Ecosophy: the philosophy of treating the natural environment as something divine

Ecosophy is the wisdom of the Earth.

His maxim is that we are part of a great natural cosmos.

Nature is the source from which we come.

She contains all learning, if we know how to listen to her.

The neologism ecosophy comes from the sum of ecology and philosophy.

It is attributed to the Norwegian philosopher and activist Arne Naess, although it is a term that our wise man Raimon Panikkar already used more than 20 years ago.

The main difference with ecology is that it is not marked by an anthropocentric vision.

Ecosophy does not ask what man can do for the natural environment, but how it teaches us.

He does not think or plan recycling policies or low energy consumption to conserve nature.

Its purpose is, rather, the connection and life in harmony with nature through an almost divine respect.

As in primitive shamanism or ancient ancient traditions such as Chinese Taoism or Japanese Shintoism.

Ecosophy does not ask what man can do for the natural environment, but how it teaches us.

Perceiving the harmonies of nature, its vibration, its hidden message, the secret language of the trees... This is the language of ecosophy, a form of wisdom that puts the natural kingdom ahead of reason.

The new and at the same time ancestral spirituality of the Earth that gains followers every day.

As Panikkar proposed, we have to make peace with the Earth and live under the concept of bioregions.

It is not about segregating spaces with artificial borders but about creating harmonious natural environments.

“Man's task is not to dominate nature, but precisely to cultivate: to cultivate himself and nature, precisely because they cannot be separated… It is not about leaving wild nature to itself.

Man must cultivate nature, just as he must cultivate himself.

I make no separation between cultivation of the body, cultivation of the soul, and cultivation of nature.”

Ecosophy implies a balance between nature and human beings, in a non-dualistic relationship.

Beyond recycling waste or softening the exploitation of resources, Panikkar invites us to face ecology in a much more radical way.

Technocratic civilization has differentiated the nature of man.

Agriculture is no longer cultivation or culture, but

The balance must be restored.

Ecology comes from the Greek word

which means "home".

Ecology as an environmental science takes into account that the Earth, our home, is finite.

The ideology that determines it, the ethics that it advocates and the policies in which it is translated go through a restrictive economy whose objective is not to end up with raw materials and natural resources.

A failed speech: in recent decades, planetary exploitation has accelerated and global warming has reached code red.

The melting ice melts the poles, the sea level rises, the beaches disappear and the landscape transforms vertiginously while the human being consumes avidly thinking only of himself.

The intentions of environmentalism are good but insufficient.

A true consciousness of integration with the Earth is needed.

In addition to measures, actions and ecological demonstrations, the change goes through the education of humans as natural beings, not as inveterate egoists fascinated by their domination over the rest of the species and the kingdom of nature.

Certainly, one way to control human development from an ecological point of view is to limit the natural territory to the concept of bioregion.

In this way, the needs of the land can be addressed in a specific and detailed way.

It cannot be that a territory used to growing olive trees has to plant corn or sunflowers due to the designs of a centralized and deregulated State, in the hands of large corporations.

Nor is it understandable that mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Himalayas, to cite two examples, suffer the capricious division of the border into various States, when they form a single territory.

It is the valleys, seas, rivers and mountain ranges that establish the characteristics and conditions of a territory, and it is to them that we must listen.

And although it is unlikely in the short term, given the way the world and its superpowers work, it is something that the environmentalist parties should defend in their programs.

Only then, maybe one day we can start taking small steps to reach this purpose of living in bioregions.

As long as we do not reach this stage of evolution and return to the bioregions, it may be the inhabitants of a territory who clean their forests, protect the beaches from sea floods or carry out tasks that the States have stopped performing.

The societies that we call primitive have always been in charge of taking care of a land that they revered as the home that protected them and fed them.

Perhaps we should return to animism and understand the trance of the shamans to unite man and nature, ecology and ecosophy.

Alexis Racionero Ragué

(Barcelona, ​​1971) has a doctorate in Art History, a degree in Geography and History and a specialist in counterculture, Eastern philosophy and the hero's journey.

This excerpt is a preview of his book

, from the Anagrama publishing house, published this Wednesday, July 6. 

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