Many shamans say we are dreaming the wrong dream. We live with the illusion that we are separate from nature, separate from the spiritual realms, and that we are victims of our life and our environment…As we begin to change our consciousness and get in touch with the light inside us, we can effect great changes in our outer world. It is who we become that changes the world.
~ Sandra Ingerman
Grand Canyon – photo by Songquan Deng, bigstockphoto.com
…sacredness is inherent in the very essence of life and the multiple patterns of its arising. Sacredness is the radiant expansion of the heart, the devotion to life that rises in contemplation of the inexhaustible mystery that is unity in diversity, the One manifesting through the whole of creation.
~ Eleanor O’Hanlon
Lotus Blossoms – photo by Ange DiBenedetto
By dismissing as naïve any human perception of sentience or intelligence in the natural world, the dominant view is deeply implicated in the ecological crisis insofar as it has permitted and justified a profoundly irreverent attitude toward nature. [Thomas Berry} argued that the imperative for the human is to appreciate that the Earth and all its living and nonliving components forms an integral community, that the human is a member of this community, and that we will find our greatest fulfillment by advancing the well-being of the total community.
~ David Nicol
Barred Owl, Cascade Mountains, WA – photo by Dan Schreiber, bigstockphoto.com
There is something on the wind. Something unseen but still tangible. You can sense it. You can feel it. A new reality suddenly presents itself. We may not be sure where it came from or what it will do now that it is here, but the winds of change have begun to blow and things will not be the same again.
~ Steven Charleston
Mountain River Sunrise, British Columbia – photo by TNPhoto, bigstockphoto.com
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
~ Jane Goodall
Sunset on Apache Trail – photo by Anton Foltin, bigstockphoto.com
Our ego-oriented life has created a fragmented world of conflict, with different factions striving for dominance. We have to compete and struggle, caught in the images of winners and losers and all of the other dramas of dualism. In this world, we have to look out for ourself because no one else will. In our separateness we also often feel alone and isolated, impotent to effect real change. Moreover, it is partly due to our self-created illusion of being separate from the Earth that we are destroying its fragile web. If we realized how intrinsically we are interconnected with the Earth, we would never treat it just as a resource to be exploited.
Once we step outside of the illusion of our own separate self, a radically different picture emerges. Our true nature exists in a dimension of oneness. Unlike the ego, which always looks out for its own self-interest, the Self reflects a vision of unity, in which each individual part is nourished according to its real need. A glimpse of the Self gives us a sense of an interconnected oneness in which nothing is separate: everything is an expression of a oneness that is dynamically alive. Every person, every stone, is this oneness; everything is connected and interdependent. Our individual Self is the Universal Self and it is all a living organism of light and love.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Frosty Sunrise – photo by Alex Ugalek, bigstockphoto.com
The ancient human-Earth relationship must be recovered in a new context, in its mystical as well as in its physical functioning. There is need for awareness that the mountains and rivers and all living things, the sky and its sun and moon and clouds all constitute a healing, sustaining sacred presence for humans which they need as much for their psychic integrity as for their physical nourishment.
~ Thomas Berry
Mountain Stream, Killarney National Park, Ireland – photo by Patryk Kosmider, bigstockphoto.com
Humanity is now being given the opportunity to relate directly…and participate in a shift from a consciousness defined through separation and differentiation to a consciousness of oneness. This is the next step in our evolution, and it will influence every level of life on this planet.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Sunrise, Monument Valley, AZ – photo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
Never underestimate the power of goodness within you. This power of goodness can change or heal your life and the lives of others around you.
~ Anthony Douglas Williams
El Capitan, Yosemite – photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
…our collective transformation is borne of the remembrance of the inalienable truth that We Are All One; that each of us is an intrinsically unique expression of the One Creative Life Force; that we are all sourced from Source, and that Source—the Creative Force of Life, the Great Spirit—is a force of Love.
~ From Wake Up World FB Page, by guest writer Little Bear
Canary Pine, Volcano Teide, Tenerife, Spain – photo by mirceab, bigstockphoto.com
Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care.
~ Tara Brach
Yanshuo Guilin, China – photo by kenny001, bigstockphoto.com
When a bird sings its sacred songs, it casts medicine all around the earth to the hard to reach places. When we drum and sing our songs, the same thing happens. The power of the heart is the most powerful medicine we have. When you think about it, it’s the only thing that can save everything: Because it is everything.
~ Isaac Murdoch
Southern Red Bishop, Kruger National Park, South Africa – photo by CreativeNatureePhotography, gistockphoto.com
Truth be told, the entire world is conscious. The whole Universe is made of consciousness or “God-stuff”, even supposedly inanimate objects like rocks. As more and more people break the shackles of the false selves and realize their true natures, interspecies communication, including both animal communication and plant communication, will become more and more common.
~ Makia Freeman
Jasper National Park, Canada – photo by kavram, bigstockphoto.com
Since Active Hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless. The guiding impetus is intention; we choose what we aim to bring about, act for, or express. Rather than weighing our chances and proceeding only when we feel hopeful, we focus on our intention and let it be our guide.
~ Joanna Macy
Mediterranean Dawn, Costa Brava, Spain – photo by Dzmitrock, bigstockphoto.com
The Earth is calling to us to realize its essential unity—that She is not a resource to be exploited but a living being crying out for our attention. We are needed to help life to awaken from a dream that is destroying it. But if we are to live the real potential of our spiritual practice, we need to break free from the focus on our own individual journey. We need to reclaim the simple truth that spiritual life is not solely about ourself, and open to a larger, all-embracing vision. If spiritual life is not about the whole, it has lost its true nature; it has instead been subverted by the ego and its patterns of self-concern. Everything that has been created is in service to life, to the real purpose of creation. This belongs to the “Original Instructions” that were given to the earliest wisdom keepers. We are not separate from each other or from the Earth, and we need to recognize how our individual spiritual journey, our praise and thanksgiving, are part of life’s sacred purpose and can nourish life in different ways.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Iguazu Balls, Brazil – photo by Lukas Uher, bigstockphoto.com
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