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nature, mother nature

what is the difference?

Comments

  • silversilver In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded. USA, Left coast. Veteran

    Nature is just nature; mother nature is a term of endearment. <3

    lobsterupekka
  • FosdickFosdick in its eye are mirrored far off mountains Alaska, USA Veteran
    edited November 2016

    To me, nature and mother nature are the same thing, and "mother nature" merely acknowledges that nature and natural processes created and sustain all living things - gave them birth, so to speak.

    In philosophy and religion, I guess the idea goes back to 1200 or 1300 BC in written sources, and almost certainly is older than that. It's apparently undergone all sorts of convolutions historically, involving goddesses and so forth.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Nature

    upekka
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran

    Anthropomorphism. :p

    upekka
  • @Fosdick I feel they are different. Nature including human behavour (nature) can be random, non sustaining and unbalanced. Gaia or Mother Earth is described here and maybe what you refer to?

    It is at least not impossible to regard the earth's parts—soil, mountains, rivers, atmosphere etc,—as organs or parts of organs of a coordinated whole, each part with its definite function. And if we could see this whole, as a whole, through a great period of time, we might perceive not only organs with coordinated functions, but possibly also that process of consumption as replacement which in biology we call metabolism, or growth. In such case we would have all the visible attributes of a living thing, which we do not realize to be such because it is too big, and its life processes too slow.
     Aldo Leopold, Animate Earth
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis

    upekka
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    @upekka said:
    what is the difference?

    Once you know, will it really matter....?

  • JeroenJeroen Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter Netherlands Veteran

    Nature also includes 'the nature of things', it is a wider concept than the idea of Mother Nature as the nurturing force which sustains and shapes life.

    federicalobsterShoshin
  • FosdickFosdick in its eye are mirrored far off mountains Alaska, USA Veteran

    quoth @lobster

    I feel they are different. Nature including human behavour (nature) can be random, non sustaining and unbalanced. Gaia or Mother Earth is described here and maybe what you refer to?

    Nature as a stand-alone word I usually understand to mean nature in the broad sense of the totality of the biological and non-biological worlds. The nature that includes all natures, perhaps.

    Used with qualifiers, the definitions are various and almost infinite. Nature of grass, nature of trees, nature of mind, nature of Trump, even Buddha nature.

    As for Mother Nature, I think my first post may have been the first time in my life that I have used the term in a sentence, and I concede the point - it is different. Perhaps in that it points to an idea about nature, not to nature itself.

    lobsterperson
  • upekkaupekka Veteran
    edited November 2016

    @federica said:

    @upekka said:
    what is the difference?

    Once you know, will it really matter....?

    it does matter because it is about nature and a lesson of nature
    if we learn about nature we know who we are and how to behave without disturbing nature
    we have to learn about the nature and to gain the wisdom

    i happened to be known it after the 'morning meditation' today
    and
    it helped to know what actually IT is the 'life' , 'universe' and 'everything'
    then that 'knowledge' changes 'my' whole attitude about/toward IT
    this knowledge and attitude would help me to change my speech and deed
    this new way of living would make minimum impact to the nature from my side and mother nature wold be happy and it is a good thing that
    if she is angry and not happy she wouldn't start to scold at us (speak) or punish us (natu
    so there wouldn't be natural disasters that we should be afraid of

    so it is really matter

    if anyone could find the children program 'Arthur' about 'silent treatment' and see it one could understand what i am saying in this post

    @Kerome said:
    Nature also includes 'the nature of things', it is a wider concept than the idea of Mother Nature as the nurturing force which sustains and shapes life.

    that is what we have been trying to understand by discussing the 'life, universe, and everything' in another thread

    the all the responses in that thread helped me in today morning meditation
    after i watched ' Arthur' it become clearer
    next two children program made it confirm

    each and every information provides by nature is teaching us a lesson
    to learn it or ignore it is our own decision

    that is what in Buddha's Teaching
    Buddha Teaching helps to quicken to get this learning and experience

    Buddha could renamed each and everything instead of our usual day today words
    what we have to do is see between the lines, between the words and between the letters

    seeing can be done with eyes and without eyes

    happy looking!

    lobsterFosdick
  • Thanks @Fosdick, I liked the flexibility of thought you express. Can quite easily think of our Earth as a Mother - as our Zen Druids do ...
    http://pagandharma.org/pagan dharma/2013/04/14/zen-druids/

    When the Buddha was asked about having a statue made of him, he rather suggested the Bo tree under which he became enlightened. Eh ma ho (how wonderful).

    Fosdick
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