My experience in nature shows me that I am a person who gets good feelings:
showing gratitude.
Connecting with people.
Living in the earth.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Nature Reconnecting Activity Chapt. 9
I went to a park across the street on a beautiful sunny day. I let my natural attractions lead me and asked permission to commune with the nature there. It was really a small forested area on the UNCG campus, yet felt surprisingly private and wild. I was feeling disconnected prior to the experience and was not feeling present at the outset. I noted that and went on with the exercise. I felt the now familiar answer to my question and proceeded. I was attracted to a spot of sun initially and ran straight into a spider web with the spider landing on my shoulder. I reacted spastic-ly and fearfully. I tried to brush the spider off and had some trouble doing that. I decided to go another way as I took that as a sign that I may have misinterpreted my attraction. I felt confused by this. When are my attractions really attractions? Maybe I’ve been wrangled too long to do this right now? I felt concern and a little hopeless. I followed another attraction back to the path and to a fallen tree with sun hitting it. I noticed that I feel a little distracted from feeling when I pay attention to my sight and that it looks sort of familiar. I am attracted to the beauty that I see and the complexity. I could see leaves and trees and plants illuminated and flowing in the breeze. I thanked my sight.
When I closed my eyes, I noticed sound much more intensely. I could feel nature much more intensely. My experience became subtler as I turned in place. Shadows had more value. I sensed a little fear of being hurt. I felt on guard. I felt there was value in having my eyes closed and having other senses come forward in my awareness. Certainly, I could value clouds for providing shade from the sun and protection from being seen as clearly or a sense of safety. As I turned in place the first sense I had was that it was rational to know that the sun was still shining, but I could also see it through my eyelids and feel it as just a sense of daytime. Certainly, night is cooler, but it has a feel to it as does day. I forget if that’s a specific sense of the 53 senses. I noticed that my shadow can provide safety for plants and animals that can be damaged by the sun or are vulnerable to predators that rely on sight. I felt myself as part of nature and that when standing still and just thinking about the assignment I felt a slight disconnection or unnaturalness. So, I began to move like the forest. I walked very slowly following my attraction to not being heard or rustling things. I felt the connection very strongly as I did this even though it probably looked a bit strange to another human. I stopped at a leaf that was being lit by the sun. I was especially attracted to it. I very slowly reached up to touch it. As my hand came close to it the leaf seemed to react by slowly vibrating. I pulled my hand away in shock. I wasn’t sure if it was real or if it was the wind. I did it again and again it moved up and down between my fingers: thumb on the bottom, fingers on the top. I was in awe of this. I felt no wind. I could see this happening. I could feel the leaf’s energy. I tried a different leaf with the same result. I continued to do this for several minutes. I felt like there was a chemical physical and emotional transference happening. I noticed that I was completely into that moment like I was meeting a new life form. It was awesome!
After I was thoroughly amazed at this leaf experience, I noticed that there is energy all around that is lit up by the sun, but not solely from being lit up. I notice the light but it has energy in the dark as well. I sensed that I overvalue light to dark based on fear of the dark, not on actual value. I get energy from the sun AND I recharge from sleep. The in breath and the out breath, day and night.
When I closed my eyes, I noticed sound much more intensely. I could feel nature much more intensely. My experience became subtler as I turned in place. Shadows had more value. I sensed a little fear of being hurt. I felt on guard. I felt there was value in having my eyes closed and having other senses come forward in my awareness. Certainly, I could value clouds for providing shade from the sun and protection from being seen as clearly or a sense of safety. As I turned in place the first sense I had was that it was rational to know that the sun was still shining, but I could also see it through my eyelids and feel it as just a sense of daytime. Certainly, night is cooler, but it has a feel to it as does day. I forget if that’s a specific sense of the 53 senses. I noticed that my shadow can provide safety for plants and animals that can be damaged by the sun or are vulnerable to predators that rely on sight. I felt myself as part of nature and that when standing still and just thinking about the assignment I felt a slight disconnection or unnaturalness. So, I began to move like the forest. I walked very slowly following my attraction to not being heard or rustling things. I felt the connection very strongly as I did this even though it probably looked a bit strange to another human. I stopped at a leaf that was being lit by the sun. I was especially attracted to it. I very slowly reached up to touch it. As my hand came close to it the leaf seemed to react by slowly vibrating. I pulled my hand away in shock. I wasn’t sure if it was real or if it was the wind. I did it again and again it moved up and down between my fingers: thumb on the bottom, fingers on the top. I was in awe of this. I felt no wind. I could see this happening. I could feel the leaf’s energy. I tried a different leaf with the same result. I continued to do this for several minutes. I felt like there was a chemical physical and emotional transference happening. I noticed that I was completely into that moment like I was meeting a new life form. It was awesome!
After I was thoroughly amazed at this leaf experience, I noticed that there is energy all around that is lit up by the sun, but not solely from being lit up. I notice the light but it has energy in the dark as well. I sensed that I overvalue light to dark based on fear of the dark, not on actual value. I get energy from the sun AND I recharge from sleep. The in breath and the out breath, day and night.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Connected To Nature At Heart: Part one: Buddhism and Nature
Connected To Nature At Heart
Part one: Buddhism and Nature
A single raindrop hits the water and creates concentric circular ripples extending outward. Another drop hits as the rain begins to fall. More and more drops and now the ripples flow through one another. More drops, countless drops, and it is raining so hard that the ripples are hard to distinguish. Constant changing from still to active and back to still. Two raindrops interact and, like fault lines, smash into each other creating different ripples than existed before. Each drop separate, separate ripples, yet interact to become one body of water. In time, the lakes, and rivers and oceans dry up and form somewhere else. Mountains emerge and crumble; people die and are born; species exist and they disappear. I am the raindrop. I am the fault line. I am the earthquake. I dry up and disappear and reform somewhere else.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that my life, this ego, understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, “I” die, yet “I” that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature; I am a drop of water falling from the sky, heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
(As a point of full disclosure, I am not a religious expert or an expert on Buddhism. I have spent a significant amount of time reading and practicing Buddhism, but I have never trained formally. I have an MSW, trained in self-relations therapy and generative trance – from Eriksonian hypnotherapy, and am in the PHD program for applied ecopsychology at the Institute for Global Education.)
Most all of the religious beliefs that I know of are fundamentally connected to nature. From Buddha to Muhammad to Jesus, it appears that humans are attracted to looking to nature as a guide. All of these religious figures spent significant time in the wilderness and describe the experience as a time when their spiritual beliefs took shape.
The way these religions practice can be very different and certainly the organizations that control these practices may have gotten away from nature, and even aligned their churches to be congruent with industrial culture that is focused on dominating and conquering nature. Yet, at the core of religious teaching of all kinds, it seems that nature is the main influence. Here we will see the ways that Buddism works hand in hand with ecopsychology and the practices of reconnecting with nature (RWN).
Buddhism teaches the idea that we are part of the cycle of life and death and that believing otherwise will lead to suffering. One definition of suffering as defined by Buddhists, is ignorance or a lack of awareness that all things are interconnected. The Buddhist perspective leads to a popular teaching of the Buddha, which is to “develop loving-kindness for the entire world”. This tenet of Buddhism leads to Buddhists having a “practical ethic of caring for our home”. The Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual leader of Tibet (a predominantly Buddhist country occupied by China since 1959) was included in the 1990 summit called: “Spirit and Nature: Religion, Ethics, and Environmental Crisis”. In his speech he describes many elements of Buddhism that intersect with the ideas of ecopsychology and the practices of RWN. One example is in his description of interdependence. He explains, “The meaning of interdependence is emptiness of independent existence. Precisely because things and events exist relatively and appear as having form, they are empty of independent existence.” He goes on to say that, “All things are heavily interdependent in creating our joy and happiness, in removing our suffering.” Certainly, we see here that the idea of interdependence, a basic tenet of Buddhism, is much like the webstrings described by Michael Cohen. In fact, Buddhists describe the lack of awareness of interdependence, or webstrings, as reality, leads to suffering. This lack of connection and experience with interdependence is the root of humanities problems. This idea is very different from the western cultural idea that we can and need to conquer nature and be independent from nature.
Independence, as an ideal, has become extremely prevalent in western culture. So much so, that dependence is now perceived as an obstacle to be overcome at any cost. Those who lose that battle are often considered a problem to be dealt with. There are people who have become dependent in this polarized way of living and, as a result, suffer greatly. Whether one is operating from an overdeveloped sense of independence and dependence, suffering occurs when we lose contact with the ever-present reality of interdependence. The issue of polarized independence/dependence is what Cohen describes as Isolated Delusion. He explains that, “In our nature-disconnected, mentally isolated state we convince ourselves that we are wiser than nature but the deteriorated state of the environment and society tell a different story.” Nature connecting produces good feelings of dependence and interdependence in each of us that leads to caring for our home (planet earth) and all of the natural things that live here. Interdependence is a reality that seems undeniable. Without the planet, all things that live here would perish. In the Dali Llama’s speech he states the Buddhist position on this issue. “We have no other planet, no other house, except this one. …Therefore, we have to take care of our own place. This is not something special or holy. This is just a practical fact.” It is becoming more and more apparent to humans that if we choose not to heed this practical fact, we will perish. Our lack of thinking in connection with nature is at the root of continuing down this suicidal path. Thinking in connection with nature is what applied ecopsychology teaches and is the essential element of RWN.
We are taught in Western and other nature-conquering cultures to believe that the way we live is the one true reality. We are taught to believe there is no other way to live and that this way of life is under attack by outside forces (people who believe otherwise, and nature). Unlike the ways that nature-conquering cultures think, Buddhism has a different way of viewing reality that leads one to nature connected thinking. This includes, at its core, the idea of interdependence, as well as being open to alternate ways of viewing reality that are not based on our cultural story. Buddhism invites you to “see for yourself”. There are many practices in Buddhism that open the possibility that reality is not what we were trained to think it was. What we thought was concretely real was really more of an act or drama that we were trained to believe was reality. It seems that when the words “everything is an illusion” are spoken by Buddhist’s, they lose some people in the translation. Alan Watts described this in a way that is possibly more relatable by describing that “when we say life is an illusion, it’s more like life is a play as in theater, like we are actors playing at life and when we understand that, we can see more clearly how not being aware of this causes suffering or ignorance of the true nature of reality”. Another way to describe this is that what we live with and create our story everyday. Nature conquering stories include the ideal of total independence and disconnection from the webstrings of life. Webstrings are the invisible connections that hold all natural things together. When this is applied to an ecopsychology perspective we see an intersection of ideas, in that, when we are RWN, we are contacting the true nature of reality, which is nature itself. Nature is interdependent. When we reconnect with nature, we can have an awareness of the cultural “plays” or stories that we are part of and how different that is from nature. We can become aware of how connected, or disconnected, we are to the web of life and the webstrings that unite us.
The human development of language has given us the ability to create a stories as a means of understanding what is happening to us. Creating stories can be a helpful way to understand our experiences as long as it is understood as a story and not a universal truth or the true nature of reality. Our stories, or constructs as they are sometimes called, help us remember what has happened and attaches meaning to the experiences we live through. These stories also become the lens through which we see the experiences that have happened, continue to happen, and will potentially happen. From birth, we attach meaning to experiences, which creates our personal and collective stories that influence our perceptions of experiences currently happening and experiences that have yet to happen. According to the Dali Llama, “In appearance, we see the world of existence and experience. In essence, all those things are empty of intrinsic reality, of independent existence”. This is to say, that in reality, like with nature, all things are interdependent and cannot be understood accurately from the viewpoint of independence.
As I write this, I am struck with the reality that I am creating a story to understand my experiences with Buddhism as they relate to nature and ecopsychology, which are both stories. From my perspective, these stories are to be understood as stories and are in no way a replacement for direct experience with nature. The only way to make direct contact with nature, or reality, is to be in nature, connecting and realizing/experiencing/sensing/feeling the webstrings that connect all things. This experience is what Buddhists call enlightenment.
Buddhist practices are about having direct experience with reality. This means that the meditative practices and the words that explain these practices are designed to inspire direct experience with what is in that moment. The practice of RWN is essentially the same. As one reconnects with nature, all else seems to fall away and direct experience occurs. This is often experienced as a trance state that offers the ability to learn directly from nature of which we are a part. An example of an intersection between Buddhist meditation and RWN practice is an experience I had doing a RWN activity:
“I did this activity at the beach. I am always attracted to the ocean. I started to name all of the Natural Attraction Senses that are connected to the ocean and in a few moments I felt this singular focus where everything else faded into the background. It is exactly like being in a trance. I could feel the connection to the ocean and all of its senses. I asked the ocean: “What do I do now?”
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like ‘more of what you are doing’ and ‘use all your senses’ and ‘follow your heart’. It was all sort of saying: “you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.”
It is often the case that people feel a lack of support in the context of communication or that communication leads to feeling/sensing a lack of support or defensiveness. The Zen Buddhist, gestalt, and existential idea of phenomenology as the way humans experience life is similar to the ideas of RWN. Phenomenology is the idea that humans experience reality as “their story” that can only fully be known by that person. Phenomenology helps to illuminate the importance of valuing personal truth. When we attempt to connect across this seemingly great divide of personal experience, we seem to become ever more lost and misunderstood. One of the main reasons for this disconnection is the development and use of language and the limitations it presents for describing ineffable experiences. Zen Buddhism focuses its practice of meditation on quieting the mind, not being attached (clinging) or attaching to thoughts, and not speaking during meditation for long periods of time in the presence of other people. People who practice meditation in this way will tell you that they feel/sense a communication with other people in the room as well as nature. They often report that they feel more connected and understood in this context.
Connecting with nature is very similar to this, especially with regard to the importance of communicating non-verbally with nature, which does not seem to have a language like humans. Often people who practice Reconnecting With Nature will report that they feel more connected and understood when they are communicating with nature. More often than not this leads to feeling more connected to and understood by other people. Although language does not always seem to improve our connections with each other and can get in the way of connecting, when done mindfully and/or in connection with nature, it seems to have more satisfying results.
In addition to the phenomenological perspective, we can see that diversity is valued in nature in that nature seems to constantly create more diversity-- more complexity. It does not support or move toward monoculture or a fixed view of “reality”. This would lead one to understand that there are diverse ways for people to access the intelligence of nature. It seems that limiting the ways we think to a particular dogma that is not based on personal experience with nature can lead to the being disconnected from nature. As with Buddhism, nature-connecting practices encourages the individual to go out and experience for the world for themselves and not to limit their thinking to a particular dogma. Buddhism is grounded in the philosophy that the experiences that one has, when understood in the context of nature, will lead to enlightenment. Buddhism does not require a person to believe a certain version of “reality”. The practices of Buddhism will lead a person to their own truth. For example, if a person meditates (sits or walks mindfully and paying attention to their thoughts, feelings, and senses), they can have an experience that leads them to see and experience their own nature and find their own truth. Much like Reconnecting With Nature, the Buddhist practice of meditation was created to find personal truth and in this quest tend to find more universal learning. When we reconnect with nature, it seems to provide universal teachings on life that are shared by those who participate in this practice.
When we reconnect with nature, we understand our relationship with all things. According to Michael Cohen, “People's relationship to Planet Earth is like our leg's relationship to our body. We are ecologically a product and likeness of nature, sharing "one breath" with all species. In each immediate moment of our lives exists the unadulterated creation process of the natural world.” Conversely, when we live disconnected from nature, we only understand life through our cultural lenses. In this light, meanings we take from experience are understood only in the ways our culture has trained us to think. Buddhism also recognizes this issue with thinking and provides teachings and practices to go beyond thoughts. One Buddhist practitioner suggests that we view thoughts as clouds drifting by in the sky. Another suggests that we let our thoughts happen and then let them float away as the next thought comes, recognizing that they are only thoughts and not reality. Buddhism has a similar way of describing the issues with disconnected thinking that lead to misunderstanding reality as Steve Gilligan who said, “the issue seems not to be with the thoughts or feelings specifically, but more the disconnection between the mind and the heart. When connected the heart and mind are interactively flowing and informing one another like an elevator that can go up and down between heart and mind freely.” He goes on to describe this state as natural and that in this state the person is connected to all of their personal and inherent resources. This seems very similar to Reconnecting With Nature in that when we reconnect to nature we sense and feel a congruence of heart and mind that leads to contacting all of our natural abilities. This was written while doing a Reconnecting With Nature activity: “Have you ever noticed how trees sway in the wind at the top and are solid and planted, unmoving at the base? I find this to be an apt analogy for mind/body. My mind can sway this way and that as it's blown by the environment, while my body is grounded and planted in the earth.” This seems to be a good example of how RWN helps to enliven the mind/body(heart) connection. Buddhism often looks to the body as a way to reconnect with our senses and our senses can lead us to a balanced understanding of our thoughts.
In Buddhism, the body is often a starting place for placing attention and a place to come back to for regaining the sense of grounded-ness. In his article “Coming Home to the Body”, Norman Fischer, a Zen Buddhist teacher, says, “In the Adhidharma, the Buddhist psychological teachings, the body is called ‘the soil in which understanding grows’.” The body is important in Reconnecting With Nature because it is the physical manifestation of nature and holds all of our natural abilities. Our senses, including our nervous system that is connected to our skin and all of our nerves, are how we make direct contact with our environment. The body can teach us and help us understand many things in connection with nature. This is an experience that someone had while connecting with nature:
“I realized recently that I was attracted to running only on nature so I began to run on people’s lawns until I got to the park. Before that I had always had body aches and knee swelling that I was taking ibuprofen regularly to help with. Now that I run primarily on and in nature, I have very few aches and no knee swelling. I no longer take ibuprofen!”
This was an understanding and learning that occurred directly from connecting with nature and listening to the body. Another experience enlightened the practitioner to his deeper connection with the earth and ways that he had been trained by his culture that were not accurate. He described this by saying “I could feel the earth systems in my body and I sensed the truth of connection. I noticed peripherally the lack of congruency of this experience with industrial life.” Fischer goes on to say, “When the sense organs receive stimulation, a world springs into view as chemical and electrical reactions in the brain and nervous system give rise to thoughts, emotions, intentions, experiences. Without making any complicated or belabored effort, I can naturally desire, move, act in this world.” So, the body and all of its senses and abilities are utilized similarly in both Buddhist and Reconnecting With Nature practices.
Pema Chodron, one of the leading meditation teachers and a Tibetan monk, describes a Buddhist idea called Shenpa. She defines Shenpa as the experience of being hooked and then stuck by a feeling about experience. It is also described as the urge to do something that is harmful to you or anything that threatens your ego. It is not thought, but more like emotion or compulsion and even pre-verbal pre-emotion. Shenpa usually is something that we want to move away from, which is usually done by actively harming ourselves or others. This is very similar to the descriptions of being disconnected from nature. The response to Shenpa often produces ruptures in relationships, abuse of self or others, and these things are what lead to war, runaway garbage, lack of sustainable ways of living on the earth, and abuse. Shenpa leads to most of the problems we have in our way of living in the world today. Shenpa can be seen as clinging to desire and fear. In Reconnecting With Nature activities that are part of applied ecopsychology, we see how similar kinds of Shenpa come up and how RWN activities help to heal or reduce the negative effects of these Shenpa.
Like Natural Systems Thinking Process (the thinking process that is part of Reconnecting With Nature), Buddhism applies its principles and subsequent “therapy” or practices (meditation) to the human condition and seems to draw upon Nature’s intelligence as a guide. Connection with all things in an altruistic and compassionate way is one description of Buddha Nature or enlightenment. This is basically the same idea as being part of the Web Strings as is described in NSTP. Web Strings are the idea that all things in nature are connected by strings of energy and are interdependent. Interestingly, it’s called Buddha NATURE. The word Buddha is not a reference to a particular person per se. It refers to a state of being connected to all things, or in other words nature. It is no accident that the word nature is in the description used by Buddhists to describe enlightenment. Enlightenment is the connection to all things without clinging to fear or desire, in an altruistic and compassionate state. It is also referred to as emptiness or egoless-ness, which is like the felt sense of being connected to nature and the web strings.
Buddhism is highly concerned with interpersonal relationships in part because we are relational beings. Buddhism considers humans to be relational beings and therefore, highly social and concerned with relationships. According to Gregory Kramer, a long time meditation teacher, “We experience interpersonal suffering because we are essentially relational beings: our minds seek to grasp and hold, while the social life that touches us is full of uncontrollable changes.” Our interpersonal relationships go back all the way to our birth and lead to the creation of our sense of or understanding of self, whether it is a healthy or unhealthy sense. Humans are born dependent on others and will literally die if totally devoid of love. Therefore, the relationships that we have from birth are essential to how we become who we are. In the Buddhist tradition there are many practices that are designed to increase positive relational bonds between people and promote ways of healing from damaging relationships. This is also true of Reconnecting With Nature practices. Both utilize the interdependent nature of reality as a means for helping people to foster more compassionate relationships. Both practices also help us to see that when we are disconnected from nature and reliant on the ego, or independence, we tend to react to the environment and relationships defensively, which leads to all kinds of suffering. According to Kramer, ”Knowing this we are invited onto a path of discovery.” As the Buddha put it, “suffering leads either to derangement or to investigation’.”
One of the most prominent similarities Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism share is that in exploring and investigating Nature (or, the true nature of things) we find that we are attracted to happiness and not attracted to suffering. The Dali Llama said, "Stemming from that innate sense of self, there is an innate desire to enjoy happiness and overcome suffering. And this is something that is innate in all beings. I believe it is a natural phenomenon." According to Michael Cohen, "We are born of Nature.” He goes on to say, “Our good experiences in nature demonstrate that all living things, including our planet and us, enjoy attractive optimums of life, cooperation, diversity and health when they are nurtured by the streaming and replenishing cycles of nature." People who share their experiences with Buddhism and Reconnecting With Nature most often discover the intrinsic attraction to happiness and attraction to reducing suffering. Both Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have developed practices that help the practitioner reconnect with our in-born innate sense of connection with nature. In the spirit of self-discovery, both Buddhism and RWN suggest and encourage those interested in these practices to simply see for themselves. How could it be destructive or harmful in any way to go outside and follow what is attractive to you in nature? How could it be harmful to anyone to have the intention of compassion and altruism to all natural things? These are the basic tenets of RWN and Buddhism. Best of all, you can decide for yourself.
By Randy Seals
Part one: Buddhism and Nature
A single raindrop hits the water and creates concentric circular ripples extending outward. Another drop hits as the rain begins to fall. More and more drops and now the ripples flow through one another. More drops, countless drops, and it is raining so hard that the ripples are hard to distinguish. Constant changing from still to active and back to still. Two raindrops interact and, like fault lines, smash into each other creating different ripples than existed before. Each drop separate, separate ripples, yet interact to become one body of water. In time, the lakes, and rivers and oceans dry up and form somewhere else. Mountains emerge and crumble; people die and are born; species exist and they disappear. I am the raindrop. I am the fault line. I am the earthquake. I dry up and disappear and reform somewhere else.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that my life, this ego, understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, “I” die, yet “I” that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature; I am a drop of water falling from the sky, heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
(As a point of full disclosure, I am not a religious expert or an expert on Buddhism. I have spent a significant amount of time reading and practicing Buddhism, but I have never trained formally. I have an MSW, trained in self-relations therapy and generative trance – from Eriksonian hypnotherapy, and am in the PHD program for applied ecopsychology at the Institute for Global Education.)
Most all of the religious beliefs that I know of are fundamentally connected to nature. From Buddha to Muhammad to Jesus, it appears that humans are attracted to looking to nature as a guide. All of these religious figures spent significant time in the wilderness and describe the experience as a time when their spiritual beliefs took shape.
The way these religions practice can be very different and certainly the organizations that control these practices may have gotten away from nature, and even aligned their churches to be congruent with industrial culture that is focused on dominating and conquering nature. Yet, at the core of religious teaching of all kinds, it seems that nature is the main influence. Here we will see the ways that Buddism works hand in hand with ecopsychology and the practices of reconnecting with nature (RWN).
Buddhism teaches the idea that we are part of the cycle of life and death and that believing otherwise will lead to suffering. One definition of suffering as defined by Buddhists, is ignorance or a lack of awareness that all things are interconnected. The Buddhist perspective leads to a popular teaching of the Buddha, which is to “develop loving-kindness for the entire world”. This tenet of Buddhism leads to Buddhists having a “practical ethic of caring for our home”. The Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual leader of Tibet (a predominantly Buddhist country occupied by China since 1959) was included in the 1990 summit called: “Spirit and Nature: Religion, Ethics, and Environmental Crisis”. In his speech he describes many elements of Buddhism that intersect with the ideas of ecopsychology and the practices of RWN. One example is in his description of interdependence. He explains, “The meaning of interdependence is emptiness of independent existence. Precisely because things and events exist relatively and appear as having form, they are empty of independent existence.” He goes on to say that, “All things are heavily interdependent in creating our joy and happiness, in removing our suffering.” Certainly, we see here that the idea of interdependence, a basic tenet of Buddhism, is much like the webstrings described by Michael Cohen. In fact, Buddhists describe the lack of awareness of interdependence, or webstrings, as reality, leads to suffering. This lack of connection and experience with interdependence is the root of humanities problems. This idea is very different from the western cultural idea that we can and need to conquer nature and be independent from nature.
Independence, as an ideal, has become extremely prevalent in western culture. So much so, that dependence is now perceived as an obstacle to be overcome at any cost. Those who lose that battle are often considered a problem to be dealt with. There are people who have become dependent in this polarized way of living and, as a result, suffer greatly. Whether one is operating from an overdeveloped sense of independence and dependence, suffering occurs when we lose contact with the ever-present reality of interdependence. The issue of polarized independence/dependence is what Cohen describes as Isolated Delusion. He explains that, “In our nature-disconnected, mentally isolated state we convince ourselves that we are wiser than nature but the deteriorated state of the environment and society tell a different story.” Nature connecting produces good feelings of dependence and interdependence in each of us that leads to caring for our home (planet earth) and all of the natural things that live here. Interdependence is a reality that seems undeniable. Without the planet, all things that live here would perish. In the Dali Llama’s speech he states the Buddhist position on this issue. “We have no other planet, no other house, except this one. …Therefore, we have to take care of our own place. This is not something special or holy. This is just a practical fact.” It is becoming more and more apparent to humans that if we choose not to heed this practical fact, we will perish. Our lack of thinking in connection with nature is at the root of continuing down this suicidal path. Thinking in connection with nature is what applied ecopsychology teaches and is the essential element of RWN.
We are taught in Western and other nature-conquering cultures to believe that the way we live is the one true reality. We are taught to believe there is no other way to live and that this way of life is under attack by outside forces (people who believe otherwise, and nature). Unlike the ways that nature-conquering cultures think, Buddhism has a different way of viewing reality that leads one to nature connected thinking. This includes, at its core, the idea of interdependence, as well as being open to alternate ways of viewing reality that are not based on our cultural story. Buddhism invites you to “see for yourself”. There are many practices in Buddhism that open the possibility that reality is not what we were trained to think it was. What we thought was concretely real was really more of an act or drama that we were trained to believe was reality. It seems that when the words “everything is an illusion” are spoken by Buddhist’s, they lose some people in the translation. Alan Watts described this in a way that is possibly more relatable by describing that “when we say life is an illusion, it’s more like life is a play as in theater, like we are actors playing at life and when we understand that, we can see more clearly how not being aware of this causes suffering or ignorance of the true nature of reality”. Another way to describe this is that what we live with and create our story everyday. Nature conquering stories include the ideal of total independence and disconnection from the webstrings of life. Webstrings are the invisible connections that hold all natural things together. When this is applied to an ecopsychology perspective we see an intersection of ideas, in that, when we are RWN, we are contacting the true nature of reality, which is nature itself. Nature is interdependent. When we reconnect with nature, we can have an awareness of the cultural “plays” or stories that we are part of and how different that is from nature. We can become aware of how connected, or disconnected, we are to the web of life and the webstrings that unite us.
The human development of language has given us the ability to create a stories as a means of understanding what is happening to us. Creating stories can be a helpful way to understand our experiences as long as it is understood as a story and not a universal truth or the true nature of reality. Our stories, or constructs as they are sometimes called, help us remember what has happened and attaches meaning to the experiences we live through. These stories also become the lens through which we see the experiences that have happened, continue to happen, and will potentially happen. From birth, we attach meaning to experiences, which creates our personal and collective stories that influence our perceptions of experiences currently happening and experiences that have yet to happen. According to the Dali Llama, “In appearance, we see the world of existence and experience. In essence, all those things are empty of intrinsic reality, of independent existence”. This is to say, that in reality, like with nature, all things are interdependent and cannot be understood accurately from the viewpoint of independence.
As I write this, I am struck with the reality that I am creating a story to understand my experiences with Buddhism as they relate to nature and ecopsychology, which are both stories. From my perspective, these stories are to be understood as stories and are in no way a replacement for direct experience with nature. The only way to make direct contact with nature, or reality, is to be in nature, connecting and realizing/experiencing/sensing/feeling the webstrings that connect all things. This experience is what Buddhists call enlightenment.
Buddhist practices are about having direct experience with reality. This means that the meditative practices and the words that explain these practices are designed to inspire direct experience with what is in that moment. The practice of RWN is essentially the same. As one reconnects with nature, all else seems to fall away and direct experience occurs. This is often experienced as a trance state that offers the ability to learn directly from nature of which we are a part. An example of an intersection between Buddhist meditation and RWN practice is an experience I had doing a RWN activity:
“I did this activity at the beach. I am always attracted to the ocean. I started to name all of the Natural Attraction Senses that are connected to the ocean and in a few moments I felt this singular focus where everything else faded into the background. It is exactly like being in a trance. I could feel the connection to the ocean and all of its senses. I asked the ocean: “What do I do now?”
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like ‘more of what you are doing’ and ‘use all your senses’ and ‘follow your heart’. It was all sort of saying: “you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.”
It is often the case that people feel a lack of support in the context of communication or that communication leads to feeling/sensing a lack of support or defensiveness. The Zen Buddhist, gestalt, and existential idea of phenomenology as the way humans experience life is similar to the ideas of RWN. Phenomenology is the idea that humans experience reality as “their story” that can only fully be known by that person. Phenomenology helps to illuminate the importance of valuing personal truth. When we attempt to connect across this seemingly great divide of personal experience, we seem to become ever more lost and misunderstood. One of the main reasons for this disconnection is the development and use of language and the limitations it presents for describing ineffable experiences. Zen Buddhism focuses its practice of meditation on quieting the mind, not being attached (clinging) or attaching to thoughts, and not speaking during meditation for long periods of time in the presence of other people. People who practice meditation in this way will tell you that they feel/sense a communication with other people in the room as well as nature. They often report that they feel more connected and understood in this context.
Connecting with nature is very similar to this, especially with regard to the importance of communicating non-verbally with nature, which does not seem to have a language like humans. Often people who practice Reconnecting With Nature will report that they feel more connected and understood when they are communicating with nature. More often than not this leads to feeling more connected to and understood by other people. Although language does not always seem to improve our connections with each other and can get in the way of connecting, when done mindfully and/or in connection with nature, it seems to have more satisfying results.
In addition to the phenomenological perspective, we can see that diversity is valued in nature in that nature seems to constantly create more diversity-- more complexity. It does not support or move toward monoculture or a fixed view of “reality”. This would lead one to understand that there are diverse ways for people to access the intelligence of nature. It seems that limiting the ways we think to a particular dogma that is not based on personal experience with nature can lead to the being disconnected from nature. As with Buddhism, nature-connecting practices encourages the individual to go out and experience for the world for themselves and not to limit their thinking to a particular dogma. Buddhism is grounded in the philosophy that the experiences that one has, when understood in the context of nature, will lead to enlightenment. Buddhism does not require a person to believe a certain version of “reality”. The practices of Buddhism will lead a person to their own truth. For example, if a person meditates (sits or walks mindfully and paying attention to their thoughts, feelings, and senses), they can have an experience that leads them to see and experience their own nature and find their own truth. Much like Reconnecting With Nature, the Buddhist practice of meditation was created to find personal truth and in this quest tend to find more universal learning. When we reconnect with nature, it seems to provide universal teachings on life that are shared by those who participate in this practice.
When we reconnect with nature, we understand our relationship with all things. According to Michael Cohen, “People's relationship to Planet Earth is like our leg's relationship to our body. We are ecologically a product and likeness of nature, sharing "one breath" with all species. In each immediate moment of our lives exists the unadulterated creation process of the natural world.” Conversely, when we live disconnected from nature, we only understand life through our cultural lenses. In this light, meanings we take from experience are understood only in the ways our culture has trained us to think. Buddhism also recognizes this issue with thinking and provides teachings and practices to go beyond thoughts. One Buddhist practitioner suggests that we view thoughts as clouds drifting by in the sky. Another suggests that we let our thoughts happen and then let them float away as the next thought comes, recognizing that they are only thoughts and not reality. Buddhism has a similar way of describing the issues with disconnected thinking that lead to misunderstanding reality as Steve Gilligan who said, “the issue seems not to be with the thoughts or feelings specifically, but more the disconnection between the mind and the heart. When connected the heart and mind are interactively flowing and informing one another like an elevator that can go up and down between heart and mind freely.” He goes on to describe this state as natural and that in this state the person is connected to all of their personal and inherent resources. This seems very similar to Reconnecting With Nature in that when we reconnect to nature we sense and feel a congruence of heart and mind that leads to contacting all of our natural abilities. This was written while doing a Reconnecting With Nature activity: “Have you ever noticed how trees sway in the wind at the top and are solid and planted, unmoving at the base? I find this to be an apt analogy for mind/body. My mind can sway this way and that as it's blown by the environment, while my body is grounded and planted in the earth.” This seems to be a good example of how RWN helps to enliven the mind/body(heart) connection. Buddhism often looks to the body as a way to reconnect with our senses and our senses can lead us to a balanced understanding of our thoughts.
In Buddhism, the body is often a starting place for placing attention and a place to come back to for regaining the sense of grounded-ness. In his article “Coming Home to the Body”, Norman Fischer, a Zen Buddhist teacher, says, “In the Adhidharma, the Buddhist psychological teachings, the body is called ‘the soil in which understanding grows’.” The body is important in Reconnecting With Nature because it is the physical manifestation of nature and holds all of our natural abilities. Our senses, including our nervous system that is connected to our skin and all of our nerves, are how we make direct contact with our environment. The body can teach us and help us understand many things in connection with nature. This is an experience that someone had while connecting with nature:
“I realized recently that I was attracted to running only on nature so I began to run on people’s lawns until I got to the park. Before that I had always had body aches and knee swelling that I was taking ibuprofen regularly to help with. Now that I run primarily on and in nature, I have very few aches and no knee swelling. I no longer take ibuprofen!”
This was an understanding and learning that occurred directly from connecting with nature and listening to the body. Another experience enlightened the practitioner to his deeper connection with the earth and ways that he had been trained by his culture that were not accurate. He described this by saying “I could feel the earth systems in my body and I sensed the truth of connection. I noticed peripherally the lack of congruency of this experience with industrial life.” Fischer goes on to say, “When the sense organs receive stimulation, a world springs into view as chemical and electrical reactions in the brain and nervous system give rise to thoughts, emotions, intentions, experiences. Without making any complicated or belabored effort, I can naturally desire, move, act in this world.” So, the body and all of its senses and abilities are utilized similarly in both Buddhist and Reconnecting With Nature practices.
Pema Chodron, one of the leading meditation teachers and a Tibetan monk, describes a Buddhist idea called Shenpa. She defines Shenpa as the experience of being hooked and then stuck by a feeling about experience. It is also described as the urge to do something that is harmful to you or anything that threatens your ego. It is not thought, but more like emotion or compulsion and even pre-verbal pre-emotion. Shenpa usually is something that we want to move away from, which is usually done by actively harming ourselves or others. This is very similar to the descriptions of being disconnected from nature. The response to Shenpa often produces ruptures in relationships, abuse of self or others, and these things are what lead to war, runaway garbage, lack of sustainable ways of living on the earth, and abuse. Shenpa leads to most of the problems we have in our way of living in the world today. Shenpa can be seen as clinging to desire and fear. In Reconnecting With Nature activities that are part of applied ecopsychology, we see how similar kinds of Shenpa come up and how RWN activities help to heal or reduce the negative effects of these Shenpa.
Like Natural Systems Thinking Process (the thinking process that is part of Reconnecting With Nature), Buddhism applies its principles and subsequent “therapy” or practices (meditation) to the human condition and seems to draw upon Nature’s intelligence as a guide. Connection with all things in an altruistic and compassionate way is one description of Buddha Nature or enlightenment. This is basically the same idea as being part of the Web Strings as is described in NSTP. Web Strings are the idea that all things in nature are connected by strings of energy and are interdependent. Interestingly, it’s called Buddha NATURE. The word Buddha is not a reference to a particular person per se. It refers to a state of being connected to all things, or in other words nature. It is no accident that the word nature is in the description used by Buddhists to describe enlightenment. Enlightenment is the connection to all things without clinging to fear or desire, in an altruistic and compassionate state. It is also referred to as emptiness or egoless-ness, which is like the felt sense of being connected to nature and the web strings.
Buddhism is highly concerned with interpersonal relationships in part because we are relational beings. Buddhism considers humans to be relational beings and therefore, highly social and concerned with relationships. According to Gregory Kramer, a long time meditation teacher, “We experience interpersonal suffering because we are essentially relational beings: our minds seek to grasp and hold, while the social life that touches us is full of uncontrollable changes.” Our interpersonal relationships go back all the way to our birth and lead to the creation of our sense of or understanding of self, whether it is a healthy or unhealthy sense. Humans are born dependent on others and will literally die if totally devoid of love. Therefore, the relationships that we have from birth are essential to how we become who we are. In the Buddhist tradition there are many practices that are designed to increase positive relational bonds between people and promote ways of healing from damaging relationships. This is also true of Reconnecting With Nature practices. Both utilize the interdependent nature of reality as a means for helping people to foster more compassionate relationships. Both practices also help us to see that when we are disconnected from nature and reliant on the ego, or independence, we tend to react to the environment and relationships defensively, which leads to all kinds of suffering. According to Kramer, ”Knowing this we are invited onto a path of discovery.” As the Buddha put it, “suffering leads either to derangement or to investigation’.”
One of the most prominent similarities Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism share is that in exploring and investigating Nature (or, the true nature of things) we find that we are attracted to happiness and not attracted to suffering. The Dali Llama said, "Stemming from that innate sense of self, there is an innate desire to enjoy happiness and overcome suffering. And this is something that is innate in all beings. I believe it is a natural phenomenon." According to Michael Cohen, "We are born of Nature.” He goes on to say, “Our good experiences in nature demonstrate that all living things, including our planet and us, enjoy attractive optimums of life, cooperation, diversity and health when they are nurtured by the streaming and replenishing cycles of nature." People who share their experiences with Buddhism and Reconnecting With Nature most often discover the intrinsic attraction to happiness and attraction to reducing suffering. Both Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have developed practices that help the practitioner reconnect with our in-born innate sense of connection with nature. In the spirit of self-discovery, both Buddhism and RWN suggest and encourage those interested in these practices to simply see for themselves. How could it be destructive or harmful in any way to go outside and follow what is attractive to you in nature? How could it be harmful to anyone to have the intention of compassion and altruism to all natural things? These are the basic tenets of RWN and Buddhism. Best of all, you can decide for yourself.
By Randy Seals
Monday, September 13, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Natural Attractions and How Industrial Training damages us
Were we born knowing when we were hungry and thirsty? Do you still know when you are attracted to these senses? We can see how industrial culture has trained us to ignore our inherent senses/natural attractions and follow the industrial schedule when we consider our drinking and eating schedules. Do you ever eat when you are not hungry because you are given a certain time to eat lunch? If we repeatedly eat and drink when we are not really sensing hunger, are we training ourselves to not pay attention to our natural senses? When a child senses hunger, it wants to eat right then. Not before, not after. When a child is not hungry and the parent forces the child to eat because it's "lunch time", a struggle usually ensues. Many of us were force fed as children when we were not hungry, which produced at least two issues. The first is that we learn not to count on (trust) and be aware of our natural abilities and attraction skills. We then look to the person who trained us to know when to engage in the act of eating. That person is teaching you that you need to look to culture to know when you are hungry. Industrial culture counts on this fact and exploits it with consumerism. Second, we see that when force fed, we lose the ability to say no to abuse, oppression, and anything that is trying to teach us to repress our natural senses. This can generalize to many if not all of how we live.
For more information and for ways to counteract this issue contact me or www.ecopsych.com.
For more information and for ways to counteract this issue contact me or www.ecopsych.com.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Connected To Nature At Heart: Part one: Buddhism and Nature
A single raindrop hits the water and creates concentric circular ripples extending outward. Another drop hits as the rain begins to fall. More and more drops and now the ripples flow through one another. More drops, countless drops and it is raining so hard that the ripples are hard to distinguish. Constant changing from still to active and back to still. Two raindrops interact and like fault lines smash into each other creating different ripples than existed before. Each drop separate, separate ripples, yet interact to become one body of water. In time the lakes and rivers and oceans dry up and form somewhere else. Mountains emerge and crumble, people die and are born, species exist and they disappear. I am the raindrop. I am the fault line. I am the earthquake. I dry up and disappear and reform somewhere else.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that my life, this ego understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, “I” die, yet “I” that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature, I am a drop of water falling from the sky heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
(As a point of full disclosure, I am not a religious expert or an expert on Buddhism. I have spent a good deal of time reading and practicing Buddhism, but I have never trained formally. I have an MSW, trained in self-relations therapy and generative trance – from Eriksonian hypnotherapy, and am in the PHD program for applied Ecopsychology at the Institute for Global Education.)
Most all of the religious beliefs that I know of are fundamentally connected to nature. From Buddha to Muhammad to Jesus, it appears that humans are attracted to looking to nature as a guide. The way these religions practice can be very different and certainly the organizations that control these practices may have gotten away from nature, even moved there alignment to be congruent with industrial culture that is focused on dominating and conquering nature. Yet, at the core of religious teaching of all kinds it seems that nature is the main influence. Here we will see the ways that Buddism works hand in hand with ecopsychology and practices of Reconnecting With Nature.
Buddhism teaches the idea that we are part of the cycle of life and death and that believing otherwise will lead to suffering. One definition of suffering as defined by Buddhists is ignorance or lack of awareness that all things are interconnected. This perspective leads to a popular teaching of the Buddha, which is to “develop loving-kindness for the entire world”. (Spirit and Nature intro to Buddhist chapter) This tenet of Buddhism leads to Buddhists having a “practical ethic of caring for our home”. (Spirit and Nature intro to Buddhist chapter). The Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual leader of Tibet (a predominantly Buddhist country occupied by China since 1959) was included in the 1990 summit called: “Spirit and Nature: Religion, Ethics, and Environmental Crisis”. In his speech he describes many elements of Buddhism that intersect with the ideas of ecopsychology and the practices of Reconnecting With Nature. One example is in his description of interdependence, “The meaning of interdependence is emptiness of independent existence. Precisely because things and events exist relatively and appear as having form, they are empty of independent existence.” He goes on to say that, “All things are heavily interdependent in creating our joy and happiness, in removing our suffering.” Certainly, we see here that the idea of interdependence, a basic tenet of Buddhism, is much like the webstrings described by Michael Cohen. In fact, Buddhists believe that not seeing webstrings, or interdependence, as reality leads to suffering, which is the root of humanities problems. This idea is very different from the western nature conquering cultural idea that we can be independent.
The idea of independence seems to have become such an extreme ideal in western culture that dependence is now looked at as something to be overcome at any cost and those who lose the battle are considered a problem to be dealt with. There are people who have become dependent in this polarized way of living who suffer greatly, but independent and dependent suffer when we lose contact with the ever-present reality of interdependence. The issue of polarized independence/dependence is what Cohen describes as Isolated Delusion, “In our nature-disconnected, mentally isolated state we convince ourselves that we are wiser than nature but the deteriorated state of the environment and society tell a different story.” Nature connecting produces good feelings of dependence and interdependence in each of us that leads to caring for one’s home (planet earth) and all of the natural things that live here. Dependence is a reality that seems undeniable. Without the planet, all things that live here will parish. In the Dali Llama’s speech he states the Buddhist position on this issue, “We have no other planet, no other house, except this one. …Therefore, we have to take care of our own place. This is not something special or holy. This is just a practical fact.” Understanding that this is a practical fact and that we don’t seem to be heeding this practical fact, it becomes apparent that our thinking is disconnected from reality (Nature).
We are taught in Western and nature conquering cultures to believe that the way we live is the one true reality. We are taught to believe there is no other way to live and that this way of life is under attack by outside forces (people who believe otherwise, nature). Buddhism has a different way of view reality that leads one to nature connected thinking. It seems that when the words “everything is an illusion” are spoken by Buddhist’s they lose some people in the meaning that is attached. Alan Watts described this in a way that is possibly more relatable, “when we say life is an illusion, it’s more like life is a play as in theater, like we are actors playing at life and when we understand that, we can see more clearly how not being aware of this causes suffering or ignorance of the true nature of reality”. Another way to describe this would be to say that what we live with and create everyday is our story. When we get outside of our story, which often includes the idea that we are independent separate beings disconnected from the webstrings, we are not living in reality. When this is applied to an ecopsychology perspective, we see an intersection of ideas in that when we are Reconnecting With Nature, we are contacting the true nature of reality, which is nature itself. Nature is interdependent. When we reconnect with nature, we can have an awareness of the cultural “plays” or stories that we are part of and how different that is from the Nature. We can become aware of how connected or disconnected we are to being part of the web of life and the webstrings that connect us.
Humans and the development of language (among other things) have utilized the ability to create a story as a means of understanding what is happening to us. Creating stories can be a helpful way to understand the experiences we live through when it is understood as a story and not reality. Our stories or constructs, as they are sometimes called, are how people remember what has happened to them and attaches meaning to the experiences we live through. These stories also become the lens through which we see the experiences that have happened, continue to happen, and will potentially happen. So from birth we attach meaning to experiences, which create our personal and collective stories that influence our perceptions of experiences currently happening and experiences that have yet to happen. According to the Dali Llama, “In appearance, we see the world of existence and experience. In essence, all those things are empty of intrinsic reality, of independent existence”. This is to say that in reality, like with nature, all things are interdependent and cannot be understood accurately from the viewpoint of independence.
As I write this I am struck with the reality that I am creating a story to understand my experiences with Buddhism as it relates to nature and ecopsychology, which are both stories. To me, these stories acknowledge the lack of reality that exists in these words and attempt to describe or create a story that is about my (and all of our) experience with reality or in other words Nature. The only way to make direct contact with nature or reality is to be in nature connecting and realizing/experiencing/sensing/feeling the webstrings that connect all things. This experience is what Buddhists call enlightenment.
Buddhism practices are about having direct experience with reality. This means that the meditative practices and the words that explain these practices are designed to inspire direct experience with what is in that moment. The practices in Reconnecting With Nature are essentially the same. As one reconnects with nature, all else seems to fall away and direct experience in contact with nature occurs. This is often experienced as a trance state that offers the ability to learn directly from nature of which we are a part. An example of an intersection between Buddhist meditation and Reconnecting With Nature (RWN) practice is an experience I had doing a RWN activity:
“I did this activity at the beach. I am always attracted to the ocean. I started to name all of the Natural Attraction Senses that are connected to the ocean and in a few moments I felt this singular focus where everything else faded into the background. It is exactly like being in a trance. I could feel the connection to the ocean and all of its senses. I asked the ocean: “What do I do now?”
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like ‘more of what you are doing’ and ‘use all your senses’ and ‘follow your heart’. It was all sort of saying: you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.”
It is often the case that people feel a lack of support in the context of communication or that communication leads to feeling/sensing a lack of support of defensiveness. The Zen Buddhist, gestalt, and existential idea that humans seem to have a phenomenological experience of life, which is a created reality can only fully be known by that person, helps to illuminate the importance of valuing personal truth. When we attempt to connect across this seemingly great divide of personal experience that has our story intertwined with language, we seem to become ever more lost and misunderstood. One of the main reasons for this disconnection is the development and use of language and it’s extreme limitations in describing ineffable experiences. Zen Buddhism focuses their practice of meditation on quieting the mind, not being attached (clinging) or attaching to thoughts, and not speaking during meditation for long periods of time in the presence of other people. People who practice meditation in this way will tell you that they feel/sense a communication with other people in the room as well as nature. They often report that they feel more connected and understood in this context.
Connecting with nature is very similar to this, especially with regard to the importance of communicating non-verbally with nature, which does not seem to have a language like humans. Often people who practice Reconnecting With Nature will report that they feel more connected and understood when they are communicating with nature. More often than not this leads to feeling more connected to and understood by other people. Although language often does not seem to improve our connections with each other much of the time and can get in the way of connecting, when done mindfully and/or in connection with nature (guided by connection with nature), it seems to have more satisfying results.
In addition to the phenomenological perspective, we can see that diversity is valued in nature in that nature seems to constantly create more diversity, more complexity. It does not support or move toward monoculture or a fixed view of “reality”. Buddhism is grounded in the philosophy that the experiences that one has, when understood correctly, will lead to enlightenment. Buddhism does not force a person to believe a certain version of “reality”. The practices of Buddhism will lead a person to their own truth. For example, if a person meditates (sits or walks mindfully and paying attention to their thoughts, feelings, and senses) that they can have an experience that leads the person to see and experience the reality of things. The description of the philosophy is explained and then the person discovers for themselves if they find truth in the philosophy. Much like Reconnecting With Nature, Buddhist practice of meditation was created to find your personal truth and in this quest tends to find more universal learning that seems to happen to most of those who participate in this practice. When we reconnect with nature, nature seems to provide universal teachings on life that are shared by those who participate in this practice. It might be said that this is true of most (or all) religious practices that are open to idea of personal truth in the context of experiential learning in connection with nature leads to seeing the true nature of the universe.
When we reconnect with nature, we understand our relationship with all things. According to Michael Cohen, “People's relationship to Planet Earth is like our leg's relationship to our body. We are ecologically a product and likeness of nature, sharing "one breath" with all species. In each immediate moment of our lives exists the unadulterated creation process of the natural world.” Conversely, when we live disconnected from nature, we only understand life through our cultural lenses. In this light, meanings we take from experience are understood only in the ways our culture has trained us to think. Buddhism also recognizes this issue with thinking and provides teachings and practices to go beyond thoughts. One Buddhist practitioner suggests that we view thoughts as clouds drifting by in the sky. Another suggests that we let our thoughts happen and then let them float away as the next thought comes, recognizing that they are only thoughts and not reality. Buddhism has a similar way of describing the issues with disconnected thinking that lead to misunderstanding reality as Steve Gilligan who said, “the issue seems not to be with the thoughts or feelings specifically, but more the disconnection between the mind and the heart. When connected the heart and mind are interactively flowing and informing one another like an elevator that can go up and down between heart and mind freely.” He goes on to describe this state as natural and that in this state the person is connected to all of their personal and inherent resources. This seems very similar to Reconnecting With Nature in that when we reconnect to nature we sense and feel a congruence of heart and mind that leads to contacting all of our natural abilities. This was written while doing a Reconnecting With Nature activity. “Have you ever noticed how trees sway in the wind at the top and are solid and planted, unmoving at the base? I find this to be an apt analogy for mind/body. My mind can sway this way and that as it's blown by the environment, while my body is grounded and planted in the earth.” This seems to be a good example of how RWN helps to enliven the mind/body(heart) connection. Buddhism often looks to the body as a way to reconnect with our senses and our senses can lead us to a balanced understanding of our thoughts.
In Buddhism, the body is often a starting place for placing attention and a place to come back to for regaining the sense of grounded-ness. In his article “Coming Home to the Body” Norman Fischer, a Zen Buddhist teacher, says, “In the Adhidharma, the Buddhist psychological teachings, the body is called ‘the soil in which understanding grows’.” The body is important in Reconnecting With Nature because it is the physical manifestation of nature and holds all of our natural abilities. Our senses including our nervous system that is connected to our skin and all of our nerves are how we make direct contact with our environment. The body can teach us and help us understand many thing in connection with nature. This is an experience that someone had while connecting with nature:
“I realized recently that I was attracted to running only on nature so I began to run on people’s lawns until I got to the park. Before that I had always had body aches and knee swelling that I was taking ibuprofen regularly to help with. Now that I run primarily on and in nature, I have very few aches and no knee swelling. I no longer take ibuprofen!”
This was an understanding and learning that occurred directly from connecting with nature and listening to the body. Another experience enlightened the practitioner to his deeper connection with the earth and ways that he had been trained by his culture that were not accurate, “I could feel the earth systems in my body and I sensed the truth of connection. I noticed peripherally the lack of congruency of this experience with industrial life.” Fischer goes on to say, “When the sense organs receive stimulation, a world springs into view as chemical and electrical reactions in the brain and nervous system give rise to thoughts, emotions, intentions, experiences. Without making any complicated or belabored effort, I can naturally desire, move, act in this world.” So, the body and all of its senses and abilities are utilized similarly in both Buddhist and Reconnecting With Nature practices.
Pema Chodrin, one of the leading meditation teachers and a Tibetan monk, describes a Buddhist idea called Shenpa. Shenpa is defined by her as the experience of being hooked and then stuck by a feeling about experience. It is also described as the urge to do something that is harmful to you, or anything that threatens your ego. It is not thought, but more like emotion or compulsion and even pre-verbal pre-emotion. Shenpa usually is something that we want to move away from, which is usually done by actively harming ourselves or others. This is very similar to the descriptions of being disconnected from nature. The response to Shenpa often produces ruptures in relationships, abuse of self or others, and these things are what lead to war, runaway garbage, lack of sustainable ways of living on the earth, and abuse. Shenpa leads to most of the problems we have in our way of living in the world today. Shenpa can be seen as clinging to desire and fear. In Reconnecting With Nature activities that are part of applied ecopsychology we see how similar kinds of Shenpa come up and how RWN activities help to heal or reduce the negative affects of these Shenpa.
Like Natural Systems Thinking Process (the thinking process that is part of Reconnecting With Nature), Buddhism applies its principles and subsequent “therapy” or practices (meditation) to the human condition and seems to draw upon Nature’s intelligence as a guide. Connection with all things in an altruistic and compassionate way is one description of Buddha Nature or enlightenment. This is basically the same idea as being part of the Web Strings as is described in NSTP. Web Strings are the idea that all things in nature are connected by strings of energy and are interdependent. Interestingly, it’s called Buddha NATURE. The word Buddha is not a reference to a particular person per se. It refers to a state of being connected to all things, or in other words nature. It is no accident that the word Nature is in the description used by Buddhists to describe enlightenment. Enlightenment is the connection to all things without clinging to fear or desire and in an altruistic and compassionate state, which is also referred to as emptiness or egoless-ness, which is like the felt sense of being connected to nature and the web strings.
Buddhism is highly concerned with interpersonal relationships due the difficulty humans seems to have with them. Buddhism considers humans to be relational beings and therefore, highly social and concerned with relationships. According to Gregory Kramer, a long time meditation teacher, “We experience interpersonal suffering because we are essentially relational beings: our minds seek to grasp and hold, while the social life that touches us is full of uncontrollable changes.” Our interpersonal relationships go back all the way to our birth and lead to the creation of our sense of or understanding of self, whether it is a healthy or unhealthy sense. Humans are born dependent on others and will literally die if totally devoid of love. Therefore, the relationships that we have from birth are essential to how we become who we are. In the Buddhist tradition there are many practices that are designed to increase positive relational bonds between people and ways of healing from damaging relationships. This is also true of Reconnecting With Nature practices. Both utilize the nature of reality as interdependent as a means for helping people to foster more compassionate relationships. Both practices also help us to see that when we are disconnected from nature and reliant on the ego or independence, we tend to react to the environment and relationships defensively, which leads to all kinds of suffering. According to Kramer, “Knowing this, we are invited onto a path of discovery. As the Buddha put it, ‘suffering leads either to derangement or to investigation’.”
One of the most prominent similarities Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have is that in exploring and investigating Nature (or, the true nature of things) we find that we are attracted to happiness and not attracted to suffering. The Dali Llama said, “Stemming from that innate sense of self, there is an innate desire to enjoy happiness and overcome suffering. And this is something that is innate in all beings. I believe it is a natural phenomenon.” According to Michael Cohen, “We are born of Nature.” “Our good experiences in nature demonstrate that all living things, including our planet and us, enjoy attractive optimums of life, cooperation, diversity and health when they are nurtured by the streaming and replenishing cycles of nature.” People who share their experiences with Buddhism and Reconnecting With Nature most often discover the intrinsic attraction to happiness and attraction to reducing suffering. Both Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have developed practices that help the practitioner reconnect with our in-born innate sense of connection with nature. In the spirit of self-discovery, both Buddhism and RWN suggest and encourage those interested in these practices to simply see for themselves. How could it be destructive or harmful in anyway to go outside and follow what is attractive to you in nature? How could it be harmful to anyone to have the intention of compassion and altruism to all natural things? These are the basic tenets of RWN and Buddhism. Best of all, you can decide for yourself.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that my life, this ego understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, “I” die, yet “I” that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature, I am a drop of water falling from the sky heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
(As a point of full disclosure, I am not a religious expert or an expert on Buddhism. I have spent a good deal of time reading and practicing Buddhism, but I have never trained formally. I have an MSW, trained in self-relations therapy and generative trance – from Eriksonian hypnotherapy, and am in the PHD program for applied Ecopsychology at the Institute for Global Education.)
Most all of the religious beliefs that I know of are fundamentally connected to nature. From Buddha to Muhammad to Jesus, it appears that humans are attracted to looking to nature as a guide. The way these religions practice can be very different and certainly the organizations that control these practices may have gotten away from nature, even moved there alignment to be congruent with industrial culture that is focused on dominating and conquering nature. Yet, at the core of religious teaching of all kinds it seems that nature is the main influence. Here we will see the ways that Buddism works hand in hand with ecopsychology and practices of Reconnecting With Nature.
Buddhism teaches the idea that we are part of the cycle of life and death and that believing otherwise will lead to suffering. One definition of suffering as defined by Buddhists is ignorance or lack of awareness that all things are interconnected. This perspective leads to a popular teaching of the Buddha, which is to “develop loving-kindness for the entire world”. (Spirit and Nature intro to Buddhist chapter) This tenet of Buddhism leads to Buddhists having a “practical ethic of caring for our home”. (Spirit and Nature intro to Buddhist chapter). The Dalai Lama, who is the spiritual leader of Tibet (a predominantly Buddhist country occupied by China since 1959) was included in the 1990 summit called: “Spirit and Nature: Religion, Ethics, and Environmental Crisis”. In his speech he describes many elements of Buddhism that intersect with the ideas of ecopsychology and the practices of Reconnecting With Nature. One example is in his description of interdependence, “The meaning of interdependence is emptiness of independent existence. Precisely because things and events exist relatively and appear as having form, they are empty of independent existence.” He goes on to say that, “All things are heavily interdependent in creating our joy and happiness, in removing our suffering.” Certainly, we see here that the idea of interdependence, a basic tenet of Buddhism, is much like the webstrings described by Michael Cohen. In fact, Buddhists believe that not seeing webstrings, or interdependence, as reality leads to suffering, which is the root of humanities problems. This idea is very different from the western nature conquering cultural idea that we can be independent.
The idea of independence seems to have become such an extreme ideal in western culture that dependence is now looked at as something to be overcome at any cost and those who lose the battle are considered a problem to be dealt with. There are people who have become dependent in this polarized way of living who suffer greatly, but independent and dependent suffer when we lose contact with the ever-present reality of interdependence. The issue of polarized independence/dependence is what Cohen describes as Isolated Delusion, “In our nature-disconnected, mentally isolated state we convince ourselves that we are wiser than nature but the deteriorated state of the environment and society tell a different story.” Nature connecting produces good feelings of dependence and interdependence in each of us that leads to caring for one’s home (planet earth) and all of the natural things that live here. Dependence is a reality that seems undeniable. Without the planet, all things that live here will parish. In the Dali Llama’s speech he states the Buddhist position on this issue, “We have no other planet, no other house, except this one. …Therefore, we have to take care of our own place. This is not something special or holy. This is just a practical fact.” Understanding that this is a practical fact and that we don’t seem to be heeding this practical fact, it becomes apparent that our thinking is disconnected from reality (Nature).
We are taught in Western and nature conquering cultures to believe that the way we live is the one true reality. We are taught to believe there is no other way to live and that this way of life is under attack by outside forces (people who believe otherwise, nature). Buddhism has a different way of view reality that leads one to nature connected thinking. It seems that when the words “everything is an illusion” are spoken by Buddhist’s they lose some people in the meaning that is attached. Alan Watts described this in a way that is possibly more relatable, “when we say life is an illusion, it’s more like life is a play as in theater, like we are actors playing at life and when we understand that, we can see more clearly how not being aware of this causes suffering or ignorance of the true nature of reality”. Another way to describe this would be to say that what we live with and create everyday is our story. When we get outside of our story, which often includes the idea that we are independent separate beings disconnected from the webstrings, we are not living in reality. When this is applied to an ecopsychology perspective, we see an intersection of ideas in that when we are Reconnecting With Nature, we are contacting the true nature of reality, which is nature itself. Nature is interdependent. When we reconnect with nature, we can have an awareness of the cultural “plays” or stories that we are part of and how different that is from the Nature. We can become aware of how connected or disconnected we are to being part of the web of life and the webstrings that connect us.
Humans and the development of language (among other things) have utilized the ability to create a story as a means of understanding what is happening to us. Creating stories can be a helpful way to understand the experiences we live through when it is understood as a story and not reality. Our stories or constructs, as they are sometimes called, are how people remember what has happened to them and attaches meaning to the experiences we live through. These stories also become the lens through which we see the experiences that have happened, continue to happen, and will potentially happen. So from birth we attach meaning to experiences, which create our personal and collective stories that influence our perceptions of experiences currently happening and experiences that have yet to happen. According to the Dali Llama, “In appearance, we see the world of existence and experience. In essence, all those things are empty of intrinsic reality, of independent existence”. This is to say that in reality, like with nature, all things are interdependent and cannot be understood accurately from the viewpoint of independence.
As I write this I am struck with the reality that I am creating a story to understand my experiences with Buddhism as it relates to nature and ecopsychology, which are both stories. To me, these stories acknowledge the lack of reality that exists in these words and attempt to describe or create a story that is about my (and all of our) experience with reality or in other words Nature. The only way to make direct contact with nature or reality is to be in nature connecting and realizing/experiencing/sensing/feeling the webstrings that connect all things. This experience is what Buddhists call enlightenment.
Buddhism practices are about having direct experience with reality. This means that the meditative practices and the words that explain these practices are designed to inspire direct experience with what is in that moment. The practices in Reconnecting With Nature are essentially the same. As one reconnects with nature, all else seems to fall away and direct experience in contact with nature occurs. This is often experienced as a trance state that offers the ability to learn directly from nature of which we are a part. An example of an intersection between Buddhist meditation and Reconnecting With Nature (RWN) practice is an experience I had doing a RWN activity:
“I did this activity at the beach. I am always attracted to the ocean. I started to name all of the Natural Attraction Senses that are connected to the ocean and in a few moments I felt this singular focus where everything else faded into the background. It is exactly like being in a trance. I could feel the connection to the ocean and all of its senses. I asked the ocean: “What do I do now?”
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like ‘more of what you are doing’ and ‘use all your senses’ and ‘follow your heart’. It was all sort of saying: you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.”
It is often the case that people feel a lack of support in the context of communication or that communication leads to feeling/sensing a lack of support of defensiveness. The Zen Buddhist, gestalt, and existential idea that humans seem to have a phenomenological experience of life, which is a created reality can only fully be known by that person, helps to illuminate the importance of valuing personal truth. When we attempt to connect across this seemingly great divide of personal experience that has our story intertwined with language, we seem to become ever more lost and misunderstood. One of the main reasons for this disconnection is the development and use of language and it’s extreme limitations in describing ineffable experiences. Zen Buddhism focuses their practice of meditation on quieting the mind, not being attached (clinging) or attaching to thoughts, and not speaking during meditation for long periods of time in the presence of other people. People who practice meditation in this way will tell you that they feel/sense a communication with other people in the room as well as nature. They often report that they feel more connected and understood in this context.
Connecting with nature is very similar to this, especially with regard to the importance of communicating non-verbally with nature, which does not seem to have a language like humans. Often people who practice Reconnecting With Nature will report that they feel more connected and understood when they are communicating with nature. More often than not this leads to feeling more connected to and understood by other people. Although language often does not seem to improve our connections with each other much of the time and can get in the way of connecting, when done mindfully and/or in connection with nature (guided by connection with nature), it seems to have more satisfying results.
In addition to the phenomenological perspective, we can see that diversity is valued in nature in that nature seems to constantly create more diversity, more complexity. It does not support or move toward monoculture or a fixed view of “reality”. Buddhism is grounded in the philosophy that the experiences that one has, when understood correctly, will lead to enlightenment. Buddhism does not force a person to believe a certain version of “reality”. The practices of Buddhism will lead a person to their own truth. For example, if a person meditates (sits or walks mindfully and paying attention to their thoughts, feelings, and senses) that they can have an experience that leads the person to see and experience the reality of things. The description of the philosophy is explained and then the person discovers for themselves if they find truth in the philosophy. Much like Reconnecting With Nature, Buddhist practice of meditation was created to find your personal truth and in this quest tends to find more universal learning that seems to happen to most of those who participate in this practice. When we reconnect with nature, nature seems to provide universal teachings on life that are shared by those who participate in this practice. It might be said that this is true of most (or all) religious practices that are open to idea of personal truth in the context of experiential learning in connection with nature leads to seeing the true nature of the universe.
When we reconnect with nature, we understand our relationship with all things. According to Michael Cohen, “People's relationship to Planet Earth is like our leg's relationship to our body. We are ecologically a product and likeness of nature, sharing "one breath" with all species. In each immediate moment of our lives exists the unadulterated creation process of the natural world.” Conversely, when we live disconnected from nature, we only understand life through our cultural lenses. In this light, meanings we take from experience are understood only in the ways our culture has trained us to think. Buddhism also recognizes this issue with thinking and provides teachings and practices to go beyond thoughts. One Buddhist practitioner suggests that we view thoughts as clouds drifting by in the sky. Another suggests that we let our thoughts happen and then let them float away as the next thought comes, recognizing that they are only thoughts and not reality. Buddhism has a similar way of describing the issues with disconnected thinking that lead to misunderstanding reality as Steve Gilligan who said, “the issue seems not to be with the thoughts or feelings specifically, but more the disconnection between the mind and the heart. When connected the heart and mind are interactively flowing and informing one another like an elevator that can go up and down between heart and mind freely.” He goes on to describe this state as natural and that in this state the person is connected to all of their personal and inherent resources. This seems very similar to Reconnecting With Nature in that when we reconnect to nature we sense and feel a congruence of heart and mind that leads to contacting all of our natural abilities. This was written while doing a Reconnecting With Nature activity. “Have you ever noticed how trees sway in the wind at the top and are solid and planted, unmoving at the base? I find this to be an apt analogy for mind/body. My mind can sway this way and that as it's blown by the environment, while my body is grounded and planted in the earth.” This seems to be a good example of how RWN helps to enliven the mind/body(heart) connection. Buddhism often looks to the body as a way to reconnect with our senses and our senses can lead us to a balanced understanding of our thoughts.
In Buddhism, the body is often a starting place for placing attention and a place to come back to for regaining the sense of grounded-ness. In his article “Coming Home to the Body” Norman Fischer, a Zen Buddhist teacher, says, “In the Adhidharma, the Buddhist psychological teachings, the body is called ‘the soil in which understanding grows’.” The body is important in Reconnecting With Nature because it is the physical manifestation of nature and holds all of our natural abilities. Our senses including our nervous system that is connected to our skin and all of our nerves are how we make direct contact with our environment. The body can teach us and help us understand many thing in connection with nature. This is an experience that someone had while connecting with nature:
“I realized recently that I was attracted to running only on nature so I began to run on people’s lawns until I got to the park. Before that I had always had body aches and knee swelling that I was taking ibuprofen regularly to help with. Now that I run primarily on and in nature, I have very few aches and no knee swelling. I no longer take ibuprofen!”
This was an understanding and learning that occurred directly from connecting with nature and listening to the body. Another experience enlightened the practitioner to his deeper connection with the earth and ways that he had been trained by his culture that were not accurate, “I could feel the earth systems in my body and I sensed the truth of connection. I noticed peripherally the lack of congruency of this experience with industrial life.” Fischer goes on to say, “When the sense organs receive stimulation, a world springs into view as chemical and electrical reactions in the brain and nervous system give rise to thoughts, emotions, intentions, experiences. Without making any complicated or belabored effort, I can naturally desire, move, act in this world.” So, the body and all of its senses and abilities are utilized similarly in both Buddhist and Reconnecting With Nature practices.
Pema Chodrin, one of the leading meditation teachers and a Tibetan monk, describes a Buddhist idea called Shenpa. Shenpa is defined by her as the experience of being hooked and then stuck by a feeling about experience. It is also described as the urge to do something that is harmful to you, or anything that threatens your ego. It is not thought, but more like emotion or compulsion and even pre-verbal pre-emotion. Shenpa usually is something that we want to move away from, which is usually done by actively harming ourselves or others. This is very similar to the descriptions of being disconnected from nature. The response to Shenpa often produces ruptures in relationships, abuse of self or others, and these things are what lead to war, runaway garbage, lack of sustainable ways of living on the earth, and abuse. Shenpa leads to most of the problems we have in our way of living in the world today. Shenpa can be seen as clinging to desire and fear. In Reconnecting With Nature activities that are part of applied ecopsychology we see how similar kinds of Shenpa come up and how RWN activities help to heal or reduce the negative affects of these Shenpa.
Like Natural Systems Thinking Process (the thinking process that is part of Reconnecting With Nature), Buddhism applies its principles and subsequent “therapy” or practices (meditation) to the human condition and seems to draw upon Nature’s intelligence as a guide. Connection with all things in an altruistic and compassionate way is one description of Buddha Nature or enlightenment. This is basically the same idea as being part of the Web Strings as is described in NSTP. Web Strings are the idea that all things in nature are connected by strings of energy and are interdependent. Interestingly, it’s called Buddha NATURE. The word Buddha is not a reference to a particular person per se. It refers to a state of being connected to all things, or in other words nature. It is no accident that the word Nature is in the description used by Buddhists to describe enlightenment. Enlightenment is the connection to all things without clinging to fear or desire and in an altruistic and compassionate state, which is also referred to as emptiness or egoless-ness, which is like the felt sense of being connected to nature and the web strings.
Buddhism is highly concerned with interpersonal relationships due the difficulty humans seems to have with them. Buddhism considers humans to be relational beings and therefore, highly social and concerned with relationships. According to Gregory Kramer, a long time meditation teacher, “We experience interpersonal suffering because we are essentially relational beings: our minds seek to grasp and hold, while the social life that touches us is full of uncontrollable changes.” Our interpersonal relationships go back all the way to our birth and lead to the creation of our sense of or understanding of self, whether it is a healthy or unhealthy sense. Humans are born dependent on others and will literally die if totally devoid of love. Therefore, the relationships that we have from birth are essential to how we become who we are. In the Buddhist tradition there are many practices that are designed to increase positive relational bonds between people and ways of healing from damaging relationships. This is also true of Reconnecting With Nature practices. Both utilize the nature of reality as interdependent as a means for helping people to foster more compassionate relationships. Both practices also help us to see that when we are disconnected from nature and reliant on the ego or independence, we tend to react to the environment and relationships defensively, which leads to all kinds of suffering. According to Kramer, “Knowing this, we are invited onto a path of discovery. As the Buddha put it, ‘suffering leads either to derangement or to investigation’.”
One of the most prominent similarities Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have is that in exploring and investigating Nature (or, the true nature of things) we find that we are attracted to happiness and not attracted to suffering. The Dali Llama said, “Stemming from that innate sense of self, there is an innate desire to enjoy happiness and overcome suffering. And this is something that is innate in all beings. I believe it is a natural phenomenon.” According to Michael Cohen, “We are born of Nature.” “Our good experiences in nature demonstrate that all living things, including our planet and us, enjoy attractive optimums of life, cooperation, diversity and health when they are nurtured by the streaming and replenishing cycles of nature.” People who share their experiences with Buddhism and Reconnecting With Nature most often discover the intrinsic attraction to happiness and attraction to reducing suffering. Both Reconnecting With Nature and Buddhism have developed practices that help the practitioner reconnect with our in-born innate sense of connection with nature. In the spirit of self-discovery, both Buddhism and RWN suggest and encourage those interested in these practices to simply see for themselves. How could it be destructive or harmful in anyway to go outside and follow what is attractive to you in nature? How could it be harmful to anyone to have the intention of compassion and altruism to all natural things? These are the basic tenets of RWN and Buddhism. Best of all, you can decide for yourself.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
Excerpt from my up coming paper: Buddhism and Nature
A single raindrop hits the water and creates concentric circular ripples extending outward. Another drop hits as the rain begins to fall. More and more drops and now the ripples flow through one another. More drops, countless drops and it is raining so hard that the ripples are hard to distinguish. Constant changing from still to active and back to still. Two raindrops send ripples outward interacting like fault lines smashing into each other and creating different ripples. Each drop separate, separate ripples, yet interact to become one body of water. In time the lakes and rivers and oceans dry up and form somewhere else. Mountains emerge and crumble, people die and are born, species exist and they disappear. I am the raindrop. I am the fault line. I am the earthquake. I dry up and disappear and reform somewhere else.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that this ego understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, I die yet I that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature, I am a drop of water falling from the sky heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
I see that I am only alive in the sense that this ego understands that I am alive now. I know I will die. I know that life will continue on and that I am part of that. So, what do I have to defend against? Why do the concentric circular ripples from other raindrops trigger fear and defenses? They can’t save me, my defenses. I am already dead. It’s important to me that I live now AND when I see the circular nature of time I know that it is unimportant that I live. Like an ant in a hive, I die yet I that is one with the hive lives on. The raindrop is a single form until it hits the water. I am not separate from nature, I am a drop of water falling from the sky heading to the pool, to my individual death, to my re-emergence as the pool, ready for the next transformation.
This is reincarnation. This is enlightenment. This is salvation. This is magic. This is nature.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association and Good Food
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
One thing I love about blogs are how we can find out about people in other parts or world and what they are into, like COOKING! This blog is full of wonderful looking food and other delights!
One thing I love about blogs are how we can find out about people in other parts or world and what they are into, like COOKING! This blog is full of wonderful looking food and other delights!
Awareness and Change: two ships not missing each other!
We seem to experience moments of clarity (awareness) as sudden, then find making the changes in our day to day life that align with that awareness slow or not possible. Maybe it's not that way at all. Maybe the moment of clarity happens just as slowly as the functional change, we just don't notice the pace of awareness development because it is coming from unknown to known... therefore we can relax in knowing that the awareness was the first step and the change will come!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Communication with Nature #26
Pace my feet slowly
Speed of light, speed of leaf drop
lets tears of freedom
I have not written a haiku in years. Interesting. I wondered if there was a specific purpose of a haiku for this activity. I realized that haiku’s are total creative freedom in the context of a format. This reminded me of nature. Total freedom in the context of natural laws. If I don’t know the context of my experience, then my freedom becomes disconnected from nature and can be destructive. I had always avoided haiku’s because I thought them unnecessarily limiting. I see now that this is not accurate. I feel a connection to many human practices that are seemingly connected or derived from nature.
I have been a bit consumed by the oil spill and my relationship to the cause of this catastrophe. I have been even more actively lowering my carbon foot print and more attracted to change my everyday functioning. I am very scared for my son and all of nature in these seemingly crucial times (by this I mean more than any other time to date). I have been realizing how the days of carefree living are over. This was producing a panicky anxious hopeless feeling that was causing me a lot of problems. I was avoiding my school work, my work work, my parenting, my intimate relationship, and my band. Everything just seemed meaningless compared to the oil spill and the threat of more disasters. I was considering going down to the gulf to try and help clean up (which I may still do). This produced such intense emotions and I was not able to support them. I was starting to lose it. I could see this occurring and used the tools I have learned here and with nature to help me through this. As I wrote earlier, I received many messages from nature that helped me. I feel like I am gaining the nature supported position to be able to experience what is happening without being swallowed by it.
I am to the point that I trust nature enough that know that, whatever happens, each moment experienced in connection to nature is forever and that’s enough for me.
Speed of light, speed of leaf drop
lets tears of freedom
I have not written a haiku in years. Interesting. I wondered if there was a specific purpose of a haiku for this activity. I realized that haiku’s are total creative freedom in the context of a format. This reminded me of nature. Total freedom in the context of natural laws. If I don’t know the context of my experience, then my freedom becomes disconnected from nature and can be destructive. I had always avoided haiku’s because I thought them unnecessarily limiting. I see now that this is not accurate. I feel a connection to many human practices that are seemingly connected or derived from nature.
I have been a bit consumed by the oil spill and my relationship to the cause of this catastrophe. I have been even more actively lowering my carbon foot print and more attracted to change my everyday functioning. I am very scared for my son and all of nature in these seemingly crucial times (by this I mean more than any other time to date). I have been realizing how the days of carefree living are over. This was producing a panicky anxious hopeless feeling that was causing me a lot of problems. I was avoiding my school work, my work work, my parenting, my intimate relationship, and my band. Everything just seemed meaningless compared to the oil spill and the threat of more disasters. I was considering going down to the gulf to try and help clean up (which I may still do). This produced such intense emotions and I was not able to support them. I was starting to lose it. I could see this occurring and used the tools I have learned here and with nature to help me through this. As I wrote earlier, I received many messages from nature that helped me. I feel like I am gaining the nature supported position to be able to experience what is happening without being swallowed by it.
I am to the point that I trust nature enough that know that, whatever happens, each moment experienced in connection to nature is forever and that’s enough for me.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Communication with Nature #27
I did this activity at the beach. I am always attracted to the ocean. I started to name all of the Natural Attraction Senses that are connected to the ocean and in a few moments I felt this singular focus where everything else faded into the background. It is exactly like being in a trance. I could feel the connection to the ocean and all of its senses. I asked the ocean: “What do I do now?”
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like “more of what you are doing” and “ use all your senses” and “follow your heart”. It was all sort of saying: you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.
The tide was coming in…
I did this with my partner and she had an amazing experience as well. It told her that everything is always changing and it’s ok to change.
The next day I had another leaning connection with the ocean. There was a strong rip tide and I was walking against it. I was paying attention to the sensation of straining muscles. I noticed suddenly that when you go against the flow you get stronger and when you go with the flow you go faster. Hmmmm…I never experienced it THAT way before! Awesome!
The communication came as an ineffable feeling, but felt something like “more of what you are doing” and “ use all your senses” and “follow your heart”. It was all sort of saying: you are part of me and I am part of everything, you have all my senses and I have all of yours, the outcome is not certain, live fully today.
The tide was coming in…
I did this with my partner and she had an amazing experience as well. It told her that everything is always changing and it’s ok to change.
The next day I had another leaning connection with the ocean. There was a strong rip tide and I was walking against it. I was paying attention to the sensation of straining muscles. I noticed suddenly that when you go against the flow you get stronger and when you go with the flow you go faster. Hmmmm…I never experienced it THAT way before! Awesome!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Communication with Nature #25
I went to the park I frequent for these activities, old (new) friend. I followed my attractions and found myself at a turn in the creek where several trees had more of there root system showing than usual. I was attracted to these roots and the trees and the creeks turn. I was not focusing on my thoughts, just my attractions and being open to anything I didn’t fully trust in nature. It hit me quickly like it came from behind me. The question I asked nature was, “How can I trust something that created us humans? How could you have made something so seemingly unnatural? Something that doesn’t follow the rules of nature?” The answer came as it often does, as a feeling. And then a little bird told me, “Live Now, yep yep yep (yep = yes around here with our language accent). It repeated this over and over. I felt this existential peace as I received the message, “live now, cause things are not looking good for us humans and really this is a preferred way to live anyway.” I received the message that I need to do anything and everything I was waiting to do or putting off. Like telling someone I love them or healing old wounds. It was in no way depressing or hopeless. It was like: “each moment is precious, don’t miss any of them!” This was in support of living in ways that bring hope and joy. I have to admit that my first thought about it was to give up and do all of the harmful things I used to do to myself. Within a split second, I realized that that is not living now and that I am not attracted to that. I felt supported in knowing (being aware of) all the suffering and in not causing my own suffering. I feel different somehow. The question of how humans came to be the way we are is the biggest and last barrier to trusting natural attractions and nature in general.
Because these things happen simultaneously and not in a straight line, it is hard to convey these ideas very accurately with narrative. Another question I asked was why nature created so many things that are dangerous to us humans. This answer was more clear and direct. Nature said that every species needs predators to control population. This makes sense to me. I had a thought as I was taking the message in. This thought was: maybe people became somewhat conscious that they had been repeating the same life over and over again. They became aware of past lives or the connection to the never-ending nature of life. Maybe some humans tried to figure out how to solve this never-ending life thing because they were tired of cyclical suffering aka the loss of people that they loved. Maybe they realized (not fully consciously) that the only way to beat the law of nature was not following the laws of nature. I felt like they would be scared of this at first and then see some benefits and few downsides. Not knowing, ultimately, the effect this would have, pursued this way of life. And then we wake up a few thousand years later in the state we are in today.
Because these things happen simultaneously and not in a straight line, it is hard to convey these ideas very accurately with narrative. Another question I asked was why nature created so many things that are dangerous to us humans. This answer was more clear and direct. Nature said that every species needs predators to control population. This makes sense to me. I had a thought as I was taking the message in. This thought was: maybe people became somewhat conscious that they had been repeating the same life over and over again. They became aware of past lives or the connection to the never-ending nature of life. Maybe some humans tried to figure out how to solve this never-ending life thing because they were tired of cyclical suffering aka the loss of people that they loved. Maybe they realized (not fully consciously) that the only way to beat the law of nature was not following the laws of nature. I felt like they would be scared of this at first and then see some benefits and few downsides. Not knowing, ultimately, the effect this would have, pursued this way of life. And then we wake up a few thousand years later in the state we are in today.
New Friends!
http://dopaminedialogue.wordpress.com/
Take a look at Star Rocker. You'll find original music, sobriety, and running!
Take a look at mind body psychotherapy. There is great stuff on connecting the mind and body to heal traumatic wounds of the past and present. Includes hypnotherapy, one of my personal favorites!
Take a look at Star Rocker. You'll find original music, sobriety, and running!
Take a look at mind body psychotherapy. There is great stuff on connecting the mind and body to heal traumatic wounds of the past and present. Includes hypnotherapy, one of my personal favorites!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Reconnecting With Nature, Buddhism, and Basketball
Last night I was walking with my girlfriend and her dogs. As I was paying attention to the dog, I was thinking about the documentary we had watched earlier called “no impact man”. I saw the dog come to attention, senses alive, she turned her head and then turned in the opposite direction. I followed her gaze to see a rabbit three houses in back of us. As we turned to go on down the road, I looked up at a massive tree and felt so grateful that I have the opportunity to be alive with that tree. I thanked the tree and felt gratitude back. It was like the tree was telling me that the story/drama we live in day to day is not a natural attraction, yet the love in the form of natural attractions is always present and that’s what grounds me when I get upset about the story and it’s effects on nature, those I care about, and me. Nature is designed to produce happiness and love in the form of our senses. Anything that does not promote that seems to be part of our nature-conquering story. I now understand more fully the Buddhist idea that being free from suffering is not the absence of pain, hurt, or death, it is fully experiencing what is real in the moment. So, when I feel disconnected at work, I know that it is accurate. Knowing that and being able to stay with that sensation is what leads me to connection with nature. It’s telling me what I don’t want/need. It’s telling what I’m not attracted to.
When I started this program, I had little knowledge about nature and had not made many significant connections to nature. Now I know that this was the missing link in my life. I have been well trained in psychology, which lead me to ecopsychology, but had not made the connection with nature. I had also studied Buddhism and eastern philosophy for years, which in retrospect helped me to understand RWN (reconnecting with nature) and even more RWN helped me understand Buddhism. It’s weird, I feel like the same person only almost completely different.
An example of this for me occurred while running the other day. I had been connecting with nature and then running. I was feeling the importance of paying attention to my surroundings for survival purposes. I was attracted to this level of attention. As I ran in this park, I came across a basketball. This object seemed so foreign and out of place that much of my attention was drawn to it. I thought “an unnatural ball of rubber just distracted me from paying attention to my survival attraction, that’s what happens to me (and us) so much of the time”. All of these industrial things are wranglers (wranglers are anything that promotes the nature-conquering story of our culture).
I started to feel bad: depressed, hopeless, trapped like I needed to flee into the forest. I realized that this is also not part of nature. Nature nurtures mutually beneficial relationships to produce harmony and love, which are natural attractions. That was not what I was feeling. I realized that I could connect with nature and feel those attractions come back. I can still know about what is going on and how I am being affected by the industrial world, yet the way to heal from this is not through thinking about how I can fix it. It’s how can I be more and more connected to nature and let nature guide my thinking. This develops a supported ground to meet these wranglers on and a feeling that I can joyfully connect with nature in all places.
When I started this program, I had little knowledge about nature and had not made many significant connections to nature. Now I know that this was the missing link in my life. I have been well trained in psychology, which lead me to ecopsychology, but had not made the connection with nature. I had also studied Buddhism and eastern philosophy for years, which in retrospect helped me to understand RWN (reconnecting with nature) and even more RWN helped me understand Buddhism. It’s weird, I feel like the same person only almost completely different.
An example of this for me occurred while running the other day. I had been connecting with nature and then running. I was feeling the importance of paying attention to my surroundings for survival purposes. I was attracted to this level of attention. As I ran in this park, I came across a basketball. This object seemed so foreign and out of place that much of my attention was drawn to it. I thought “an unnatural ball of rubber just distracted me from paying attention to my survival attraction, that’s what happens to me (and us) so much of the time”. All of these industrial things are wranglers (wranglers are anything that promotes the nature-conquering story of our culture).
I started to feel bad: depressed, hopeless, trapped like I needed to flee into the forest. I realized that this is also not part of nature. Nature nurtures mutually beneficial relationships to produce harmony and love, which are natural attractions. That was not what I was feeling. I realized that I could connect with nature and feel those attractions come back. I can still know about what is going on and how I am being affected by the industrial world, yet the way to heal from this is not through thinking about how I can fix it. It’s how can I be more and more connected to nature and let nature guide my thinking. This develops a supported ground to meet these wranglers on and a feeling that I can joyfully connect with nature in all places.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
How Will the Natural Systems Thinking Process Impact Psychotherapy?
The Natural Systems Thinking Process is an important paradigm shift in the field of psychotherapy that moves away from therapist as change agent to nature as change agent. This shift utilizes natures unlimited strength, intellect, and openness that provides a way to see one’s self as a natural being. NSTP resolves many of psychotherapy’s conflicts by developing the relationship between the person and nature, and minimizing the therapeutic relationship between therapist and client as the foundation of the work. This is helpful due to the potential trauma that can be transferred on to the therapist making healing more difficult or impossible. Also, working with nature both parties start with gaining permission for engagement and for going at one’s own pace. This allows the person seeking reconnection with nature to develop the connection and healing process at the exact pace that is safe and comfortable, which increases their self-supportive functions. The ideas of developing self-supportive functions and letting the client set the pace are essential ingredients for effective therapy, which has been researched thoroughly by Miller and Duncan (2004). Reconnecting with nature through NSTP has other elements that are similar to Buddhism and existential philosophies like the idea of all living things being connected and following your natural attractions.
It appears to be common sense that nature has abilities that most humans have lost touch with. As we watch reports on looming environmental and social disaster, it is apparent that humans (especially westerners) are not utilizing the intelligence of nature. Nature does not produce garbage or any other social problem we see today (serious mental health issues, poverty, crime, war). It would also be common sense to think that humans could reconnect with nature and their natural selves as a way to utilize nature’s intelligence and other abilities. As Cohen (2003) asks the rhetorical question, “Do you recognize that any person who could conceive and perform the functions of Earth or nature would be considered a super genius ten times over?” This makes the point that if we connect with nature we tap into a super evolved intelligence that can help us develop new solutions and ways of living that were formerly unknown to us.
One basic aspect of nature is that it has mutually beneficial relationships with all other living things. This creates balance and harmony in the system. If we can see/recognize our natural nature, we can regain, recover, and reconnect to that which is in balance and harmony within us or that is us. Actually, using the word us is apt because all humans have this capacity and part of that capacity is to understand that us is not separate from nature. Furthermore, in nature cooperation is a vital element or an essential component.
Most mental health issues are brought about by the competitive element of society, which leads people to be disconnected from nature and each other. Of course, nature has what looks to humans like competition, but a description can be seen differently from different vantage points. The competition found in nature does not negate the fact that the competitors are involved in a mutually beneficial relationship. If one “wins”, by definition in nature, the “loser” has contributed an equally valued element in the balance of nature. So, there really are no winners or losers in nature, yet the battle for survival can remain intense and hard fought. The question may be better thought of as a combination of process and outcome. If we conceive of ourselves as one with all living things or are constantly engaged in mutually beneficial relationships with everything around us, then we may change the valuing process that occurs when looking at the outcome. For humans, this would include finding our place in nature. We may get to the point where we see all things in nature as us and thus be open to taking our balanced mutually beneficial place in nature.
Alternatively, when we look at most current therapeutic practices, we find therapists attempting to find ways for people (their clients) to cope with the insanity of society more functionally. People understand on some level that society created this issue and that coping will not free them from the suffering they experience. They often try with mixed immediate and poor long-term results. In my experience as a therapist, most of the people that I have worked with understood all to well why they were feeling the way they were, their issue was not knowing what to do about it. Their lack of understanding what they needed to do was mostly based on the extensive brainwashing that societies typically do to their people. My clients believed with all their thoughts and feelings that they were/are helpless. And they were helpless, or mostly helpless, to overcome the lack of power they experience in society. What they could not really come to terms with was that they knew they had to connect with nature, yet that contradicted their social training. Therefore, they would continue to fight a battle that was not theirs to fight. At the time, I had only an inkling of what they were missing. I was disconnected from nature also. Looking back, I can see that they needed to have the support that nature can provide to be able to see the reality of the situation.
Reconnecting with nature is what allows us the initial strength to stand on our own feet and reach out to the environment to find the webstrings that we are so intimately part of. Webstrings, another way to describe mutually beneficial relationships, are like an endless pool of connection to balance and harmony. When we allow our natural attractions to lead us to the webstrings connection, we are moving through barriers that no longer exist. So, as a nature connected therapist, I would be helping people to reconnect with nature and nature acts as the change agent. Of course, the therapist is part of nature, so they need to be a trusted member of the nature community, but one string of the web (therapist alone or disconnected from nature) has very little power compared to all the webstrings. This puts the therapist in the role of “leading the horse to water” so to speak, but the water is what is actually helping the horse or reconnecting the horse to its mutually beneficial relationship with water is what helps the horse.
It appears to be common sense that nature has abilities that most humans have lost touch with. As we watch reports on looming environmental and social disaster, it is apparent that humans (especially westerners) are not utilizing the intelligence of nature. Nature does not produce garbage or any other social problem we see today (serious mental health issues, poverty, crime, war). It would also be common sense to think that humans could reconnect with nature and their natural selves as a way to utilize nature’s intelligence and other abilities. As Cohen (2003) asks the rhetorical question, “Do you recognize that any person who could conceive and perform the functions of Earth or nature would be considered a super genius ten times over?” This makes the point that if we connect with nature we tap into a super evolved intelligence that can help us develop new solutions and ways of living that were formerly unknown to us.
One basic aspect of nature is that it has mutually beneficial relationships with all other living things. This creates balance and harmony in the system. If we can see/recognize our natural nature, we can regain, recover, and reconnect to that which is in balance and harmony within us or that is us. Actually, using the word us is apt because all humans have this capacity and part of that capacity is to understand that us is not separate from nature. Furthermore, in nature cooperation is a vital element or an essential component.
Most mental health issues are brought about by the competitive element of society, which leads people to be disconnected from nature and each other. Of course, nature has what looks to humans like competition, but a description can be seen differently from different vantage points. The competition found in nature does not negate the fact that the competitors are involved in a mutually beneficial relationship. If one “wins”, by definition in nature, the “loser” has contributed an equally valued element in the balance of nature. So, there really are no winners or losers in nature, yet the battle for survival can remain intense and hard fought. The question may be better thought of as a combination of process and outcome. If we conceive of ourselves as one with all living things or are constantly engaged in mutually beneficial relationships with everything around us, then we may change the valuing process that occurs when looking at the outcome. For humans, this would include finding our place in nature. We may get to the point where we see all things in nature as us and thus be open to taking our balanced mutually beneficial place in nature.
Alternatively, when we look at most current therapeutic practices, we find therapists attempting to find ways for people (their clients) to cope with the insanity of society more functionally. People understand on some level that society created this issue and that coping will not free them from the suffering they experience. They often try with mixed immediate and poor long-term results. In my experience as a therapist, most of the people that I have worked with understood all to well why they were feeling the way they were, their issue was not knowing what to do about it. Their lack of understanding what they needed to do was mostly based on the extensive brainwashing that societies typically do to their people. My clients believed with all their thoughts and feelings that they were/are helpless. And they were helpless, or mostly helpless, to overcome the lack of power they experience in society. What they could not really come to terms with was that they knew they had to connect with nature, yet that contradicted their social training. Therefore, they would continue to fight a battle that was not theirs to fight. At the time, I had only an inkling of what they were missing. I was disconnected from nature also. Looking back, I can see that they needed to have the support that nature can provide to be able to see the reality of the situation.
Reconnecting with nature is what allows us the initial strength to stand on our own feet and reach out to the environment to find the webstrings that we are so intimately part of. Webstrings, another way to describe mutually beneficial relationships, are like an endless pool of connection to balance and harmony. When we allow our natural attractions to lead us to the webstrings connection, we are moving through barriers that no longer exist. So, as a nature connected therapist, I would be helping people to reconnect with nature and nature acts as the change agent. Of course, the therapist is part of nature, so they need to be a trusted member of the nature community, but one string of the web (therapist alone or disconnected from nature) has very little power compared to all the webstrings. This puts the therapist in the role of “leading the horse to water” so to speak, but the water is what is actually helping the horse or reconnecting the horse to its mutually beneficial relationship with water is what helps the horse.
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