…matter itself tingles with consciousness at the deepest level. It’s there in the cells of every living creature, even in molecules and atoms.
~ From Goodreads website in a review of Christian de Quincey, “Radical
Nature: The Soul of Nature”
Northern Spotted Owl in Green Forest – photo by Georgia Evans, bigstockphoto.com
In support of our deep, collective need to expand our understanding of reality, as well as awareness and acceptance of our oneness and interdependence…
~ Devadana Sanctuary
“Seeing beyond our filters—our accumulated knowledge and beliefs—does not always come naturally. We have spent years growing attached to them in various degrees, and they feel safe. Whatever we become attached to can begin to shape our future experiences and limit our perception of what exists outside our vocabulary. Like blinders on a horse, our attached beliefs limit our vision, and this in turn limits our perceived direction in life. The stronger our level of attachment, the less we can see.”
~ don Miguel Ruiz Jr
Aurora Lights, Sweden – photo by contas, bigstockphoto.com
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.
~ John O’Donohue
Loch Venachar, Scotland – photo by naumoid, bigstockphoto.com
We Originated in the Belly of a Star
Consider that you can see less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear less than 1% of the acoustic spectrum. As you read this, you are traveling at 220 km/sec across the galaxy. 90% of the cells in your body carry their own microbial DNA and are not “you.” The atoms in your body are 99.9999999999999999% empty space and none of them are the ones you were born with, but they all originated in the belly of a star. Human beings have 46 chromosomes, 2 less than the common potato. The existence of the rainbow depends on the conical photoreceptors in your eyes; to animals without cones, the rainbow does not exist. So you don’t just look at a rainbow, you create it. This is pretty amazing, especially considering that all the beautiful colors you see represent less than 1% of the electromagnetic spectrum.
~Sergio Toporek, NASA Lunar Science Institute
Rainbows and clouds – photo by Aili, bigstockphoto.com
One belief that I would like you to consider is that; we are one. We are oneness. Our energy, our connectiveness, nature and the earths energetic force are all one. This may sound kinda woo woo and yet, in fact if you embrace this idea watch how your state of mind becomes more optimistic. More connected. More open…
When you think more openly, when you see more of life and the possibilities of our oneness, then you tend to lead with kindness, warmth and connectedness – that connectedness shows up and manifests in ways you may never think would prove possible, and yet it does.
~ Amy Goldberg
Karst Peaks, Xingping Town, Li River, China – photo by Alex-VN, bigstockphoto.com
There is a special kind of shadow that happens in deep woods that are old and have been left undisturbed. Underneath the canopy of ancient hardwood trees the greens are deeper, the soil blacker, the smells richer. And there is a shadow that is over everything, calling out that there is a deeper world than the human of which we are a part. Something came out of that place and entered my body. I felt more whole, more human, more loved, more a part of the world. And in some indefinable way I knew who I was.
~ Stephen Harrod Buhner
Early Morning Light, Mariposa Sequoia Grove, Yosemite, CA – photo by Rixie, bigstockphoto.com
Human intelligence and nature’s intelligence are seen as two aspects of an underlying unity, having their common source in the unified field.
~ David Nicol
Road to Hana, Maui, Hawaii – photo by maximkabb, bigstockphoto.com
Enchanted worlds still exist because the child within us never dies. The doorways may be more obscure, but we can still seek them out. There are still noble adventures to undertake. There are still trees that speak and caverns that lead to nether realms. There will always be faeries and elves within nature because they will always be dancing in our hearts.
~ Ted Andrews
Lake Cave, Western Australia – photo by ZambeziShark, bigstockphoto.com
The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time. They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint, that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come. To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle. Perhaps the wilderness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats, the silent space that says we live only by grace. Wilderness lives by this same grace. Wild mercy is in our hands.
~ Terry Tempest Williams, “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place”
Cathedral Rock, Sedona, AZ – photo by alexeys, bigstockphoto.com
One of the basic experiential assumptions of shamanism is that I am not a separated physical being: I am an energy field or I am part of the whole. Actually, from a more genuine shamanic perspective, the entire notion of I, seen as separate from you and them, does not make any sense at all.
Contemporary human beings have confined themselves almost exclusively to the identification with the physical body and the idea of being a fragmented unit. Shamanic experience is one way in which it is possible to perceive others, the world and ourselves in their original united forms again.
~ Franco Santoro
La Sal Mountains, Arches National Park, Utah – photo by Dean Fikar, bigstockphoto.com
We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits.
But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.
We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.
~ Wendell Berry
Merced River, Yosemite – photo by durktalsma, bigstockphoto.com
Whenever you come upon Water in its natural state, you approach it with respect; you introduce yourself to it. Take time to pay respect to it. For Water gives life, we live inside Water for nine months in our mother’s womb. Then we follow the Water into this world. It is sacred, we depend on Water for the rest of our life. Water is Life…
Allow for a moment of gratitude the next time you take a drink of Water. Then, hope will flicker within – hope that allows us to envision a way, a path towards a more compassionate and caring society that heeds the consciousness that Water is Life.
~ Mona Polacca, Havasupai/Hopi/Tewa Nations, Arizona
Mountain River – photo by Ale-ks, bigstockphoto.com
Louise Fowler-Smith, in “Hindu Tree Veneration as a Mode of Environmental Encounter”, writes: “Historically, sacred trees have been connected with rites of renewal, sexuality, fertility, conception, birth, initiation, death and rebirth. Throughout India, Hindu communities have their own individual deities…which are regarded as synonymous with the locality and everything within it…The deity is not visible to the local community, so a specific place or object is chosen to direct the act of worship. The…shrine…is usually connected with an important feature of the natural world such as a hill, a rock, a stream or pond. These shrines are most commonly associated with a tree or grove of trees, with the tree embodying the local goddess.” Hence, as far as India and Hinduism is concerned, the worship of a tree is not only a very ancient practice, but it is also a current living reality.
~ Ninthin Sridhar, “Natural oneness: Why trees are revered in Hinduism”
California Redwoods – photo by Virrage Images, bigstockphoto.com
Different places on the face of the earth have different vital effluence, a different vibration of chemical exhalation, a different polarity with the stars; call it what you like. But the spirit of a place is a great reality.
~ D. H. Lawrence
Yosemite Sunset – photo by Anton Foltin, bigstockphoto.com
Earth is not a platform for human life. It’s a living being. We’re not on it but part of it. Its health is our health.
~Thomas Moore
Crater Lake National Park, OR – photo by stashek, bigstockphoto.com
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