The Experience of Nature
Nature shows us how to live. It shares with us the intelligence, examples, and lessons we need to learn to live life more Truthfully.
Nature is our greatest spiritual teacher. A manifestation of a dynamic, interconnected system of energy. Unfolding in real time. It embodies the natural ways of the Universe.
We come across many natural places that have been destroyed and commercialized. Bull-dozed over for strip malls, parking lots, large hunks and swaths of concrete, and sterile flat lawns of grass and astroturf. Or parceled out and turned into developments or touristic theme parks. My heart breaks for what our planet has become. For I see it as a greater reflection of how we treat ourselves. Treating nature and ourselves as something to control, sterilize, exploit, consume, check off a list, and do. Rather than taking the time to feel and experience nature and each other for what we really are, not how it appears or is marketed. The severing of our selves from nature leads to the ultimate suffering of feeling alone and to the destruction of our land. When people destroy and abuse nature, people destroy and abuse themselves. Every time nature is destroyed, exploited or depleted, it is a reflection of what people do to themselves. Sometimes the way people treat each other and nature is like a cancer, because we don’t recognize ourselves in each other.
Nature is our constant companion. It can be easy to take it for granted, to overlook it, or to relegate it to the background. Or worse, to intentionally destroy, exploit, or violate it. Our relationship with nature is a reflection of our relationship with our natural selves. How we choose to perceive and experience it reflects our ability to clearly perceive and experience our selves. One can only perceive the treasure and wisdom of nature when one can recognize the treasure and wisdom of nature within.
After remembering and freeing my soul, I returned to my place in nature and it revealed to me all of its magic and secrets. I spent one year exploring the wild natural landscapes of Central and South America. I was oftentimes alone amongst the trees of the forest and jungle, the animals, the peaks of mountains, the fire of volcanoes, and the water of oceans and rivers. The energy of my soul reconected with the energy of nature, and together, it remembered unity. Being immersed in their presence, they spoke to me and I was able to listen,
When alone in nature, pure and free, this is where a person can feel fully alive. A space to just be, connected to all of life. Here, we remember our wild, natural selves—the energy that yearns to be bold and free. Where there are no societal controls, rules, and expectations. A place to freely be in peace. Where we can breathe, and the air is clean. Where we can listen, and it is calm. Where we can see, and what we see fills us with wonder and inspiration. Where we can feel, and what we feel is expansive and joyful. In this place, we are able to be present, connected, and nurtured. We can return to being a child to play and explore, knowing that all of nature is one big and free playground for all to enjoy. Nature is our safe space to simply be and re-connect. It nurtures us, supports us, and fills us with great inspiration and wonder. It is vitally important that we protect our natural safe spaces for our own and our collective wellbeing.
Nature is not separate. Nature is what we are.
Humans are a natural part of the Earth and the Universe. We are filled and bonded by the same web of energy that connects all life—people, animals, plants, trees, stars, etc. While some people have forgotten this symbiotic relationship, the severing of ties from nature only causes us pain that gets internalized and projected. In doing so, people close off to those ties of support, maintain a belief of superiority, control, and repression. Fear of wild, natural places, animals, and each other breed. But there is nothing to fear, as nature is what we are. And if we can heal the relationship to our inner nature, we will no longer be afraid of our selves and each other.
Nature is not ownable. Nature is wild and free.
Humans attempt to control, own, conquer, divide, destroy, exploit and abuse nature. But ultimately, nature can never truly be owned by humans. Humans are simply allowed to temporarily exist and be a part of nature’s network. Nature doesn’t belong to humans, it’s a system for all living beings. Nature does not know ownership, division, nor separation. It does not operate under human control mechanisms, or country and cultural lines. Nature is inherently a system, a network, informed only by higher intelligence of the energetic Universe. We see this operation of networks in the many examples found in nature. For example, the very tree you touch in your backyard is connected to all that grows in the ground via a larger mycelium network spanning half the width of the milky way galaxy. Nature is inherently free and wild, no matter what we do. And in our true nature, so are we, if we let it be free.
Nature is not finite. Nature is abundant.
Nature is energy. This energy is connected to the larger infinite energy network of the Universe. An infinite and abundant resource that is free-flowing when connected. We can look to nature to understand how to be nature, in all of its abundant ways of being and creation.
Nature is not to be feared. Nature is love.
There is no fear of nature when there is no fear of your natural being within.
When fear is shed, love can be realized as a way of being in life. We can simply look to nature to show us this way of being. Simply being in its presence can feel grounding, uplifting, loving and inspiring. This is the energy of love. It does not demand anything from us in exchange. And it does not expect anything from us to be a certain way. It simply accepts our presence as we are, if we come with pure intention of soul. Nature will always hold us in a way that reminds us we are its children, and we are its guardians. It is the greatest mother, nurturer, teacher, guide, and source of inspiration. It will always be there to support and love us unconditionally, to whomever needs and seeks it.
Nature is not a vacation. Nature is home.
Nature is our home as it is what we are. The concrete boxes disconnected from nature are not our homes. They are prisons that keep us disconnected and distracted from remembering our True home and self. Let our yearning to escape to nature serve as a call to remind us of the place our soul really yearns to be in.