Does the Earth Love Me?

[Marblehead]

... but I´d at least call it unconditional support.

 

Liminal

You done very good with that!

[Kubba]

@Kubba

 

Your final words say it all really. It is a craving for emotional entertainment. It's exactly like a drunken partygoer who does not like the idea of life without alcohol. It's an addiction. Something got you hooked. I would suggest you get off it and break the addiction. I already know that is an unwelcome suggestion, but what the heck, it needs saying.

See, now you care and talk like mother do . So now you are mother too

(Joking)

 

Just wanted to make some juicy metaphore. Lets don't go offtopick, but thanks for advices

Edited October 6, 2015 by Kubba

[doc benway]

Isn't it arrogant to assume the Earth is happy with us living on her, and that this planet wants to help us? Help us how?

 

Yes, in a way we are part of the Earth, avatars of its own mind...but here to serve a purpose. That purpose has long since been forgotten, but perhaps when we talk of "Earth raising its frequencies" and a new age for man, what we are really saying is that our purpose will be remembered.

 

However, let us not forget how we treat our own bodies. Once we get passed the ego identity, is there any love to be felt? It seems to me to be much more systematic and mechanical. Do you shed a tear for the millions of cells being shed from your body right now? Do we blubber as we bubble away the bacteria from under our nails?

 

Does the Earth love us during an ice age? Or when it spews ash and gasses into the atmosphere that choke us? When the ice turns into devestating floods, and the planet has cleansed its face from the accumulation of things we've piled on the surface, does she love us then? When she stretches her legs and thousands die, is it for her beloved humans?

 

Are we not simply under the spell of our own false feelings?

 

Of course, it all depends on our understanding of the L word. To me, I feel the love, yet I know my place as part of the process. When it's necessary for our numbers to dwindle, I shall not complain of how we have been forsaken. Striving to rebuild and carry on in spite of this is true unconditional love. I fear some will be disappointed when the warm embrace becomes a hard slap.

 

We can think about the Earth - is it alive, is there some sort of independent sentience, is there a collective intelligence that is beyond our capacity to conceive, is it just a rock, is it dead, and so forth.

I wonder just how far that takes us?

 

When I am stressed or upset by something or other there is nothing that makes me feel better than spending some time in nature whether looking at a mountain, hiking through the forest, sitting or swimming at a beach or lake.

 

I connect to the space of the open sky, I feel and breath the air and hear it rustling the leaves, I feel the warmth of the sun and the soothing power of water, and I connect to the solid root of earth, of all material structure that shelters, feeds, and clothes me.

 

When I am able to quiet the internal dialogue and really connect to these external manifestations of the elements, I feel myself becoming more balanced, the internal aspects of the elements are balanced by connection to the external elements. 

There is nothing more healing, grounding, and balancing than opening to these elemental aspects of our existence.

 

When I feel that connection and benefit from that, I feel deep gratitude, I feel supported.

I feel the power and central role of the Earth and all the elements in my life and I begin to feel respect for it, I feel dwarfed, and awed by it, by the sheer mystery.

 

There has never existed any living organism of any type in the absence of its environment. Our independence is completely illusory and based on our mobility and sensory apparatus contained within a bag of skin. It is much more accurate to refer to living creatures in terms of organism-environment as any separation is artificial and gratuitous.

 

Shamanic traditions represent our dependence on and connection with the environment in the form of spirits and deities.

It is a very beautiful way of relating to the world if it makes sense to you.

It seems silly and ineffective if that frame of reference is not familiar.

 

I agree that there is a danger to looking at the Earth in a completely mechanistic and materialistic way, which is how most look at it since the 19th century. This leads to exploitation, disrespect, and disregard for the Earth unless and until it threatens our own existence and comfort. And while the Earth can take an awful lot of shit, there will be a limit at some point. The Earth is much more important and mysterious to me to simply brush it off as a dead hunk of rock and dirt. That very rock and dirt is ever changing and without it there would be no trees, no oxygen, no food source, no life...

 

Is there some level of independent sentience inherent in Earth?

Who could know? I personally feel that there is some level of higher intelligence in the organization of our environment that is beyond my comprehension. I can feel it in the elegant structure and function of all around me. To me it seems ridiculous and arrogant to assume that we, as humans, are the highest level of organized intelligence in existence. Perhaps we are but I doubt it. And if we are, there is still no reason to elevate ourselves above other creatures. 

 

Indigenous cultures all held great respect for the Earth and environment as they were at its mercy. In the arrogance of our reasoning and knowledge, and our ability to shield ourselves from the elements and environment, we have lost this reverence. I suspect that will come back to bite us very hard some day. I also feel that it is at the core of all of our collective dysfunction and distress - the violence, the sadness, depression, desperation, and so forth. We've lost our connection to our fundamental self - our connection to all living things and the environment we share. It makes me more sad than angry.

Edited October 6, 2015 by steve

[Wu Ming Jen]

 Garbage can on Wudang Shan.

[Bud Jetsun]

This breath you Now take was first given.

 

Every atom of your body was once soil, and will become soil again. 

 

This is true for every living being.  

 

What more could you ask of the earth than to freely provide 'every-thing'?  

 

 

All non-sustainable processes cease.  This is inevitable.  Laws of man are delusions that sometimes appear to work through hired goons being willing to coercively stack harms.  The enforcement of laws of nature need no assistance, if a species chooses to live in ways that the environment doesn't support, this system is rapidly re-balanced through extinction.  No amount of man writing down 'environmental policy' has any negotiation clout with real Law (natural Law, the Way), either choices are made to live in a sustainable way, or the single alternative choice which is to cease being sustained. 

 

Unlimited Love,

-Bud

[Nungali]

I am an environmentalist but I chuckle at the 'save the Earth people'  .... save the earth ?  Naw, the Earth can be a ball of lava , a toxic ocean or an airless landscape with the water boiled off ... it is still the Earth  .... just stages in its growth . The Earth 'itself' , physically,  probably 'cares' as  much for us as I did for nits when I was 8 tears old ( or; more like the microbes on the nits) .  

 

It is more of a  'save the earth in the state that is most  enjoyable for humans' concept .   How many species have come and gone?  Still, I dont like seeing  us trash the place and deny the rights of other life forms. Its jut my personal emotive preference .... not particularly anything the Earth 'desires'

 

 

Flip side ; Aboriginal friends ... and particularly teacher, definitely   have this concept of earth as mother  " The earth is my mother, she gives me everything I need, I just have to ask and she gives it to me, but you have to act the right way and be respectful,  just like with your other mother .... and she will take care of you ."   

 

Someone ( white feller )  present scoffed at that , but  was admonished that  "It is true , been like that for 60,000 years until it all got mucked up, no respect now . "    Well, I cant argue with that ... as long as they have access to land that hasnt been disrupted or trashed by us ... I know, I have seen them do it  - in the right place, they can just wander off totally naked ( and survive indefinitely , or come back dressed in something  with food to share ) . But its more than just this survival mode,  I was told it would work for me in other ways - mum will give me what I ask for if I treat I her right.

 

Okay, so I tried it ....   yup !      Well, thats my experience, and it was enough for me to change my mind about it .... emotive power, coincidence, luck, whatever you want to call it .... but boy did it work well for me . 

 

Most of us may have encountered  this concept from some vague New Age source , going back, the Gaia hypothesis ( and related concepts like 'biosphere', ) and earlier, those with an hermetic inclination will know,  Anima Mundi 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi

Edited October 6, 2015 by Nungali

[Marblehead]

You done very good with that!

I wish I could tranfer all these "Thank You"s to Liminal because what was said is to his credit.

[3bob]

There is the soul being of the Earth, and she is beautiful and true, also witness to the historic Buddha who was witness to Her.

[thelerner]

The Earth may be our mother, something we can tune in to, listen to, yet when it starts sounding like us, with our opinions, prejudices, limited perspectives.. we may want to shift into Earth mode, relax, receive, stoic, strong, enduring. 

[Silent Answers]

There is the soul being of the Earth, and she is beautiful and true, also witness to the historic Buddha who was witness to Her.

See, I personally do believe this. The same spirit is there when we put our selves in the backseat, and can be present in forms of spontaneous qigong.

 

That warmth is what I would call true love...but it's not quite the same as our fickle human love. That said, I can't remember the last time I felt the longing, highly emotional, lustful, needing, lacking thing we call love. Of course our definition of love may be different...but this is the way I see it for the majority of people who get caught up in the love parade.

[Seth Ananda]

As an Animist I experience that the earth {and everything else} is deeply sentient and en-souled. 

Within the earths sentience {and all the other large sentient beings we live within} I experience an incredible, Awe inducing, terrifying, gentle, horrific beautiful Love.

I sense that it loves me completely and utterly, but with the kind of love that can only come from something that loves everything completely and utterly. It loves everything so much it lets everything be exactly as it is.

 

It Loves the children that dance in the fields, it loves the diseases that eat away the flesh, it allows us to experience every indignity and suffering, and every joy and pleasure. It allows it all to exist and to impact on or be impacted by anything else.

I find this to be amazing and freeing in a way that is hard to describe.

 

 

 

But I also find that it is beautifully responsive to those that deeply enter into a relationship with it, that become reciprocal and relational with it, and that a great flow of blessings, luck and incredible experiences flow towards those who love it in return and open themselves to communication with it.

 

Of course we will still all die at the end, as the forces of life and death strip away our worldly agency as we approach the maw of destruction.

But I welcome that passage, and also realize that the great openness that things exist within also exists within me, and does not seem to change or waver in any meaningful way.

It allows me to face whatever horrors and degradation life and aging may bring with a degree of happiness, dignity, connectedness and meaning that would not be possible for me otherwise.

     

Edited October 7, 2015 by Seth Ananda

[manitou]

It's all the same matter.  And the underlying dynamic is mutual attraction, or love.  Aligning ourselves with this dynamic only brings life to a sweet harmony.  Is nature aware?  Some would say so.  Plants do awfully well if spoken to.  Animals respond to love.  where do we draw the line?  Are rocks aware?  

 

Masters I have listened to would say yes.  I do think there is a type of earth awareness, much more subtle.

 

Someone earlier said we are earth's avatars.  I think this is  a masterful statement.

 

Are the earths 'emotional dynamics' like ours?  Does it get angry, does it love?  Perhaps it's angry when it spews lava or loving when it rains in the desert.    Our emotions of anger or fear generate from conditioning, but we are born with the capacity for the emotions - even if we're born in a vacuum and never have to feel anger or fear.  Is it 'angrier' now that we have thoughtlessly raped and pillaged her?

 

It seems that the earth is our template in so many ways.  The earth is Nature, and our nature follows the Mother's nature.  the earth is always exuding love - we just don't take the time to notice it.  We become hardened to it, because of all the seemingly important things we think we have to do.

 

But tapping into the Mother's dynamics is the trick, by removing our own conditionings.

Edited October 7, 2015 by manitou

[3bob]

From the T.T.C.  (different context but along the same lines)

52.
ALL-under-Heaven have a common Beginning.
This Beginning is the Mother of the world.
Having known the Mother,
We may proceed to know her children.
Having known the children,
We should go back and hold on to the Mother.
In so doing, you will incur no risk
Even though your body be annihilated.

Block all the passages!
Shut all the doors!
And to the end of your days you will not be worn out.
Open the passages!
Multiply your activities!
And to the end of your days you will remain helpless.

To see the small is to have insight.
To hold on to weakness is to be strong.
Use the lights, but return to your insight.
Do not bring calamities upon yourself.
This is the way of cultivating the Changeless.

[Marblehead]

 

 

[manitou]

It allows me to face whatever horrors and degradation life and aging may bring with a degree of happiness, dignity, connectedness and meaning that would not be possible for me otherwise.

 

     

 

 

And then we find later that they weren't horrors at all.  They are blessings, furthering us on our paths.

 

It's all good.

[manitou]

There is the soul being of the Earth, and she is beautiful and true, also witness to the historic Buddha who was witness to Her.

 

Historic Buddha, Adam Kadmon, Hiram Abiff.

[3bob]

Her well and the song from it are so deep

deeper than we can see or hear,

yet she opens our eyes and touches our hearts,

 

Her body has been wounded

but her being has not been broken

While demons try to undo her

She has not been undone.

 

And Death learned long ago not to try and take her

as he died trying to do so....

[manitou]

Her well and the song from it are so deep

deeper than we can see or hear,

yet she opens our eyes and touches our hearts,

 

Her body has been wounded

but her being has not been broken

While demons try to undo her

She has not been undone.

 

And Death learned long ago not to try and take her

as he died trying to do so....

 

3bob - did you write this, or is it a translation of a verse I'm not recognizing?  It is beautiful.

 

The last sentence about Death trying to take her and dying - to what does that pertain?  It certainly feels true, but to what are you alluding?  The resulting balance of the yin and yang?

[3bob]

that's what she revealed... a singer beyond compare with a subtle song that never ends yet is always new, thus death dies before her.

[Nungali]

Edited October 7, 2015 by Nungali