THE ESSENCE OF SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY

©2013 by guest blogger, Chris Maser Chris Maser is an author and international lecturer, facilitator in resolving environmental conflicts, vision statements, and sustainable community development. He is an international consultant in forest ecology and sustainable forestry practices.   To understand the essence of spiritual ecology, close your eyes and visualize a path leading uphill through a meadow with three huge boulders on the immediate right and two on the left. It’s three o’clock in the afternoon on a bright, sunny day, and the shadows cast by the boulders are crisp and clear, making their size and shape readily discernible and catching to the eye. This image of a bright, sunlit meadow, with its distinct shadows, is analogous to masculine consciousness with its penchant for the quantification of discrete objects. Hence, the sun represents the masculine in Greek mythology. Now visualize the same path on a moonlit night. Again, look at the five boulders. They are not so sharply outlined and thus more difficult to discern with absolute clarity. Their relationship to the meadow is yielding because the diffuse lighting makes the background seem closer to being within the same depth of field. This softer view of the boulders fits more easily with the indefinable edges of feminine consciousness, which is relationship oriented and more-often-than-not has an abundance of questions and a dearth of concrete answers. Consequently, the moon represents the feminine in Greek mythology. Unlike ecological decisions and consequences, which seem to have relatively direct cause and effect relationships that simply are as they are, regardless of whether we understand them, social issues are difficult to contend with as discrete entities because they ooze endlessly in amoeboid fashion into one another. So it is that genuine social-environmental sustainability is the essence of spiritual ecology for the environmental mystic because it not only unifies masculine and feminine consciousness but also focuses truly on the sanctity and indivisibility of all life within the Eternal Mystery. Therefore, the environmental mystic understands that nature owes us nothing, and thus offers its services as an unconditional gift within the biophysical principles of its governance. To honor this gift, we must treat the land and nature with respect in the spirit of reciprocity and sincere caring—not the hubris of attempted control through the “make-believe” of management. If we want something from the land and nature, we must ascertain how we need to treat them to allow them to respond, as we desire. After all, neither the land nor nature need us—we need them. Related Posts: • One Small Nudge affects the Whole World • Earth Day 2012 • A Prayer of Love for the Earth • Eternity And The Banishment Of Fear • God’s Assignments • In Emptiness Is Spiritual Fulfillment • Self-Emptying Meditation • The Masers’ Mantra© Text and Photos © by Chris Maser 2013. All rights reserved.

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