Australian Indigenous languages correspond to Cosmic Original Lore, integrating the physical world, conscious mind, and spiritual levels of experience (Lawlor 1991). They afford a multidimensional way of communication linked to the Dreaming or ongoing creator-thought, that is, a language of sustainability whilst maintaining a sense of the sentient Natural Lore of expansion. Western science, on the other hand, demands the use of language to represent symmetrical regularities, generalisations, and control over its perceived world resulting in the misuse of power in language. Real power is found in a sensitivity to Cosmic Lore which means using language to create a Dreaming of bringing into being that which is truly desired.
The questions to be contemplated are: How do we want to live? What type of planet do we want to sustain? – We live with the consequences of our thoughts, language, and actions, that is, the cause, effects, record, and memories of our own creation. As Cottingham (2019, p. 33) reminds us, Shakespeare’s indelible description of mercy whose qualities are not strained but arise “out of an openness and sensitivity to the distress of others” and I add the distress of the planet, must form the foundation of a language of Cosmic compassion to bring about positive change.