Spiritual Ecology by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee & Joanna Macy

Author:Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee & Joanna Macy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center
Published: 2013-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

ECOLOGY OF THE SOUL

As we are urged by the Gita to live in harmony with the natural world, soil, we are also guided to live in harmony with ourselves, with soul. As we are at war with nature we are also at war with ourselves. Making peace with ourselves is a prerequisite for making peace with the earth. And making peace with ourselves means realizing our true nature and being who we are.

Each and every one of us is a unique and special being. As the Sri Lankan art historian Ananda Coomaraswami said, “An artist is not a special kind of person but every person is a special kind of artist.” He was talking about the immense potential of every human being. Hindu philosophers have spoken of “aham Brahmasmi”: “I am Brahman—pure consciousness.”

In Sanskrit the word for the individual soul is atman, the intimate being, and the word for the universal soul is param-atman, the ultimate being or god. Similarly the Sanskrit word for the human individual is nar and for the universal being (or god) is narayan. In Arabic we find a similar formulation—the individual person is called khud and the divine being, god, is Khuda—just by adding an “a” the individual is released from his or her narrow identity or ego and is transformed into divine consciousness and united with god.

The way to such an enlightened state is through self-knowledge, selfless service, and the surrender of the ego in favor of the understanding that “I am part of the whole”: I am an organ of the earth body, I am a member of the earth community.

Often we are weighed down by the burden of our narrow identities of nationality, race, religion, class, gender and similar other divisive concepts and mental constructs. We become imprisoned in the idea of “I” separate from the other and “mine” separate from the other’s. Through universal love we are able to break out of this ego and become part of the eco—making a quantum leap by changing from “g” to “c.” The Greek word “eco” is very beautiful. From it we get ecology and economy. Eco or rather Greek oikos means home. In the wisdom of Greek philosophers, home is not only where we physically live, our house—with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, dining room and living room. The entire planet is our home where 8.7 million species live as members of one household, one family; all species are kith and kin. So home or “eco” is a place of relationships whereas “I” as a separate self or ego is a state of separation, disconnection and isolation. Our soul gets starved in isolation.

When we realize, “I am a microcosm of the macrocosm,” then we touch the mind of god, free from narrow identities, liberated from sorrow and separation and free from fear and fragmentation.

Sometimes we become convinced that the world needs saving, so urgently that we force ourselves to work day in and day out to save the planet. As a consequence of this

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.