How to Green Your Spiritual Life

Most people who consider themselves at least somewhat spiritual, regardless of their religion or set of beliefs, have realized that caring for the earth is imperative to their spirituality. Here are four tips for aligning your inner life with your green life.

1) Green Your Place of Worship: The places where people pray, meditate, or simply stop to have moments of peace vary vastly - but you can make sure that your place of worship isn't causing environmental damage. If you go to a church, temple, mosque, or other organized place, ask your congregation's leaders to emplace green measures like reducing energy use, water use, and waste. You can even volunteer to head recycling efforts or organize carpools. If a corner of your home is your place, make sure that room is as planet-preserving as possible. If where you connect to the spiritual realm is outdoors, remember the "leave no trace" commandments.

2) Read What's Written: The deep connection between spirituality and the environment is all in the scripture: Christians and Jews can refer, among other passages, to Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Buddhist Sutta Nipata instructs: "Within yourself let grow a boundless love for all creatures." Hindus reading the Dakshinamurti Upanishad pray: "Let there be peace in my environment." Muslims are instructed by the Qur'an (2:60): "Do not commit abuse on the earth." The Wiccan Rede says, "Heed the flower, bush, and tree." Atheists, many of whom revere Darwin's writings, hold that humans should refrain from destroying the earth of their own accord. For more about religion and the environment, read these books.

3) Green Your Holidays: Religious holidays are some of the most memorable times of the year, but they can also be some of the most environmentally degrading. Check out our tips about how to green your Christmas, Hanukkah, Easter, and Lent. Whether you celebrate these holidays or others, try to keep consumption to a minimum (experiences, lessons, or homemade items as gifts, are always most memorable anyway), to choose simple and natural decorations, and to remember the charities closest to your heart.

4) Be an Evangelist: Many religions have always been about spreading the good word, and the environment could use that same type of help. If you passionately believe in preserving the planet, tell the world! It's best to refrain from being too preachy, but a few well-targeted comments and messages could make the difference. A few ideas: Don't be afraid to apply a bit of peer pressure with someone who doesn't, say, recycle or turn off lights. Slap a bumper sticker on your car, or throw on a shirt that broadcasts your faith in saving the environment. And sign up for -- and tell your friends about -- the Green Life blog's daily green tips.

Share your tips: How have you connected your spiritual life to preserving the environment?

Comments

[mzrecycle]

Go out in nature: to the woods, in a garden or park, wherever you are drawn or to what is available. Find something that attracts you: a stately tree, a lovely flower, a butterfly resting on a branch, a little bug, a brightly color lizard or a toad, doesn't matter.
What matters is that you are attracted to it.
For a tree, touch it, for the wild things simply look and appreciate it. For a flower, you can simply look or cup your hands around it but a couple of inches away.
Send it your love. In your heart, send it your appreciation and love for a specific quality that attracted you. That bright stripe on the snake, the delicate pink of the flower, doesn't matter, but it should be that which drew you to it.
Ask if it will allow you to feel its nature (its sycamore-ness, its monarch butterflyness, its rose-ness, each are quite different.) This is all done from the heart center. Ask: "May I feel your nature"? (Asking "can" means are you able, "may" means getting permission).
After experiencing the nature of the living thing, thank it and move on.
You will never walk in the world the same after you know the energetic quality that each creature has, and how each has its own level of consciousness.
Share this spiritual exercise with those who would appreciate it.

[quidam56]

God didn't put 350 million year old Appalachian Mountains and streams here for man to decapitate all for GREED and the love of money. http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 It's a sin !