World Views: a Necessity of Life

Questions

How am I to know the world of Mexico?

In the same way that we come to know any world.

First, we have to experience a world.

And to experience a new world, we have to let go of our familiar world.

We have to venture forth and explore the unknown.

Nevertheless, we cannot come to know a new world simply through the accumulation of observations or facts.

We have to find relationships between the diverse observations and facts. To understand a world, we must ask:

What are the connections?

What is the structure that joins the parts into a whole?

What are the themes that link events into a history?

The answer: world views

In order to understand and inhabit a world, we need organizing principles. We need concepts, schemas or frameworks with which we can organize our experiences into a coherent whole. Using such frameworks, we locate or place ourselves in the world. Such frameworks provide our sense of meaning. We are able to see our surroundings as a world, a whole, a cosmos in place of chaos. Such frameworks are world views that provide a mental map of our natural and social world. Through our world view, we link ourselves to our world and function in it. This is how we make sense of our life. Meaning is composed of these relationships.

The Maya World Tree Rooted in the nine levels of the underworld, this tree, the ceiba, supports the thirteen levels of the heavens and defines the four cardinal directions of the Earth-Sky, that is The World.

The origin of world views

A primary theme in the creation myths of many mythologies of the world is an awareness that human beings are creatures, mortals to whom the powers of the universe give life and from whom they take it away. This awareness gives us humans anxiety about the vulnerability of our lives. It is the anxiety of self-awareness. In the Jewish and Christian tradition, the emergence of this awareness is portrayed in the story of Adam and Eve. The serpent tempts Adam and Eve to challenge their dependence on God and make themselves into knowing beings. So they eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, or better translated, the Tree of Awareness. In doing so, they make themselves aware of their vulnerability, their mortality. Then, they want to eat the fruit of the Tree of Eternal Life. God prohibits this, because if human beings were to possess eternal life, there would be nothing to restrict their powers. We would be the same as the gods, all-powerful and immortal. So God ejected Adam and Eve from the Garden. We have to work and bear children in order to continue our kind. Strikingly similar to this story, in the Maya myth of creation, the Popol Vuh, after several attempts by the gods to create creatures who would properly honor them, they succeed in making human beings. However, these human can see too far into the universe. They can know too much, so the gods cloud their vision, enabling them only to see the present.

Two views: creature or author

Our anxiety over our mortality, our awareness that our fate is in the hands of the powers of the universe and that we are dependent on them, provokes the formation of two possible world views, that of the creature and that of the author.

Both points of view begin with the awareness that we are beings separate from those powers.

The two views are distinct from each other, serving two independent purposes, providing different types of meaning. They ought not to be confounded. How we as humans sustain both world views presents a challenge which is evident throughout human history and culture.

The two world views are composed of four contrasting components:

• stance - relation to the powers of the universe, which establishes the meaning or purpose of life
• mind set - mental system and means by which experience is processed and organized into meaning
• truth - the character of meaning and the processes by which it is found, verified and confirmed
• message - means by which meaning is communicated to others.

The World View of the Creature From this point of view we recognize that we are creatures, that our life and death are ultimately dependent on the powers of the universe. Therefore, we seek to maintain or re-establish relationship or kinship with those powers, to reconcile with them.	The World View of the Author From this point of view, we recognize that we have powers of our own. We seek to take control of our own lives, to be the authors of our futures. We assert ourselves and aim to master the world as much as possible.
Abraham prepares to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, because God has commanded him to do so. An angel intervenes when God sees that Abraham has complete faith.	Prometheus steals fire from the gods to give to humans

Stance

Our stance as creatures is dependent in relation to the powers. We are aware of our vulnerability face to face with the powers of creation and destruction, life and death, order and chaos. In this stance we have:	Our stance as authors is independent. We are aware of our own existence as separate beings, on our own in the world. In this stance we have:
an attitude of faith - a feeling of awe, trust and reverence when contemplating the powers of the universe,	an attitude of challenge - a sense of free will, an ability to initiate our own actions when comtemplating the powers of the universe,
a goal of relationship - a desire to maintain harmonious, secure relations with the powers,	a goal of control – a desire to have command of our life,
a role of disciple- a follower and devotee, organizing our life around maintaining unity with the powers.	a role of master - the soverign of our self and our world.

Mind

Our mind as creatures operates affectively. We use that part of our brain and mind that processes and interprets experiences directly, immediately, without thought, in order to evaluate them as good or bad, beneficial or dangerous for ourself. In this mental state we operate:	Our mind as authors operates intellectually. We use that part of our brain and mind that processes and interprets experiences through reflection and rational analysis in order to evaluate and manage them. In this mental state we operate:
through the medium of feelings - our evaluations are communicated to our awareness through positive and negative emotions,	through the medium of thoughts – words, sentences and calculations are used to describe and reflect on our observations,
subconsciously- the processes are not directly available to consciousness,	consciously - the processes occur in consciousness,
analogically - we construct the meaning of perceptions and experiences by comparison and contrast of their sensory and emotional characteristics and organize them by associations into similar and contrasting entities.	logically - we construct the meaning of perceptions and experiences through abstract, logical relationships.

Truth

The truth for us as creatures is subjective. Confidence in the truth of our world view is founded on our personal and communal participation in an experience of the powers of the universe. Truth is:	The truth for us as authors is objective. Confidence in the truth of our world view is founded on our observation of phenomena as separate from ourselves as observers. Truth is:
encountered directly - truth is revealed or intuited	discovered indirectly through trial and error,
verified by the authority of the originator or his disciples	verified through testing ideas against practical outcomes,
confirmed by consensus	confirmed by results– the practical consequences of one's actions determine the truth.

Message

We communicate the message of the creature's world view metaphorically. The meaning of intangible, subjective personal and communal experience is necessarily communicated indirectly through metaphors, in which an image or word signifying one thing is used to stand for something else by analogy. "Save that you are educated in metaphor, you are not safe to be let loose in the world.” Robert Frost. Representation is by:	We communicate the message of the author's world view literally. Meaning is defined directly by describing phenomena. Representation is by:
symbols - images that convey the meaning of one experience by analogy to another,	signs – descriptive words, numbers and diagrams,
allegories – stories using symbolic characters and actions to represent life as a drama of struggle between the powers of creation and destruction in the world, rituals –symbolic patterns of action	facts – affirmations of what is proven,
mythology – the whole system of allegories and rituals that embody the world view of the creature.	knowledge – the whole of what has been learned.

Summary:

The world view of the creature comprises:

• a dependent stance of faith that seeks relationship with the powers of the universe maintained through discipleship
• the affective mind that functions through feelings, subconsciously and analogically
• a subjective truth encountered directly through revelation or intuition, verified by authority and confirmed by consensus
• metaphorical message communicated through symbols, allegories, rituals and mythology.

The world view of the author comprises:

• an independent stance of challenge that seeks control and mastery of the powers of the universe
• the intellectual mind that functions through thoughts, consciously and logically reasoning
• an objective truth discovered indirectly by investigation, verified by trial and error and confirmed by results
• literal message communicated through signs, facts and knowledge.

The world view of the creature is formalized in tradition and religion.

The world view of the author is formalized in science and technology.

My Question: Where will these two points of view appear in the world of Mexico?

The geography, topography and ecology of Mexico

The geography of Mexico is very complicated.
It is reported that when Charles V, King of Spain, asked Cortes to describe New Spain, Cortes crumpled a piece of paper to represent the rugged landscape.
The land of Mexico is basically an up-side-down triangle, with its apex at the bottom, pressed between two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific.
The land is dominated by mountains and highlands which were created many millions of years ago by the forces of several tectonic plates which press against each other under the oceans.

The majority of topographic structures of Mexico run from north to south parallel to the two coasts and the tectonic plates, as shown in the adjoining map. Inland from the coastal plains (7,8), there are three rugged mountain chains: the Sierra Madre Oriental (5) in the east the Sierra Madre Occidental (3) in the west the Sierra Madre del Sur (12) in the southwest, which continues in the mountains of Central America and of Chiapas (15, 14). A high plateau (4 & 9) lies between the two mountain chains in the north. Its average altitude is approximately 6000 feet above sea level. The southern part (9) of the plateau is known as El Bajío, the "Lowland." The Transverse Volcanic Axis (10), is a unique topographic feature. It runs across the predominant north-south geographic axis, from one side of the country to the other. It is also called the Sierra Nevada.

The Transverse Volcanic Axis begins at the Pacific coast near Puerto Vallarte on the Bay of Banderas. This bay is just north of Corrientes Point where the Pacific coast turns southeast. The mountain chain runs in a diagonal line southeast to Veracruz. The majority of large cities of Mexico, including Veracruz, Puebla, Mexico City, Morelia and Guadalajara, are located along side these mountains. The Volcanic Axis contains the highest mountains, all volcanoes, in Mexico. These include: Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain at 18,000 feet, near Veracruz. Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, between Puebla and Mexico City, Nevado de Toluca, west of Mexico City Paricutín in the State of Michoacán Nevado de Colima near the Pacific.

The three chains of mountains, the Sierra Madre Oriental, Sierra Madre Occidental and the Volcanic Axis or Sierra Nevada, have a great importance in shaping the ecology of Mexico. They stand as the frontier between the two great bio-geographical regions of the Americas created six million years ago when North and South America were joined when the land of Central America was pushed up from under the ocean by tectonic plates. The two bio-geographic regions are: the Neartic of North America and the Neotropical of South America At this frontier many plants and animals from the two regions came together, creating a grand biological mixture.

These mountain regions are called the "temperate land"because their climate is moderated by the altitude and the rains carried by the winds from the two oceans. They serve as the boundary between the "cold land" of the dry high plateau, where freezing temperatures may occur at night in the dry winters, and the "hot land"of the humid coastal plains.

The ecological systems of Mexico also follow this same boundary. The central high plateau is dominated by "xeric" dry brush and cactus. The mountains are covered with forests of pines or oaks. The coasts are tropical deciduous, semi-deciduous and evergreen jungles.

Reflections:
Land and climate mold everything living thing: plants, animals, humans.
They provide the structure and the energy for life. They are the foundation of the environment, the uterus in which life is created and grows.
For a man from New England, the land of Mexico is very strange.
The countryside of New England is gentle, moderate, with rolling hills covered in summer by soft, green trees.
Much of Mexico is rugged, changing rapidly from horizontal to vertical.
Much is dry, exposed land, open to the brilliant, hot sun. One feels exposed.
Mexico is a strong, intense land.