Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.
~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
Purple Orchid – photo by PricelessPhotos, bigstockphoto.com
We and all living creatures are not just inhabitants of Earth, we are Earth — an outgrowth of its physical structure and an engine of its global cycles. Although some scientists still recoil at the mention of Gaia, these truths have become part of mainstream science.
~ Ferris Jabr
Earthrise – photo by By NASA/Bill Anders, wikipedia.com
If we are interdependent with everything and everyone, even our smallest, least significant thought, word, and action have real consequences throughout the universe.
~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Aurora Reflections, Iceland – photo by stroop, bigstockphoto.com
I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts,
her pockets full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before,
a stone on the riverbed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts,
and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me,
the insects and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom.
By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.
~ Mary Oliver
At Old Man’s Cave, Hocking Hills State Park – photo by KennethKeifer, bigstockphoto.com
In Shamanic tradition respect for all spiritual beings that inhabit the earth moves well beyond animal forms. Shamans believe that plants are also sentient and that they can speak to us—they call to us, if we listen. By listening to plants Shamans have intuited the kinds of plant medicine that can heal on mind, body and spirit levels.
~ Naturesheart.org
Bell Path, Sedona, AZ – photo by Accidental Photographer, bigstockphoto.com
When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
~ Wendell Berry
Monument Valley Under A Starry Sky – photo by paulista, bigstockphoto.com
In honor of Thich Nhat Hanh, a revered and beautiful being who gave so much to our world…
True love does not just choose one person. When true love is there, you shine like a lamp. You don’t just shine on one person in the room. That light you emit is for everyone in the room. If you really have love in you, everyone around you will profit – not only humans, but animals, plants and minerals. Love, true love, is that..
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Huyen Khong Cave, Marble Mountains, Vietnam – photo by DR_Flash, bigstockphoto.com
…I know that there is a deeper truth to our journey together with the Earth, a truth older than any belief or ideology, and far from the discords of today. It does not offer a solution to today’s problems, because it is too simple and radical. It is a doorway into a way of being with each other and the Earth that carries the secrets of our shared existence, where we are a part of a living tapestry that stretches to the stars and beyond. And it is here, all around us, present in the most ordinary things.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Winter Waterfall, Big Kaverzinsky Falls, North Caucasus, Russia – photo by apogee_krd, bigstockphoto.com
The word ‘animism’ refers to something so commonplace, so taken for granted in tribal cultures, that most don’t even have a word for it—it is the foundational belief that spirit and matter are one. That all things are imbued with a soul; not just humans and animals, but mountains, thunder, shadows, and even the wind. If we learn to listen to and engage in a dialogue with that diversity of voices, we begin to see how there is a constant dynamism taking place between waking and dreaming, seen and unseen, mundane and holy. Like a tree whose roots are hidden in the rich darkness of the soil, human beings are meant to take our cues from the inner life—not the other way around.
~ Excerpt From Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner
Mount Rainier, Washington – photo by aft2015, bigstockphoto.com
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it’s going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts.
~ Joanna Macy
Upper Waikani Falls, Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii – photo by CrackerClips Stock Meds, bigstockphoto.com
It’s the Hopi belief, that, if you’re not spiritually connected to the earth, and understand the spiritual reality of how to live on earth, it’s likely you will not make it. You should treat all things as Spirit – realize that we are ONE Family.
~ Floyd Red Crow Westerman
Fresh Snow in Bryce Canyon – photo by Christopher Boswell, bigstockphoto.com
In the words of eco-theologian Thomas Berry, “The universe is a communion of subjects not a collection of objects.”
~ Mary Jane Rust
Pine Forest in Winter – photo by Boguslavus, bigstockphoto.com
Few people today, when they’re cycling past a stand of oaks, sense that those trees are sensing them; we don’t feel the breeze gusting around us as a sensitive and sentient presence, and upon arriving at our place of work and settling down to the day’s tasks, we don’t concern ourselves that the chairs we sit in register our presence, or that the walls of the room are affected by our actions.
~ David Abram
Sequoias, Seqpouia National Park – photo by travelview, bigstockphoto.com
If the essence of my being has caused a smile to have appeared upon your face, or a touch of joy within your heart, then in living I have made my mark.
~Thomas L Odem Jr
Majestic Lion (Other-than-human Earth-kin) – photo by lucascpac, bigstokphoto.com
When we forget that we are embedded in the natural world, we also forget that what we do to our surroundings we are doing to ourselves.
~ David Suzuki
The Mumbles, Wales – photo by Daoler, bigstockphoto.com
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 230
- Next Page »