Lecture on Deep Ecology – John Seed Strums his Way into our Hearts

Life had been on the fast track mode since last few months. From relocating to another city, moving into a new apartment, to school hunting for my kid, there has been enough mayhem. Not to mention the stress that comes with it. But midst these whirlwind activities, I got an opportunity to attend a beautiful lecture on Deep Ecology by John Seed – an environmentalist who was instrumental is conserving the rainforests of Australia. I’d rather call him the father of rainforest activism.

As a part of his lecture tour to India, John Deed has been travelling all over the country talking about Deep Ecology, rainforests conservation, and his past works in different parts of the worlds. The topic of Deep Ecology is very fascinating as it deals with philosophy of nature, which sees that underlying the environmental crisis there is a psychological or spiritual disease stemming from the illusion of separation between humans and the rest of the natural world. He explores the root causes of why our world has come to the state it is now in and we have dichotomized from our roots and the wisdom of our forefathers.

John Seed is seemingly simple, unassuming and frail. Looking at him it is hard to believe that this man not only thinks like a mountain but also moves a few. This was one of the beautiful lectures attended which had talking and singing love songs for the Earth in equal measure. John Seed believes that this Earth is alive, living and breathing. And that he is trying to do his bit to keep the lovely symphony of life going.

To read more about the event, here is a link to my coverage on John Seed’s lecture in Chennai on TreeSouls. And here are some of the songs John Seed sang at the Book Point Auditorium (Anna Salai, Chennai on 26th December 2009).

Here are the lovely lyrics of some of the songs John Seed had sung with his guitar:

John Seed Song – I Just Wanna Celebrate – The Universe Jam (O.Z., SHS, AKD)

“The flame has lit up the… world from within
all things individually and collectively
are [inter] penetrated and flooded by it…
you who mold the manifold so as to
breathe your life into it…I pray to you.”

Teilhard de Chardin

The first verse of the universe
pours forth like a sea of mystery
Out of the void, unmanifest silence
space/time comes into existence
Unseen shaping, swirling, unfurling
Hydrogen, helium. Divine is revealed within
galactic whirlpools as energy flows in
a star collapses, supernova explosion
A cloud of cosmic debris
drawn together — by gravity?
By the mystery of attraction
primordial bonding, universe action
Stardust swirling, swarming gases
organizing and forming masses
See the Sun’s the one that spun the nine others
gave birth to Mother Earth
and her sisters and brothers
Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
Everyone is the Sun
the Sun is the one
Everybody better Wake up!
But the Earth gave birth
to continents and oceans
shaping and shaking with waves of emotion
charges of lightning, bombarding and striking
exposin’ the globe as it glows like a strobe
and setting the stage for the first cell of life
so simple and basic, so primal that I place it
at the top of the chain from which all life sprang
more forms adorn the Earth as they bring
diversity, dispersing the song of creation
ring in the dawn, sing along in celebration

I just wanna celebrate…
Celebrate life
I just wanna celebrate
Celebrate the Earth
I just wanna celebrate
Celebrate the Cosmos!

The sea comes alive, starts to thrive
with new life forms, storms swept the planet
plants crept on granite
Enchanted by the Sun’s solar power
The Earth gave birth to green leaves and flowers
lava flows, Mountains rose
Tropical islands, Forests and meadows
fed by the fresh water streams – the veins
heavenly rains drain back to the sea
the fish are set free as they swim onto sand
fins turn to limbs and the limp onto land
amphibians, reptiles new styles of creatures,
seeing through new being the range of her features
The Earth – Your Mother!
gave birth to eyesight
looking within as she spins in the sunlight
On to the dawn to the day of the dinosaurs
Pterodactyl soars, Tyrannosaurus Rex
Towering, devouring, so who’s up next?
Mammals and primates.
All life interrelated! – Divinely created!
So don’t you think it’s time we celebrated?

I just wanna celebrate…
Celebrate life
I just wanna celebrate
Celebrate the Earth
I just wanna celebrate
Celebrate the Cosmos!

Life, the Earth, the Cosmos!

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John Seed Song – You Cant Clearcut Your Way to Heaven (Lyrics by Darryl Cherney)

Now the Lord, He made the world in just six days
A wonder to behold when it was done
The oceans and blue skys, forests green and mountains high
With animals which crawl and fly and run

But one, of God’s creatures wasn’t pleased
It wanted to create with its own hands
So it clearcut all the trees, carved the mountains, spoiled the seas
Proclaiming it the way that God had planned

But you can’t clearcut your way to Heaven
No, strip mines don’t make it with the Lord
Bulldozin’ the Creation won’t win God’s admiration
And the Pearly Gates may close for Evermore

Now my Mama, used to read the family bible
And it said: “Thou shalt not covet, steal or kill
But then I coveted the forests and the mountains
And I stole my mother Nature’s gems at will

Then I killed off many critters to Extinction
But I’m sure god must have made them by mistake
Cause I had to keep my job, where I plunder rape and rob
But I swear to you it’s for my children’s sake

Well to-day, I heard they mined the rock of ages
Cause they thought it had a chunk of gold inside
And they’re dumping PCB’s, into the Sea of Galilee
And they’ve milled the cross on which our saviour died

And they’ve levelled, old Jerusalem for condos
Done built a shopping mall where Jesus did his thing
And as I looked on our success, at creating such a mess
I swore I heard a band of angels sing

John Seed Song – Expanding Universe (Lyrics by Eric Idle)
Remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
Revolving at 900 miles an hour
It’s orbiting at 19 miles a second so its reckoned

A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that you can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm at 40,000 miles an hour
In a galaxy they call the Milky Way
The Milky Way.

Our galaxy contains a hundred million stars
It’s a hundred thousand light-years side-to-side
It bulges in the middle 16,000 light-years thick
But out by us it’s just 3,000 light-years wide
We’re 30,000 light-years from galactic central-point
We go round every 200 million years
And this galaxy is only one of millions and billions
In this amazing and expanding universe
Expanding Universe.

The Universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizzz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know
12 million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And sink your roots deep into the galaxy,
Dance of life, Planet Earth.
Yes sink your roots deep into reality,
Dance your life for Planet Earth.

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John Seed Song – Word to the Mother (Lyrics by Drew Dellinger)

I once was blind, but now I see
I understand that the planet is the source of me
Literally, just like a mom gives birth to a babe
Mother Earth’s given birth to everything that’s been made
Word to the Mother
Source of every other
Thing, every being, in the ring of creation
And every individual’s a manifestation
Of the grace innate in this place, space and time
Expressing the blessing, caressing my mind
Holy Osmosis!
That’s what the cosmos is
Boomin’,
Universe,
Earth,
Human.
From the beginning
The spinning Universe possessed
A spiritual interior
Inside the manifest
Blessed with a blast from the past
Free at last
As the Big Bang
Rang, sprang, sang from the start, from the void
Like a joy from the heart of the dark
And the light’s
The birthright of us all
You and
I are all
The fire ball
The higher call
inspireds all with a sense of place
Let us find the divine mind
Behind every face
I’ve just begun to recognise the whole
soul force
Word to the Mother
Word to the Source

We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth
We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth

Word to the Mother
So how dare we
Have the nerve to disturb
The planetary Source
The very force that brought us alive
If She ain’t in effect
There ain’t no way to survive
How can we see no wisdom
From the ecosystem
This industrialized phase craze to pave highways
Yikes!
50,000 toxic sites
Nuclear power plants
Constructed with haste
Without any clue
What to do with the waste
Radiation. Seeping deep in the nation
Losing patience
With corporations
And abusers
Grinnin’ like their winnin’ when we’ll all be the losers
Ignore natural forces
Deplete our resources
No remorse, we’re off course, hold your horses.
Mother may I
Try to say why
My society lost sight of the whole
As we try and we try till we die to control
The Earth dream that can never be tamed
That can never be sold and that can never be named
What’s a shame and is lame is that we thought it was clever
To dam every river ever
Never-never land is at hand unless we see and rediscover
There ain’t no other
It’s absurd to have to say it:
But Word to the Mother

We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth
We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth

The story of the Mother as I reminisce
is enough to make this brother ecofeminist
How can we limit this limitless exponential
Growth potential. Economy is secondary
Earth’s essential.
The Mother exists in every wave on the sea
Every bird in the sky and every leaf on the tree.
Community, unity, you and me, family
All of us children born from 4 billion years
Of the blood sweat and tears
of the Earth
We need to
let her be
Let her grow
Set her free, let her fly, let her flow, let her go
And unfold
The way the mother intended
Activities that damage the Earth must be suspended.
Listen cause we’re missin’ what the Mother’s advice is
She’ll help us deal with ecological crisis
She’s mightier
Than Aphrodite or Isis
And twice as creative, illustrative of the point
When the Earth gives birth to the Now
Still We try to milk every sacred cow
We need to chill untill we see
That no creature is my enemy
They’re all kin to me
Earth is the remedy
For the malady
She’s the truth at the root of reality
The elements of my bones
are left over from the swirling stardust of a supernova
Made by the Earth and the Breath of the One
Rain’s in the veins in the flames of the sun’s
In the heart each part contains the sum of the whole
Earth Body, Earth Spirit, Universe Soul
Word to the Mother
You gotta love her

We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth
We’ve gotta get back to the Mother
We’ve got to get back to the Earth

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You can also be a part of the Deep Ecology Crusade.  For more information on how you can help, please visit John Seed’s Australian Rainforest Information Center website.