THEin rebirth of nature in spring It is a great “book” of spiritual teachings.
Observing the awakening of nature this season can be one Extraordinary occasion of meditation and spiritual growth. The nature that awakens us a model of how to live in harmony with change, cultivate awareness and embrace reality as it is, without attachments.
Therefore spring can be seen not only as a natural event, but also as an opportunity to awaken our spirit, let go of the past and open up to a new one, deeper awareness of life.
Selene Calloni Williams: “The continuity of the life cycle is celebrated”
During winter Nature seems to stay in a sacred sleep: The seed takes refuge in the womb of the earth, kept by the frost, while the hibernation and the candid mantle of the snow envelop everything in a muffled silence. Spring, on the other hand, manifests itself primarily as movement and sound: LAnd first ants come alive in the awakening of the earth, the shoots make their way shyly towards the light, and in the air the sweet symphony of the birds rises, accompanied by the murmur of the streams which, freed from the frost, resume to dance.
Nature awakens, celebrating the rebirth and continuity of the cycle of life.
Selene Calloni Williams: “The soul communicates with the images”
All this can be seen as an open book of deep teachings. The soul, in fact, does not communicate with words, like the rational mind, but with images, And natural events are its main forms of expression.
In my book Shinrin Yoku, immersion in the woodsa trait of the Japanese art of the bathroom of nature and I give the fundamental elements of the forest therapy guide. Among the latter is the observation of the phenomena of spring which allows us to understand three fundamental principles expressed in Buddhism.
Buddhist meditation is a form of universal psychology which can be practiced by anyone – independent of religion or culture of belonging – with great benefits.
Impermanence. The constant transformation of nature reminds us that everything is evolving and that attachment to fixed forms is a source of suffering.
Interconnection. Each plant, animal and landscape element is interdependent; Nothing exists in insulation.
Absence of Io: the idea of an indivisible ego (individual) is unnatural. Nature invites us to discover a wider and less ego-centric reality.
“In impermanence the sacred is expressed”
Impermanence
The Koyasan, one of the most mystical places in Japan, made me as a master in deepening the principle of impermanence. During spring, the blooms of the cherry trees are wonderful. But the cherry flowers are the emblem of impermanence, which is the first principle of Japanese aesthetic, a fundamental characteristic of beauty. A natural flower is something extremely beautiful, but it does not last long. A plastic flower lasts much longer but it will never be as beautiful as a natural flower. In impermanence the sacred is expressedthat is, that to give up, that offenders that is everywhere in nature: the most direct manifestation of love.
Beauty is the shape under which the sacrum facere, Love proves to be in nature.
Interconnection
Japan Yamabush shamans, Like my dear friend Noburo Okuda Dō (the book Shinrin Yoku, immersion in the woods I wrote it four hands with him) dedicate many spiritual practices to what they call “mutual man-natural enhancement”. Everything is deeply interconnected. I remember that one evening, together with noburo, I made an extraordinary meditation in the Bounain cemetery, on Mount Koya, a suggestive and powerful place: tombs and funerary sculptures of extraordinary simplicity and beauty lying in a forest of secular Red cedars, a stream, a bridge and a white gravel route which leads to the large threshold, an Shinto sanctuary in the middle of the woods; On this side there is the visible world, beyond the invisible.
Mutual strengthening man – nature
We sat down, Nobur and I, with the back resting on the trunk of an ancient red cedar. We concentrated on the presence of the spirit of the cedar, imagining it in front of us: the tree behind us and its spirit in front of us.
The shaman asked me to imagine the presence of the spirit of the cedar hug me, envelop me totally. I had to imagine it much bigger than me by displaying it in anthropomorphic form and imagining his head to arrive above mine and his body wrapping me. There was a long silence in which I, with my eyes closed, could hear a giant and loving spirit hug me. It was a feeling of profound communion with nature, as if the spirit of the cedar had the power to lead me on a journey into the bowels of the earth and on the highest mountains simultaneously.
Selene Calloni Williams and the spirit of cedar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu7qsimhlqm
“You and the spirit of the cedar are breathing in unison” said noburo, “you feel the movement of his thin body that breathes and he feels your physical body”. Then he asked me to imagine the deity of the cedar let out a mantra out of his mouth, gently: Amaterasu oo me kami. Letter after letter, Sillaba after Sillaba, this mantra began to penetrate my seventh chakra, which is located at the top of the head, then went down to the body, spread throughout the chest. Then he asked me to whisper the mantra, the same mantra, to let it slowly flow out of the mouth. The mantra came out of my mouth and entered the body of the divinity, circulated in his chest, and then again the divinity gave it to me, making him come out of his mouth and entering him in my seventh chakra.
In the end, it was natural to me to contemplate myself like a projection of the cedar divinity and contemplate the deity of the cedar as a projection of mine. During the final contemplation, Nobur suggested to me to direct my mind along this path: “What is the body is a mystery, I contemplate my body reflected in yours and your reflection in mine; In this interpenetration we enhance ourselves, transferring capacity and possibilities. “
You can also try the meditation of the “mutual man-natural enhancement”. The mantra Amaterasu oo me kami It is a Shinto mantra considered by the Yamabushi the “supreme mantra”. Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun and the word kami means “great spirit” Amaterasu oo me kami It is a powerful invocation. Extraordinary powers are traditionally associated with each single sound of this mantra, including that of the invisibility, the recovery of the soul, the merger with the divinity, the awakening of ancestral memory and freedom.
Duck, the absence of me
I have deeply dismissed this principle since I was in the Buddhist Romitage of the Habarana forest, in Sri Lanka. Considering that I was in the temple of the forest, from 19 to 26 years old, By practicing meditation and studying Buddhism, I must say that it was an extremely formative period for me.
I remember that by the river that crossed “our forest”, like my teacher, the venerable Gata Thera, called the forest in which we were, while observing the waves generated by the current, he told me that living identified in your own is like thinking of being a single wave of the riverwhen, on the other hand, we are the whole river, we are also the strength that moves it and the one who observes the river. But to find who we really are we have to go beyond the sense of the ego.
Non -duality
It is a question of feeling with all of ourselves that no man is someone, but only one free and awakened man is all beings. It is a question of confiring-that is, embracing-a truth certainly complex but not complicated. This is non-duality: we are distinct but not separated from the rest of the universe And, as waves of the river, we are in profound interconnection with all sentient and insenzient beings to the point that we exist to the extent that someone observes and conceives us. In other words, we exist only in the relationship with others. The relationship, in fact, is the only truly real thing, beyond the subject and object.
The rebirth of nature in spring places us in front of these three aspects of existence: impermanence, interconnection and absence of me. With great force, it is up to us to recognize teaching.
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