The world over, on every continent, indigenous wisdom holds that “life is to be held in balance”.

Spoken in different languages and with distinct cultural nuances, all refer to the same fundamental idea of honoring and respecting Mother Earth and Father Sky, at the beginning of a day and at its end, and the same with all sentient life, to live a life in balance.

Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi word that means “life out of balance”. Koyaanis means “corrupted” or “chaotic” and quatsi means “life, existence”. In effect, it is a word describing, our daily lives, at least here in the West, if not at this point, most everywhere

Many people know the word from the film Koyaanisquatsi1 by Francis Ford Coppola with the music written by Phillip Glass. The film gives one a visual/visceral experience of the tensions between Nature and Technology—and the distinct kinds of development each represents and positing differing potential futures.

The balancing act is not easy

It appears that at this moment in time, our human world is wholly out of balance. Surely we’ve been out of balance to varying degrees over millennia but what is happening currently between eco-system collapse, the nuclear clock ticking ever closer to midnight, the specter of AI ticking up, the disappearance of water, real food and democracy, the loss of trust and respect for self and other, I suggest is pushing the limits.

On the macro-level, Mother Earth Herself is in an uproar, seeking to re-balance the chaos human activity has thrust upon her elegant, efficient eco-system, and she is firing back. This eco-system is highly intelligent, is attuned to the higher vibrations of the Universe, which gives rise to its own extraordinary cycles and rhythms, truly a cosmic orchestration and harmony.

Human activity that comprises massive drilling through her skin, polluting her waters, fouling her air, poisoning her soil over generations has led to an extremely painful experience through her feedback loop, resulting in massive flooding, sudden weather catastrophes, tornadoes appearing where they never were before, and utterly anomalous climate activity virtually on a daily level all over the world.

Weather patterns have become so severe that Pacific Island Nations fear for their very survival, deeply concerned that they will be underwater in the foreseeable future. And this isn’t new.

The Environmental Protection Agency was formed to protect

On the micro-level, a Federal Agency in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency, was tasked with protecting our environment from the onslaught of water, air, and soil pollution. Interestingly, it was set up during the Republican Nixon Administration in 1970 to protect Americans from the pollution generated by industries across the board.

In 2025, under the Trump Administration, the head of the EPA just fired thousands of scientists and dismantled the entire purpose the EPA was tasked with 55 years ago. It has now gone so far that the latest news is that the Trump Administration wants to build a nuclear reactor on the moon, in order to “appear” to dominate the space race.

These are yet other measures of how sociopathic this Administration is and blinded from reality, so far from a reasonable sense of proportion and balance. Without which any structure would topple.

Despite a mountain of evidence, some are still asking if the world is facing a climate crisis

It’s a little hard to grok. We probably haven’t had such extreme weather conditions since the last Ice Age. We are hit virtually daily by horrendous storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and inexplicable weather conditions across the world, and yet some people are still “stroking their chin” while wondering if human activity is having any effect on the weather and climate. New York and New Jersey just had an earthquake. Snow in Texas. Floods and droughts everywhere of Biblical proportions.

Have you ever felt that you are living in The Twilight Zone?

Going back to 2009, then President Mohammed Nasheed held a cabinet meeting2 underwater to underscore the utter seriousness of the environmental conditions that are directly due to the Global Climate Crisis fomented primarily by the most industrialized, so-called “advanced” nations, literally driving others “under water”.

Needless to say, this graphic image of such a cabinet meeting made “quite a splash”.

This single scene exemplifies the worldwide injustice between rich and poor nations, rich and poor people, and the way wealthy nations—and people—dominate, control, pollute at will, and sink other nations economically and literally to their own advantage, which will likely lead, as the masses become increasingly frustrated, to their own undoing.

The French and American Revolutions happened out of a similar kind of oppression of the People and self-aggrandizement of the wealthy few at everyone else’s expense that we are experiencing worldwide today.

The ecological crisis, the economic crisis, the military build-up around the world, political rule by brawn-not-brain, all these are signs of “a world gone mad”. Dictators, governments the world over that self-describe as democracies, but are truly authoritarian; these are yet additional signs of “a world gone mad”, plagued by mass confusion and propaganda.

Grown men live in and are guided by fear, then quake in their boots about another one who happens to be President being “angry” at them, so they abide by his every sick whim.

Is this manhood? Is this leadership? It is neither, but it is pathetic, rampant cowardice among too many of our members of Congress and in State legislatures as well across America.

Discussions about serving the people are really nothing more than lip service, completely secondary to avoiding being primaried and getting re-elected, typically based on well-wrought deceptions.

What constitutes the real world are two divergent paths

It seems that there are two main paths humanity is on, one creative, constructive, life-affirming, and a commitment to peace and service to family and community; and the other, a tendency toward destruction, control, power, conquest at any cost and self-aggrandizement, this path obsessed with material gain and with war-like tendencies.

Both are real and by definition at loggerheads. What is real among people and nations is conquest, ownership, domination, and the quest for money and power. This is the entire game of those in positions of political or economic power—make no mistake.

There is little effort to rise to the higher domains of emotional intelligence, to go beyond the reptilian, survival mentality and move toward more evolved levels of human development of which, thankfully, history has bequeathed us a bevy of stellar examples.

Then there’s the largest swath of humanity, many billions of people, who by and large, live by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, and the French Rule: “vivre et laisser vivre”, “live and let live”, meaning tolerance, patience, non-interference, and peaceful co-existence. These two perspectives can take us a far way toward a life of harmony and balance.

Looking at the contrast between these two paths is as out of balance as it gets. By the latter, human dignity has been put up for sale. The right relationship to one’s Earth Mother, family, and community is this far out of balance. Nature’s own balancing act, its natural correcting measures, is what causes us the experience of extreme weather events, volcanoes, severe storms, and earthquakes.

Nevertheless, there is little appreciation by those holding political power of recognition of the causes behind the effects. So the causes continue to be perpetrated, and so do the effects.

What should be prevailing, however, is some objective, rational understanding of the causes, that we humans are the cause, and then to do something intelligent about it. Otherwise, we are simply exacerbating an already out-of-balance situation.

Interestingly, indigenous wisdom the world over recognized the disharmony long ago and prophetically warned us, among others, the Hopi, all about maintaining respect for Mother Nature and for each other and acting accordingly.

But the gregarious and ambitious ones, to be found in most nations, especially in Europe and the U.S., pay little attention to indigenous wisdom. There is an overall, hubristic perspective that suggests that technology will “heal all ills”, when in fact, it often causes more—a double-edged sword at minimum.

Yet there are some cracks in the pavement. To the world’s benefit, there are some smarter, more in-tune ones in power who are “listening up” and paying heed to the wisdom of the elders. One of these that I personally know about is none other than King Charles, who met recently an honored colleague and friend of mine, Mindahi Bastida3, who is a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples for whom he holds the esteemed position of Ritual Ceremony Officer.

Mindahi works with the Earth Elders4 and, apparently, King Charles is very interested in what the elders have to say. This represents a breakthrough of the kind we are deeply seeking, a bridge between indigenous wisdom and modern power. This is something to celebrate, which is also a bridge back to balance.

The call back to balance through a heart relationship with all things, love and respect for all sentient beings, provides a path back to common sense, and as the Buddhists call it, "Right action".

A radical call back to humanity

There are large swaths of the human population in this day and age with a world replete with food, currently suffering from food insecurity, malnutrition, and even mass starvation. We see this right now so painfully, in Gaza. It breaks anyone’s heart to see. War crimes are being committed daily as children in 2025 are literally starving to death.

We also see the suffering and the propaganda steering us away from the truth of it, in Gaza as well as Yemen and Sudan.

Children are starving to death before our very eyes while military troops prevent food and aid from entering these lands. And when the people are directed to food supplies, they are being baited toward it and then shot dead. How sick is this? What has happened to our world? How much lower does it get?

This makes Sodom and Gomorrah look like child’s play. This is not politics—this is genocide. The perpetrators are any allied party that is, in any way, aiding and abetting this sociopathic behavior.

The impulse to stop this and to protect those suffering such an onslaught is an organic one. It's one’s natural urge to stop such suffering and pain with a radical call back to humanity. It is in this space that we are at our most human, our most awake and alive, when we are feeling into the life-force of another individual.

In the face of suffering and pain, we are called to be at our keenest, our most alive, and our most coherent and balanced so we might be of service to those so in need. The word “politics” bears no relevance to the reality of this situation and has no place, zero.

We are complicit by paying into a war machine, so just follow the money trail

Our tax dollars are being spent on a killing machine while we have children in our own backyard, the richest country in the world, going to bed hungry themselves every night. But our politicians spend billions on armaments, killing children in other parts of the world while our own are suffering right here, “in the US of A”.

Follow the money trail, geo-politics, ideology, and the scent of oil. You’ll have many questions answered by these alone.

Judaism embraces the highest of ethics and treating others with kindness, generosity, compassion, and love. It extolls the virtues of “Tikkun Olam,” healing the world.

Christianity and Islam, its younger brothers, both symbolize the same virtues, embracing the highest virtues of a human being, and each promotes these as the way of being for us all, peace being at the heart of it all.

This is one big human family. To hurt anyone is to hurt all.

And yet, how are these millennia of wisdom tossed out so quickly when it comes to reactionary feelings of hostility that so take precedence over the reasonable and rational?

In what philosophy, my dear Horatio, are extreme hate, hostility, and indifference extolled?

This is how out of balance we have come to be, among political rivals—not really people—has become so prevalent across the world.

Political leaders lack the courage to take a public stand for so many reasons to stop this genocide in Gaza, with children starving to death every single day, or being shot in cold blood while seeking food at the designated food centers. Only now, two long years later, is the plight of the Palestinian People being heard and being paid attention to around the world.

Still, only meager actions relative to the crisis itself have been taken so far. But the drumbeat toward peace is growing louder, despite the sociopathic actions of the Israeli government.

We must distinguish between government officials and people

The vast majority of people across the world are peace- and fun-loving, kind, and helpful to family and neighbor alike across ethnicities and nationalities. We enjoy and celebrate our differences as the necessary diversity in nature.

But those who tend to run for office or operate a large company are the sharks for us to be wary of. This distinction needs to resound near and far.

Helping and empathizing with suffering, starving children isn’t political but human at its highest

Seeking to do something about helping people stave off famine is not about politics. It includes it by nasty necessity but in reality, is far beyond it. It is the opening for humanity to emerge at its highest, being in service.

While it doesn’t have to, political discourse tends to take us to the self-interested ‘bottom of our being’, survival self, thinking of no one other than ourselves.

There are exceptions, but not many. In the game of politics, there are more sheep to be found than shepherds.

I am pointing to the naked truth of human beings interacting with other human beings, and either protecting them, feeding them, as is our natural impulse, or letting them suffer and di,e which is the opposite of being human.

Retired lieutenant colonel who served for 25 years in the U.S. Army Special Forces as a Green Beret, Anthony Aguilar, visited the food distribution sites and described them as “death traps”.

The security forces were shooting innocent Civilian Palestinian children like target practice.

This is how far off-base some humans have gone.

When we grow up, just who do we want to be?

The opportunity to be most human

When considering the odious subject of genocide and of being the funder of the mass starvation of children, this is the space where the opportunity is offered of being human in a way that far surpasses any material, political, economic, or even psychological realm.

When coming to the aid of those so deeply in need as so many have felt the call of, this is where the Divine Human gets to shine, emanate love, light, and compassion. We have seen this in the efforts of so many and the vessels with food and medical supplies seeking to enter Gaza for the people.

This is no ordinary experience, but rather, a wholly elevated one where the depth of love, integrity, compassion, and character show up on the larger human stage when we feel the love for or the suffering of another human being to its core.

If a man, woman or child has not eaten or supped water in days or weeks, when many are chased like rats from one location to another simply for some morsels of bread and whose lives are thrown into jeopardy because those offering the food are also wielding machine guns; and the wielder does not feel the profound sadness of the sufferer, humanity has disappeared from this soul. He is but a hollowed human, truly a carcass himself.

But the individual who feels the pain of the other as his own, a heart that doesn’t know boundary, this is the elevated human, who has developed as you would imagine his Creator had in mind, as this is the bridge to humanity and the path of ending all suffering spoken of by many sages over the course of time including the Buddha.

It is this bridge and this path that brings us back from a life out of balance, through which we restore Nature, our own nature, and breathe our way back to humanity, feeling the heartbeat we all share.

Some ways toward harmony, peace, and balance

Meditation, Qi-Kung, T’ai-Chi Chuan, Yoga, sports played with Zen focus and attention, and dance are all ways of bringing us back, body, heart, and soul, into alignment and balance. Our minds become trained to attend to what is “right in front of us,” where life is in motion, really “happening”.

Contemplation of Nature and simply being, quietly walking in the woods, restores balance as well. The methods are everywhere—they are not hard to alight upon.

It’s hard to see sometimes when we’re out of balance, and sometimes just how far we have strayed from the center.

I am reminded of Herman Hesse’s Siddartha, when he becomes drunk with wealth and material possessions and can no longer see the beauty of life itself and its higher, deeper meaning. He is preoccupied and obsessed with “the glamours”, the material “shiny things” that have been bestowed upon him, and his heart-mind is no longer the senses that sees and feels.

He finally wakes up alone in the woods, not recognizing himself anymore, and it’s a rude awakening, but after some time, he does regain himself. But what suffering in between!

South Africa’s apartheid regime lasted for almost 50 years. One of the ways in which they emerged from it relatively peacefully was their Truth & Reconciliation Committee, in which the truth wasn’t suppressed but the suffering was brought into the open for airing and healing, apology, and forgiveness.

Everyone had the opportunity to speak and to listen. It worked.

So the story of humanity is a reiteration over and over with baby steps forward and several back.

It’s those mistakenly called “leaders” by and large who are far lagging behind the rest of the body of humanity, humanity which appreciates the joys in what’s simple, the beauty of daily living free of the quest for power, glamour, and shiny objects.

Billions of souls on this Earth lead simple, humble lives, growing food and feeding their family and serving their neighbors, generous and loving with their tribes, their communities, loving to dance and sing and celebrate the beauty of life and the Universe.

What lessons can we learn from this major juxtaposition, this irony that those with so little materially tend to be those who are often so spiritually rich? Now the conquest is not just by people but by machines.

Now the power of AI is both good, yet also throwing us far off our game

AI, while providing some very useful purposes, is also biting us in the rear, with a real threat to dominate society, de-limiting our roles, jobs, relationships, and freedoms. Other articles of mine go into greater depth on this alluring, practical, and yet challenging menace to our economy, ecosystem, and society.

We have to get this message because our ecosystem is collapsing as we speak, as is our Democracy and naturally flowing way of life.

This is not some future situation, even though our minds play this game with us—it is here, now. It is time to act.

Koyaanisquatsi signals to us how far from the center we have strayed and that it’s high time that we return.

Notes

1 Koyaanisquatsi by Francis Ford Coppola on YouTube.
2 Maldives cabinet makes a splash at BBC Nes.
3 Mindahi Bastida on CEC.
4 The Earth Elders at Theearthelders.org.