Nature is the Greatest Teacher
My most powerful experiences of reality have been revealed through the grace of nature. I have learnt that the moment we move deeply into awareness of the stillness and peace available in nature, it becomes our teacher. Buddha said “Go and experience the universe in a leaf.” He knew nature can show us the way home to our own inner nature, where we can experience our connectedness with all that is.
The Shugendo Japanese mountain monks find their enlightenment through climbing their mountains. For these monks realization of their inner nature is found by deeply immersing themselves in the beauty of nature, and the sacred places of power it offers.
The mountains, rocks, streams, and trees can reveal to us deep inner messages when we leave behind the prison of our minds, and all the problems it perceives, and join nature in the field of stillness. We can experience the sacred response gifted through nature itself and participate in the evolution of both ourselves and the planet, as nature becomes aware of itself through our own consciousness.
Love, joy, creative expansion and lasting inner peace can come into our lives when we open to the heightened quality of awareness, so easily accessible in nature. It as if nature has been longing for us to surrender to its true magnificence, to become fully present to the eternal now that can be experienced in its stillness. As we become lost in wonder, the small ego self is absorbed, just as a wave is absorbed by the ocean, and truth is revealed in the silence of the heart.
The intelligence of nature
Trees and Plants are intelligent
Wind is intelligent
The sky is a form of intelligent energy.
They are all full of God’s life-force or prana and they are full of consciousness
Each one of us lives within an infinite sea of God consciousness.
If we get caught up in our day to day lives we often fail to perceive the miracle we are in.
When we spend much of our time in distractions, we are barely aware of the moment.
We often can’t face the moment because we are starving for love. We want to feel love and be loved. But in the moment ,the love of God is here. This is it! If we do not learn here and now to appreciate it what will ever satisfy us? God exists fully in this moment and it is up to us to face the moment fully to find God.
Cooperation as a spiritual force in nature
How is it that animals in communities act as One? Today I threw some seed out to a few pigeons. Within a few moments hundreds of pigeons descended, some from far away where they did not observe their fellow pigeons eating. How do they know there is food at this place? The answer can only be connection.
Modern evolutionary theory, arising from Darwin, postulates the “survival of the fittest”. In this theory, there is posited that nature is a struggle. Countless books, nature documentaries and papers have been written on the struggle for survival. People are fascinated by videos of animals attacking other animals to eat them. What is portrayed is the violence of nature. However, this is merely a small portion of what happens in nature.
Biological science has begun to study cooperation (particularly as an evolutionary force and found that it is a behaviour more prevalent than previously thought. For instance, plants (including trees) will actually share nutrients, and many animals develop relationships with other species for mutual benefit, such as birds and fish that help clean the skins of larger animals, removing parasites, but also gaining a meal!
“Maybe it is time to observe nature in a different way, to change our gaze to not focus solely on the lion killing the antelope, but observe also the finch on the tortoise back. Just like them, we have everything to gain by favouring cooperation over competition.”
Katia Nicolet, PhD in marine biology
So what does the ‘principle of cooperation’ mean for the future of humanity. The recognition of our connectedness as an outcome of our essential nature as manifestations of the one being, the one consciousness, enables us to live life totally differently. We find that we can forgo our selfish nature. As Sathya Sai once said to me “Self (meaning selfishness) is lovelessness. Love is selflessness.” Living in communities (and there are many models of true communal living), being ready always to serve in whatever way we are able, utilising less of the limited supply of resources and connecting with people in a real way (not simply through a text or a posting on social media), are some of the ways in which we can begin to manifest the love (that Sathya identifies in the statement above) that we all are into a collective LOVE that is the only solution to the problems that plague us, individually and collectively.
Living in isolation from nature gives rise to behaviours that foster individualism. If we begin to interact with nature more, we will become inspired by the endless examples of how love connects all creation. - Phillip
Listening to the forest
In the heart of the forest there is a deep stillness. It is not a static state, but a living, dynamic stillness that speaks. Its language is the language of Oneness. All the trees, the animals, the soil, the smaller plants sing their unique song. But each song adds to the melody of the forest as a whole. This melody is a magnificent unity in diversity.
If we walk in silence through the forest, we can hear this song, not only with the ears, but with the heart that is open and receptive to the simplicity of the moment. Each moment in the forest is precious. Each moment is a treasure to hold dear in our hearts.
Our lives are filled with so much noise, but in the forest we can come to appreciate the value of the stillness, if we would only remain open and silent. That is the key. In that silence we see through different eyes. We can also begin to open up to the unique scents of the plants and the soil. We can appreciate the sounds of the streams bubbling over rocks. But, most importantly, we can begin to attune to the silence within our own being. In that attunement we discover our own unity with all creation – our own spiritual reality. – Phillip
Spirituality and Creation
To those who say, you have to deny creation to realise the formless consciousness or Self, I would point to the fact that creation is here. If it arose from the formless, if the formless willed and became form (creation), how can we deny creation. The Self is not beyond everything, the Self is everything. Therefore the path of true spirituality is not to deny the existence of nature, but to simply deny the apparent separateness of nature from the one divine flow of unity that comprises nature. Phillip
Supreme Happiness
Awaits in the forest
Shining in the dawn
Of the Heart
As it awakes
To the sunlight
In the presence of the moment
I am rooted with the mountain
We are the witness
To the play of life
We watch it arise from
our beingness
The mountain has claimed me
I was sitting on the mountainside
Now there is no-one
Supreme Peace
Is revealed
In the silence of nature
When, at the dusk of time
Eternity rests
THE FOUR DIRECTIONS
Throughout the world, in many cultures, the four directions have great significance. In Aotearoa/New Zealand we have Te Tai Tokerau (north), Te Tai Rawhiti (east), Te Tai Tonga (south) and Te Tai Hauauru (west), with Te Tai meaning the coast, or the tides. These directions had many meanings for Maori as they do in yoga.
In yoga, the four directions signify aspects of human experience related to spiritual evolution. The diagram shows the main aspects related to the four directions that are utilised in ritual and meditation to help raise consciousness aligned with the directions.
In the yogic tradition, the four directions are utilised in ritual (often done after meditation).
Such rituals will allow us to set and continue to reinforce our deepest intentions for our life. When we face the directions, we mentally state our intention based on the qualities of each direction and each of the elements that infuse the direction with their energy. This allows us to move from habitual behaviours into purposeful action that enhances our evolutionary progress through dharmic action.
EAST – THE RISING SUN
The East contains the element of fire. As the sun rises, we are illuminated by the light that bursts over the horizon, lighting the world from its fiery furnaces. The East is the seat of illumination and enlightenment, wherein we access our deepest, inner knowing, activating the ajna chakra (third eye). If we give ourselves over the yogic fire from the east, we shed old ways to renew ourselves in the light of knowledge of the Self. The east direction also allows us to attune to our attention to the qualities of the eastern direction and set our intentions with determination.
NORTH – THE FOUNT OF WISDOM
The northern direction is the seat of the masters. It is where the flow of transcendent wisdom and the supreme intelligence of creation is gifted. The north is where we find the pole star (visible in the northern hemisphere only, but significant for those of us living in the south). The pole star represents stability and introspection. The element of this direction is air, being the element of thought.
SOUTH – THE SPONTANEOUS EXPRESSION
The southern direction has the element of water, which promotes flexibility and surrender in our lives. There is a quality of spontaneity and playfulness associated with this element and the southerly focus. It also represents the flow of grace, and our ALIGNING to that flow with full sincerity and integrity.
WEST – LETTING GO
When the sun sets in the west, we can allow ourselves to release all that binds us to our old ways of being. Attunement to the silence brings us into relationship with the element earth, which provides for depth of contemplation and meditation. There is also a stabile quality to the westerly direction, which draws our from deep within a longing to be in sadhana and silence.
BHUDEVI – The Earth Mother
Called by many names, such as: Gaia (Greek); Papa tu a Nuku (Maori); Papa (Hawai’i); Pachamama (some Native American cultures) and Danu in the Celtic pantheon, Bhudevi is Mother to all her children (the living species on the planet). All peoples on Earth have revered and/or worshipped her over millennia.
SHE IS EARTH MOTHER
The picture above is of Bhudevi at Tapovan, Sacred Earth. On either side are nga pounamu: Te Koha o Hine Ahu One (the gift of the first human, Hine Ahu One, created by Tane Mahuta) and Te Iho o Hine Puea (the essence of Hine Puea, the volcano maiden).