The Abundancetrek Blog: Nature

Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 264

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is the final post on the style of The Way of Nature (for now) as we continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process created by Edward Bastian. There are 4 more styles to explore. Prayer is next, followed by Reason, Relationships and Wisdom. Soon we will move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven.

+ My friend Naomi Kelly submitted this post. Nature is one of her primary spiritual styles. She often shares photos & reflections & questions for us on the Weaving Home Facebook page and the Weaving Home website. She took the photo of the rock in this post.

Walking in the woods can be a heavenly experience. Recently we took the familiar walk around Moss Lake, yes there were a lot of people camping, walking, recreating, but the forest is so vast that in minutes you can be alone with hardly a sound of civilization. The path looms ahead of you arched with pine, birch, maple - tree after tree. A tree was even growing on top of a rock. Up hill and down hill, crossing a brook that feeds into the lake, ferns, witch hobble, lichens and moss are everywhere that the eye takes time to look upon. At noon, you can hear the Eagle Bay fire siren reminding you to eat, distant voices and laughter are heard here and there, but other than that when you are far enough from the road you think you’re in a very secluded place. When you listen in stillness, there is the haunting sound of the wood thrush, a few chickadees, and above all there is peace.

There are huge rocks along the trail, and you wonder where did they come from, how did they get there? The answer is they were pushed in place by the huge glacier that covered the whole area in the last ice age which receded about ten thousand years ago. Ancient rocks, rocks of ages, it is awesome to think of how long they’ve been there, and how long you have not. John Wilde’s words to mind:

We are

intimately,

intricately,

infinitely

connected

by a matrix of

unconditional,

unlimited,

uniting

LOVE

which is

miraculous,

mysterious and

marvelous.

and that we, like the rocks are made up of star dust. We have our heavenliness in common.

The hush of the forest whispers many stories, that we have passed this way before, that this is new, that we are a part of something that is much bigger than we think, that we are known intimately. We drink in the quiet, we let is surround us and in that present moment we are experiencing heavenliness.

-- Naomi Kelly

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

+ The 7 steps of InterSpiritual Meditation by Edward Bastian are listed in SE21 and SE213. They are described fully in his book, InterSpiritual Meditation.

+ To get inspired and illuminated by Ed Bastian, I invite you to set aside some time for these videos: Seven Steps of InterSpiritual Meditation (11 minutes) | 15 minute introduction to InterSpiritual Meditation and the Mandala Process | 2 hour lecture & conversation

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice. And, I have work to do on my Heavenliness page. Maybe you can help. Send an email with the subject “Heavenliness” or “Love” or “Guest Post” to John@abundancetrek.com.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 263

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is a post on the style of The Way of Nature as we continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process created by Edward Bastian. There are 5 more styles to explore and then we will move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven.

+ 3 quotes tweeted by @fredericbrussat on October 22, 2015:

Look deep into nature and you will understand everything.

-- Albert Einstein

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

+ Related closely to that last one is the Spiritual Practice of the Day offered by Spirituality & Practice on October 28, 2015:

[This is] what the Sioux Chief said when the tribe was watching the white men takes riches out of the Black Hills. "The whites think they are getting rich by digging in the hills, but the Sioux are rich from looking at the hills.

— Joyce Sequichie Hifler in When the Night Bird Sings by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

To Practice This Thought: Do something to protect the richness of nature.

+ That’s an order .. for you, for me, for everyone.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 262

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ I had assumed that the Earth, the spirit of the Earth, noticed exceptions -- those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the Earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.

-- Alice Walker

This was the Gratefulness Word for the Day on November 2, 2015

+ I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.

-- E.B. White in Letters of E. B. White

+ Abundance is one of my favorite words as you might have guessed. But I often modify the word with “sustainable.” Abundance is our birthright but not just for the privileged on the planet. Also, it is definitely the birthright of future generations. We must make this realization a priority. We are not doing nearly enough to protect and preserve the abundance of our planet. In fact we are reducing the abundance by our actions day by day. We can sustain abundance. We must reverse the current course of our global politics which sometimes talk the talk and sometimes even walks the walk but not nearly enough.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 261

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ I was on a train on a rainy day. The train was slowing down to pull into a station. For some reason I became intent on watching the raindrops on the window. Two separate drops, pushed by the wind, merged into one for a moment and then divided again - each carrying with it a part of the other. Simply by that momentary touching, neither was what it had been before. And as each went on to touch other raindrops, it shared not only itself, but what it had gleaned from the other. I realized then that we never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace. Our state of being matters to those around us, so we need to become conscious of what we unintentionally share so we can learn to share with intention.

-- Peggy Tabor Millan in Mary's Way

This was the OneSpirit Daily Inspiration on November 19, 2015.

+ Nature has a lot to teach us. Paying attention to all aspects and to every little thing offers enormous benefits for each of us and for others, even all others. Therefore it is both a privilege and an obligation to pay attention and to share as much as we can with the rest of our fellow creatures. Let us renew our intention to share with intention through our relationship with the amazing natural world we inhabit.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 260

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is a post on the style of The Way of Nature as we continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process. There are 5 more styles to explore and then we will move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven.

+ The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried up at once; a shower is always falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

-- John Muir

+ All wilderness seems to be of tricks and plans to drive and draw us up into God's light.

-- John Muir in Pilgrim Heart by Sarah York

This was the Spirituality & Practice Daily Quotation for November 22 2015.

+ Here is an excerpt from the S&P review of John Muir: America’s Naturalist by Mary Ann & Frederic Brussat:

Muir was born in Scotland and raised in Wisconsin, but his soul came fully alive when he arrived in Yosemite, California. There the beauty of the meadows and the groves of ancient trees took his breath away, and he was never the same. Locker best conveys Muir's attitude of wonder in a painting of him standing on the limbs high up in a Douglas fir. What is he doing there? Trying to experience the full shock and glory of a storm.

Mary Ann & Frederic Brussat point out that Muir loved the wild in wilderness. I think we all do whether we admit or not. Nature’s ability to shock is associated with its glory. We are better off when we surrender to the force of nature because the ways of nature are often (always?) better than the ways we humans think we can control it. The more we try to control it, the greater the shock and even the destruction of much of our environment because we really do not know better.

+ I took the photo of Yosemite Falls in June, 1976.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 259

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.

-- Terry Tempest Williams from Talking to God: Portrait of a World at Prayer (anthology)

This was the Gratefulness Word for the Day on February 18, 2015

+ Holiness is the ninth of the 12 practices we are exploring. The word saint comes from the same root. You are holy. You are a saint. You shimmer and shine and whisper and wave. We are in this together with every molecule, every atom, every star, every galaxy, every blade of grass. Can you get in touch with something very natural today? A blade of grass might work. So many other possibilities.

Enjoy being holy. Enjoy being a saint. Enjoy the unfolding process of this holy creation which not only includes you but needs you, wants you, cherishes you. You are fantastic. You are wonderful. You are holy. Yes, YOU are.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 258

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.

-- John Muir

+ Trees and plants bring the magnificence of heaven to the human spirit.

-- Tachibanano Toshitsuna

+ Maybe I have said this before:

We are intimately, intricately, infinitely connected by a matrix of unconditional, unlimited, uniting Love which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.

This becomes more real to us as we immerse ourselves in the natural world and natural universe which we have only begun to really understand. Love makes the world go round. Love awakens us to all there is and there is so much more than we ordinarily perceive. Maybe I have said this before:

There is stuff going on in your mind right now which is far more amazing than what you are thinking right now.

So, go ahead, “tug at a single thing in nature” and be amazed at the “magnificence of heaven” we can always enjoy as we become increasingly awake, aware and connected.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 257

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

-- Rachel Carson

+ Sometimes it really is a good idea to remember how tiny we are in this vast universe. We even live in a possibly tiny solar system on a possibly very tiny planet. And each one of us is tiny on that planet. Humility is something that wise teachers emphasize again and again. So, I invite you to use nature as a way to practice humility, the second of the 12 practices we are exploring. Also, use nature for the joy of simply wondering about this heavenly realm so full of color and texture and taste and nourishment and beauty of all kinds. Joy is the second of 9 heavenly attributes soon to be explored.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html

Monday, August 22, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 256

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ Anyone who has some knowledge of mysticism and of the lives of the mystics knows that what always attracts the mystic most is nature. Nature is his bread and wine. Nature is his soul's nourishment. Nature inspires him, uplifts him and gives him the solitude for which his soul continually longs. Every soul born with a mystical tendency is constantly drawn towards nature; in nature that soul finds its life's demand, as it is said in the Vadan, 'Art is dear to my heart, but nature is near to my soul'. ... Nature does not teach the glory of God; it need not teach this as nature itself is the glory of God.

-- Hazrat Inayat Khan

What appeals to us in being near to nature is nature's music, and nature's music is more perfect than that of art. It gives us a sense of exaltation to be moving about in the woods, and to be looking at the green; to be standing near the running water, which has its rhythm, its tone and its harmony. The swinging of the branches in the forest, the rising and falling of the waves, all has its music. And once we contemplate and become one with nature our hearts open to its music.

-- Hazrat Inayat Khan

+ As in the previous post, this is Hazrat Inayat Khan explaining the importance of nature because nature is indeed nothing less than “the glory of God.” God is revealed in this wonderful creation we see, hear, touch, taste everywhere and at all times. We are part of this glorious reality. It is heavenly. It is now. It is here. We are called to create and enjoy this glorious reality, finding ways to expand compassion, peace, justice and sustainable abundance for all. When we do this we are expressing our true nature, our real identity, as a heavenly being. It is simply natural that we do this.

+ So much of this great teacher’s writings can be found at Wahiduddin’s Web including a daily Bowl of Saki.

+ The Sufis have a long history of representing the mystical dimension of the Islamic wisdom tradition. I think it is fair to say that they pioneered InterSpirituality long before the term was invented by Wayne Teasdale. I love the idea that we all share sacred scripture because we all have this amazing Book of Nature which ultimately reveals all truth to us.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 255

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader.

Most people consider as sacred scriptures only certain books or scrolls written by the hand of man, and carefully preserved as holy, to be handed down to posterity as divine revelation. Men have fought and disputed over the authenticity of these books, have refused to accept any other book of similar character, and, clinging thus to the book and losing the sense of it, have formed diverse sects. The Sufi has in all ages respected all such books, and has traced in the Vedanta, Zend-Avesta, Kabbala, Bible, Quran, and all other sacred scriptures, the same truth which he reads in the incorruptible manuscript of nature, the only Holy Book, the perfect and living model that teaches the inner law of life: all scriptures before nature's manuscript are as little pools of water before the ocean.

To the eye of the seer every leaf of the tree is a page of the holy book that contains divine revelation, and he is inspired every moment of his life by constantly reading and understanding the holy script of nature.

When man writes, he inscribes characters upon rock, leaf, paper, wood, or steel. When God writes, the characters He writes are living creatures.

It is when the eye of the soul is opened and the sight is keen that the Sufi can read the divine law in the manuscript of nature; and that which the teachers of humanity have taught to their followers was derived by them from the same source. They expressed what little it is possible to express in words, and so they preserved the inner truth when they themselves were no longer there to reveal it.

This is one of the Ten Sufi Thoughts of Hazrat Inayat Khan which are fully developed in a web page on The Way of Illumination. So much of this great teacher’s writings can be found at Wahiduddin’s Web including a daily Bowl of Saki.

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 254

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF HEAVENLINESS

+ This is the first post on the style of The Way of Nature as we continue to explore Heavenliness through the lens of the 12 styles of the Mandala process. There are 5 more styles to explore and then we will move on to the 9 Attributes of Heaven.

+ On the Style of The Naturalist: The Way of Nature, Ed Bastian writes:

The Naturalist is most at ease when surrounded by nature, whether in the forest, the desert, the plains, the mountains, streams, lakes or the oceans of the natural environment, in harmony with all the shared elements of existence.

· Is your connection with nature sacred?

· Do you regard nature as your place of worship?

· Do you feel a special affinity with animals or plants?

· Do you feel tranquility, oneness or inter-being when immersed in the natural world?

IT IS STRANGE AND TRAGIC that so many have come to see themselves as separate from nature. And even when they admit that they are a part of nature, many still insist that they are at the top of the evolutionary ladder, a superior species, chosen by God (or Darwin) to be in charge of all the other minerals, plants, and animals of the Earth. This bias toward human superiority can be found in many of the world’s religious, philosophical and scientific traditions. Fortunately, within these same traditions, are other voices that lead us back into sacred communion with nature—the mother of us all.

+ As a pastor, how many times have I heard someone say something like: “My sanctuary is the great out-of-doors” and therefore , no need to come to church to communicate with God. What could I say? Not much. I mean how could any sermon I preach compare with the sound of the breeze or rippling water or birds chirping or the sight of the blue sky or the canopy of stars and planets and moon at night?

+ The 12 styles of Mandala: Creating An Authentic Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process by Edward Bastian are listed in SE206.

Friday, June 17, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 178

WE ARE EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF SIMPLICITY

+ In her book Choosing Simplicity, Linda Breen Pierce offers a list of common lifestyle patterns in people who live simply:

1. Limiting material possessions to what is needed and/or cherished.

2. Meaningful work, whether paid or volunteer, ideally spending no more than 30 hours per week (in order to make time for items #3 to 12, below).

3. Quality relationships with friends and family.

4. Joyful and pleasurable leisure activities.

5. A conscious and comfortable relationship with money.

6. Connection to community, but not necessarily in formal organizations.

7. Sustainable consumption practices.

8. Healthy living practices, including exercise, adequate sleep, and nutritious food.

9. Practices that foster personal growth, an inner life, or spirituality such as yoga, meditation, prayer, religious ceremonies, journal writing, and spiritually-related reading.

10. Connection to nature — delighting in spending time in nature regularly.

11. Aesthetic beauty in personal environment.

12. Living in harmony with values and integrity.

+ I will never forget hearing a friend describe what he encountered on a mission trip to Nicaragua in the 1980s. He said he had never seen such poverty in his life AND he had never seen such joy. Could it be that less really is better?

+ Spirituality & Practice offers a review of Choosing Simplicity by Linda Breen Pierce.

+ Simplicity is not one of the 37 Spirituality & Practice practices BUT put Simplicity in their Search Engine and you come up with 314 items including 117 quotes, 156 books, 11 practices, 9 teachers, 1 arts link, 11 e-courses, 7 films and 1 blog as of 6/4/16. Go to http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/search/?q=Simplicity

+ I would love it if you offered a guest post on this practice or any practice. And, I have work to do on my Simplicity Page. Maybe you can help. Send an email with the subject “Simplicity” or “Guest Post” to John@abundancetrek.com.

+ You can always find a link to any of the Spiritual Explorations posts by going to http://abundancetrek.com/sepostsaccess.html

The Abundancetrek Blog

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 264

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 263

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 262

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 261

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 260

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 259

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 258

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 257

Monday, August 22, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 256

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 255

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 254

Friday, June 17, 2016

SPIRITUAL EXPLORATIONS – 178

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