The Web of Meaning Quotes

“Integrative intelligence is one that draws from all the sources of wisdom available to us as living organisms on Earth.”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“Heaven is my father and earth is my mother, and I, a small child, find myself placed intimately between them. What fills the universe I regard as my body; what directs the universe I regard as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters; all things are my companions.70”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“The sense of separateness that our culture foists on us is, in Einstein’s words, ‘a kind of optical delusion of consciousness … a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us’. This delusion of consciousness is not, however, our only available option. ‘Our task,’ he continues, ‘must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“integration - a state of unity with differentiation. In a fully integrated system, each part maintains its unique identity while operating in coordination with other parts of the system.”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“Ap Dijksterhuis and Loran Nordgren, have helped to answer this question with what they call a ‘theory of unconscious thought’. Their theory indicates that the more complex the problem, the more you should let your unconscious decide.”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“The ancient Greeks also saw a split in the human psyche like the one we’ve been exploring, which, in their view, defined the very essence of humanity. For them, the split was between body and soul. The soul was the source of human reason and, they believed, was pure, unchanging and immortal, linking humans to divinity. The body, by contrast, was polluted, changeable, the source of feelings and emotions, and destined to die. In fact, they saw the soul as being imprisoned in the body, and only truly liberated after the body’s death. Since reason was the divine essence of the human being, they believed, it was only through rigorous intellectual thought and freeing oneself as much as possible from sensory distraction that one could arrive at true knowledge. This was the ultimate goal of the philosopher.39”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“If we take Gould’s working definition of intelligence – ‘an ability to create a novel solution in the mind’ – and open to the possibility that mind could extend to all life as Thompson suggests, then we’re ready to begin exploring the world of animate intelligence. And in doing so, we may find that the original AI, developed over billions of years, leaves even the world’s most advanced supercomputers in the dust.15”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“Everything we do, every word we speak, creates li ripples in the fabric of existence”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe

“Wang Yangming noted, ‘There have never been people who know but do not act. Those who are supposed to know but do not act simply do not yet know.’ You know when you’ve reached the place of fully experiencing the Earth’s heartbreak, because you suddenly realize you are drawn to action – not because you think you should do something, but because you are impelled to do it.65”
― Jeremy Lent, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe