Change and Inner Peace

Imagine if you woke up tomorrow morning and forgot about your most stubborn habit? Went to bed a nail biter, and woke up without the slightest urge to nibble! Or went to bed a procrastinator and woke up making snap decisions left and right. Not because you did anything to conquer your habit, just because you forgot. Clean as a whistle.

Now imagine if you could apply the same magical cure to a more destructive habit. A friend developed Alzheimer’s Disease. After being a heavy smoker for over 30 years, she woke up one morning and forgot that she was a smoker. She never smoked again. Her health improved in so many ways, and she became a very peaceful person. I wouldn’t wish Alzheimer’s on anyone, and after watching my grandfather suffer the humiliation of forgetting his own wife I am mindful of its damage. But my friend’s experience offers a beautiful reminder of the power of memory and the ability to develop inner peace while so much is changing inside and out.

Granted there are many downsides of losing your memory, but the upside is that you can enjoy things as if for the first time. You are fully present to the moment at hand. Life is so full of surprises when you approach life without assumptions. Imagine forgetting all your enemies and having no recollection of any complaints. That would be liberating. Imagine how fearless and focused you would be if you had absolutely no memory of your worries and limitations. You would live every moment with curiosity and intensity.

Memory is overrated and often inaccurate. Mark Twain once said, “When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.” So much memory is built around a story that may have very little truth to it and may no longer be serving any purpose in your life. Take habits for example. You continue in the words of St Paul “to do the very thing you hate.” Why?

It’s time to change the auto responder on some of your memories and habits. Turn a habit into a choice by bathing it in the light of awareness, revealing its lies for what they are and moving beyond it.

Awareness is the mother of all choices. She is like a mother who leads her children to the brink of independence, then lets them go. Awareness can’t make the change for you, but it can remind you that you are stronger than any habit and so much larger than any circumstance.

There is a condition called “pleasant dementia” which up to 50% of people with dementia enjoy. The great American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson began to experience dementia in his 60’s. When a friend asked how he was, Emerson is reported to have said, "Quite well. I have lost my mental faculties but am perfectly well."

When I reach my twilight years, no matter what my mental state, I want to feel peaceful in body, mind and spirit. I will start preparing now – practicing peace. I will only give my memory so much power, and will give my awareness veto power to choose what serves me and makes the world a kinder place.

Emerson wrote the poem “Terminus” when he was 63.
Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.

I can’t help wondering if his late life peace grew out of many years of awareness and choice. It certainly can’t hurt. Check back in thirty years for an update.

Seed of Awareness
Awareness is the mother of all choices. She is like a mother who leads her children to the brink of independence, then lets them go. Awareness can’t make the change for you, but it can remind you that you are stronger than any habit and peaceful through all life’s changes.

Say to yourself: I inhale the precious breath of each moment; I have peace in body, mind, and spirit.

Finding Inner Peace on Holy Ground

I recently bought a new pair of running shoes. I decided to buy top of the range shoes to save my back and knees some wear and tear. These things have so much padding in them that every step is like a foot massage. When I add in my orthotics it makes me about a foot taller. I’ve been bumping into equipment at the gym all week. The lime green laces close the deal on what are definitely the shoes of the century.

So you would think I would be all set to become the marathon runner I’ve never been. Think again. Not two weeks into my new shoes, I discover that barefoot running is making a comeback. Research suggests that all the padding might make the shoes more comfortable, but it may not be good for your body. Fully loaded shoes may take the soul out of running, when it would be much better to strip a few layers of cushion out of the shoe and get back to basics.

Do you see where I’m heading with this? If feet are what we use to stand on holy ground, then shoes are a metaphor for protecting yourself against the experience. To take your shoes off is to remove all the barriers to a complete and direct engagement with the moment. Your soul doesn’t need to be cushioned or protected, even if your soles do. What are some of the common and subtle ways you cushion your soul against a direct experience of life? Maybe you rationalize and keep conversations at a theoretical level like whether there is a God or not. That can be a subtle way of avoiding a direct experience. Maybe you get tripped up on language rather than focusing on the experience itself. Maybe you are mistrustful and skeptical and put barriers up between you and other people. Maybe you have self critical voices that tell you that you aren’t good enough or spiritual enough to experience inner peace.

There are so many subtle ways that we keep our shoes on and create an unnecessary buffer between ourselves and a direct experience of peace.

Removing your shoes is a common practice in many cultures. It generally represents humility and respect. It also signifies that you wish peace and goodwill on the home you visit. Remember that it was an ancient custom to wash feet, which implied sandals off. Foot washing is a radical act of intimacy. Finally, it is a mark of respect to the earth. If you leave your shoes at the door, you leave behind the toxins and also save on cleaning costs and the resulting costs to the environment.

There are multiple reasons why shoes off is a great policy for any home. If you don’t do it, think about it starting. It creates a culture of mindfulness and respect.

In 1999, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave a speech (National Press Club October 6, 1999) where he reflected on the courage of those who had testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Many of them had been treated grievously. They had every right to be angry and seek revenge. Instead they came and told their stories in the hopes of building peace and moving on. Archbishop Tutu said in this speech that he had such respect for their courage and humanity that he wanted to take off his shoes. It was as if “he was standing on holy ground.”

This morning I remove my shoes for today I am standing on holy ground. It’s not holy because it’s in a church. You could say it’s holy in spite of being in a church. So much of what religion stands for is divisive and elitist. As comedian George Carlin once said – “Religion is sort of like a lift in your shoes. If it makes you feel better, fine. Just don’t ask me to wear your shoes.” Tragically, Christianity has too often betrayed its roots as a religion based in mutual love and concern and claimed exclusive rights to the truth. This ground is not holy because it’s in a church. It’s holy because you’re here. I remove my shoes in honor of you, for in your presence I experience what many people call God. It’s holy because of our shared stories and our vision for universal love and healing in the world. We know that the world will know no peace until there is peace in our homes, and that there will be no peace in our homes until there is peace within. So I remove my shoes to bring me closer to the soul of life as Moses did when he stood before the burning bush. May I discover some of the inner peace that Moses found despite his limitations and his self critical inner voice. He had a job to do, and his motivation was grounded in the experience of what he called Yahweh.

Inner Peace and Nature

Taking your shoes off is a mark of respect for the place you are standing, and it seems that a connection with location builds a sense of inner peace. Where and when do you most often experience inner peace? Have you experienced it recently? Would you like more of it? Inner peace is something you recognize when you see it, like a burning bush. You see someone you may not even know and their peace is almost blinding. You find yourself saying, “I want what she’s having.” Or else “give me some of what he’s got.”


Studies have shown that nature is the most likely setting for an experience of inner peace. The second most likely time to experience peace is while viewing nature art. Almost half of all people who report having mystical experiences have them in nature. (For more information, see this book written by an atheist author Ecstasy; A study of some Secular and Religious Experiences by Marghanita Laski)

This has been a common theme in many spiritual traditions. A Zen Buddhist monk asks, “How may I enter into enlightenment?” His master points to a mountain steam and says, “Do you hear the murmur of the stream? There you may enter.”

The preeminent mythologist, Joseph Campbell, once said God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!” I can see what he means, can’t you?

One of the early American wilderness preservationists, John Muir, described his experience of the Sierras, “Oh, these vast, calm measureless mountain days, inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God.”

Possibly my favorite expression of inner peace through nature comes from Wendell Berry-

The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things 
who do not
tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

There are so many examples of people who find inner peace in nature. Maybe you have your own experience of nature and peace.

There is a danger in thinking that inner peace comes only through the water fall moments of serenity. The Hebrew story of the burning bush offers a challenge. How do you maintain inner peace in the face of fear and struggle? Moses was so frightened that he had to close his eyes.

I woke up this morning to a really nasty and judgmental email. I had to pause for a few moments. After so many years in my role, I have learnt to separate out other people’s projections and frustrations from what is helpful feedback. I had to ground myself to put the message in perspective. Maybe you have had the same experience when someone else’s issues threaten your own sense of peace. How do you respond? Do you respond, or do you let it go and move on? There are no black and white answers to this question. But this I know for sure- if you are grounded in peace within, then whatever you do, whether you withdraw or engage, will be appropriate. On the other hand, if you are out of balance yourself then your words and actions will likely have a lot of projection and inappropriate reactions.

Inner Peace and Eco-Activism

This leads to a related question. What difference does the experience of inner peace make to the way you live your life? Does it make you retreat from life, or engage it more fully?

The eco-visionary and spiritual activist, Satish Kumar, initially thought that spirituality was a retreat from the world but he then grew into a new understanding. He grew up in India according to the Jain religion which is a very eco-friendly religion. At the age of 4 his father died and he questioned the meaning of life and death. At age 9 he was so moved by this experience that he left home. He spent 9 years just walking around the forest and the villages barefoot so that he didn’t leave too firm an imprint on the earth and with a cloth around his face so that he didn’t unconsciously inhale a living creature. He took his duty very seriously to live apart from the world, to renounce the ways of the world and to live in communion with nature. When he was 18 he had an encounter with Ghandi that changed his whole outlook on spirituality.

Ghandi told him that his spirituality should make him more involved in the world. Kumar set out on another walking pilgrimage. This time he walked 8,000 miles to visit each of the leaders of the four nuclear nations at the time. He took a tea bag as a gift for each of the leaders. As he arrived at each of the leaders he presented the tea bag and said to them “at the point where you attempt to launch nuclear war, I invite you to pause and drink a cup of tea.”

Aha! Drinking tea in some cultures is like taking your shoes off. It’s a sacred act to be undertaken mindfully. Inner peace that withdraws from the needs of the world is a pointless peace. Outer activism that is undertaken without inner peace will be ineffective. The inner and the outer go together. The approach that Kumar took with the world leaders was summed up with the Sanskrit phrase, “So Hum” which translates as “You are, therefore I am.” This relates to the earth as well.
You are, therefore I am. Wasn’t this the lesson that Moses learnt at the burning bush? In the face of an experience of the great I am, he simply said, “Here I am.” This is all that inner peace asks of you. Just be present.

Your Experience of Inner Peace

You don’t need to go to any special places to experience inner peace. You can do it in any moment that you are fully present and open to surprise. It might be in nature, or else it might be in a room full of people. Where do you experience inner peace in a special way? The incredible truth is that it can be anywhere and anytime. There are no limits to the possibilities.

Joseph Campbell made this point in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. He tells of an ancient Hindu holy man who propped his feet on a sacred symbol by the Ganges. A Sikh passing by asked him how he dared to profane the religious symbol. “Good sir,” he replied, “I am sorry; but will you kindly take my feet and place them where there is no such sacred symbol.” The offended Sikh roughly grasped the man’s ankles and moved his feet first to the right, then to the left, but — to his amazement — in every place that the feet touched, a new symbol sprang from the ground. Finally he understood. There is no place that is not holy.

groundThere is no place that is not holy, if you are prepared to remove your shoes and open your mind. Peace isn’t present in some places and not others. Peace is present wherever you remove some of the layers of unnecessary protection and judgment and let your vulnerability touch the beauty of life.

With my shoes off and my soul laid bare, I greet you without pretense or defense. Namaste.

For Further Reflection-

Do you think that all places are holy?

Do you experience some places as particularly sacred?
What experiences bring you back to inner peace?
In what ways do you harmonize inner peace with outer action?


Bucket List of Intentions as a Parent

I woke up with the crystal clear thought on my mind- “Make scrambled eggs with the kids.” Not turn the kids into scrambled eggs mind you, but get the whisk out and show the kids how to mash up an awesome batch of fluffy scramble. So we did, and it was delicious (both the eggs and the time).

It felt like the most important thing I did that day, like the sort of bucket list moment that you just store in your own mind.

Do you have times like that? It can go either way. It can direct where you put your attention, as in making scrambled eggs, or it can be a decision to not spend any more energy on something that doesn’t feel worthwhile.

Sometimes I wonder if the whole notion of an afterlife was just a cunning plan from ancient spiritual leaders to get us to make the most of this life. An afterlife is so mysterious and unknown. What is right in front of our noses is not.

So when Jesus said “don’t store up treasures in barns for some future time” I hear it as call to urgency. Buddha was attributed with saying something very similar. Maybe it’s a universal truth. There’s no point scrambling eggs and putting them in Tupperware for later. Life doesn’t reheat well. It needs to be savored now while it’s fresh. There’s no point just thinking about spending time with your kids. Actually do it, and don’t delay.

All of this urgent energy bubbled up into a fresh baked affirmation, a Seed of Urgency, particularly for parents but it relates to all of us.

Seed of Urgency
What are you waiting for? Your time with children at home is fleeting. If you store up treasures, you could miss your chance to enjoy them. Apply the same principle to much larger things than money; like forgiveness or praise. If you store up kindness or encouragement for some future time, you just might miss your chance to express them. Don’t delay. Express something you have been meaning to say to your children. Do it today.

Say to yourself: I take every opportunity to express my love for my kids.

So here’s my bucket list of intentions as a parent-
1. See my kids smile every day.
2. Tell my kids I love them every day.
3. Tell my kids they’re amazing at specific things every day.
4. Begin every correction, with encouragement.
5. Forgive myself for moments of impatience.
6. Forgive my kids for any and every time they mess up.
7. Learn from my kids how to play in the moment.
8. Put time with my kids before chores.
9. Help my kids give voice to their dreams
10. Savor every fleeting moment

Now, excuse me. The kids have some scramble ready for me. They don’t even need my help any more.

Are God and Nature One and the Same?

I’m going to ask you to do something, and for the sake of the exercise I want to ask you to follow your first instinct. Don’t think about it. Just do it. Don’t feel self conscious. No one will be watching. Are you ready? Without hesitation, I want to ask you to point to God. There is no right or wrong answer to this question of course. Wherever you pointed, including the decision not to point anywhere, was perfect. Maybe you pointed to yourself where you sense the seed of wholeness that resides within. Awesome.

Maybe you pointed to people near you where you sense the energy of love and connection between. Awesome. Maybe you pointed outside to a glimpse of nature, where you sense the beauty of God beyond. Awesome. Maybe you swirled your hand in all directions where you sense the whole, evolving web of life. Awesome. Maybe you didn’t participate because your intuition doesn’t resonate with the name God, or else nothing in your present experience matches your understanding of God. Maybe you didn’t participate because no one tells you what to do. All perfectly acceptable.

When was the last time you experienced God? Was it natural, i.e. was it an experience that involved your senses and could be explained with words? Did it involve tangible things like flowers or people? Was it maybe even in nature, in an incredible moment of wonder and peace? Or was it supernatural, i.e. an experience that seemed to take place beyond your rational explanation? Was it an experience or a feeling that didn’t relate to any particular tangible part of nature?

In the next twenty minutes I am going to direct you to an ever present experience of mystery and beauty that many call God. In the process, I am going to untangle some of the knots that keep you wedded to beliefs that your common sense no longer needs to believe. I’m going to build a bridge between primitive beliefs and where we find ourselves today. Along the way I am going to show how you can help ease the ecological crisis. As an added bonus, I am going to show you how this ever present experience of God will revolutionize your life and relationships and liberate you from so much suffering and pain. Are you with me? Are you ready for this experience? Your openness is all I ask. Take a deep breath, and let’s dive in.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Begin with some untangling of ancient beliefs. Do you remember the 1980’s movie The Gods Must Be Crazy? It’s about a primitive Kalihari tribe who believe that everything that happens is directed by the gods. When they hear the sound of thunder but see no clouds, they assume that the gods have eaten too much and their tummies are rumbling. When they see the trail of airplanes, they believe that it’s the gods having flatulence. They have a simple worldview. Everything that happens is related to the actions of the gods. Their worldview is thrown into turmoil when a pilot drops an empty coke bottle out his window and they find it. At first it’s intriguing to them. But because there is only one bottle, they soon discover the challenge of personal ownership. The bottle becomes a cause of division so one of them decides to walk to the end of the earth and dispose of it. He walks for days and eventually arrives at a huge cliff high above a cloud covered gorge. He decides that this must be the end of the earth, and so he drops the bottle over the cliff.

As he arrives at the cliff face, the narrator says, “He was beginning to think he would never find the end of the Earth. And one day, suddenly, there it was.” There is a nice real life connection. The place in South Africa where the movie was filmed is called “God’s Window.”

I wonder if some of you have searched for answers for so long that it feels like you could travel to the ends of the earth and never find anything. If you are open today, I want to lead you to God’s window, where you will suddenly say, “There it is.” You can have an intimate experience of God and you don’t have to hold primitive beliefs.

The first step is to untangle unbelievable beliefs from the past. The experience of the Kalihari tribes is informative when it comes to understanding the origins of most religious beliefs. Most religions began at a time when they believed that nature was filled with spirits. Every flowing stream and rustling leaf was an indication that gods and spirits were present. In Hebrew scripture, God appears in a burning bush that isn’t actually burning, as if to suggest that God suspended the laws of combustion. Yahweh told King David to watch for the dancing of the Mulberry leaves to know when to smite the Philistines. Not that I’m encouraging any smiting, but it’s interesting to consider whether God speaks through nature.

What we now call Easter was an anxious time in the ancient world. They believed that the darkness of winter was due to the gods being in the underworld. What we call spring was the reappearance of the gods. The light and warmth was a sign that the gods were back in the land of the living. While we wait impatiently for warmth we are entitled to, they waited with bated breath for a hint of a survival they cherished.

This tendency is broader than just the Judeo/ Christian tradition. According to the Hindu scriptures, the earth is resting on a serpent, which is resting on an elephant, which is resting on a turtle. What’s beneath the turtle? Another turtle. And beneath that turtle is another turtle, and all the way down its turtles. This animistic view of nature persisted through the time of Jesus and into the Middle Ages. There were pros and cons in this worldview. On the one hand, they appreciated the life giving quality of nature so much more than we do. Life was surprising and miraculous. On the other hand, they lived in dread and fear, bound by superstitious reverence. Nature was full of hobgoblins and crazed gods who lived magically in every mountain and valley and held the fate of humans in their hands.

We learn some important lessons from the primitive worldview. There is an old saying that in primitive cultures they had a name for every bend in the river, but they had no name for the river itself. They were limited by their understanding of the world where God appeared randomly and unpredictably, but they had no larger context to put their beliefs in. We now know that evolution is the name for nature, and that each part of nature is related to this whole.

What if you could experience God with just as mystery and life affirming power as the ancients, but without the fear? What if you could experience all the parts of life as precious seeds of God, within and between, and also find your place and purpose in the whole web of life?

The Onset of “Just” Thinking

Judeo/ Christian monotheism planted the seed for a radically different view of God and nature. While animism is evident throughout the old and new testaments, the notion of one God laid the groundwork for a new worldview. One God created the earth and filled it with value, but this God was clearly separate from nature. The Jewish and Christian traditions were built around the tension between their pagan roots that were animistic, and their belief in an “other” God who was unknowable and interventionist in nature. This one God could choose to contravene the laws of nature if it suited divine purpose.

It could be argued that monotheism paved the way for the Enlightenment of the 16th to 18th centuries. This was the age of reason. Nature was now seen to have laws that were predictable and there was little need for gods or spirits to explain nature. The veil was lifted from superstition, and nature was seen in the light of science. A tree was just a tree. A flowing stream was just a flowing stream. Rustling leaves were just rustling leaves. Burning bushes and talking donkeys were just embarrassing carry overs from simple minded primitive cultures.

The Enlightenment offered the freedom to read the Bible critically and think freely. The focus shifted from God and the supernatural to human ingenuity. Poets and artists like Michelangelo were described as divine and given titles like creator, words formerly confined just to God. There was no need for God to explain nature. Nature had its own wisdom and direction. Romantic poets such as Wordsworth and Shelley, suggested that humans would find their way if they found harmony with nature.

Shelley wrote Queen Mab as a love poem to nature. Queen Mab was a fairy in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, who visited people in their dreams to inspire them to fulfill their deepest longings.

Look on yonder earth:
The golden harvests spring; the unfailing sun
Sheds light and life; the fruits, the flowers, the trees,
Arise in due succession; all things speak
Peace, harmony and love.
The universe, in Nature’s silent eloquence, declares
That all fulfil the works of love and joy
All but the outcast, Man. He fabricates
The sword which stabs his peace; he cherisheth
The snakes that gnaw his heart; he raiseth up
The tyrant whose delight is in his woe,
Whose sport is in his agony.

Shelley was expressing something profound. Nature is alive in a new sense. It communicates order and harmony. The earth is communicating, and the experience is completely natural. Nature herself holds the powers that the ancients ascribed to the gods. Nature is offering the clues to the solution for humanity. Humans have the incredible power of choice. When harmony with the earth is lost, people are the outcasts and we bring agony on ourselves.

If we listen to nature, we just might survive the crisis. For Shelley it was a completely secular vision of utopia. He was derisive of religious belief. In his view religion was superstitious and unnecessary.

What do you think? Is religion superstitious and unnecessary, or can we learn something from her stories about an experience of God and the nature of the earth?

In the process of placing power in the hands of human beings, Shelley and other 19th century Romantics did away with much superstitious fear. They introduced rational human faculties to the conversation about nature. The freedom we enjoy to think for ourselves and question tradition is a direct consequence of Enlightenment thinking. This was the upside of the Enlightenment. However there were also some downsides.

The human longing to feel connected to something larger than ourselves was replaced with rationalism. The mystery of experience was de-mythologized, and the power of religious language to hint at the depth of mystical experiences was de-emphasized. They also engendered a sense of intellectual and artistic elitism. The divine was not a direct experience for ordinary people. Divinity was the domain of artistic genius. Ordinary folk could enjoy this genius, but not manifest it firsthand.

What if you could experience the beauty of nature, the miracle of every shooting star and shooting bud, without reducing it all to a neat and rational box? What if every person could experience every moment as miracle, and even name the miracle God, without lapsing into fear and superstition? What if you could have your connection to something larger than yourself without falling back into hobgoblins and fairies?

God and the Earthquake

On one hand, nature was no longer to be feared. In the light of day, nature had predictable patterns. However their relationship with nature went to the other extreme. Through the Enlightenment, nature was idealized with a romantic personal identity. As we have discovered, nature is not always quiet and submissive. It’s often randomly fierce. Nature’s ferocity is the other side of what Shelley called “its silent eloquence”. We have a phrase to describe nature’s ferocity. We call this a natural disaster. With the recent spate of natural disasters, many people have been wondering if this is a message from the earth. In the last week on my Facebook wall, the following comments were posted-

“Australia had a 5.2 earthquake today. The Earth is speaking up, in Her way.” And also this one-
“She is tired of the takers. World wide earth quakes… Chile, China, Japan, Thailand, Mexico etc, that are over 4.5 on the Richter. Hmmm. Can we say a pretty annoyed Mother?”

Where do these sorts of comments fit into my historic summary of beliefs about nature? Is it a new form of animism? Are they suggesting that nature is alive, or are they expressing the type of metaphoric communication that Shelley was describing?

I would suggest that nature is alive in the sense that it is an evolving whole. But it is not personal. It has no agenda. Nature is what it is. It’s impersonal, which means that when it’s fierce it doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just being fierce. It strikes the good and the evil alike. Tsunami waves swallow whole villages with neither glee nor remorse. They just happen. Waves come and waves recede. That’s their nature, and if we fill nature with personal qualities of goodness, where do tragedies such as Tsunamis leave our faith?

Instead of looking for gods and spirits in causes and consequences, what if we experienced God as presence in the midst of nature?

God within, as the experience of oneness with all that arises. The boundaries between subject and object blur. It’s not just a tree, and you aren’t just looking at the tree. In the experience it is as if you are one with the tree. It’s not just a flowing stream, and you aren’t just listening to the stream. In the experience it’s as if you are one with the stream.

God between, as the experience of fellowship with nature. The earth reflects the patterns of your life, and you learn something about divine order from the earth. It’s a relationship of equality, where you are responsible for each other. If one suffers, the other suffers.

God beyond, as the web of life that evolves in its own time and way, sometimes even beyond rational human explanation.

Earth is Crammed With Heaven

Don’t be distracted by the unlikely details of a burning bush in Moses experience. It wasn’t about the bush. It was about the experience that was later described with miraculous language. Moses experienced something extraordinary and they needed extraordinary language to hint at the depth of the experience. The important detail in the story is that he had his eyes open and he had bare feet.

It could have happened anywhere that Moses had his eyes open and his metaphoric shoes off. So it can be for you. You can experience God anywhere that your eyes are open, and you honor the moment with bare feet. It can happen in the most ordinary moments.

Another Romantic poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, wrote –

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only ~he who sees~ takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

The question is which sort of person are you. Are you the person with eyes open, or are you sitting around plucking blackberries? If enough of us open our eyes, we just might survive the ecological crisis, not to mention experience the inner bliss of wonder and awareness.

What did Moses do after his burning bush experience? He later presented the Ten Commandments. It’s natural after an experience of mystery and wonder to try and put the experience into words. The Ten Commandments are Moses attempt to put in words the impact of a profound experience. He began with the intimacy of the experience (the oneness of God), and then moved to the ethical responsibilities of having seen God.


So it will be for you. Once you have seen God firsthand and intimately, you can do no other than live with wide eyed wonder, deep seated integrity and open hearted compassion for all the earth and her people.

Just don’t confuse the experience with the language that describes the experience. Most religious wars begin over competing language. Even the Ten Commandments have been institutionalized and used to manipulate and control. Enjoy your experience of God. Just don’t expect others to have the same experience, nor that others need to use your language.

At Ease with God and Nature

Let me bring this all together. You can have the God of your understanding and leave the crazy gods behind. You can honor nature, and leave behind the fear of animism. You can move beyond a cause and effect God and come to an intimate experience of oneness with God. You can honor science and your deductive reasoning, and still find miracles in all manner of places. You can experience the earth as alive and evolving, without filling natural disasters with personal motivation.

God and the earth are both alive and evolving along with your own understanding.

The incredibly liberating truth is that once you stop taking God and nature personally, and instead tune into their non judgmental presence, you can wake up to an inner knowing that stops the madness of competition and rivalry. You wake up to your own divine nature, which is at the same ordinary and miraculous, and fills your life with purpose.

Stop the struggle. A Taoist story tells of an old man who accidentally fell into the river rapids leading to a high and dangerous waterfall. Onlookers feared for his life. Miraculously, he came out alive and unharmed downstream at the bottom of the falls. People asked him how he managed to survive. “I accommodated myself to the water, not the water to me. Without thinking, I allowed myself to be shaped by it. Plunging into the swirl, I came out with the swirl. This is how I survived.”

The earth, in all its wild extremes, is speaking to your inner nature that is both connected and orderly and also reckless and unpredictable. As you learn to work with your nature, rather than working against it, you will find inner peace. As you learn to work with the earth, you will find harmony. Go with the earth; whether it is a serene waterfall or a violent Tsunami. It may or may not be sending you a message. But go with it and see where it leads you. This is part of the answer to the ecological crisis. Be more than an eco guardian who thinks you can control the earth for good or ill. Be more than an eco-romantic, who thinks the earth is all roses and waterfalls. Be an eco-warrior who gets active in the ecological crisis. Be an eco-sage who is in tune with the wisdom that earth speaks. And be can eco-lover for whom living in harmony with the earth is a natural expression of who you are.

All the spiritual powers of healing and peace are present within you and in nature. Nature’s balance in me greets the same in you, and we join in harmony with earth to create a vision of healing and compassion. Namaste.

For Further Reflection-

Do you think the earth is alive?
In what sense do you mean the earth is alive?

In what ways do you experience divine presence?

What language do you turn to describe your experience of God? 


One With the Earth

What do you know for sure? Sometimes I find it worthwhile to seek answers to things I don’t know, like what came before the Big Bang and what comes after death. These musings keep me humble and curious, knocking at the door of mystery. You could say that questions without answers bring you down to earth, sometimes with a thud. But I don’t lose much sleep over those questions, and I rarely engage in arguments about them.

Spiritual traditions prefer questions to answers. They hint at the deep wisdom that resides within each person and within the earth. Jesus said “look to the patterns of nature to find the wisdom of life’s cycles.” The Hindu Vedas offer this wisdom,
“If there was something in the air
If there was something in the wind
If there was something in the trees or bushes
That could be pronounced and once was overheard by
animals,
Let this Sacred Knowledge be returned to us again."

The knowledge that spirituality nurtures is intuitive. It’s a different type of knowing to our conditioned deductive thinking that over thinks every situation and overlays every moment with fear and judgment. Intuition is spontaneous and effortless. Once you remove the impediments, it flows naturally. You feel your way forward, with the vision unfolding as you take each step. The end game is not clear, but it doesn’t need to be clear. It makes sense as you go. You are at one with the situation. There is rarely a right or wrong decision. You roll with the circumstances. You are always becoming with each evolving experience. This is part of the sacred knowledge of the earth.


The early Christians had a word for this type of intuitive knowledge- “gnosis”. Gnosis is the inner knowledge of who you are at your essence. Liberation is a present moment peace that this inner knowledge knows what is essential. It doesn’t strive after unanswerable questions or a far away heaven. It is a here and now engagement with what really matters. Islam has a similar wisdom in the word “Jihad”. It is a word that has been hijacked to mean violent uprising, but actually indicates the inner struggle for clarity and peace in the midst of uncertainty. It’s ironic really. True Jihad has nothing to protect or defend.

At its core, Islam is a peace loving tradition. It even discourages pointless arguments about unanswerable questions. The word “Zannah” in the Qu’ran describes theological speculation that is self indulgent and divisive. Treating people right is more important than being right. This wisdom is at the heart of all spiritual traditions, even though later followers get very edgy about diversity.

So on Earth Day, I am brought back to what I know for sure, what questions lead me to live more fully, and what questions are better left alone. Earth Day reminds me that living in harmony with the earth is a core value that most of us agree on. The earth draws me inward to intuition. My intuition calls me to focus on what we share in common and know for sure.

We may differ on how we got here and the exact process of evolution. We share in common that we are here now. We may differ on where we are heading and if there is an end point. But we are here now. And living here and now with the earth is one thing we know for sure and we all share in common.

By all means have an opinion about wind or solar power, but either way agree that we need to spin the inner turbines of greater mindfulness. Argue the case for underwater gulf stream power or nuclear power, but either way agree that we need to harness the creative energies of humanity for more peaceful existence. Drive a hybrid car or an electric car, but either way agree that we need a passionate drive to care for the earth.

Seed of Gratitude for the Earth
Surround yourself with the beauty of nature. Allow her beauty to warm your heart and feed your deepest hunger for connection and peace. Thank the earth for holding the weight of the world on her shoulders. Feel her strength supporting your existence and filling your body with healing powers. Commit to using her gifts to support others.

Say to yourself: I am so grateful for the earth and all she provides. I am in awe of her beauty.

Learning from Earth's Patterns

Three cheers for bald and balding people. You are true eco-warriors- without plastic combs or electricity for hair dryers. Comedian Larry David said, “Come on. We have got to go bald - all of us. Walking around with a full head of hair is like driving an SUV or dumping toxic sludge into a river. It's irresponsible. Hey, you hair people, shame on you!”

While green issues have become mainstream, the conversation still tends to be stuck in blame and division. Are you green or not? How green are you? How green is green? How much care do I need to show for the earth to qualify as green? Sometimes the choices don’t inspire great optimism. When the cashier asks if I want paper or plastic for my groceries, it sends me on an existential crisis. Do I want to participate in the utter devastation of the environment or the complete destruction of the planet? Neither paper nor plastic is a great option, unless they are reused. So you stand in the firing line, while people nearby check out your answer and look down their noses at your lack of eco friendly reusable shopping bags. The bagging assistant waits with bated breath, with plastic poised as the default if you can’t decide.

Being green is not a competition. So I shouldn’t boast that our family uses an outdoor clothes line to save on the cost of a clothes drier. The clothes dryer is your carbon lint print. The Lawton clothes line is no cause for pride. It’s something we grew up taking for granted. It did take the neighbors a while to get used to. But I will say that sun dried clothes smell and feel SO good. And there is no substitute for the warm feeling of self righteousness on your naked skin when wearing sun dried clothes. But I’m not going to tell you about our outdoor clothes drier because being green is not a competition!!!!!!

With another Earth Day upon us, how will you commit to being green without judgment and blame? What do ancient spiritual traditions that predate paper or plastic choices have to offer our green lifestyle and motivation? What does nature herself have to offer?

Making Green A Win/ Win/ Win Situation
Being green can be a win/win scenario. One of my favorite episodes of the TV show The Office is when Michael Scott tries to intervene in an office conflict. He comes up with a negotiating outcome called win/win/win. Everyone gets to win, especially him because everyone agrees to his solution. One of the office workers has a print on the wall near her desk that a colleague is offended by. So Michael’s solution is to create a t-shirt of the print, and have the worker who is offended by the print wear it. That way the woman who likes the print will be able to look at it all day, and the one who is offended will never see it because he is wearing it. They don’t share his enthusiasm, but that’s his attempt at a win/win/win solution. Win/win/win is awesome. So often in our world the one to win is the one with the highest bid. The results can be devastating. As we have discovered again in recent weeks, mining companies often risk their workers’ lives in pursuit of the highest gain with the least expense. Clearly, the death of miners is not considered part of the cost. It seems that only massive financial penalties will cause mining companies to get serious about safety.

In 2004 a 3-year-old boy was crushed to death by a boulder that tumbled down a strip mining site in Virginia. The coal company was fined $15,000, the maximum by law. $15000 doesn’t even hint at the value of a human life. This cannot be serious! It’s cheaper for mining companies to pay the fines than to take necessary precautions that save lives.

Jesus challenged this very situation in his day. There is an obscure story in the Bible about Jesus cursing a fig tree which had no fruit on it. Mark said the tree withered over two days, while Matthew said it withered immediately. That discrepancy alone should alert us to the fact that this event probably never happened. It was a parable. What was the point of the parable? The cursing of the fig tree is placed immediately after the story about Jesus creating a scene in the temple that had been turned into a market place. The outer areas of the temple were being used to sell the animals needed for sacrifice and change money. Poor people were being priced out of the temple. This was taking place in the only part of the temple that Gentiles could gather for prayer. Jesus wasn’t critical of money and markets per say. He was critical when power and profit took precedence over people and principles. Like Michael Scott, Jesus wanted a win/ win/win solution and not a situation where the rich and powerful win and the poor lose.

The cursing of the fig tree was a symbol and a reminder that when power and profit take precedence over people and principles, the results are devastating. If we don’t get serious about sustainability, we will be creating our own curse. The earth won’t curse us. God won’t bring punishment on us. We will just get what we are asking for. As the saying goes, “Careful what you wish for ‘cause you just might get it.” The earth will have no choice but to give us what we are asking for. The consequences of our choices will crush us like a giant boulder. The earth will be fine, with or without us. It will find a way to self correct, and move on. Many species, including human beings, might not be so lucky.

You can help to create a win/ win/ win solution by living mindfully. The win/ win/ win equation is people, planet and profit, the triple bottom line. Make decisions that balance all the costs, seen and unseen, immediate and long term is a win/win/win solution. Dig deep into your consciousness. Mine your inner motivations. Next time you turn on a light or start up your clothes drier, remember the miners who lost their lives to make your lifestyle possible. Create a life where all can thrive, including the earth. The miners are part of you and your choices. The earth is part of you and you are part of her. Feel this profound spiritual truth in a profound way.

Just in case we need any more reminders that we are all connected, I understand that flights out of Sydney are delayed because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Imagine consequences being felt all the way from Iceland to Sydney, ten thousand miles away. Global flight patterns have been thrown into chaos by the volcano the same way that global ocean currents are changed by the breakup of an iceberg. If we don’t start living as if we are all connected, delayed flights will only be the tip of the iceberg of our mindlessness.

Pulling The Weeds from Your Consciousness
It’s no accident that spiritual teachers have always used nature imagery as an analogy for the spiritual life. Nature holds the answers to the ecological crisis herself. Take for example the change of the seasons. I have truly enjoyed the diverse seasons since living here, like I never imagined I would. Having grown up in the city, I never imagined myself watching for buds and colors around the streets. I take delight in hearing the kids call out “forsythia” from the back of the car; a flower I had never heard of until moving here. I’m a long way from the balmy winter days in Sydney, the lush beaches you can swim in all year round, and the ever present green. And yet the wild and evolving days of West Michigan have their own charm and wisdom. Nature has taught me a lesson that words could never convey. Change, even change that is wild and unpredictable, is transformative. I should pay more attention to the patterns of nature.

For example, Jesus said that the way of God is like a mustard seed. There are many different ways to interpret this parable. The most obvious interpretation is that things that seem small can grow and transform in the most incredible way. This is true enough, and you know it’s true because you have experienced this in your life when the most seemingly insignificant events or actions have triggered massive growth and change.

It’s true also for your green lifestyle choices. Small as they seem to you, your choices carry within them the potential for massive transformation, even the flowering of a new consciousness. You have an incredible seed within you. It is the seed of divine relationship; you are connected to everything that was and is and is to come- with each part of life and life as a whole. Do you feel it? I see it in you, and hope you are beginning to see it in yourself. This seed is the source of sustainable living and loving.

How do you know when your actions and lifestyle are making a difference? Here is the interesting connection and an alternate interpretation of the mustard seed. When the mustard seed grows in the wild it is like a weed. It grows rampantly and can quickly destroy plants. It is unpredictable and produces a fiery after effect. It can take over where it is not wanted, and creates the type of environment where unwanted birds may linger. Mustard is also hard to swallow. It gets up your nose, and leaves a pungent aftertaste. Yet it’s good for you. Mustard has healing, antiseptic qualities.

Do you see the connection to the life of Jesus? He was like mustard, getting up the nose of the power elite of his day. He wouldn’t go away, and he wouldn’t stay quiet. The religious and civic leaders of his day experienced him as the pungent aftertaste of mustard. But he was good for them. Sometimes the way of an eco-warrior is unpopular. Be willing to make lifestyle choices that are unpopular when these decisions rest well with your inner conscience. Be like mustard, agitating for change even when you leave a sour taste in the mouths of those who don’t yet have ears to hear.

Win/Win/Win
Being green is good for you. It’s obviously good for the earth. Without a doubt, it’s good for your children and future generations. It is becoming increasingly clear that it’s also good for the economy as well. It is truly a win/win/win lifestyle.

A study was undertaken in a nursing home. Every resident was given a plant. Half of the residents were told that the plant was their responsibility. They should water and nurture the plant. The other half of the residents were told that they should just enjoy the plants but they didn’t have any responsibility; the nursing staff would care for the plants.

You might expect that the study was measuring the health of the plants. It was actually measuring the health benefits to the elderly residents. The residents who took responsibility for the plants were living longer and were more engaged and joyful than the residents who didn’t care for their own plants. (Sharon Salzberg in Loving-Kindness p. 33)

Being green is good for your health, so commit to being green this Earth Day in large ways and small, in both countercultural ways and mainstream.

The ultimate win/win/win/win/win/win is the incredible experience of oneness with the earth that surpasses understanding and transcends language. Let this earth day be an end to duality in your life. You are one with the earth. You are one with the miners who risk their life for your comforts. You are one with spiritual teachers through the ages who have pointed to the unity of nature as the path to spiritual peace. You are one with the seasons, and you are one with change. You are one with all of the earth- not just the waterfall moments of peace and quiet, but also the volcanoes and earthquakes that shake up your indifference and remind you to stay alert. You are one with all of it.

Green eco-warrior heart in me greets the green eco-warrior heart in you. I am part of you. You are part of me. And together we are part of the earth. Namaste

For Further Reflection-
What is your motivation for caring for the earth?
How do you explain natural disasters?
How do the patterns of nature guide your response to the ecological crisis? 

What do you learn from spiritual traditions about being green? 


Where is God in Natural Disasters?

As yet another Earthquake rocks the world with hundreds dead and thousands injured in China, it’s natural to wonder. Where is God? Did God cause this tragedy, or allow it to happen in some sense? Is there any meaning to be found in tragedy? With Earth Day fast approaching, what do natural disasters teach us about nature?

Luke records the famous story of Jesus calming a storm. Maybe there is something in this story that could calm the storms of our minds in the midst of natural disasters. Of course it all depends on how you read the story. If you read it literally, you might imagine that Jesus (God!) had supernatural authority over nature. He could cause a storm, and he could end a storm. This literal reading presents a dilemma. If God can cause and prevent a storm, why would God choose to murder so many innocent people?

Some fundamentalist Christian leaders suggest that storms are sent by God to teach sinners a lesson in morality. Several religious groups claimed that Katrina was sent by God as a result of a gay pride event due to begin two days after the storm. Pat Robertson predicted on his “700 Club” show that disasters, including hurricanes, would descend on Orlando, Fla., because of gay pride events there. He was quoted as saying, “It’ll bring about terrorist bombs, it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.”

Janis Walworth pointed out in 1998 that the evidence doesn’t always support this interpretation. She conducted some studies to test the notion that God may employ natural disasters or even terrorists to destroy areas that would dare to offer gay people the same civil liberties as other citizens. In fact evidence suggested that states with higher gay populations are less likely to be hit by a tornado. She also illustrated that states with higher numbers of Protestants are more likely than states with higher numbers of Catholics to be hit by a tornado. Within the protestant denominations, Baptists seem to be most in danger. Janis then re- directed the question. She wondered if it could be that Baptists and other Protestants purposely flock to states that have lots of tornadoes. That then led to her as yet unpublished study on the correlation between IQ and religious affiliation.

Jokes aside, what sort of a God would kill people because of a sexual orientation they didn’t choose and don’t use to harm others? What sort of a God would play Russian Roulette with people’s lives and with the ecology just to prove a point?
Liberal religion has taken a different approach to miracle texts such as the calming of the storm. It reads the text as text, and not necessarily as history. For example, it might interpret storms as metaphoric, representing the miserable social status of a fisherman in that culture. A story about a leader calming a storm would represent the inspiration of Jesus to live boldly and unselfconsciously and do what you can to calm the storms of oppression.

Bishop Spong suggests that the stories of Jesus walking on water and calming the storm were ways of connecting early Christians with the belief that the presence of God or Ground of Being was somehow manifest in the person of Jesus. First century Christians would liturgically reenact and retell Hebrew stories such as Joshua crossing the Jordan, and in time these turned into miracle stories such as walking on water and calming storms.

How might a liberal reading of the Bible make meaning out of natural disaster? It would most likely reject the idea that God sent the storm. It might connect the social and political context of the disaster, looking at issues of race, poverty, ecology and government intervention as the lessons of the storm rather than suspecting that an external God was sending the storm for any particular reason.
So where is God in the storms of life? Listen to the first words of the Hebrew Bible-
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.”

What a powerful image. God is actively present, within and between, every aspect of nature, like wind over water. God is present with those who suffer. God is not only experienced in the picnics by waterfalls, God is manifest even in deadly storms. God is all and in all, not as cause but as presence.

God didn’t send the storm. God is the storm. God is present in the tension between natural evolution and human progress. God is the interconnectedness of all the causes and contexts of storms and ecology.

Or else maybe a natural disaster is an ecological act of self correction. Global warming, over population, the poor planning of a city and so many other factors conspire in an act of self correction. It’s a sad fact of our world that the wealthier and more powerful people live at higher elevations and so often avoid tragedies such as floods. Human consumption and abuse, mandated according to a literal reading of the Bible, may have forced nature to self correct.

The universe is living and expanding, and not as a closed system that was created once and then only altered when a supernatural and external deity invades it. The earth is naturally evolving; dying and being reborn constantly. As Meister Eckart said, “God is creating the entire universe fully and totally in this present now. Everything God creates, God creates now all at once.”

Mindless consumption makes no sense in a living universe.

This is an awesome piece by Michael lightweaver called “Tsunamis- A Channeling From Big Mama.”
“You know something, I'm fed up with you guys. You take everything SO PERSONALLY. It doesn't occur to most of you that I am ALIVE. Yes, I'm a living being just like you. I'm continually evolving, growing, changing, etc., and you are a part of my growth as you are a part of your own process. When I stretch, yawn, hiccup, or sneeze you think it's some kind of collective punishment for your “sins.” Did it ever occur to you that that is a bit arrogant? You worry about “Earth Changes” -- no such thing except for the fact that I am continually changing. It's not an event. It's an ongoing process that you don't understand because of your fruit fly mentality.

Last week some guy found fossilized footprints of a dinosaur which roamed the suburbs of Washington, DC. 100 million years ago. That was long before you were even a suggestive sparkle in the Creator’s eyes. Did you know that the total life span of a fruit fly is seven days? Seven days! OK, so let’s say this guy John-the-fruit-fly is born one Monday morning in late October. On Thursday, the first freeze of the season hits. John tragically freezes to death. Now one could take a fruit fly perspective and claim that this was some kind of punishment for John’s many fruit fly misdeeds or -taking a somewhat larger view of the matter - one could see that John had the unfortunate bad luck - or chose at some level - to be born four days before the first killing frost. Do you have any idea how old I AM? Your life span isn't much more than a fruit fly and your whole sojourn here as a species isn't much more than a blink of the eye to me.

When Mama moves, she shakes things up. It's just that you don't have an “eonic” sense of time, so you tend to take it personally. Get Over It! One hundred years from now, you and probably everyone you know will be dead.... and on to greater adventures. I will still be here, yawning, hiccupping & sneezing long after your species ceases to even be a memory around this place. Put your daily petty dramas into THAT perspective. Why does it ALWAYS HAVE TO BE ABOUT YOU? Did it ever occur to you how much of your energy and money is focused on killing other species on this planet - and I'm not just talking about bug spray and chicken farms. You are spending over $175 million dollars a day to destroy Iraq while 14,000 children starve to death every day. That means that more children have starved to death so far since 12/26/04 - just from neglect - than all of those who died in the big wave. And then you applaud yourself for sending two days worth of war costs for relief. NOW THAT IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD TAKE PERSONALLY! YES, I'M PISSED - BIG TIME. But God and I haven't conspired to punish you. You seem to do a fairly good job of that yourself. I'm just fed up with taking the blame - along with GOD - for just being who I am and doing what I have been doing for the last several millions of years; long before you came on to the scene. And though I may not sound very compassionate at the moment, I do feel the pain of EVERY ONE OF MY CREATURES who suffers. Did you know that I sent a warning to let everyone know that I was about to sneeze? Did you see the news? The only ones who heard me were the wild animals in India and some “primitive” tribal people on a remote island. They all went to higher ground just before the wave hit and none of them died. Why didn't the rest of you hear me??? So, I let you know I'm about to sneeze, you don't hear me because you aren't listening, and it wreaks havoc. And then you have the audacity to blame GOD! Give me a break. Maybe you should just start listening..... Or even better, maybe you should ask yourself what you are doing that is so important that you aren't listening....”

My opinion is that there is no divinely ordained purpose to a disaster that kills so many people. It is just part of an ever-changing universe. However, it’s also my sense that there are some important lessons we can choose to take out of storms. The main one is to stay alert; pay attention.

That is the half truth of all religions, to watch for the signs or cycles of life. The falsity of all religions is their attempt to paint a single portrait of life’s meaning which is divinely ordained and immutable. The common thread of all religions is compassion. Compassion grows out of our understanding that we are not separate from those who suffer and we are not separate from nature.

You experience God in the storms of life when you realize the interrelated causes and consequences of natural disasters, when you feel the pain of victims as if they are your own family, and when you step out in compassion to help those who suffer.

Seed of Wisdom

The universe is on its own journey of growth and change. The question for humans is whether we will collaborate in this change or whether we will be forced to adapt in response to overwhelming crisis. May we have the foresight to choose the path of collaboration. Take responsibility for your part in the future of the earth. Live mindfully today.

Say to yourself: My choices to live mindfully make a huge difference to the whole planet.