๐ ๐๏ธ๐๏ธ Forest Dispatch - January 2025
And just like that in a flash the first month of 2025 has passed. A gush of energy is flowing and carrying us with it. We are in the year of the snake, a time of metamorphoses, shedding an older veneer that no longer serves its purpose. Reflections from a month of activity and silence.
And just like that in a flash the first month of 2025 has passed. A gush of energy is flowing and carrying us with it. We are in the year of the snake, a time of metamorphoses, shedding an older veneer that no longer serves its purpose. For me it has been a month of activity and silence.
In January I published conversations with Greg Pettys and Cat Lau on the Podcast.
Dev Lewis
We have not been living in right relation with the planet for centuries now, as Greg shared with us. Modernity has left most us feeling like 'dismembered' selves and we've lost the feeling of reverence and connection with nature. We've lost our seed. I got a brief taste of what it would be like to live in right relation on trip to the Hin Lat Nai village at the start of the year.
Having these conversations where we explore the roots of our global problems today is creating deep shifts in perception of how I see our world. The parts that are under the soil, invisible to the naked eye, yet are vital organs that support life on top. From this seed everything emanates, from war to climate change.
I am also observing a diminished interest in staying informed with the latest news and developments. Not too long ago it was my job and my identity to be hyper informed with current affairs. Now I find so much of media to be distractions that take me away from understanding the seeds and tracing roots. Reading media for too long also distracts by disturbing the clarity in the mind to see things as they are.
Forest fires, US withdrawing from International commitments, genocide of the Palestinian people, AI great power competition. The more I look under the soil it all makes perfect sense.
We created systems that are designed for infinite competition and extraction. We get war and poor health and damaged ecologies because because that what are systems value. Over two episodes, Michel Bauwens shared a civilisational history perspective rooted in the problematic design of Corporations and states.
So why should it be any different?
In all the conversations i've had with guests on the podcast so far, its so clear that what we're witnessing are symptoms of living in state of disconnection and creating systems based on these values.
We can also investigate and see the truth for ourselves as we are taught to do in Vipassana meditation. We can take a moment to ask ourselves a simple question:
Can reality ever be any different from how it is showing up to us right now, in this moment?
How we want things to be, how we think things should be, are thoughts in our mind. It is a kind of fantasy or illusion based on your own individual mental programming. Our resistance to seeing and accepting what is becomes the source of pain and anger. Which we then project these emotions outside. We can try to fight for what we believe is right but like the hydra, when one head is cut off, two more grow in its place because we're not aiming deep enough.
When I scroll Twitter/X, or media in general, I can feel this palpable sense of rage and outrage. There is also a very puzzling sense of nostalgia for the institutions that are crumbling. As if we've known period of tremendous peace and joy only to be suddenly rudely interrupted by war.
It feels clearer and clearer to me we living in an age of grand disillusion.
Our world is simply not what we expect it to be and this makes us angry and disappointed.
In the Light Forest we celebrate disillusion as a moment of awakening.
A freedom from that trance that had us captivated in its grip, dancing hypnotically to the beat of its drum. It is in this moment we are free from illusions that we truly see with clarity, and reawaken to the rhythm of our own beating heart. We start regenerate our world from root up.
Of course I write this from a position of relative privilege. I have friends that overnight lost funding for their organisations and projects due to the USAID shutdown. I have friends dealing with the real threat of violence in their lives due to civil war. I acknowledge it is a different challenge when you're in the literal battlefield. I hope to hold this space for more people to dig their own hands in the soil and start to plant new seeds.
In January I was also invited on to the Executive Plus podcast to share my experience of life as a 'digital nomad'.
Guided meditatively by the host, Sherry, our conversation meandered into how we can embrace uncertainty in life and work. By embracing our power as creator beingsโ as my teacher GD demonstrates to me and I find out for myselfโ we can take responsibility for everything that is showing up in our lives, 'good' or 'bad'.
Through this process we discover we have the power to make shifts to create a life that we want to live. We can stop living by the old stories and rules of the game and place blame on the world around us for serving life to us. We can start creating a world in our fresh image. It is time to connect to our authentic selves and live life from that source. As Cat shared with us her biggest learning from undertaking her documentary project Wisdom Trails:
"when you are walking an authentic path that you're supposed to walk in this world, all this support comes up"
I've enjoyed getting back into the swing of the podcast. For as much as much fun as it is also takes a lot of time to produce. I'm still finding the right balance to sync this in with everything else in my life. I will have a few more episodes in February.
I will also be in Taipei for a few weeks including Rights Con before that I will also be hosting a couple of events in Chiang Mai.
Thank you for taking the time to read. If you haven't already, grateful if you can hit subscribe!
