Connecting with Nature

What does flowing water teach us about life? Join us as we uncover the profound lessons from a week spent by the Potomac River, reflecting on its symbolism of impermanence and continuous change. We delve into the unique rhythms of nature, distinct from human efforts to control the environment, and discuss how these natural patterns, especially observed in the early morning, reveal a deeper connection within ourselves. You'll also learn about a meditative nature gazing practice inspired by Sean Fargo that encourages finding a tree to reconnect with our interconnectedness with the natural world.

Experience the powerful practice of connecting with nature through stillness. We'll explore the feelings, thoughts, and energies evoked by this reflective practice, examining the similarities between ourselves and elements of nature, such as trees and the sky. Through this practice, enhance your sense of oneness with the natural world and heighten your awareness by simply listening to the wind through the trees. Immerse yourself in these reflective practices for a truly enriching experience, deepening your connection with the environment and discovering a profound sense of attunement.

Music: Johnny Yates - 'Natural World'

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Chapters

• 0:27 Appreciating Nature Through Gazing Practice
• 13:17 Connecting With Nature Through Stillness

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:27

Hi, don Thompson, with another podcast for you today, and what I'd like to talk about today is really about nature, about appreciating nature, and I just got back from a week that my spouse and I spent out at a river, the Potomac River actually, just as the Potomac River empties out into the Chesapeake Bay and then eventually into the ocean. So it's a very wide part of the Potomac and almost like a wide lake, but it's flowing because it's the river. So I spent quite a bit of time looking out and gazing out into the wildlife, into the river, and we would notice certain things. We'd notice the fish jumping and the birds coming and going and the water flowing, and it was a very expansive and peaceful experience, I have to say. But there was a couple of things that I wanted to mention about this experience during this week at the cottage on the river and specifically, I wanted to talk about the nature of water and how that in a sense reflects one of the elementals.

Speaker 2: 1:46

In Buddhism there's five elementals and you might well there would be water and earth and fire and air and ether. Those would be considered the five elementals and water in many ways is the fundamental elemental and that is flowing, it flows and other elementals also have this aspect of flowing to them. But water in particular has this flowing aspect. It's never really the same and it shows us, it tells us something by its flowing. It's never static, it's always changing. Like we are never static, we're always changing. We're really a continuum, we're not really a static moment. There is no such thing really. On analysis, you can't really find the present moment, you can't really find the future. It's not here yet. The past is gone and the present you can't grasp it. So there really is nothing really to this thing we call the present moment. It's ungraspable, it's unfindable, but it does exist in a way in a continuum. Like a river, it flows, it's a continuum and because it's a continuum it allows us to see the impermanence of everything, of life. And you know, a river is never the same twice. You might say it's always different. It's always flowing, it's always moving from one place to the next.

Speaker 2: 3:13

The other thing I noticed about being in nature at this cottage, this beautiful little cottage on the Potomac, was that nature has its own rhythms, and Diana and I have been to Costa Rica and we noticed this when we stayed at a lodge in Costa Rica as well, this natural rhythm of nature that really is outside of human machinations and human endeavors, and it really makes you appreciate the fact that nature really does, in a sense, stand apart from humanity. Humanity really attempts to put its own ideas and template on nature in an attempt really to control nature, to probably, in essence, control suffering, you might say, that's caused by nature, you know, physical suffering, the cold, the heat, being exposed to the elements, all these things Human beings desire to work against. So they will, as opposed to most animals, I mean, some animals do seek shelter, obviously, but the animals are really, you know, subject to the raw elements. They don't have protection. So human beings seek more protection. They seek to, you know, build houses and buildings and towns and communities and civilization as sort of a bulwark against raw nature. But this raw nature has, in my mind, an intelligence to it. It has an intelligence and you can notice this intelligence and this rhythm, this rhythm to it, when you just observe it.

Speaker 2: 4:52

So I noticed, and we noticed that during our stay, as we looked out into the river, that there were different, you might say, elements of the wild nature in front of us that became more active at certain points. So at one point the birds might be active and at another point the fish might be active. At another point there might be more insects. At another point the fish might be active. At another point there might be more insects. At another point the wind might kick up and, typically speaking, the morning was the most interesting time. Particularly early in the morning was the most interesting time to observe the natural world, because you would, for example, see the fish jumping. You would, at other times, see the birds traversing and flying back and forth, seemingly in search of a better place. Maybe where they were wasn't so hospitable and they wanted to go to a better place, to migrate, to go there, to migrate, to go there.

Speaker 2: 5:57

But these things are part of what I would consider to be the rhythms of nature, the natural rhythms of nature, and they occur within ourselves, within our own minds, within our own bodies. Really, these natural rhythms occur. Of course, you've got the beating heart, you've got the rhythm of the breath, you've got, really, perhaps even cycles of moods that you might go through. So you know, humanity, human beings, are subject to nature regardless. We're a part of nature and I think, if you can go into nature and appreciate it and look at it and appreciate it and be grateful really for nature, because without nature we wouldn't really exist, there would be no human beings without nature. Our bodies come from nature. We, as sentient beings, arose from this natural world and it is possible to use certain practices to gain appreciation for nature, and one such practice you might call nature gazing, and I'll step us through this brief practice about nature gazing, and this comes from Sean Fargo. I always appreciate Sean's worksheets and write-ups. This particular one is about how to use nature as a way to remind us of our interconnectedness with the natural world, and this is, I think, a very important thing to remember, and this is what Sean is reminding us with this practice. So let's go ahead and step through this nature gazing practice.

Speaker 2: 7:41

This particular practice involves. It's very simple, it's focused on finding a tree. So what we want to do is we want to find a tree in some outdoor space that you can look at, you can gaze at and you know, just find a tree that you like. Maybe you have an affinity for a particular tree, but you can find a tree in an outdoor space and you want to be able to see the sky above it and around it and you want to. You know you want to stand maybe a couple of meters from the tree you know, maybe six feet or so and take a moment to really firmly root your feet into the earth beneath you. And while you're doing this, it can be helpful to take a few slow, mindful breaths to ground your energy.

Speaker 2: 8:32

The next thing you want to do is let your gaze just lightly land on the earth. You might say, just take a few moments to really notice the surface of the earth that you're standing on. Then, as you shift your attention to the base of the tree, this is what you want to do. You want to move slowly your attention from where you're standing to the base of the tree. Consider the roots that extend from this tree're standing to the base of the tree. Consider the roots that extend from this tree and deep into the soil. So now, you don't see these roots, obviously, but you can sense that they support that tree. I mean, they are really the support for the tree and you can understand this and sense this, even though you can't really see the roots. So you might just consider this, consider how these roots are supporting the tree.

Speaker 2: 9:23

Then I invite you to go ahead and let your gaze move up the tree trunk and shift your gaze up, slowly up through the tree trunk, and you can pause on any knots or patterns in the bark that are interesting to the eye. I mean, trees can be really, really interesting in terms of the patterns of the bark and sort of the artistic patterns of the bark and the unique ways that they blend together. Every tree has its own unique type of bark, so I invite you to just go ahead and look at the bark to you know, with your attention, just explore the uniqueness of this tree's bark and then you can continue to move upwards at a slow and steady pace, and then the idea here is to really create a sense of reverence for this particular tree. And if you don't already feel this, I'm inviting you to feel a sense of reverence for this tree. You know, just consider how really majestic this tree is, and even if it's still young, you might want to consider how much it has weathered up to this point and still it's standing. I mean, it's gone through a lot of different weather patterns. Depending on where you are, it might have even gone through snow or whatever frost, but if you're in a more temperate climate, then it's not such a bad situation, maybe for the tree, but it just depends. I mean, the tree's gone through a lot regardless. It's really exposed to the raw nature that I discussed before.

Speaker 2: 11:01

And what you want to do next is then let the gaze continue. Let your gaze continue until it reaches the branches. Now the branches depending on the time of year, they might be no leaves or there might be leaves, but regardless, you want to notice the textures and the colors and the forms of these branches. And if there are leaves, where are the leaves? Or needles, perhaps you know they could be needles if it's a pine tree. Are they bare? What shape do they take? And just take some time to explore the variety that you see in the shapes and patterns of the limbs, of these branches, of the leaves, and then, finally, when you're ready, you might just let your sense of gazing shift from the branches to the open sky, just let them shift up to the sky, and then just take note of what kinds of feelings arise as you move your attention into this invisible realm of the air. And, like I was describing before about the elementals, this really is the ether, it's the air and the ether, and this is an elemental and the tree evokes this by extending out into it, and our own minds, in a sense, do this.

Speaker 2: 12:26

When we meditate, our own minds extend from the branches of our mind. I mean really the brain, the nerves, when you look at them inside the body are like a tree. They expand out into the brain. Inside the body are like a tree, they expand out into the brain, and the brain, in its concentration states, like in meditative states such as samadhi, is reaching out to the sky. Really, that's what's going on. So the mind will reach out to the sky and you want to see the branches of the tree doing this. You want to feel this reaching out to the sky and what that's like. And so then, when you're finished, just Just come back to your feet and come back to the rootedness of your feet in the ground and just how that feels.

Speaker 2: 13:17

And once you've done that, I just ask you to reflect on a few questions. What was the practice like for you, and what kinds of feelings and thoughts or energies did it stir up, and did you find any likeness between yourself and the tree, between yourself and the sky, and what other objects or elements of nature might bring you to the same level of attention and openness. Like I mentioned before about gazing at a river, there might be other ways to take a walk in nature and really feel into nature. You might say, listening to, for example, the wind through the trees and things like that, you can really get a sense of your atonement with nature, your oneness with nature. It's a really beautiful thing. So I'll leave the podcast at that. I really appreciate your time. This is a quite wonderful practice. I think you might want to try it out. You might need to stop the podcast. Of course, it's not something that you can do necessarily while listening to the podcast, but you know you can take some notes and then you can go out and do this practice no-transcript.