of Ego started the process of self-inquiry for Juliano.

Ramana would say ‘It is not I that is enlightened, but the mountain’.

This nondual approach solidified Juliano and Khush’s sadhana practise and encouraged them to deepen their practise of the great nondual tradition prevalent in Christianity, Sufism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Deep Ecology!

Juliano is in the process of ordaining as a Zen Monk in the Soto Lineage. He holds a bachelor’s in music and is studying a master’s in counselling.

Juliano and his partner Khush run a NDIS company, creative studio and charity called ‘The Bhuda tree project’ that provides education and healthcare to Low caste ‘Adivasi’ people in Pushkar, India.

Our Website link- https://www.risingsuncareandtherapies.com/

For more information, johnseed1@ozemail.com.au