What is science but the pursuit of the truth? What is Buddhism but 2500 years of observation as to the nature of mind?

Language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

Change is no threat to culture.

You know, once something freezes, it's solid. That's the key to the arctic - they didn't fear the cold, they made use of it.

Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens. Change itself does note destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving. Indeed a culture survives when it has enough confidence in its past and enough say in its future to maintain its spirit and essence through all the changes it will inevitably undergo.

All cultures through all time have constantly been engaged in a dance with new possibilities for life. Change is the one constant in human history.

If diversity is a source of wonder, its opposite - the ubiquitous condensation to some blandly amorphous and singularly generic modern culture that takes for granted an impoverished environment - is a source of dismay. There is, indeed, a fire burning over the earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame, and re-inventing the poetry of diversity is perhaps the most important challenge of our times.