FLUENT
I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.
~ John O’Donohue
North Fork Skokomish River, photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
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It is important to recognize the root of our longing, that we are no longer prepared to live in a purely physical world, but need the living presence of the spiritual. We need to know and be nourished by the invisible world that is within us and all around us. We need to reclaim the mystery and magic of being fully alive.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Elephant Rock at Night – photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
The planet we live on is a living organism. The trees are its lungs, the streams are its veins, and whether we realize it or not, our bodies are a part of a shared field of consciousness that contains all the native beings who reside here. The physical Earth and its biosphere are the body or feminine aspect of this field of consciousness. All of our collective consciousness is linked through this grid.
~ Spirit Science
Creek flowing through a rainforest – photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness… Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is, in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today.
~David Bohm
Ocean, photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals… In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.
~ Henry Beston
Blue and Yellow Macaw in Rainforest – photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
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Here are “Five Vows” from Joanna Macy:
Five Vows:
I vow to myself and to each of you:
To commit myself daily to the healing of our
world and the welfare of all beings.
To live on Earth more lightly and less violently
in the food, products, and energy I consume.
To draw strength and guidance from the living
Earth, the ancestors, the future generations,
and my brothers and sisters of all species.
To support others in our work for the world
and ask for help when I need it.
To pursue a daily practice
that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart,
and support me in observing these vows.
~ Joanna Macy
Trees and Sunlight, photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
Recalling the principle of interdependence, we can expand our sense of ourselves beyond the narrow limits of our own body and experiences, to encompass everything our life connects to. Then we can look beyond our own aims, and embrace others goals as our own.
~ His Holiness the Karmapa
Under the Rainbow, Colorado River, Grand Canyon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
The true nature of mountains is that they are mountains. They practice both stillness holding their place and moving with change. Men and women can be reborn through mountains. Ancestors abide in mountains. And mountains disappear the closer you are to them…Realizing fully the true nature of a place is to talk its language and hold its silence.
~ Joan Halifax
Canadian Rockies, photo from bigstock.com, used with permission
During the past era our focus has been on a transcendent, often disembodied spirituality. As a result we have forgotten the very practical nature of our true self. In the dimension of oneness everything is included. There is nothing higher or lower, nothing that is not sacred. Spiritual knowledge belongs to the whole of life, to each cell of creation. The soul is present within the whole body of each of us and also within the body of the earth. Spiritual principles offer us a very practical way to work with the energies of life.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Punch Bowl Falls, Columbia River Gorge, OR – photo by Chris Williams Exploration Photography, used with permission
Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others…for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
~Albert Einstein
Akaka Fall, Akaka Falls State Park, Hawaii – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
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