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Embraced
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Although I was born in Australia, the first time I really felt the spirit of Nature was when I began to study meditation in Europe. It’s surprising when you think about it, but we take the natural world we live in completely for granted, much the same as we take our bodies completely for granted – until something goes wrong! I was in retreat for a year in Assisi, Italy, which is an incredibly beautiful place, living in an old farmhouse in the country surrounded by the rich landscape of small farms, vines and large stands of trees. Around the house lived geese, ducks, turkeys, hens, a cow and an enormous pig. Every day we had fresh eggs from the hens and milk from the cow. The house itself was the centre of all the activities in the neighbourhood and each year everyone gathered there, with great ceremony, to press the year’s harvest of grapes and make wine. One day while meditating I felt myself literally sinking into the earth. It was as though I was being embraced by it, held by it and drawn into it. My body opened and softened as it sank deeper and deeper – I felt as though I was floating in the earth. It was an indescribably blissful experience. The embrace I experienced was warm and nourishing and I could feel my body being sustained and fed by it. The Italian earth was rich and dark, and this is exactly how it felt in meditation – like dark chocolate. editation is designed to bring you into union with both the world around you and within you, and this was my first experience of being in union with the earth – the source and sustainer of our lives. This experience totally changed my relationship with the natural world. I realised how intimately our bodies are united with Nature, and what it is like to open to this experience. St. Francis of Assisi was, in a sense, a part of the tradition of Nature mysticism, and sang of Brother Sun and Sister Moon. He saw, as anyone who opens to this experience must see, that all the animals, birds and plants on this earth, and all of the stars and planets which surround us, are part of one enormous family. As I sank into the earth, I felt that it was, in a very real sense, the mother of our bodies. My body was being held and nourished by the earth as though I was being held in its arms. I could feel right through my whole body exactly what St. Francis meant; why he could so happily talk to birds and animals – and why they understood him. I have found in retreat that wild birds and animals come to trust you, and will feel safe to come up very close to you, when your mind is still and you are open to the natural world. Our bodies are born from the earth and so our lives are intimately embedded in the rhythms and cycles of Nature. Unfortunately, our lifestyle prohibits most of us experiencing this. However, taking some time to do a retreat gives a perfect opportunity to open your mind and body to this experience. In retreat you have the time and space to open your senses and feel the life around you in all its miraculous variety. You find you can actually feel the spirit of the natural world through your entire body as your senses open to the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch of Nature. As the breeze caresses your skin, the light and colours fill your eyes and mind, the smells of the trees and flowers, and sounds of the birds literally soak through your entire body, you feel the ecstasy of coming home. This is an experience and a realisation which the indigenous people of our country completely understand, for they feel this country to be their mother. When I returned to Australia I discovered it as though it were a new country, and could feel what our indigenous friends were saying and their distress at the way we treat the land. Nature mysticism has had a very strong tradition in England; from its Celtic roots, through the poets most of us studied at school, to the present day. Keats and Wordsworth, and in America, Walt Whitman, sang and danced the spirit of the natural world. As Wordsworth said in his famous poem, “And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils”.
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