A Matter Of Perspective

Mental exercise and musing:

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!