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“If all the animals were gone, then we (humans) would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the animals happens to us all. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the children of the Earth.” - Indian Chief Seattle

The tradition of earth-based spirituality, which was developed by indigenous cultures around the world, goes back more than twenty-thousand years. The early native hunters would start each day reading the sky and weather in order to judge how best to go about their lives of hunting, gathering, and traveling. The shamans of the indigenous traditions carefully studied their natural environment for information to use in their healing. They listened to the voice of the Earth. Today if you listen to the voice of the Earth, you may end up being locked up in a mental institution because this natural vision of the world is opposed by both Judo-Christian doctrine and scientific objectivity.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Hippocrates wrote in the treatise Airs, Waters, and Places that we must study the environment of the patient in order to grasp the totality of his or her medical conditions. He believed that treatment of the inner condition requires attention to the outer. St. Francis of Assisi introduced the Christian world to the idea that the wild creatures are part of the spiritual whole of the world, and that mind and nature are inseparable.

The earth-based religion of India, Hinduism, reconciles the life-giving and life-destroying forces of nature, in contrast to Western religious traditions that cast the natural forces in the roles of good and evil. The spirit of India grows out of nature. The Western spirit is opposed to nature, although this is changing. The Buddha was guided and inspired by nature, so it was under a tree with his hand on the earth to ground himself as he faced temptations, that he attained liberation. It was in a deer park that he gave his first sermon.

The Buddhist religion includes the concepts of interbeing and dependent co-arising. These ideas suggest that we are connected, and that we are made of the same stuff that animals and plants are made of. These teachings fill us with a strong sense of association with other beings and with the planet as a whole.

Source: Meditation, The Complete Guide (excerpt from Chapter 34), by P. Monaghan & E. Viereck

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