Excerpts from “The
last hours of Ancient sunlight” by Thom Hartmann.
A Cree Native
American storyteller and teacher told me: “ According to my tradition, from the
beginning of creation, every morning, when the sun comes out, we are each given
4 tasks by our Creator for that day. First, I must learn at least one
meaningful thing today. Second, I must teach at least one meaningful thing to
another person. Third, I must do something for some other person, and it will
be best if that person does not even realize that I have done something for
them. And fourth, I must treat all living things with respect. This spreads
these things throughout the world.”
……..
Last year, I met a
Native American medicine women. She said that when she went into the forest or
fields, she didn’t see just trees and plants and animals but saw their spirits
and heard and felt their consciousness. The trees told her of their lives,
their pain and joy, the plants told her which could heal and which could harm
humans. The animals gave her instructions on how to live in harmony with the
land, and the land spoke to her in an identifiably female voice.
“This is how native
people have seen the living things on this land for eternity,” she said. “You whites
were blind when you arrived here, and are still blind.”
………..
The author (Thom
Hartmann) went out to the forest around his home in US Vermont.
“Is there conscious
life in you?” I said softly, looking at the maple and spruce. They gently waved
in the wind, a distant bird began to sing, and I could smell the fresh scent of
moist earth.
I wondered if the
entire forest might answer me with,”We are alive,” but instead I got a powerful
sense of individual aliveness from each life-form I looked at. Each tree, the
bird and the chipmunk, the soil under my feet teeming with microorganisms; each
seemed to assert its own individual aliveness. Like the individual musicians in
a symphony orchestra, they played together to create a beautiful sound.
I raised my hands,
palms out, imagined my life co-mingling with that of the forest around me, and
was filled with thrill at touching the life of the Earth.
This is a different
type of science – the science of the first people who viewed the life of the
planet. When Jack Forbes, who first wrote about wetiko told me,” Native people
do not necessary believe that only humans can talk,” I felt an immediate
contact with an ancient knowledge, something that has been hidden and lost in
our attempt to make everything in the world fit into our machine-like
worldview. Just as our Younger Culture at one time couldn’t imagine that Earth
was round because the concept didn’t fit into our reality, we have also
rejected much ancient knowledge that has value because it didn’t fit in with our
Cartesian worldview.
Try it yourself.
After you set down this book, walk out into the natural world and try
communicating with – sensing and speaking to – the plants and animals around
you. Find within yourself the place where you sense the presence of life, and
from which you can reach out to other life, to all life. From this place of
seeing all life as sacred life, you can then begin to thoughtfully consider
other things you can do to create sustainable future.
……….
Share some thoughts
on the above :
From personal
experience, I have known the above to be true.
For a long time, I
have known that there is a tranquil, peaceful and healing energy from
Nature.
I have gone to a
neighborhood park/ garden, sit underneath a tree, listen to the birds, watch flocks
of birds fly in unison, just observe
snail/ ants going about their daily lives. When I observe these natural
phenomenal, I was often awed by the Beauty of Nature and a quiet happiness
enters my heart. If I am able to spend 30 mins in the park, I find that I would
be relieved of my tiredness and renewed with life.
Many times I have
gone to the sea side at night, just to lay down on the beach, enjoy the sea
breeze, and look at the stars. Again, the Beauty of the canopy of stars, the
moon, and the ocean would sometimes overwhelm me. I am like a child, lying in
the arms of Mother Earth and enjoying the company of Nature. I can spend 30
mins to 1 hr at the sea side and again, I would be relieved of my physical
exhaustion and be filled with renewed energy and life.
The sounds of nature
have a calming effect on the mind. If I listen to the wind, or the song of
birds, the frogs’ song (after a heavy rain) or the crickets/ worms singing in
the night, the mind would calm down easily and all the worries of the world
would be gone. ( You can try any of the above and experience it yourself.)
I have learn from my
experience with Nature that every tree, every insect, every animal have some
work to perform on the planet. Just because we humans do not understand their
work does not give us the right to destroy Nature, the animals en mass.
We are somehow
interconnected with Nature, with every being on the planet through a web of
life. If we destroy Nature/ the animals en mass (like what humans are doing now
through the destruction of rainforest, the overfishing of the oceans and the
mass production and killing of animals in animal factory farm), we would cause
a huge disturbance to the life-supporting system of the planet, cause a huge
damage to the web of life and would finally be the ones to suffer in the end.
I sincerely wish that
we humans would start to appreciate the wonderful beauty of Nature and wake up
to the plight of the planet and the animals on the planet. We are the ones who
are destroying Nature/ the planet, we need to be the ones who would turn around
to repair/ restore Nature at large.
