Lynne E. Richards, PhD

“My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it — all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity — , but to love it…”    Friedrich Nietzsche

One of the greatest challenges we each face is to gently push ourselves down our own path without effort or striving, without attachment to the fact that we are going down a path at all.

A social scientist with a speciality in human systems and a philosopher with concentrations in eastern philosophy and Ancient Greek philosophy, my path brought me to Santa Fe, New Mexico 27 years ago. As a researcher and writer, I’m also interested in science, history, art, music, and consciousness. I’m endlessly curious about what/who we are and how we came to be the way we are. Are living beings the universe’s consciousness? Am I an instance of the universe’s attempt to understand itself? Or are we happy coincidences of chemistry and biology and a spark of something we call consciousness? What exactly is that consciousness? Can we even approach the answer to that last question?

Every discipline has a dogma. Most perspectives are shrouded in ideology. Are there other views, other ways of looking at and talking about these assumed “givens” that could expand our horizons, open up new possibilities? Can we reassess our own beliefs? Remain in dialogue even when it gets uncomfortable? Without needing to be in agreement or to persuade the other to move to a particular position, can we challenge our own and each others’ perspectives? Are we willing to reimagine our perceptions? My attempt here is toward transformational understanding while we continue on the path.

“Non ridere, non lugere, neque destari, sed intelligere. (Not to laugh, not to lament, not to curse, but to understand.)” Baruch Spinoza