Exemplary Compassion (Part Two)
Anchor A Meaningful Life On The Roots Of Morality
Photo by Don Pierce.
To reach the next touchstone of human-nature interaction, commune with nature* and think about cooking food in a microwave oven (a perverse interaction), grilling food on a backyard bar-be-que (a domestic interaction), and cooking food on an open fired in a natural setting (a wild interaction).
In. reaching for this touchstone, help others or, at least, do no harm to others; work to do away with the Ten Non-virtues (these are the Physical Non-virtues of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the Verbal Non-virtues of lying, senseless chatter, divisive talk, and insensitive speech; and the Mental Non-Virtues of craving/coveting, ill-will, and, having an incorrect world view). Also, free yourself from what is known as “cyclical existence” which means, along with the endless round of birth, aging, sickness and death, the seemingly endless struggle and suffering that accompanies “striving” as opposed to the bliss of “arriving.”
To free yourself from the suffering of seemingly endless struggles, get to know the Four Noble Truths, which are:
knowing the specific types of suffering;
discovering the sources of one’s own suffering (or another person’s suffering, especially if that person’s hardships affect you or those you love);
knowing how to cease the suffering; and
stopping the suffering.
The types of suffering include pain, change, and pervasive conditioning. Pain is commonly known and the typical tendency is to seek to avoid or diminish it. The suffering of change occurs when something good (or appears to be good) changes into something that is bad. Pervasive conditioning is suffering that results from tendencies created by previous actions and afflictive or counterproductive emotions such as lust or hatred.
When examining these types of suffering, and especially when facing a difficulty, maintain a positive attitude. This becomes easier when you realize that when you undergo difficult situations with grace you are diminishing the negative consequences.
The source of pain is often afflictive emotions such as lust and hatred. Some of these emotions are best expressed and others are best left unexpressed. Telling the person who normally calls how you felt when she did not call is an example of a prudent time to express your afflictive emotions. Telling a person who has, over the course of your lifetime, made you feel like you did not matter but is unlikely or unwilling to make amends is a good example of when your afflictive emotions are best left unexpressed. For persistent sources of suffering, as opposed to one-time discrepancies, expressing your afflictive emotion will likely only cause stronger or more prevalent negative actions. In this case, it is best to focus on the disadvantages of orally engaging in afflictive emotions while displacing them with understanding and feelings of satisfaction and love.
Learning how to end suffering is mostly a matter of overcoming misconceptions. Ignorance is a primary source of suffering and, therefore, knowledge is a key way to diminish the struggles of one’s life. A key point to learn that will help one diminish suffering has to do with the emptiness of all forms. I will return to this point in a moment.
To stop one’s suffering involves the practice of putting down roots of morality so that, from this anchoring, one can later engage in determined contemplation and achieve understanding. This secure root system of morality has “ingredients”—chief of which are refraining from harm and helping others.
To The Ninth Of Many Touchstones Of People-Nature Interfacing…
HumaNatureConnect Activity
If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:
Start-up Protocol
Read The Text — Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.
Attractive Natural Being — With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.
Appreciation and Gratefulness — While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.
Consent — Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.
The Natural Senses — After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.
HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.
Generating Patterns Of Human-Nature Interaction # 9:
Cooking Around The Fire Circle And
Building An Outdoor Shelter
For this activity, build a shelter after you feel connected to your chosen attractive natural being. In doing this interaction pattern, you could be designing a house on a computer (a perverse interaction pattern) or you could be setting up a tent in a campground (a domestic interaction pattern). By choosing instead to create a space to sleep under a rock outcropping (a wild interaction), you would be doing something that will have a positive psychological affect on you.
Also, after you feel connected to your chosen attractive natural being, build a fire circle and cook a meal outdoors. In doing this interaction pattern, you could be cooking food in a microwave oven (a perverse interaction pattern) or you could be grilling food on your backyard barbecue set (a domestic interaction pattern). By choosing instead to cook food over an open fire in a natural setting (a wild interaction) you would be doing something that will have a positive psychological affect on you.
In your journal, write down what meaning you would derive from this wild interaction pattern; what joy, if any, it would produce; how, if at all, it would build within you a bond between your mind and nature; and how, if at all, the wild version of this interaction pattern would be better for you than the perverse or domestic instantiation of the same interaction pattern; and how not being allowed to participate in this sort of wild interaction pattern––cooking in your kitchen at home or sleeping under a natural rock outcropping, for example–– would make you feel? How does interacting in this way in the presence of your attractive natural being make you feel? How would it feel to have this interaction without the presence of your attractive natural being? In writing down these responses you will be adding to our collective nature language, so important to rekindling the bond between humans and nature. Look over your impressions and think about them as you fall asleep tonight before dreaming.
Follow-up Protocol
Natural Systems Reflection Process
For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.
Journal Components
General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.
Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.
Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.
Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.
Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.
Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.
Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.
I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”
Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.
Nature Compared To Self — creating a sentence that reads: “I love this (insert words that identify the attractive natural being) because it is (insert words that refer to the qualities you like about the natural being).” Then, creating a parallel sentence that reads: “I love (insert the word “myself”) because I am (insert the same qualities as before).” If only one follow-up component can be done at any one waypoint, do this one. It reveals a lot about the participant quickly. In group settings it is a very good way to get pertinent conversation underway.
Ride The Green Wave — determining whether you understand and agree with all of the Ten Green Wave Validation Statements. In your journal, give yourself a plus sign (+) if you do agree and a minus sign (-) if you do not agree. Do not worry if you do not give yourself a plus sign (+). These notations are merely for your own information. Regardless of your own plus or minus assessments, you are always free to move on; or, if you are attracted to do so, you can always revisit the waypoint, ask for Guidance, and/or redo the activity.
Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.