the spiritual richness that nature offers
Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
Philosophers, poets, writers, and artists have talked about the wonders of communing with nature. What is the value of steeping yourself in a natural environment, away from the things of man? Why is this considered so valuable in the spiritual sense?
People are people. Society may hold them in check, but we are all made up of the same contents of consciousness, because we have all been psychologically conditioned since the earliest age to accept secondhand information as our own. In other words, we are told who we are by the information that we have inherited and absorbed and then accepted as who we are. All of this colors our reality and it is easy to forget that we are as much a part of nature as a tree growing in the forest or prey for a wolf. Nature may remind us of this fact.
how we sense nature
Two at least significant ways of being in nature:
1. Sensing nature and interpreting it through the images we make of it — judging, criticizing, labeling, studying, and gauging it; and
2. Sensing nature by immersing ourselves in it without interpretation, purpose, or image-making.
What’s the difference?
We are psychologically conditioned to make images of ourselves and everything else. We do this by bringing everything we believe we know, along with our beliefs and suppositions, to bear on what we experience. We as egoic selfs don’t usually see things how they really are. If we are out communing with nature and a rabbit wanders onto the clearing and is then attacked by a hawk, is our experience of totality shattered, or do we see that what’s occurring is part of the totality? If it is the former it is because we have a certain image of how nature should be — tranquil, peaceful, loving, and sympatico. If it is the latter it is because we understand that everything that happens is as much a part of the whole of life as that which is left undisturbed.
nature and wholeness
Nature is a holistic ecosystem, yet our idealization of this system takes us out of it, whether we are aware of this fact or not. Similarly, when we are in the hustle and bustle of a big city with all of its traffic, noise, sirens, rude people, helpful people, criminals, business executives, laborers, and so on, can we see the totality of this without bringing our images, our judgments and preconceptions, to bear? Have you ever tried this? This is a matter of experiencing life on present evidence without internal conflict.
Yet, unlike the inventions, technology, and output of human beings, nature is not the result of thought. In this absence of thought it is easier to see our own reflection as that which is deeper and more fundamental than thought. This is what makes nature so refreshing and restorative to mind and body.
forest bathing
The Japanese have a term for beholding the atmosphere of a natural environment as a physiological and psychological exercise. It’s called shinrin-yoku (“forest bathing”). In a society that has become known for its high stress high tech jobs and burn-out syndrome, forest bathing is a way of finding relaxation and gathering one’s thoughts. Nature becomes a release valve offering emotional, mental, and spiritual salvation.
More than a hundred years earlier than the Japanese pastime of forest bathing, the American philosopher Walt Whitman wrote of nature’s power to reconstitute one’s mind and body. In his heralded book of poetry, Leaves of Grass, Whitman wrote, “The earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first; Be not discouraged — keep on — there are divine things, well envelop’d; I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell.”
nature is what we are
Nature is who we are prior to our egoic selfs living a double life — one driven by the conflicted, image-making ego; and the other as a product of an ever-regenerating singular movement of consciousness.
Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “We grew out of the seed, the earth, and we are part of all that, but we are rapidly losing the sense that we are animals like the others. Can you have a feeling for a tree, look at it, see the beauty of it, listen to the sound it makes? Can you be sensitive to the little plant, a little weed, to that creeper growing up the wall, to the light on the leaves and the many shadows? One must be aware of all this and have that sense of communion with nature around you. You may live in a town, but you do have trees here and there. A flower in the next garden may be ill-kept, crowded with weeds, but look at it, feel that you are part of all that, part of all living things. If you hurt nature, you are hurting yourself.”
