Astrophysicist Adam Frank wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times called Alone in the Void. Thank you to my dharma friend Kathy Harper for letting me know about this one! Inspired by the upcoming event of the Voyager I spacecraft leaving our solar system, Frank’s main point is that it will be a very long time – if ever – until we humans can visit even the nearest star. So, we had better get our act together if we want to survive within the limited resources of our planetary system.
I see mindfulness going hand-in-hand with education as the way to a better collective future. It is the clarifying factor that lets us use our knowledge in a way that is driven by the long-term needs of all, not just our own short-term wants and desires.
Current research indicates that, for the last 20,000 years or so, our human habit has been to move to a new area, use up the resources, then move on to new pastures. As Frank points out, we’re running out of pastures, and we won’t have warp drive to take us to new ones. I see mindfulness as a major factor in helping us wake up and end this unsustainable cycle of constant growth.
Zen Mindfulness 