Last weekend I had a wonderful opportunity to teach my workshop Where Earth meets Sky: A Permaculture approach to Yogic living. At I love yoga studio for a healing arts festival. I see permaculture as a healing art not only of the self but the extended self, the environment from who we depend on as a medium to experience life.
In this particular workshop, I like to discuss the highest yogic principles of life observances & disciplines known as the Yamas and the Niyamas in relation to our connection to the Earth and to permaculture principles.
The following is an overview of what I teach.
To begin we start with describing the polar opposites of Father Sky and Mother Earth and how the dance of these two forces bring about a state of complete merging from one into the other, manifesting ecstatic integration.
Starting with Zero point field the Brahman, the Manifester, Divine Masculine, Purusha, Shiva, Yang, Void, formless permeating consciousness, churning the ocean of non-matter somehow creating form out of it's formless self.
Initiating the paradox of the everything-ness that is born out of nothing-ness.
The following practices are favorable to finding the divine masculine, father sky, boundless stillness and enlightened state with in ourselves, Yoga, Mind- Body, Spirit, Meditation, Yamas & Niyamas.
Yoga means to " yoke " to unite, it teaches us that we are not separate from anything! Teaches us to honor all forms with sacredness, for everything is part of a creative, Pranic life force, transcendent to our limited ego and that the notion of this can bring about transformation of how we see the world around us.
Now, lets get to know Mother Earth, the Divine Feminine, Yin, Shakti Goddess of love and nourishment, the source of all creativity & fertility. She is the manifested one the personified aspect of the earthly plane, Shakti most actively manifests through female embodiment; she is the form and movement of the universe. Gaia is the foundation of the Earth, she is the expression of what lives. There is no jewel rarer than her, she is that form which has emanated from the Brahman the formless one, she is a gift born out of the process of creation.
The practices that help us to honor the body of Madurga the manifested goddess is: Environmentalism, Permaculture, Earth Care, and Regenerative Design.
To protect the goddess of form then we must stop all actions that participate in her destruction such as living a high carbon footprint lifestyle, which contributes to climate change.
In permaculture we learn to observe the laws of life, so that we can learn how to work with nature rather than against her.
The earth teaches us about closed loop interdependent living webs that create no waste rather perpetually recycle themselves for the evolution of more complex life forms. These living webs depend on cooperation between elements. Also that the strands of connections between diversity lead to greater stability and increased fertility.
Lets look at the principles of inner and outer ecology.
* COOPERATION and Skill-Sharing leads to UNITY
* Every strand in the web of life is SACRED; it is the CONNECTIONS between strands that complete the totality of the whole.
* STEWARDSHIP of nature leads to TRANSCENDENCE of culture, Meaning: to transcend out of a consumer focused de-generative culture, so that we can …
* Become TRANSFORMED into a RE-GENERATIVE self sufficient and interdependent culture
Realization is to unite polar opposites, to experience non-duality and to merge illusory opposites. It is to catalyze Heaven on Earth.
To create a regenerative culture on earth we must strive to live our life according to the laws of nature always thinking about how we will be part of a rhythm that marks the permanence of synergistic flows of life.
It is through thoughtful protracted observation that we can tap into the essence of the beauty that surrounds us, such as recognizing the breathing of jungles and forest that serve as lungs for the organism we live in, understanding that the destruction of nature is eventually the destruction of ourselves and the Matrix through which we can experience our soul.
Think about the peace when noticing the dew of the wet dawn rising into the clouds through evaporation, for rain to flow into rivers and creeks by condensation, the sigh of a fluttering butterfly sucking nectar from a flower or watching the rhythms of the cosmic clock, the sun and moon. It is through deep pondering of nature’s innate intelligence that we are inspired to a reflection on the meaning of what is love.
Love is not self-seeking but it gives and we can see this in nature today when we plant a seed, in exchange we receive hundreds more. Animals are always sacrificing each others life so that others can live, plants do the same, in return everything that dies returns to nature to feed the womb of the earth, the soil, that again gives birth. A self perpetuating wheel of life, death, renewal and cycling of resources.
Love is not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but for the building blocks of existence, through this contemplation then maybe our soul will wish to have a positive impact on the soul of creation, a craving to want to nourish and renew the very resources that today we only know how to exploit and deplete, removing ourselves from the ever cycling give and return, ebb and flow of life. We have only been taught how to take from nature. But we can relearn the way of honor.
It is only when we open our heart to LOVE the body of nature, when we will wish to return at least a portion of what she gives us. To express gratitude to the sky who has gifted us this treasure, that we often ignore or take for granted.
The following mantra is often chanted at the beginning or end of a yoga class:
" May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all "
It is my wish that all beings are happy and free. We will only achieve that manifestation when the power of love awakens in our heart, to care and to act for the wellness of creation and all that is living.
Your journey back into the heart of nature may start from a place of curiosity of what you can do to be part of that manifestation and then by the movement of love, you can become propelled to catalyze all that you can do.
If you want to learn more about how you can do this, and feel like you need support to make it happen, make sure to join us this summer for our next permaculture design course.
