Global footprint calculator, link courtesy chaizzilla

My global footprint in hectares:

FOOD 2.2

MOBILITY 1.3

SHELTER 1.6

GOODS/SERVICES 2.2

TOTAL FOOTPRINT 7.3

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 8.8 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.1 PLANETS.

Take the quiz yourself here.

silence as ground of being; recent reading in Advaita and Buddhism

Some recent reading of Nisargadatta has yielded some insight about how to approach one's daily activities with a nondual disposition. Specific instructions on this topic are hard to come by, because when you get really deep into nonduality, there's a lot of talk about there "not being a person," and "who is doing the action" and all that stuff. It's like once you become enlightened, you're not supposed to identify with any sense of personhood at all, because you're supposed to see through that illusion. But hell, we're all still here, living in the world, so I've always found the need for techniques on living in it while maintaining a nondual disposition. (Aside: This site, featuring a series of short writings on living nonduality by Jerry Katz of Nonduality.com, is also excellent in this regard.)

So on this webpage, which randomly generates quotes by Nisargadatta upon each page reload, I came across something about how you're always just supposed to return to silence, moment after moment, after each activity. By always retaining one's focus on the I AM, one begins to revert spontaneously to it until one's words and actions are direct expressions of silence (i.e. you don't have to return to silence, because it's always there). Sounds weird, but I can feel a sense of that starting to sink in with me. It doesn't feel totally crazy or anything, it just feels quiet and peaceful. No matter how much I'm talking or moving, it just feels peaceful.

In another vein, I've also been totally impressed with the quality of the posts from the DailyDharma list, which broadcasts a Buddhist quotation each morning and evening. At least half of these quotations have been excellent and thought-provoking, especially the ones from the Buddhist nun Pema Chödron, a Western woman who has a wonderful ability to speak about esoteric Buddhist concepts in clear, everday language. I often enjoy reading good Western writers in these traditions, because they're culturally more in tune with me than those from the East. Reading classical Yoga and Hindu texts, for example, can be kind of dry without some kind of contemporary, relevant context that's meaningful to our Western way of life.