We think that nature is peaceful. We only think this
sometimes. We think this when we are just the right SIZE that we don’t notice the
violence.
I say this, NOT because I hate nature, I say this because we
deify nature and I would avoid that tendency in me so I am sharing! We think of
nature as a safe and therefore special place. I would learn to make any and all
places a safe place. This means, in effect that no particular place can be
special. I would carry my safe place with me, whenever it is possible. I would
have this safe place projected upon all my experience. I would let go of any
judgment, even the judgment that a particular place is good! I would practice
seeing the “Good” without holding the contrast of the “Bad”. In order to do
this, I must let go of the “Good”. In this way, all things are special and in
this way, nothing is special!
What happens:
In the wooded area of the park, I sit on a large rock among
the trees. It is a peaceful experience. This is a correct and valuable
report of my experience. My mind decides that “Nature is “Good” and the natural
world is “Good”. Because this is a pleasant one, I don’t notice that it is a
judgment! The way that minds work, in order to know the Good, the Bad is real
to me but hidden. I will never succeed having this “Good” without the “Bad” as
contrast. The fur of a live wild tiger is soft and pleasant. The experience of
it could include tiger teeth.
Consider:
As I sit on the rock, with my human frame of reference of time
and my inability to see beneath the soil, I do not see the slow-motion violence
of tree roots competing for water and food. My nose does no detect the aroma of
chemical warfare that the plants are waging against insects that are not
helpful. In fact because of my size, I am unaware to the desperate struggle of
insects, the majority life form on this planet, against each other. This brutal
fighting for territorial dominance goes completely unnoticed, so to me it is
not there! I think nature is Peaceful!
Ignorance, in the case, really is bliss.
This
is an insane
world, and do not
underestimate the extent of its insanity.
(ACIM
T-14.I.2:6)
What to Do:
Use the peaceful experience of nature that we had before we
judged “Nature = Good”. Hold on to that! When you are not in the park and you
find that peace has departed, remember your experience in the woods. Then
even when we are able to notice the War-Of-The –Roots and the
Battle-Of-The-Insects, we hold peace. In fact, use any peaceful experience that
you can remember, wherever you are! Use it to anchor your peace in this moment
where ever you may be. Use it to recover your “intent” as Miguel Ruiz would say.
The peace is with you and not with a
particular a place!
The power to choose this, is
yours!
