Spiritual Ecology - Remembering our Sacred Connection to Nature

Experiencing the universe, Earth, and humans as one entangled continuity of being lifts us out of our endless dualism of humans as separate from nature.  

This context places us in vast circles of relationality where we feel cosmic resonances with the sun, moon, and planets of our solar system, along with a sense of belonging to the biodiverse ecosystems of our planet. This belonging includes “all our relations”—family and friends, forests and fish. Such reciprocities awaken us to the cycles of nature, which show us how we are embedded in life systems of birth, death, and rebirth that surround, embrace, and sustain us. Reverence and respect are the virtues that nurture these rites. 

Such spiritualities have been widespread in earlier societies—Indigenous, Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Hindu—and are arising anew in our times. Just as we are on the verge of sinking into exhaustion and numbness, something fresh is cracking open the closed doors of our minds and hearts. 

These renewed cosmic spiritualities and spiritual ecologies are bringing us in touch once again with wonder and delight, prompting us to move beyond the many addictions that surround us, to realize that we live in a world of endless complexity. This complexity is awash with different kinds of sentience: Tree roots in the forests are communicating; chimps and bonobos display distinctive cultures; birds, salmon, and caribou migrate across great distances. These innate intelligences are not yet fully understood, but they provoke wonder and amazement. 

We are dwelling in a living Earth community, embracing kin with a reciprocal and radical love. Such resonances can reignite wonder—creating a fire of transformation that might renew the face of the Earth.

We need to recall, through ritual action that we do on a daily basis, that we want to go towards the flourishing of life...