The Web of Meaning: Chapter by Chapter
The Web of Meaning is divided into sections according to some of the great existential questions humans ask: Who am I? Where am I? What am I? How Should I Live? And Why am I?
Each section reveals deep flaws in the way our mainstream worldview answers these questions—and points the way to alternative answers, based on the interweaving of modern scientific findings and insights from some of the world's great wisdom traditions.
Each section reveals deep flaws in the way our mainstream worldview answers these questions—and points the way to alternative answers, based on the interweaving of modern scientific findings and insights from some of the world's great wisdom traditions.
PART 1. WHO AM I?
Chapter 1. The Nameless Uncarved Wood
The Taoists of ancient China valued the spontaneity of nature (the “nameless uncarved wood”) above the artifice of civilization. Beginning with the Taoist view of human development, this chapter layers in modern neuroscience, showing how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) evolved in humans to develop a unique form of knowing--conceptual intelligence—that underpins human culture. Does this mean that humans have to choose between civilization and the Tao? Not necessarily. This book, it explains, explores a path whereby we can integrate these two aspects of human cognition into a rich, vibrant unity.
The Taoists of ancient China valued the spontaneity of nature (the “nameless uncarved wood”) above the artifice of civilization. Beginning with the Taoist view of human development, this chapter layers in modern neuroscience, showing how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) evolved in humans to develop a unique form of knowing--conceptual intelligence—that underpins human culture. Does this mean that humans have to choose between civilization and the Tao? Not necessarily. This book, it explains, explores a path whereby we can integrate these two aspects of human cognition into a rich, vibrant unity.
Chapter 2. The Original AI: Animate Intelligence
The idea of what constitutes intelligence is deeply embedded in our sense of human identity, and influences how we relate to ourselves and everything in nature. Indigenous traditions perceive wisdom in the natural world, but since Descartes, the Western tradition has denied intelligence in nonhuman nature. This chapter reveals the modern scientific findings that have more than validated Indigenous insights: far from being mindless mechanisms, it shows how every organism in nature demonstrates dazzling intelligence. The chapter reconsiders our human identity in the context of the deep intelligence arrayed around us—and within us—and introduces the possibility of combining both conceptual and animate intelligence into one that is truly integrative. |
Chapter 3. The Most Important Relationship of Your Life
As humans, we experience a split consciousness. “I” may control my “self,” hate my “self,” or lose my “self.” This chapter explores the most important relationship of your life: between you and your self. Beginning with the evolutionary origins of this defining characteristic of humanity, we see how this split shows up in modern theories of cognition, and examine the question of whether, and how, we should “trust our gut.” The chapter shows how we can develop a “democracy of consciousness,” where “I” and my “self” can get along together, and introduces key concepts from Taoism, Zen, and Buddhist meditation that can help heal this split in human cognition.
As humans, we experience a split consciousness. “I” may control my “self,” hate my “self,” or lose my “self.” This chapter explores the most important relationship of your life: between you and your self. Beginning with the evolutionary origins of this defining characteristic of humanity, we see how this split shows up in modern theories of cognition, and examine the question of whether, and how, we should “trust our gut.” The chapter shows how we can develop a “democracy of consciousness,” where “I” and my “self” can get along together, and introduces key concepts from Taoism, Zen, and Buddhist meditation that can help heal this split in human cognition.
PART 2. WHERE AM I?
Chapter 4. The Patterns of the Universe
A thousand years ago, in China, a school of philosophers created a systematic model of the universe based on the idea that all matter and energy is connected by organizing principles, called li. In modern decades, advances in physics and systems theory have transformed mainstream science with findings that validate this early insight into the principles of the universe. In contrast to the Newtonian world of reductionism, which underlays the modern worldview, systems theory describes a universe where the connections between things are frequently more important than the things themselves. This chapter shows how the emerging systems worldview can help us understand the nonlinear activities of complex self-organized systems—including all living organisms, ecosystems, and human social systems—explaining how these systems work and why, ultimately, they lead to a more connected way of seeing ourselves in the world. |
Chapter 5. The Harmonic Dance of Life
Of all complex systems, life itself is the most stunning. Traditional Chinese culture, along with Indigenous people worldwide, understood the universe to be an organic whole, where every action reverberated through a web of connectivity. Western reductionist science, however, was built on a mechanical conception of nature, leading to the notion of a “selfish gene” as the elementary building block of life, competing against other genes for survival. In recent decades, new insights about biology and evolution have swept away this old mechanistic framework. This chapter describes how the newly emerging understanding of life explains how evolution arose from organisms interacting with their environment and learning to cooperate with other organisms, to form the complex “web of life” of which we are all part.
Of all complex systems, life itself is the most stunning. Traditional Chinese culture, along with Indigenous people worldwide, understood the universe to be an organic whole, where every action reverberated through a web of connectivity. Western reductionist science, however, was built on a mechanical conception of nature, leading to the notion of a “selfish gene” as the elementary building block of life, competing against other genes for survival. In recent decades, new insights about biology and evolution have swept away this old mechanistic framework. This chapter describes how the newly emerging understanding of life explains how evolution arose from organisms interacting with their environment and learning to cooperate with other organisms, to form the complex “web of life” of which we are all part.
PART 3. WHAT AM I?
Chapter 6. The Deep Purpose of Life
Aristotle, along with Indigenous cultures worldwide, believed living organisms were driven by a sense of purpose. With its mechanistic worldview, mainstream reductionist science dismissed this idea as teleology. However, when principles of self-organization are applied to understand life, they validate Aristotle’s original insight: from the first protocells onward, life has been driven by an imperative to fight against the relentless force of entropy. This chapter traces life’s unfolding purposive self-organization, scaling fractally through cells, organisms, ecosystems, and Gaia—finally considering the question: where does humanity stand in relation to life’s ultimate purpose?
Aristotle, along with Indigenous cultures worldwide, believed living organisms were driven by a sense of purpose. With its mechanistic worldview, mainstream reductionist science dismissed this idea as teleology. However, when principles of self-organization are applied to understand life, they validate Aristotle’s original insight: from the first protocells onward, life has been driven by an imperative to fight against the relentless force of entropy. This chapter traces life’s unfolding purposive self-organization, scaling fractally through cells, organisms, ecosystems, and Gaia—finally considering the question: where does humanity stand in relation to life’s ultimate purpose?
Chapter 7. The Tao in My Own Nature
Chinese sage Zhu Xi once said that if you wish to know the Tao, you must seek it in your own nature. Recognizing the Tao as the set of nature’s self-organizing principles, this chapter shows the wisdom of his statement based on modern scientific findings. The principles of self-organized living systems revealed in the previous section are now applied to humans. We discover the similarities between the collective intelligence of ant or termite colonies and how neurons self-organize in the brain to create consciousness. We learn that our moods follow patterns similar to starlings flocking in the sky, and why true knowledge is always embodied. These insights bring us to the realization that we must understand ourselves ultimately as “human mind-body organisms.”
PART 4. HOW SHOULD I LIVE?
Chapter 8. Flourishing as An Integrated Organism
Once we recognize ourselves as a human mind-body organism, we are ready to consider how to make our organism flourish. The Chinese likened a human to a plant, and emphasized the importance of careful self-cultivation. Aristotle described the desirable state of eudaimonia (“good spirits”) where the various human drives were in balance. The Western mechanistic tradition, however, views health in terms of fixing what’s wrong rather than flourishing. This chapter, beginning with a view of the human mind-body as a cohesive ecosystem, explores how sustained wellbeing might be achieved through practices, employed by both mind and body, that emphasize the harmonious integration of all the different aspects of a person’s life.
Once we recognize ourselves as a human mind-body organism, we are ready to consider how to make our organism flourish. The Chinese likened a human to a plant, and emphasized the importance of careful self-cultivation. Aristotle described the desirable state of eudaimonia (“good spirits”) where the various human drives were in balance. The Western mechanistic tradition, however, views health in terms of fixing what’s wrong rather than flourishing. This chapter, beginning with a view of the human mind-body as a cohesive ecosystem, explores how sustained wellbeing might be achieved through practices, employed by both mind and body, that emphasize the harmonious integration of all the different aspects of a person’s life.
Chapter 9. Cultivating Integrated Values
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Mencius, believed that humans are intrinsically moral, containing within them a budding sprout of morality that, as with plants, needs to be cultivated carefully to grow to maturity. The Western tradition, by contrast, based on the Biblical myth of the Fall, sees humans as fundamentally sinful, relying on willpower to overcome our flaws. Modern insights in evolutionary biology and psychology have validated Mencius’ original idea. This chapter reveals their findings, showing how our values are stratified, with innate moral intuitions layered over by culturally derived values. Some modern theorists have argued for a rational, science-based value system to supersede culturally derived values. In this chapter, we consider instead a system of values based on our interconnectedness, where life itself becomes the foundation for an integrated ethical framework that could lead to sustained wellbeing for individuals, communities, and the entire earth ecology.
The ancient Chinese philosopher, Mencius, believed that humans are intrinsically moral, containing within them a budding sprout of morality that, as with plants, needs to be cultivated carefully to grow to maturity. The Western tradition, by contrast, based on the Biblical myth of the Fall, sees humans as fundamentally sinful, relying on willpower to overcome our flaws. Modern insights in evolutionary biology and psychology have validated Mencius’ original idea. This chapter reveals their findings, showing how our values are stratified, with innate moral intuitions layered over by culturally derived values. Some modern theorists have argued for a rational, science-based value system to supersede culturally derived values. In this chapter, we consider instead a system of values based on our interconnectedness, where life itself becomes the foundation for an integrated ethical framework that could lead to sustained wellbeing for individuals, communities, and the entire earth ecology.
Chapter 10. Human/Nature
Chief Seattle wrote in 1854 to the President of the United States: “The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.” Our modern civilization has ridden roughshod over these sentiments, developing ever more powerful technologies to consume the earth, devastating the natural world in the process. We now live in the Anthropocene era, with human activities disrupting Earth’s long-established equilibria. This chapter explores humankind’s relationship with nature, asking where is the boundary line between them—or whether one exists at all. Investigating modern renderings of traditional ecological knowledge, such as permaculture and Deep Ecology, it applies the life-affirming value system developed in the previous chapter to consider what a true integration of humans and nature might look like, presenting emergent ideas such as a Rights of Nature declaration by the UN, and the establishment of ecocide as a crime prosecutable under international law. |
PART 5. WHY AM I?
Chapter 11. Everything Is Connected
Throughout human history, across disparate cultures, people have experienced a mystical realization that, underlying everything, there exists a unity of reality. Many non-religious people have reported similar insights from the use of psychedelics. What is the significance of these states? Do they point to a reality that we can’t understand through normal consciousness? If so, how do these two dimensions of experience relate to one another? Exploring these questions, this chapter develops a systems approach to unity experience, showing how modern scientific findings validate the ultimate insight that “everything is connected.” Describing modern research on the physics and biology of synchrony, it shows how our very existence is the result of synchronized interactions not just within us but with entire world. The chapter elucidates the mystic vision of oneness as a felt recognition of identity with the fractal patterns of self-organization existing both within our own consciousness and in nature. The Tao within is the same as the Tao without. Meaning, it reveals, emerges ultimately from the network of dynamic connections that form our reality—a web of meaning. |
Chapter 12. From Fixed Self to Infinite Li: The Fractal Nature of Identity
From earliest times, cultures everywhere have believed that humans have spirits that survive bodily death. Dualistic religions turned this idea into the concept of an immortal soul existing eternally in another dimension. Reductionist science, rejecting this notion, claims that nothing exists beyond the body. This chapter explores another way of making sense of life and death, based on the recognition that the connections between things (Neo-Confucian li) are more significant than the things themselves. As we begin to experience life itself as a play of patterns, our sense of identity ripples out from the hard boundaries of the body to merge with the other ripples of life stretching through both space and time. As we increasingly identify with the lives of those around us, with future generations, and all living beings, our own death can be seen as a relatively minor event within our expanded sense of self. Just as Indigenous cultures intuited, the spirit lives on long after we die.
From earliest times, cultures everywhere have believed that humans have spirits that survive bodily death. Dualistic religions turned this idea into the concept of an immortal soul existing eternally in another dimension. Reductionist science, rejecting this notion, claims that nothing exists beyond the body. This chapter explores another way of making sense of life and death, based on the recognition that the connections between things (Neo-Confucian li) are more significant than the things themselves. As we begin to experience life itself as a play of patterns, our sense of identity ripples out from the hard boundaries of the body to merge with the other ripples of life stretching through both space and time. As we increasingly identify with the lives of those around us, with future generations, and all living beings, our own death can be seen as a relatively minor event within our expanded sense of self. Just as Indigenous cultures intuited, the spirit lives on long after we die.
PART 6. WHERE ARE WE GOING?
Chapter 13. Weaving a New Story of Meaning
In Native American mythology, a windigo is a monster of insatiable greed who could infect humans with a psychotic frenzy of excessive consumption. Children were taught by this legend to value moderation and cooperation. Modern civilization is caught in a windigo psychosis, consuming the earth at an unsustainable pace. Can it be rescued in time from this delirium, and its energy harnessed for the future flourishing of humans on a regenerated earth? This chapter shows how the underlying values of the modern mainstream worldview have led humanity down a path of self-destruction, and offers the foundation for a new story, one that permits us to find meaning through our connectedness—within ourselves, with each other, and with the natural world. Incorporating the insights of the earlier chapters, it weaves the wisdom of ancient traditions and the findings of modern science into a web of meaning, showing how the connectivity between things becomes the basis for all that is valuable in life. It concludes by exploring the implications of this realization, showing how it leads naturally to active engagement in society, joining with others to weave the web of meaning into all aspects of our lives, our communities, and the earth. |