The Earth is immersed in a global-scale ecological decline caused by humans themselves. At its core, avoiding a sixth extinction is a spiritual and philosophical problem, for it is the principles that define us and our relationship to the Earth that are causing this crisis. Those assumptions insist on a fundamental separation between humans and the Earth that undervalues nature, instrumentalizes it and exploits it. In this book, David Hinton explores ways of seeing and being that could save the planet by reestablishing a deep kinship between humans and the ecosystem: the ideas of primordial cultures and those of Chan (Zen) Buddhism of ancient China. It also shows how these ideas have been consolidated in the West over the last two hundred years through the work of poets, philosophers and scientists. This approach illuminates with enormous beauty a hope, but, like many of us, Hinton recognizes that the sixth extinction is now an inexorable tragedy and difficult to avoid. And he reveals how those primal, Zen-like insights offer us a valuable refuge. 'Savage Mind, Savage Earth' is an extraordinary and revitalizing journey through the history of the human spirit and consciousness that reconnects us with the power of the soul and Mother Nature.