The Rooted Rock

Profound reflection. When you see it from Mother Earth perspective, there is yet another reflection I got. Much like the Gaia Prayer - Find a place outside, place your bare feet upon the earth, raise your hands to the sky and recite the following: Earth, Terra, Gaia! Mother of All, Giver of Gifts and of Life, I offer all of my prayers to thee, my respect and gratitude, and may this be a conscious oath to protect you and to honor you as I recognize the great need for your healing. May your fields be rich and your soil fertile, and may they be sown and reaped with care. May your mountains attest to your splendor and strength and your valleys hum with the lullaby of your receptive embrace. May your oceans, waters, rivers, and glaciers be pure and nourishing as the life-blood of the planet. May your air be clean and free of toxins that all may breathe deeply and fully the great life-force. May your turning invoke an understanding of all cyclical things in nature; of growth and decay, of planting and harvest, of karmic cycles and that as we give, so do we receive. May your children learn to care for you and love you, and to teach their children the same. You are the Earth, and I am your child. “SO IT IS!” Hide full comment

This resonates with me. Our sense of perception is limited only to the five senses. Through schooling and the societal / cultural messages that we receive, we erroneously assume ( and don’t question, usually) that only that which is perceived is the truth. Our proclivity is to break things down to the smallest so we can understand the nature of things, and we forget to put them back together, to appreciate them in their entirety. This leads to categorization,comparisons, and aligning things /persons/experiences in a hierarchical manner, which leads to a division oriented perspective rather than a unity oriented perspective. So it is but natural that we think inert objects do not have Consciousness / Awareness. Whereas, Vedanta ( Upanisads ) says what we perceive as inert, from our vantage Point of view, is fully alive and infused with Consciousness; it just does not have a medium to reflect the Consciousness {like a mind ( that we have)}, for us to perceive. Everything ( no exception) is made of the five elements and is pulsating with the Life force/Consciousness, just at different frequencies. Rsis of yore and as we fine tune our minds we too, can connect with That primordial pulsating force that is the fundamental aspect of everything that we percieve and even that we don’t, and all that which we categorize as Animate and Inanimate, due to our limited perception and understanding. Namaskaram. Hide full comment

Animate and inanimate look opposite of each other. It depends on our perspective. If I look at the reality with a narrow or close mind I see it differently than if I see it with an open and clear mind. There is wise saying in Sanskrit which says "Yatha drusti tatha srusti". The world appears as I see it. My perception is based on how I see the reality. A distorted perception will create a distorted reality. An important challenge for us is how to see the relaity as it is. No perversion, no disortation. Sadly, we live in a world where differenences create distanaces. How do I see the differences: differences in color, race, casts, and creeds. According to my understanding differences, are created by our narrow and prjudicial mind set. Our mind gets conditioned. We are conditioned to think in black or white colors. And we all know how injustice is created by our balck or white perspective. If we go beyond these walls we can see oneness in manyness. We realize unitive consciousness. A question arises in my mind. Is an inamnate the same as naminate? Outwadly they appear different; but inwardly they identical. Who or what has created such differences? According to my understanding, we ascribe postive value to those who are like us and consider them ours, and those who are not like us we consider them different from us, and lower than us. We have creted these walls of differences and divisiveness. We may also consider inanimate objects not only different but distant. This is an illusion. The divine spirit doesn't have that divisiveness. People who are noble-hearted have gone beyond these walls and they acceppt others as the citzens of the same world. I remeber an illuminating song written in Sanskrit by an enlihtened spiritual teacher, guru Adi Sahnkaracharya: Ptatha smari hrudi sansfurit atmam, Sat chit sukham paramahansa gati turiyam. Yat swpana jagarat sushiptim aveti nityam, Tad brahmanishkalam na cha bhuta sangaha. Every morning when I get up I remeber in my heart, Brahma , the creator satyam is truth. jagat-world mithya, an illusion. Every morning when I wake up let me remember in my heart, I am the divine - truth, Brahmaiava satyan, jagat mithya. The Creator the world is an illusion. Brhamaiava satyam na cha bhutasangaha- I am the Divine soul and not the collection of matter. This is a wake up call. This is the way we connect with nature and and with each other. Namaste! Jagdish P Dave Hide full comment