Forest Gardening meets Deep and Personal Ecology

There is a major difficulty in spiritual ecology, human ecology, organic eco-building design, eco-living, and permaculture.

Human ego (vanity) determines that we like to think we always know the way to do something.

Though a necessity ego out of balance is also our greatest flaw. We must continually watch for not only the well known over inflated ego, but also for the subtleties of looking at things from our own personal human point of view.

Spiritual ecology, human ecology, organic eco-building design, eco-living, and permaculture design all require a detached humility that let us see things with us as part of them in them.

There is no right way to strive to do this, because our mood, our feelings, and our thoughts at this very moment are an integral part of the whole reality, which along with how rocks sit, bees bumble, birds fly, animals walk, and clouds look determines our place in the moment.

This place in the moment is the only place in which we can truly design a garden, a building, or plan out a living environment in a way that embraces the role that all living beings play.

Such complicated thought cannot be held with the mind. We must give this role to Spirit. By imagining in Spirit, we can surrender the mind, to the heart, and feel what needs done.

Spiritual exercises in which we sing power words like HU (sung like the boy's name, with a long UUUuuuuu) are all that can give us the experience of being in Spirit, in tune with Nature. Drugs have also been used temporarily, but are a prop, and ultimately the spiritual is a conscious experience we want to enter at will.

In addition to singing a power word, like HU, which means Spirit or God (as in HU-man) feeling safe and comfortable, we let the WHOLE dwell within our mind space.

To do this let your ideas about the matters you are interested in float around in quiet mind space. As part of their natural dance within your mind they will bump against the insights of Soul. There they will ping open the doors of the group mind and the creative ideas of Spirit will speak to you, as Soul. You will find these ideas have popped into your mind and you are not sure where they have come from.

If nothing seems to happen know that ideas will also pop out of the quantum fabric of space into your reality throughout your day.

This may be words you hear as you pass by a stranger, or which seem to stand out in a conversation, on radio or TV. You may read a car numberplate, a book, magazine, newspaper, or advert and certain words trigger a "Wow, that's just what I was thinking about … that's what I need to do". The soaring grace of a flying bird may lift your viewpoint high on its wings so that you see life differently … and therein lies your answer!

You may even deliberately open the pages of a book at "random" while you contemplate, to receive your answer; and do it twice, to see the connections.

This is spiritual ecology, deep ecology in which you are immersed in the environment, you are a part of it, as it is a part of you, you are whole, everything means something to you, tells you something. The answer lies about you, and you look for it without asking the question, from that stillness of yourself as Soul.

Practice this skill everyday for about 20 minutes so you can do it any time and place.

Create the design of your life, your building, your garden; everything about you, guide you. Take the helm as the captain of the ship and give it direction, expect assistance from all "your" materials and tools, and be prepared to do things quite differently from what you thought you would do.

It is a dynamic process, where you design as you build, and when you don't know what the design is, you build so that you can see design.

Rocks, timber, and other materials that I build with, all guide my decisions on where I place them. Their curves, dimensions, shapes, weights, and my assessment of the durability, and ability to do the job, and what I feel for them, determine what I use where.

A nearby tree, and immovable rock, the contour of the land, all create design.

I stand in space, I move around, I contemplate, I sing HU, I feel what space is telling me fits It, and listen to Its plan unfold.

I walk the razor's edge and this is my ultimate adventure: my discovery of who am I, where I am, and my purpose here and now.

At Harmony, I enter this space with my volunteers and we discover together. If you too would like to learn in this way see our Volunteer Programs and Workshops. I describe this space and bring it into written form for you in the All Beings and Deep Ecology sections of Harmony's Website.

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Love,

David

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