meditation and nature
We go to a beach or forest to clear our heads, and find a good space from which to begin again. Nature is a great healer.The peace we find in nature restores our sense of being alive. Fresh, luscious, profund. We are part of nature. Our blood is salty as ocean, we are made of the same water, earth, air and heat, the same molecules and space.
Often we don't know how to integrate the spiritual feeling we get in nature, how to draw on the healing and regeneration, and take it back into our lives.
Through meditation we can find that peace and beauty within ourself as well. Our mind becomes like a clear pool at dawn, our wisdom the wisdom of forest trees. The 'natural state' is one description of the awakened state in Buddhism.
This is the spirit of our time.
We urgently need to feel this power of nature within us, and our connection and unity with nature around us, so we can care for our planet as if it were our self. For healing our planet, as well as our own lives.
This work can be helpful for activists and people working with the environment, sustainable lifestyles and so on, to connect our spiritual life and practical work with nature.
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women and nature
Many people now understand that we and our ecosystem are inseparably linked. Few yet see this in terms of 'feminine' ways of operating. It is crucial to make this link, if we are to create the kind of social change we need.Nature and women have become linked in our minds. Nature’s ecosystems have been felt as life-giving Mother. Women can proudly identify with nature.
Can we make use of the Goddess to help us create inspired sustainability and integration? Mother nature teaches us about supporting life, connectedness and beauty.
Is the Goddess, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Cosmic Mother, or Queen of Space? Is she Cosmic Consciousness? Are these the same or different?
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ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is an approach which weaves together three things: environmental sustainability, ways of living together grounded in 'feminine' principles, and Nature as a source of spirituality. Sometimes the Goddess is invoked for this.These days, most of our spiritual life is not in the context of anything to do with social issues or environment. Ecofeminism integrates these various parts of our lives in one all-encompassing vision.
Nature and women have been linked together. Nature's ecosystems have been felt as life-giving Mother. Feminine wisdom and ways of being - life-supporting care, connectedness and cooperation - must be brought into balance with 'masculine' values now predominant - such as individualism, hierarchy, competition. This is women's contribution to healing the planet.
Within this context, Dido can contribute principally on the spiritual side, the changing views of the 'feminine' and the Goddess, with practices and meditations to take this knowledge beyond ideas, into deeper visceral experience.