The Yogabliss, Two Rivers/RiverTree Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation classes met this morning of the longest day of light and warmth:  the Solstice!   The Sun’s light and our heart’s light come together in practice.  Today we explored the many ways humility can bring us closer to our Earth.  

Poet, theologian Alla Renee Bozarth’s poem Understanding reveals the deeper knowing that happens when we are willing to move under what we think we know.  Her Eco-Prayer describes Earth’s humus as our bone. Our Earth Bodies grow and heal when we honor and preserve Earth’s growing and healing.  You can find more of Alla’s inspirational writings at her web-site.

In his book, Touching the Earth, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that in bowing to Earth we restore our balance and wholeness.

Indigenous activist and writer, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, encourages us to return to the humility of a newborn.  In so doing we can deepen our ability to truly relate to other beings.  He invites us to learn how to apply the mystery to everything. Tiokasin Ghosthorse is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation.  He is the Founder, Host, and Executive Producer of “First Voices Radio” for the last 28 years. In 2016 he received a Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.  You can hear a fascinating discussion on For the Wild’s recent podcast, Tiokasin Ghosthorse on the Power of Humility.

Relaxed Relaxation & Contemplation

We are drawn together like thirsty creatures at the water’s edge . . . What are you thirsting for today, at this time in your life?  Is it the rest that allows us to feel our body’s truth?  Is it the calm in which deeper emotions or insights surface?  Let’s be with the questions . . . be with our breathing . . . Can you drop these questions lightly like planting seeds in the living Earth of your body? 

Consciousness begins with embodiment . . . right now we can feel ourselves embodied . . . awareness filling the field of the body – touching the hard and soft edges . . . the subtle pulses of energy – the flow of it or its pooling . . . Feeling and sensing your body resting on Earth’s body . . . Earth’s body – the source for what it means to be human.  Human coming from humus, meaning Earth.  Humus nourishing the seeds you have planted.  Humus so like the word humility.  Humility is from the same Latin word, humilitas, one who is grounded or near to the earth. In her poem, Understanding, Alla Renee Bozarth writes:

When you are willing
to move from above
to below something
in humility, you
will be able to see
its deeper side.

From the ground of humility she offers this Ecoprayer:

Weaver of Heaven
we live in your house,
holy and one –
Superstring webs
delicate and thin
in the underneath
of vision woven
in ten dimensions.
Weaver of Earth
our Mother, you are our only home –
Your humus our bone.
In human bodies you weave
an animal glory of systems
working as one: nerves and
vessels our branches and roots
linking deep in long circles
along common forms, the means
by which we know.
Let us now know
in our core that
Geocide is matricide,
is suicide, is kin-killing,
the horror we’ve become,
cut off from our truth
and the whole –
Great Weaver
forgive us,
receive us again,
teach us again
who we are.
Mother, reweaves us back,
unfray us and save us
so we, unafraid, can save you
from ourselves.
By our seventh sense of wonder
we offer again our tender praise.
May our prayer weaving here
be an echo of love in the eco of life
we call home.

May we, too, find our heart’s prayer.  May we remember what our bones know. 

In her book, This Is My Body-Praying For Earth, Prayers From The Heart, Alla Renee Bozarth writes:

We human beings are a part of Nature, not apart from Nature.  We make tiny tracks on the vast body of cosmos as we move through its blood, mere cells of its essence.  Human nature means humus-nature- Earth-nature.  Earth is home, and more.  Earth is who we are.

Right now we can feel ourselves as Earth Bodies.  We can reflect on what it means to live as Earth Beings.  Alla believes:

Recognition of who we are begins redemption:  getting back the lost integrity, lost health, of this living being.  Earth, and knowing ourselves as part of her body.  The work necessary for the task is holy, for holiness means healing, recovering, reclaiming our essential nature, remembering the natural morality of good Earth-animals.

In our practice we touch Earth again and again.  We can feel her pain as our own.  We can remember our the natural morality and caring. In his book Touching the Earth, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

The Earth embraces us and helps us transform our ignorance, suffering, and despair. Wherever we are, we can bow down to receive its energy of stability and fearlessness. With this practice, we cultivate a relationship with the Earth and, in doing so, we restore our balance, our wholeness, and our peace.

In humbling ourselves in this way we come home.  We honor ourselves and all our relations.  In a recent For the Wild interview Indigenous activist and writer, Tiokasin Ghosthorse said

. . . to understand humility, the importance of it, is to know that it’s the most powerful place anyone can be, you understand the feeling of what it is to be with other beings when you’re humble. Because you’re not being dominant, you’re not being below, you’re just being with and surrendering. And knowing that, being humble is what a baby is, when they’re born, what a mother is, when she bears children. What a father is, when they see that child, they may see that so-called miracle, but it’s not a miracle, it’s part of what we are, the humanness of it. Humility is being part of the human. . . . 

And I wish, my wakta for you all is that we all learn how to consciously apply mystery to everything. 

May our practice help us find the courage to be humble and surrender. May we learn to move through the known and apply mystery to everything.