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When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees,
higher than
the ordinary, and shutting out the sky
with their thickly inter-twined branches,
do not the stately shadows of the wood,
the stillness of the place,
and the awful gloom of this doomed cavern
then strike you with the presence of a deity?
~ Seneca
La Cathedrale Naturelle, courtesy of Lars van de Goor Photography Art, used with permission
I am grateful for the magic, mystery and majesty of nature my loyal friend and companion always there, welcoming and waiting for me to come; to be healed.
~ Tom North
Moonlight, Yosemite Falls, Yosemite – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
I have a friend who feels sometimes that the world is hostile to human life – he says it chills us and kills us. But how could we be were it not for this planet that provided our very shape? Two conditions – gravity and a livable temperature range between freezing and boiling–have given us fluids and flesh. The trees we climb and the ground we walk on have given us five fingers and toes. The “place” (from the root plat, broad, spreading, flat) gave us far-seeing eyes, the streams and breezes gave us versatile tongues and whorly ears. The land gave us a stride, and the lake a dive. The amazement gave us our kind of mind. We should be thankful for that, and take nature’s stricter lessons with some grace.
~ Gary Snyder
Eagle – photo by TAO Photography, used with permission
“Were not separate from the earth. Were not separate from each other. Were all an interwoven pattern of unity that breathes the same breath at some level.”
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee in a talk at the Mercy Center, Burlingame, CA, June 29, 2013
Mill Creek Falls – photo by Jeff Burcher Photography, used with permission
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
Second Beach, La Push, WA – photo by Mirwais Azami Photography, used with permission
Oneness isnt an idea. Its a presence. It has to do with the nature of life, the nature of creation. This world is one and everyone and everything on it is woven together
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee from a talk on the New Story of Oneness, Interdependence, Interconnectivity
Goodman Creek, photo by TAO Photography, used with permission
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
~ Alan Watts
Winter Sunset, Pinnacle Point, CA – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
I believe that if I can sit out there long enough those crows, the trees and the wind can teach me something about how to be a better human being. I don’t call that romanticism, I call that Indigenous Realism.
~ Dr. Daniel Wildcat
Beaver Falls area, courtesy of TAO Photography, used with permission
Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Quinault Rainforest – KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static ‘snapshots.’…And systems thinking is a sensibility — for the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character.
~ Peter Senge
North Cascades, WA – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
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
Lightning Strike on Mt. Wooley, Grand Canyon – photo by Don Smith Photography, used with permission
The Celtic worldview is a magical one, in which everything has a physical, mental and spiritual aspect and its own proper purpose, and where our every act affects both worlds.
~ Nicholas R. Mann
Ruby Beach – photo by Mirwais Azami Photography, used with permission
Working in my garden or walking in the countryside, I have never come across anything in nature that is superfluous and does not fulfill a function. There seems to be no redundancy or unemployment in these natural worlds. Be it rock or plant, bird or tree, or even the bacteria within the soil, everything occupies a vital place in the dance of life.
~ Michael Lindfield
Blue Heron – photo by TAO Photography, used with permission
I’m always astonished by a forest. It makes me realise that the fantasy of nature is much larger than my own fantasy. I still have things to learn.
~ Gunter Grass
Moore Cove Falls, NC – photo by Jeff Burcher Photography, used with permission
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence. To understand the true nature of the universe, one must think it terms of energy, frequency and vibration.
~ Nikola Tesla
Grand Canyon – photo by Gary Hart Photography, used with permission
