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Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Misty Greens – Chris Williams Exploration Photography, used with permission
The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited. Everything has its own voice. Thunder and lightening and stars and planets, flowers, birds, animals, trees – all these have voices, and they constitute a community of existence that is profoundly related.
~ Thomas Berry
Hawaii early morning – courtesy of Brad Scott Photography
Interdependence is not romantic, but its the truth of things that our lives have something to do with one another.
~ Sharon Salzberg
Colors of the Forest, courtesy of Lars van de Goor Photography Art, used with permission
The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. On this hoop there is a place for every species, every race, every tree and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet.
~Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota
Sunrise, Mt. Baker – photo by Marcel Pepin Photography, used with permission
I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, influencing each other, therefore parts of one organic whole.
~ Robinson Jeffers
Rialto Beach – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
Now and again, it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the Source of Life. Breathe in and let yourself soar to the ends of the Universe; breathe out and bring the Cosmos back inside. Next, breathe up all fecundity and vibrancy of the Earth. Finally, blend the breath of Heaven and the breath of Earth with your own, becoming the Breath of Life itself.
~ Morihei Ueshiba
Chinook Pass, Creek Valley, WA – photo by Chris Williams Exploration Photography, used with permission
At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons. There is nothing with which I am not linked.”
~ Carl Jung
Pacific Northwest – photo by KR Backwoods Photography, used with permission
The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark. Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb-time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.
~ John O’Donohue
Milky Way, photo by Mirwais Azami Photography – used with permission
Around us, life bursts with miracles–a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Upper Hoh Rainforest – courtesy of TAO Photography used with permission
Once we step into the reality of a holistic consciousness that is truly in “interrelationship” with the whole, we will find our self in a very different world in which everything is interacting with us in a continually dynamic state. Even our consciousness is affecting the physical world. The question then becomes what is our role in this truly interdependent reality? Even our present image of “deep ecology” primarily sees the world through a consciousness of separation – the analytic and rational framework of our education and conditioning. We rarely experience our consciousness merged into the oneness of the world around us, as for example exists with indigenous peoples for whom even the idea of an individual being separate from their environment does not exist.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Rialto Beach, photo by KR Backwoods Photography,used with permission
May all be well and secure,
May all beings be happy!
Whatever living creatures there be,
Without exception, weak or strong,
Long, huge or middle-sized,
Or short, minute or bulky,
Whether visible or invisible,
And those living far or near,
The born and those seeking birth,
May all beings be happy!
~Metta Sutta
Photo by TAO Photography, used with permission
If we approached rivers, mountains, dragonflies, redwoods and reptiles as if all are alive, intelligent, suffused with soul, imagination and purpose, what might the world become? Who would we become if we participated intentionally with such an animate Earth? Would the world quicken with life if we taught our children and ourselves! to sing and celebrate the stories embedded in the body of Earth, in the granite bones of mountains and rainy sky tears, in trembling volcanic bellies and green scented hills? What if we apprehended that by nourishing the land and creatures with generous praise and gratitude, with our remembrance or tears, we rejuvenate our own relationship with the wild Earth, and possibly revitalize the anima mundi or soul of the world?
~Geneen Marie Haugen
Quinault Rainforest – photo by Bob Stevens, Northsound Gallery – used with permission
We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields, and we ask that they teach us and show us the way.
~ Chinook Blessing Litany
Photograph by TAO Photography, used with permission
Once we acknowledge and then recognize the world as a living being with its own light, then we can be present where life comes into being, and it is here that we can participate, where our spiritual awareness can be present. Without this conscious awareness of creation as a living being, we stand on the periphery, an unconscious spectator of our own destiny and the destiny of the world. Taking responsibility for our planet does not mean just an ecological awareness, but a recognition that the light awakening in the world needs our presence and participation.
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.
