The School of Natural Wisdom

11/13/2025

"You feel depressed and crazy because in every single historical human culture known to anthropology, people sang together, danced together and ate food together, and you don't sing and you don't dance and you eat alone."
-Jay LeSoleil.

11/03/2025

10/25/2025

https://youtu.be/K3-aJON5780?si=4aEwgCDHmvrmd2Zs

In this short teaching video from the Plum Village app https://plumvillage.app/ Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh talks about "hungry ghosts," the suffering people ...

10/22/2025

Folks. Someone asked to remove this post because it is "political".
It certainly is not.
There is Good.
There is Evil.
The trump crowd are evildoers masquerading as politicians.
There are people supporting this corrupt regime. Who voted for it.
They are welcome to g**o of my page.
The blatant takeover of our country for the sake of greed is not something I will be silent about.
Millions of Americans will lose SNAP benefits on November 1st.
Our constitution and courts are being dismantled.
Trillions go into our military industrial complex while people are homeless and hungry.
ICE (substitute N**i) takeover of major cities is happening.
Is it spiritual to support good? YES.
Is it evil to support evil? YES.

* comments are closed

QOTD: Jason Bateman is right. It's time to start calling out his voters, not him. "Trump voters just increased the deficit by 5trillion dollars."
'Trump voters just deported a kid with cancer."
"Trump voters just approved kicking 13 million people off health insurance."
"Trump voters are excited about selling off our public lands."
They don't get to hide behind their votes. They knew what they were voting for and they are responsible for the consequences.

10/13/2025

We acknowledge that the state of North Carolina is situated on the ancestral homelands of many American Indian tribes who have lived in this place, cared for these lands, and traveled throughout the region for thousands of years. Tribes spoke different variants of Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan languages. We honor them as the first stewards of this place and acknowledge, with sorrow and remorse, the violent history of their dispossession and forced removal.

We respectfully acknowledge the Coharie, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbee, Meherrin, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi, Sappony, and Waccamaw Siouan and honor the enduring presence, vibrance, and diversity of contemporary Indigenous communities.



Image: Town Creek Indian Mound NC Historic Site, Montgomery County.

10/07/2025

“Most people think sequoias survive because they're massive.

But that's not even close to the real reason.

If you’ve ever had the privilege standing beside one of these giants, you’ll find it hard NOT to think of resilience.

These trees can live through droughts, fires, storms, and climate shifts that would kill almost anything else.

But as an engineer this is what I’m fixated on:

The tallest tree in the world has roots that only go 6-12 feet deep.

That should be impossible. A 300-foot tree with shallow roots makes no sense from an engineering perspective.

But… Sequoias don't survive alone.

Their root systems spread 50-80 feet wide and interweave with every other sequoia around them.

They share nutrients, water, and structural support. When storms come in, they support each other.

The forest is the system: Not the individual trees.

I couldn't stop thinking about this.

Most people try to build resilience by making themselves bigger, stronger, more independent. They stockpile resources, they build higher walls, they go it alone.

But the most resilient systems in nature are interconnected.

Maybe the question isn't "how do I become more self-sufficient?" but "how do I become more meaningfully connected to the right systems?"” - Rob Avis