Climate change – not for the first time

They declare that billions of Dollars are needed to be invested in combating climate change. Combat? Big Business? Billions? For decades now the giant global businesses have used a myriad of justifications to invent and sell commodities to the unsuspecting public, become extremely powerful and controlling, and continue to amass huge amounts of money.

Based on weather history, admittedly, weather patterns have changed over the last few decades, but is this the first time mankind is faced with significant changes in weather patterns? Not so. We ought to differentiate between the ongoing man-made destruction and abuse of this planet which has consequentially endangered our environment and livelihood, and the dramatic shift of weather patterns that occur every few thousand years or so, mainly through sunspot activities, space winds and other natural factors.

Just as a small example, geologists who sifted through various riverbank deposits in Utah and Arizona found clues about more than 250 extreme floods during approximately the last 6,000 years. They were able to date the floods by carbon-14 analysis of organic material and archaeological artifacts preserved in the deposited sediments.

Besides the biblical flood in Mesopotamia and the destruction of Atlantis and Lemuria that resulted in floods of gigantic proportions, there is also that curious Piri Reis Map which surfaced in Constantinople in 1929, thought to have been drawn in the 15th century by an Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, and allegedly copied from a variety of older maps dating at least back to the time of Alexander the Great. This map shows Antarctica without any ice cap and scientists are at a loss to explain or accept such evidence that indicates a green continent.

Earth has yo-yoed through many ice ages and then again many warmer times and evidence is mounting about the natural cycles mankind has endured and adapted to in one way or other because we are resilient creatures. However, what is really troubling nowadays is that a huge amount of the population lives in the world of science and information technology and is no longer in tune with nature.

Osho addresses mankind’s dilemma:

“The scientific training has taught human beings to be inimical to nature; that has been one of the most harmful things that has ever happened. Science has taught people that we are to fight with nature, as if nature is there to destroy us; we have to conquer it. That stupid attitude has made man utterly disoriented from nature, cut away; he has lost his roots. And that is the only problem we are facing now.

People are searching for meditation, prayer, new ways of being, but the deeper search and the more basic search is how to get rooted in existence again. Call it meditation, call it prayer, or whatever you will, but the essential thing is how to get rooted in existence again. We have become trees which are uprooted, and nobody else is responsible except us with our own stupid idea of conquering nature. We are part of it; how can the part conquer the whole?” (1)

Osho, well aware of the changes happening on the planet, speaks also in particular on the findings of independent scientist James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia theory:

“The Gaia theory says that Earth is an alive organism which maintains its own balance. But man is trying in every way to disturb the balance, because he has not recognized that the earth is your mother, and the sky is your father – not any God.

You are beings of the earth and the sky. You are the meeting point of the earth and sky.

You are born out of earth and sky. That’s why in the East the woman is called the earth and the man is called the sky. And certainly it balances. That proves its intelligence.” (2)

He further refers to the ongoing destruction of the ozone layers, the holes that were made by sending rockets into space, and allowed death rays to enter which increased the cancer rates radically. I remember well that many of us sitting in discourse on that day snickered at that, being totally ignorant of the implications. Now we know that such occurrences have catapulted our planet and mankind into a horrifying imbalance.

“James Lovelock has come to a tremendously meaningful discovery. Mystics have been talking about it all the time, but nobody hears the mystics because they cannot produce any evidence. They are not scientists, they don’t have any labs to experiment in. All that they have is their inner perception, their clarity, their enlightenment, their awakening to this great life all around.” (2)

And with yet another instance of Osho’s enigmatic way of shedding light on a subject, I leave you with this very particular example of his insight on how we can bring about a non-violent change to a problematic situation:

“If Lao Tzu was faced with the problem of eradicating Malaria, he would never think in terms of destroying the mosquitoes. He would have suggested two methods. He would have suggested a change of attitude towards the mosquitoes or a change in man’s physical system to make him immune to malaria. There is no need whatsoever of destroying the mosquito. It is also possible to change the composition of the mosquitoes’ body system by which it would not be an enemy of man but rather a friend. Either or both of these methods can be implemented.

If we had followed the Lao Tzu method, we would have worked out an accord between the two. If it is possible to annihilate the mosquito completely, why should it be difficult to annihilate the poison within it? And if the mosquito can be completely destroyed or its poison removed from its system, then there is no reason why man’s resistance cannot be built up to withstand the poison of the mosquito? Lao Tzu would definitely be in favor of increasing man’s power of resistance.

There are always two ways to any problem.” (3)

We don’t know yet which way it will go – hot or cold. Just in case, do keep your woollies on the ready.

Excerpts by Osho from
(1) The Tongue-Tip Taste of Tao, Ch 23, Q 3
(2) Yakusan: Straight to the Point of Enlightenment, Ch 1, Q 1
(3) The Way of the Tao, Vol. 1, Ch 6

Bhagawati is a regular contributor

More articles by the same author on Osho News