Nature, Our Most Compassionate Teacher
In the silence of my mind, I see God in Nature with every exquisite form! Everything is so uniquely beautiful! At that moment of peace, I ask God, why did you create religions? Why did you not make man worship only Nature? We would have no man-made doctrines, only universal laws that harmonize all that is diverse with that single thread of Prana, our breaths. We wouldn’t have fought wars in the name god and religion. We wouldn’t have killed each other to satisfy some unknown god! We could have learned only from Nature, our One teacher who gives us wisdom and love and sustains us all, unconditionally.
Does Mother Nature punish us? Never. When I was a kid, I used to quarrel with my elder brother, and my mother would punish me. Later I realized that she never punished me, she corrected my patterns and tendencies. That is what Nature does. Virus or cyclones, death or destruction all have a higher purpose, to set right and balance man’s transgressions. No other species violates her law other than humans.
That’s why we should always learn from Nature. Look at water! If we watch the magic of this element of Nature carefully, we find we have answers for everything. The river’s water flows from mountains to the oceans in a long and challenging journey but it does not work hard. Water flows. If we don’t work hard for success but flow to the ocean of bliss, we will not do such hard work, but will learn from Nature how to flow. Nature accomplishes so much without doing or claiming any credit or discredit.
Look out the window and see that Nature always flows with no struggle, no stress! As part of nature, we suffer. But we are not just part of nature, we are Nature. The day we are one with Nature we are free of all suffering, we are in the flow … we are enlightened.
When we realize the abundance of Nature’s gifts to us we become a lover of Nature, and we learn from Nature how it accomplishes so much in silence or without need for appreciation or recognition. We start having fewer needs and deeper desires to share whatever we are gifted with. We don’t regret if we are not appreciated for our goodness. We are good, because Nature is good. We enjoy sharing for Nature shares. We are happy for we don’t leave space in our minds for complaints. We become natural and are happy for no reason.
May we all join our hearts to invoke the Divine in each one of us and pray to Mother Nature asking for her forgiveness and promise not to take things for granted. May we all value each of her infinite gifts in abundance and live a life of simplicity and humility, and love and sharing, for the earth and all species to coexist in spiritual oneness.
~~Bodhi Shuddhaanandaa
