The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/River Tree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning.  Poet Joy Harjo writes “Humans are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun; we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.”  I feel vulnerable.  I rely on the many kindnesses given nearly every day.  Our practice together is a gift giving that keeps my hope alive and spirits lifted.  Today I am reminded that we give each other our faces in strange “digital space” that is strangely intimate.  There is a meeting of hearts and minds in “a sacred field of meaning” that we co-create together.

We began practice with Joy’s beautiful poem:  Praise the Rain.  We used the poems lines to tune into the praises we carry for the beings and the things that we love.  In the days leading to the holiday in which we give thanks we can tune into the inner songs that arise when we recognize the simplest blessings that make life possible.  Like breathing.

Like the “unfailing generosity of trees” that poet Danna Faulds poem for a golden day.  We considered the questions she asks about how willing we are to let the world in.

We considered the inter-dependent relationships that hold the world together. Thich Nhat Hanh, often referred to as Thay or teacher describes this as inter-being:  “Everything relies on everything else in order to manifest.”  Even our body is a community. It is home to trillions of non-human cells that outnumber our own human cells. Like the generous trees, they make our lives possible.

Cultural ecologist and geo-philosopher, David Abram, describes our inter-being as the visceral experience of inter-breathing.  We live because we nourish each other.

Dr. Stephan Harding, co-founder of Schumacher College, teacher and writer, explains Gaia or Earth Consciousness, in Joanna Macy’s compilation A Wild Love for the World.  We are part of the great web of life.  What happens to Earth happens to us.

Joanna Macy has spent over sixty years organizing environmental and social action groups.  Joanna is a national treasure. You can hear more about her remarkable life and work by listening to A Wild Love for the World on On Being with Krista Tippett.  Her work describes the process by which we can develop Gaia Consciousness.  In essence when we realize our inter-being caring for our world is simply and profoundly a way of caring for ourselves.

Reflections

Try reading this poem aloud – find the music in it – enjoy!

Praise the Rain

Listen
Praise the rain, the seagull dive
The curl of plant, the raven talk—
Praise the hurt, the house slack
The stand of trees, the dignity—
Praise the dark, the moon cradle
The sky fall, the bear sleep—
Praise the mist, the warrior name
The earth eclipse, the fired leap—
Praise the backwards, upward sky
The baby cry, the spirit food—
Praise canoe, the fish rush
The hole for frog, the upside-down—
Praise the day, the cloud cup
The mind flat, forget it all—
Praise crazy. Praise sad.
Praise the path on which we’re led.
Praise the roads on earth and water.
Praise the eater and the eaten.
Praise beginnings; praise the end.
Praise the song and praise the singer.
Praise the rain; it brings more rain.
Praise the rain; it brings more rain.

Right here, right now on this “sacred field of meaning” we can open our hearts . . . to the praises we carry for the beings and things we love . . . just noticing what surfaces naturally for which you can give thanks and praise . . . Meeting whatever surfaces with a spirit of welcome if you can . . . If nothing surfaces can you praise silence and the ability to know silence . . . A silence that isn’t empty as it holds awareness . . .  A silence that isn’t full as every experience is fleeting . . . Praise beginnings; praise the end.

We humans “are vulnerable and rely on the kindnesses of the earth and the sun. . . So many kindnesses . . . freely given . . . sustain us as we help to sustain others. In our aliveness we can feel praises in subtle beats moved by our heart muscles . . .
We can sing praises in imaginary song . . . vibrations traveling nerve pathways.  moving back and forth from inside to outside . . . outside to inside . . . Praise the song and praise the singer. We can think praises in silent words whose symbols evoke images, memories and so much feeling . . . Praise awareness; it brings more awareness.  Praise the breath; it brings more breath.

Today is a day we are alive.  As poet Danna Faulds writes:

It is a golden day, a day
beholden to nothing but its
own sweet unfolding.
The only question is how
much of its richness can I
let in? How slowly can I walk
the leaf-strewn trail, inhaling
the goodness of the woods?
Just how blessed can I let myself be
in the midst of the world’s chaos
and the unfailing generosity of trees?

How blessed can we let ourselves be?  What is this unfailing generosity of trees? What is our own unfailing generosity?  Can it be as simple as breathing?  It is our mutual generosity making life possible our inter-dependence . . . our inter-being.  As ecologist and philosopher, David Abram describes this relationship:

What the plants are breathing out, all us animals are breathing in.  And what we animals are breathing out, all the plants are breathing in.  The exquisite reciprocity . . . a magic pulse of interspecies generosity quietly unfurling in the depths of the present moment, hidden at the heart of all our experience.  

We are so intimately a part of the living world around us.  In taking in and giving out we stay alive.  In taking in and giving out we have to open.  In opening we realize our vulnerability.  In our vulnerability we feel.  In feeling we open.  We open to the experience of being part of all that is.  Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh describes this relationship as interbeing.  

David Abram suggests that our experience of interbeing is a “directly felt, bodily experience.”  He asks:  

What could be more visceral . . . than breathing? . . . The altered awareness of breathing as uttermost reciprocity – as a “pure, continuous exchange” between us furred or smooth skinned animals and the numberless plants that surround us, each making possible the other – has become . . . the most tangible, sensuous example of . . . Interbeing as interbreathing.

Here right now, we are interbreathing . . . with grasses, plants and forests . . . We can recall all the beings with whom we share interbeing . . . the familiar and the wild . . . the oceans, deserts, mountains and icelands . . . We can only flourish together . . . How do we offer ourselves in service of that which we love – that which we praise in appreciation and prayer?

In A Wild Love for the World, essayist Stephan Harding describes Gaia or Earth Consciousness as “being and understanding deeply rooted in the . . . vibrant and exuberant ecological reality of our living Earth. . . .”  He writes:

Within a Gaian consciousness, we are in Earth and we are of Earth.  Her body is our wider body . . . this noble view of our living planet brings wisdom, inspirng us to act ethically . . . to remedy the . . . harm we are inflicting on this . . . living planet of ours. . . . 

Environmental activist, teacher and writer Joanna Macy maps a journey to Gaian consiousness.  We begin with gratitude – our love for life.  We honor our pain in realizing the living planet’s degradation.  We learn to see with new eyes – our connection with life in all its forms.  Finally we move to act in healing and protecting the web of life.

We begin.  In gratitude.  We offer our deep attention . . . of seeing, hearing, smelling and touching beyond separation and fear . . . With our new eyes we recognize our interbeing and act to protect and save what we can.  With the unfailing generosity of trees, we offer the in-breath and the out-breath taking in the world and giving back to the world.