'DON'T FORGET YOU ARE ALSO A PERFECTLY GOOD ANIMAL.'

‘You’ve spent your whole life learning to be a good person. Don’t forget you are also a perfectly good animal.’ _{Rory Miller, Martial Artist and Writer.}

In game reserves in Africa, many Game Rangers have had the experience of suddenly, inexplicably, becoming aware of imminent danger in time to avoid it; or of being able to track an animal simply from a sense of knowing where the animal is in an area that could be several square miles in size. It’s not uncommon in these cases hear a Game Ranger explain what happened as an example of the ‘bush talking’ to them.  

This sort of experience is not confined to the wilds of Africa; it is available in any bit of wild countryside and even suburban parks large enough to have mature trees and some wild fauna.

But why would you want to let the natural world talk to you? I could say try it and see and I hope that somebody reading this will do just that. However in the so called 'developed world', too many of us are identified with the world we have constructed and alienated from where we originated. To put it another way, ‘You’ve spent your whole life learning to be a good person. Don’t forget you are also a perfectly good animal.’

This alienation has come at a high cost and the best way to evaluate that cost is to ‘let the bush talk to you’. Here’s how you do it:

Step One: Go out into the wild country side and go deep enough into it to feel you’re actually in it. You don’t want to be able to see the car park or a boundary onto a road or some developed area.

Step Two: Move your awareness to your heart and say to yourself the word ‘soften’. What you’re doing here is actually commanding your heart to soften.

Step Three: Pause when you’ve made the command and notice what it is you’re becoming aware of.

Step Four: Keep repeating steps three and four until you’ve had enough.

That’s it!

Notes: allow your mind to entertain anything in the moments of pause; resist the urge to interpret or explain what’s happening to you. Notice, when it seems that the ‘bush’ actually is ‘talking to you’, how that makes you feel.

            All comments and questions welcome and thanks for looking in,

Rex
(Picture found in public domain)

UNDER MY TREE

 UNDER MY TREE

I’ve spent a lot of time this year standing or sitting under a Lime Tree, carving wood. In the late spring the leaves on the tree gave me perfect shelter from the rain. During summer I carved wood wrapped in the exquisite perfume of its blossoms. Lately, bereft of leaves it has allowed my soul to soar into the ice blue sky of winter ( on a good weather day). Out the kitchen window as I fill the kettle for that first cup, its bare branches allow me to soak in the first gold of morning across the field.

My relationship with that tree and through it, the countryside around, is one of contentment. Today’s ‘Way’ is, I suppose a ‘way of contentment’; perhaps that’s what all these ‘Ways’ will turn out to be.

 You’ll need to be outdoors in the countryside, somewhere that for you has a huge amount of natural beauty. Here’s what you do:

Step One: Notice the beauty all around you and allow yourself to move or to be still as you do. Resist the temptation to impose an idea of how you should be; if you want to walk about looking and absorbing, do and if you want to be still, do.

Step Two: Begin to give thanks for every aspect of the beauty before you and give thanks too for how that makes you feel.

Step Three: Notice how, in the moment, what you begin to experience is contentment.

Step Four: Ask yourself the following question, ‘Right now, do I need anything else in my life to be completely content in this moment?’

Step Five: Go back to Step One.

That’s it.

Notes: Repeat the cycle two or three times in a slow and gentle manner. You will probably notice that with each cycle, your experience of beauty increases, as does the profundity of the gratitude you feel. You may even get a little teary and emotional and that’s perfectly ok; let it pass through you. Best of all, the level of contentment you experience will increase.

            At Step Four, you will sooner or later, arrive at the answer that you need nothing to be completely content in that moment. Allow yourself to enjoy and be grateful for that realisation.

            With continued practice of this ‘Way’ your awareness and understanding of yourself in relation to the Natural World and Mother Earth will deepen and be enriched. It is possible that you will realise that all the beauty around is only available to your senses because it already exists inside you. Maybe you’re carrying it with you wherever you go, even in a sealed building with artificial light and an invisible smog of electromagnetic radiation. Perhaps it’s possible to access that beauty and the contentment, even in those circumstances…

            Feel free to do this in whatever way feels natural to you and gives you the best results. Comments and questions welcome as always.

Thanks for looking in and enjoy!

            Rex