"Just pay attention, and then patch a few words together, and don't try to make them elaborate. This isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak." --"Praying" by Mary Oliver
We looked too long for God and truth through words alone. The fruit for humanity has been rather limited, it seems to me -- especially when I observe every day the extraordinary amount of unhappy and angry people in well educated and "religious" countries. How could this happen? Was salvation for the next world only?
I do not fault any one group, person or explanation, but on all of us together as we failed to pay attention. We removed ourselves from the Circle of Life and ended up talking in circles instead. This is so strange coming from a religion that believed "the word became flesh" (John 1:14), yet we have always seemed to prefer words to enfleshment, for some reason. As my very orthodox Church History professor put it, the church has usually followed Plato (body and soul are enemies of one another) much more than Jesus (body and soul work together as one). Sadly and tragically, that says it in one phrase.
It was a giant misplacement of primal attention to what was right beneath our feet, all around us and flying through the air. Enfleshment, embodiment, physicality -- the material world is the only home we know. Yet, we really "could not see the woods for the trees," and even worse we did not see the woods or the trees, but just our ideas about them and how they could be useful to us. They made paper for our books and shade for our reading, after all!
We all started reading books rather broadly once the printing press was invented (almost 600 years ago), and since then we have largely substituted ideas and words for observation and participation in life itself. Now I am afraid it will become texts, videos and screens that will shield us from reality. This leaves us all at least one step removed from The Real, and we get caught up in a static of ideas instead of the basic and healing symphony of life itself. To use Teresa of Avila's shocking phrase, we find ourselves undefended and alone and become willing to "sell our souls for a sardine"!
Words and ideas work in the short run to get you through school and to impress educators and employers. But they do not work in the long run or in the deep run. We soon find ourselves separate and without wonder. We find ourselves companionless (com-panion = one you share bread with) and lonely in a fully participatory universe, without bread to eat when bread is, in fact, everywhere.
"For what can be known about God is perfectly plain, for God has made it plain. Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity is there for the mind to see in all the things that God has created" (Romans 1:20). That is a pretty amazing quote that has not been given the immense importance that it deserves. In fact, read it again! It says the essential message is written everywhere and all the time.
Yes, the natural world is the first and primary Bible. We have not honored it, so how could we, or would we know how to honor and properly use the second Bible, when it was written. We mangled the written word of God for our own group purposes, instead of bringing to it reverence, silence and surrender, which the natural world "naturally" teaches us and also demands of us. If the word surrender scares you, let me tell you that surrender is not giving up, as we usually understand the term. Surrender is entering the present moment, and what is right in front of you, fully and without resistance. In that sense, surrender is almost the exact opposite of giving up. In fact, it allows you to be given to!
For some reason, the whole created world, the animals and the seasons of nature allow us to surrender and trust much more than sermons, words or people do, where we seem to be much more defended, in our heads, and even afraid. Now we are learning that abused children can tell their story if they are touching their dog and those who are autistic and stutter do not hesitate or stutter when they are with their horses or cats. One starts to wonder who is taking care of whom? Who is the healer and who is the healed? Who has soul and who does not? It is not as neat and clear a distinction as humans once presumed.
So I entreat you to trust and learn from the awesome authors in this edition of "Radical Grace," not for their words, but because their words point beyond themselves to what is, to creation itself, to the natural world, to what is all around you -- all the time. The "first Bible" of nature is well written, filled with Mystery and invitation and has all that you need to know God, to know yourself, to know life and even to trust death. Reading reality from inside this circle of creation, and with the eyes of nature, you will inherently know you are already in sacred space, you will know that you belong and you will know that it is OK.
Creation is our first and final cathedral. Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing. The world is no "contest" any more, but as Mary Oliver says, "the doorway into thanks."
"Nature and the Soul" by Richard Rohr, OFM, copyright © Richard Rohr 2011, Radical Grace, Summer 2011, Vol. 24, No. 3. Used with permission.
Fr. Richard Rohr, the Founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is an international speaker and teacher. The author of numerous books, he is a regular contributor to Radical Grace. Fr. Richard will be presenting together with Bill Plotkin at the CAC-sponsored, 2012 year beginning conference, Nature and the Human Soul. For more information and to register, visit cacradicalgrace.org.
Rabbi Lawrence Troster: 10 Teachings on Judaism and the Environment
Center for Action and Contemplation
1-The heavens are declaring the glory of God;
And of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.
2 One day after another day causes speech to bubble forth,
And one night after another night shows forth knowledge.
3 There is no speech, and there are no words;
No voice on their part is being heard.
4 Into all the earth their measuring line has gone out,
And to the extremity of the productive land their utterances.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 And it is like a bridegroom when coming out of his nuptial chamber;
It exults as a mighty man does to run in a path.
6 From one extremity of the heavens is its going forth,
And its [finished] circuit is to their [other] extremities;
And there is nothing concealed from its heat.
at the same path, walked in full Sun, snow and rain.
I saw the Sun’s early spring warmth bring life,
to frogs joy at chortling day and night.
By mid-August, the same Sun turns life dry,
and the frogs’ chortling, into snake bitten cry.
I saw apple trees hasten to bloom and bring crop before frost,
then even faster drop foliage and be winter readied, to play ghost.
Also, I met nature, as it is now days in all towns,
property of men conscientious and clowns.
Old fashioned cuts, knowing mice only as pray
and cut pets, privileged to chase mice for play.
For the longest time, I have been just devotee to nature’s observation,
until the initiatory event, to the transcendent others' realization.
From then onward, my whole world became cathedral of cosmic love,
resolving my winter sleepiness, into bloom and crop of Trinitarian dove.
Suppose.... that *is* the nature of the soul, then? What's your problem?
Christians who see the value in connecting with nature would do well to look to other religions for answers, Christian ideology only seems to stand in the way. A person doesn't have to seek out a shaman, major world religions like Hinduism and Buddhism have a much better understanding of the interconnectedness of nature and human beings.
Learn that God is love and as you said provides this paradise that you live your short life in. But also understand there is no Satan, there is no devil.
My reply!
You are mistaken with your assertion there is no Satan! For God’s word the Bible shows God having conversations Satan. And Jesus refers to Satan as the "ruler of this system of things” and was also tempted by Satan!
Important!
If you would have been present when Jesus walked the earth and uttered those words, "there is no Satan!" Jesus’ blunt and immediate rebuff would definitely have been -- as stated @Mathew16:23 speaking to Peter:
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you think, not God’s thoughts, but those of men.”
“Ignorance Born of Creation"
"Ignorance has its root in the very process of the creation of the universe. When Supermind began the process of dividing the Spirit through the division of the Force to create distinct forms and entities, Ignorance took root”.
supermind why not Infinite Awareness?
After a lifetime of reflection and decades of research, years of meditation, a revelation, and many discoveries, spirit teachings; this article is very close to explain the relationship of nature, souls, consciousness, awareness, sin, evil, and what this Hindu guru Sri Aurobindo has called our original ignorance.
These words are not intended to promote any religion. All paths lead to the same divine awareness if we come to understand their original essence/teachings and can separate the dogma of religion from this spiritual essence. Indeed ignorance has its root in the very process of creation, out of necessity.
When Infinite manifest to finite unawareness was born. No exceptions. Nature is an incubator for soul creation and development.
our original ignorance is our original innocence in the eyes of the gods. we are expressions of the Infinite through a process of the evolution of consciousness process.
Nature is everywhere- in the pavement of the streets you drive on through the city.
On the fabric of the airplane seat you are sitting in 30,000 feet in the air.
In the billions of atoms surrounding you in the air.
Allow yourself to be one with nature.
Nature= God.
God = Myth
Knowledge is a parody of understanding.
Information is a parody of knowledge.
We live in an age of information, and if we swallow whole bait of commodotized, politicized modern education, the thought, art and literature of truly civilized men remains imponderable and fulfillment is hindered by racism, sexism, homophobia and materialism...
We collectively pat ourselves on the back when figuring out the what, when, who, how and where of the universe but invariably come back to The Why..the Irreducible.
That which is at the cross-hairs of every scientific investigation and religious discourse.
The Why.....
God.
Mother Nature in Her omnipotent mystery.
She runs things.
The sun of God is the sun in the sky, their union provides life (Ankh) to everything on the planet.
To know self and live in harmony with Mother Nature is to know God.
These days life is filled with worry over an uncertain future and at times instead of life being a 'gift' there are times it seems more like a sentence or punishment. But then life goes on and we're only passing through anyway.