Photo by Don Pierce
One way to deepen your compassion is to study how living and nonliving beings arise. Beings are not always as they appear. Understanding how they exist helps you offer help more effectively or at least avoid harm.
Other ways to learn from the branches of understanding include recognizing impermanence, extending compassion to the planet, empathizing with the wounded, opening your heart to others, facing facts honestly, and choosing your friends wisely.
HumaNatureConnect Activity
If today isn’t for unstructured nature time, try this guided practice:
Read the Text: Use your literary, mental, and reasoning senses to explore happiness and sustainability. Don’t just observe—actively use your natural senses while spending meaningful, enjoyable time outdoors on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.
Find an Attractive Natural Being: With pen and journal in hand, visit a natural area and choose a natural being that draws your attention.
Appreciate and Give Thanks: As you admire your chosen being, breathe in appreciation and exhale gratitude.
Consent: If you find yourself continuously attracted to an aspect of nature for at least ten seconds, consider this your consent to form a connection that supports your optimal functioning.
Engage Your Natural Senses: Use at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense to deepen and diversify your perception.
HumaNatureConnect Activity: After connecting, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced well-being to complete the following activity and any reflections you choose.
Generating Patterns of Human-Nature Interaction #11: Harvesting
After connecting with your chosen natural being, participate in a harvesting activity. This could be overharvesting hardwoods from a rainforest (a perverse interaction) or picking vegetables from your home garden (a domestic interaction). Instead, choose a wild interaction like digging clams with indigenous people, which positively affects your psychology.
In your journal, reflect on:
The meaning this wild interaction holds for you
The joy it brings
How it strengthens your mind-nature bond
Why this wild form is more beneficial than perverse or domestic versions
How it would feel to be denied this wild interaction
How the presence of your chosen natural being influences your experience
Writing these reflections adds to our collective nature language, vital for rekindling human-nature bonds. Review your impressions before sleep and carry them into your dreams.
Nocturnal Pilgrimage 2.67: Tend to Your Dreams Before Moving On
Aizenstat outlines three steps to healing through dreaming: naming wounded images, offering relief, and practicing healing rituals repeatedly over time. Each step must be completed before moving to the next.
Ways to Perform a Reality Check
Number Three: Look for Reminders.
Choose natural reminders to ask, “Am I dreaming?” For example, when moving from sun to shade, passing under a big tree, seeing a squirrel, crossing a creek, or hearing birdsong.
During your next nature activity, meditate on your attractive natural being’s image or use a soft focus while sharing space with it. Gently return your attention whenever your mind wanders. Notice if your sense of separation diminishes and if you feel more connected and comfortable in its presence.
