Keepers – Breakers – Menders… The Consciousness Running the Planet
There are three major stories that have shaped — and are still shaping — the behaviors of humans on this planet. If we are to change the way we live, if we are to change our headlong rush to destruction, we must change our story. The only way we can change it is to understand it.
The Original Story: The Keepers
The Dominant Story: The Breakers
The Emerging Story: The Menders
We Are Keepers:
We live our lives in harmony with “all our relations”. We act out of the belief that the world was not created for any one species. We live here; we don’t try to control life. We honor and live within the Web of Life.
We Keepers have been devastated by the Breakers. For thousands of years, the Breakers have killed us, dishonored our ancestors, destroyed our food, ruined our magic, forced us to their ways. The Breakers have been at war with the Earth, and we have suffered for it. The Breakers call us by many names, most of them bad: natives, primitives, aborigines, savages, heathens, pagans, uncivilized.
Yet despite this history, we hope that our brothers and sisters who are Breakers will change their ways and come into balance with the Earth, with each other and with us.
We Are Breakers:
The Earth and everything in it was created for Man; we have the right, the duty and the responsibility to place all of it under our control. Because there is not enough for all, the world must be conquered in order for us to exist. We do not live in the Web of Life; we live on top of it. Our story is simple: wildness is bad, human control is good.
We call ourselves many names, most of them positive or benign: civilizers, settlers, pioneers, missionaries, explorers, industrialists. We will continue to control and dominate all life forms, including humans who are not like us, because control is good.
We Are Menders:
We live our daily lives as though the Earth and our fellow humans need to be healed from the excesses of exclusivity, of Breaker thinking. We are raised to be Breakers, but are consciously turning away from that dead-end path, away from the glitter and allure of the Breaker Society. Our goal: to live as a consciously integral part of a living, conscious and sacred planet; to catalyze a new era, the Mender Era.
Our task is simple and profound: to heal the damage caused by the Breakers, those who act like the Earth and all of her inhabitants are their property. We Menders vow to stop this destruction and begin to restore the balance within this generation.
We Menders are Breakers in recovery. Breaker history is our history. We are not arrogant enough to think that our problems are someone else’s fault. We consciously reject the privileges that are available to us, where those privileges have come at the pain and suffering of others.
The Mender Story is in harmony with an ancient story, one as old as the Earth itself. We honor the Keepers, who show us the way of wisdom. We honor the Breakers, who show us the way of technology. We heal the damage. We are Menders.
Keepers, Breakers and Menders — Details of the Story
The Original Story: The Keepers
The Keeper Story is the original story of humans. Keepers are people who live interconnected with their local ecologies and all other beings. They keep the ancient ways of living, perfected over millions of years of coexistence. Their story is based on a thought: “Living in harmony with all I encounter” and an assumption: “the land is abundant”. Keepers do not see themselves as part of the Earth: they are their local ecologies.
Like all other successful species on this planet, Keepers are integral to their local ecologies. They have, over the course of a million years or more, achieved a dynamic equilibrium with all beings, including human and non-material beings.
Together with their environment, Keepers form a meta-being. As a functioning whole, this meta-being will repel all invaders. Therefore, when Keepers travel to a new ecology, after some period of adjustment, they again arrive at a dynamic equilibrium with the new ecology. When going to a new area, they took their “we are one” story into the new ecology, and the story created their behavior of adjusting to the new local ecology.
Keeper habitat is within the local ecology. Keepers had the consciousness that it was important to be in harmony with all beings within their local ecology. They created a story that let them achieve this harmony. The ultimate expression of the Keeper Story is the village, made of local materials, interrelated with the local ecology.
The Dominant Story: The Breakers
The Breaker Story is at present the dominant story for humans. Breakers are those of us who act like the Earth and everything on it was created for “Man”, and that they have the right and responsibility to place it all under their control. The Breaker Story is based on a thought: “I am separate” and an assumption: “there is not enough”. The Breaker behaviors are based on control and manipulation of other beings.
Breakers force food to grow in surplus, and therefore believe they do not have to be concerned with any other beings. By controlling ever greater parts of their environment, Breakers move further out of touch with other beings.
Breakers developed the consciousness that it is important to control the environment. They create a story that allows them to achieve greater levels of human control over the local ecology. Their story says that “man” is separate from “nature”.
When Breakers travel to another ecology, they completely alter or destroy that ecology, making it optimal for Breakers. All other beings, including other human beings, are either domesticated or eliminated.
The ultimate expression of exclusivity is the city[1], a landscape nearly devoid of “nature”.
The Emerging Story: The Menders
The Mender Story is the emerging story for humans. Menders are people who are conscious of the global ecology and the interactions of all of the beings who make up that ecology. Menders adapt the values of Keepers to a global reality. The Mender Story is based on a thought: “We are one” and an assumption: “there is enough for all”. Menders live their lives as conscious parts of a living, sacred planet.
Menders are aware of the Earth as a global ecology. Menders recognize that humans have become the world’s first global species. They are creating a story that will bring human behavior back in line with the regenerative capacity of the Web of Life.
Menders could also be called Gaians. Menders recognize that they will never encounter a new ecology on this planet. They see the millions of interactions of local ecologies as one global entity: the Web of Life.
Menders dedicate their lives to restoring the balance, integrity and regenerative capacity of the Web of Life.
Keeper, Breaker and Mender Consciousness Within Each of Us
We can go to the interior of the Amazon basin and visit Keeper communities, people who live their lives by the Keeper Story. We can go to the interior of the jungles of Manhattan Island and visit Breaker communities — tribes of stockbrokers in lower Manhattan, tribes of public housing tenants in upper Manhattan, all living their lives in accordance with the Breaker “I am separate” thought.
However, without traveling anywhere, we can visit these three states of consciousness within our own hearts. These three stories: Keepers, Breakers and Menders, live within each of us.
We have a Keeper self that we can honor:
- Your Keeper self needs wildness and reverence for both ecologic and non-material realities.
- Your Keeper self seeks deep harmony with other beings, including other humans.
- Your Keeper self needs to acknowledge that others (beings, ancestors, spirits) are in power and to trust their power.
- Your Keeper self has no need to manipulate self or others: it experiences satisfaction in community.
We also have a Breaker self that can be honored (but not allowed to dominate):
- Your Breaker self seeks to be defined and honored as an individual. This definition is GOOD… so long as we recognize that it is not the only definition (or even our primary one).
- Your Breaker self is restless and hungry: it is your urge to explore and grow beyond your boundaries. This urge is GOOD… within reason and within the needs and tolerances of the Earth and her families.
- Your Breaker self needs to be in control: of self, others and the environment. This control is GOOD… so long as the control and orientation of the Earth and LIFE are primary.
- Your Breaker self enjoys exploring and manipulating its world. This exploration is GOOD… so long as it is done for the benefit of ALL, not a limited notion of “self”.
We can acknowledge our Mender self that is now emerging clearer in our view:
- Your Mender self seeks to transcend the individual self, and desires transcendent experiences.
- Your Mender self is holistic, holonic and ecologic; desires peace and sustainability and thinks in global realities.
- Your Mender self desires to practice compassion: for self, others and the more-than-human environment.
- Your Mender self celebrates and explores its diversity and similarity with The Other.
As Menders, we acknowledge, eliminate, minimize and control Breaker thinking within ourselves. Menders recognize that we are carriers of the Breaker Disease; we are committed to stop being spreaders of this consciousness and to consciously catalyze Mender thinking, in ourselves and others.
The way we control the excesses of Breaker Consciousness is to adopt the values of the Keepers and apply them to the Breaker World. Achieving balance within our society means achieving balance within ourselves. The key Keeper values include wisdom, sacredness and inclusivity with all beings.