© 2024 Interlochen
CLASSICAL IPR | 88.7 FM Interlochen | 94.7 FM Traverse City | 88.5 FM Mackinaw City IPR NEWS | 91.5 FM Traverse City | 90.1 FM Harbor Springs/Petoskey | 89.7 FM Manistee/Ludington
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Radio Diaries: Sentient Beings

A Native American wise man told me that they believe there are spirits in all things, in animals and trees and plants.  “We can commune with everything,” he said.

Then I heard a Buddhist speaker say that they believe there is awareness in all things. “We discover that everything is awake,” she said.

And I try to grasp how it might feel to live with the awareness that everything else has awareness?  That the chair I’m sitting on and the book I’m reading are alive in their own ways?

At first I feel afraid, as if everything is watching me.  And I laugh at my own human-centeredness.  As if they care!  Next I feel guilty, for how I’ve ignored everything, as if the world exists as a background for my life.  Guilty for how I’ve mistreated everything, as if trees exist to become chairs for me to sit on.

Then I feel a slowly-growing sense of wonder.  If I believe that everything—every single pencil and toothbrush, frying pan and flower pot is aware, has a spirit, a presence—how could that change my life?

I’m guessing I might feel more respectful, more connected, more caring.  Maybe also less alone.  Sounds like something worth embracing.  Being embraced by.