Nature Teach Us One thing I’ve realized is that nature can only teach what you are open to discovering. Since everyone approaches nature from their own unique perspective, you’ll find the lessons are driven by what you are personally looking for. Nature will teach you different things depending on your goals. It can teach you how to think more clearly & scientifically, or enhance your sense of spiritual connection, or even achieve personal success. It all starts with having an attitude that aligns with your own personal interests. Every moment we spend in nature is an opportunity to make amazing discoveries about ourselves and the world we live in. Simply being surrounded by birds & plants has amazing beneficial effects for the mind & body.
1. Naturalist intelligence is a recognized learning style that relates to observing patterns in the natural world and having empathy for animals. These are inherent human skills that anyone can develop by having adventures outside, tracking animals, harvesting plants & herbs, and connecting with the birds. But naturalist intelligence is not just about knowing things related to plants, trees & birds. It’s also about your larger capacity to observe patterns and tune into your physical surroundings in all areas of life. 2. A lot of the therapies that help people to overcome learning challenges are focused around providing meaningful sensory stimulation. I also really struggled with focus and attention. It opened up a whole new world of discovery that has dramatically transformed my mental clarity and capacity to learn faster by watching & listening carefully. Along with the increases in overall awareness that come from being surrounded by nature, you’ll notice that your ability to focus will also really improve. ( I called it a vocation and driving literally and mentally with myself with my family) Nature teaches focus by first quieting your mind of the distractions, and then captivating or sharpening your attention through curiosity. Nature is filled with so many unique sights, sounds & smells to tantalize your senses. There’s something around every turn to captivate your awareness. This is how nature will teach you a kind of organic scientific focus that’s driven by your own developing curiosity rather than the external desire to get good grades or achieve status. 3.One of the simplest things to do outside is be still & meditate. Whether in the midst of the sea at Kanyakumari Hall or Aurobindo of Pondicherry, or on the bridges of Kedarnath, or Ramakrishna Math Calcutta, or Mumbai Gate close your eyes and the silence is golden with without the sound around. Have you ever noticed that it’s difficult to be distracted by thoughts when your mind is being stimulated by a rich tapestry of sounds, colours & experiences? This is a natural state of meditation. No difficult techniques… just pure nature. 4 Authenticity is one of the big secrets to success in life. Nature teaches authenticity by giving you opportunities to be alone with yourself in a truly non-judgemental environment. This is why it’s absolutely critical to get in touch with your own unique path. Nature doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. There’s no judgement. Just the pure freedom to be yourself as you are. Nature is filled with so many amazing mysteries and beautiful moments that inspire the mind. SILENT VALLEY makes you cool and calm. Sringeri Tungabhadra would make you still when crossing over towards the Mutt. Kodai Rd water falls would play a low tone whisper music. Darjeeling may speak a lot of stories with you. We have nature all around us; we need only a perception. It’s also filled with the unfiltered realities of life & death in the forest. Western ghats while walking through to the chirping of the birds. I was spending an hour in the wonderful Garden of Singapore as well as the natural parks of the USA. 5 Nature teaches us how to be grateful and appreciate the positive things in life. This is especially apparent when we have moments of hardship and pain. Even amidst all the problems of life… we discover that birds are still singing, the sun is still shining, and somehow life goes on. It doesn’t change the fact that life is going to knock you around… but gratitude does enable you to embrace all parts of life with greater balance and harmony. Nature on the other hand, helps us to slow down out of the whirlwind and tune our minds with the positive things in life. Nature teaches emotional freedom by providing a better strategy for dealing with the challenges of life. It helps you to realize there’s a fluidity to your perspective that lets you see things from all different angles. This is true freedom. 6 Drinking a hot cup of herbal tea made from wild-crafted plants; after stopping your car at the hair pin bend of Ooty in front of the tea-estate; while coming down the Tirupati steps, sitting on the bricks of Chandra Giri valley. Bear chested, a dhothi and a upper garment where no one knows you; aloft the sky; pacifying your minds. Or sitting around a crackling fire in the dark winter. (Bon fire of the hotel Shimla). The result is you begin to have a greater capacity for self-reflection and gain the ability to look at yourself with less judgmental eyes. At the highest levels, you can experience a unity with your surroundings that simply feels like pure love, without any attachments or conditions. 7 It’s very common for people to report that nature improves their sense of spiritual connection. Sivananda ashram small walls places you nearer Paramasivam. The more you look at nature and connect with the outdoors, the more you sense there must be some kind of intelligent order and truth behind it all. Questions about the purpose of life gradually become replaced by a feeling of faith and inner peacefulness. 8 Our scriptures teach a lot on nature; and B G teaches us 3 kinds of the nature; from the script I read:” CHAPTER XIV The Three Qualities of Nature KRISHNA: "I will explain further the sublime spiritual knowledge superior to all others, by knowing which all the sages have attained to supreme perfection on the dissolution of this body. They take sanctuary in this wisdom, and having attained to my state they are not born again even at the new evolution, nor are they disturbed at the time of general destruction. 9 "The great Brahman is my womb in which I place the seed; from that, O son of Bharata, is the production of all existing things. (1) This great Brahman is the womb for all those various forms which are produced from any womb, and I am the Father who provideth the seed. The three great qualities called sattva, rajas, and tamas -- light, or truth, passion or desire, and indifference or darkness -- are born from nature, and bind the imperishable soul to the body, O thou of mighty arms. Of these the sattva quality by reason of its lucidity and peacefulness entwineth the soul to rebirth through attachment to knowledge and that which is pleasant. Know that rajas is of the nature of desire, producing thirst and propensity; it, O son of Kunti, imprisoneth the Ego through the consequences produced from action. The quality of tamas, the offspring of the indifference in nature, is the deluder of all creatures, O son of Bharata; it imprisoneth the Ego in a body through heedless folly, sleep, and idleness. The sattva quality attaches the soul through happiness and pleasure, the rajas through action, and tamas quality surrounding the power of judgment with indifference attaches the soul through heedlessness. 10 "When, O son of Bharata, the qualities of tamas and rajas are overcome, then that of sattva prevaileth;tamas is chiefly acting when sattva and rajas are hidden; and when the sattva and tamas diminish, then rajas prevaileth. When wisdom, the bright light, shall become evident at every gate of the body, then one may know that the sattva quality is prevalent within. The love of gain, activity in action, and the initiating of works, restlessness and inordinate desire are produced when the quality of rajas is prevalent, whilst the tokens of the predominance of the tamas quality are absence of illumination, the presence of idleness, heedlessness, and delusion, O son of Kunti. 11 "If the body is dissolved when the sattva quality prevails, the self within proceeds to the spotless spheres of those who are acquainted with the highest place. When the body is dissolved while the quality of rajas is predominant, the soul is born again in a body attached to action; and so also of one who dies while tamas quality is prevalent, the soul is born again in the wombs of those who are deluded. 12 "The fruit of righteous acts is called pure and holy, appertaining to sattva; from rajas is gathered fruit in pain, and the tamas produceth only senselessness, ignorance, and indifference. From sattva wisdom is produced, from rajas desire, from tamas ignorance, delusion and folly. Those in whom the sattva quality is established mount on high, those who are full of rajas remain in the middle sphere, the world of men, while those who are overborne by the gloomy quality, tamas, sink below. But when the wise man perceiveth that the only agents of action are these qualities, and comprehends that which is superior to the qualities, he attains to my state. And when the embodied self surpasseth these three qualities of goodness, action, and indifference -- which are coexistent with the body -- it is released from rebirth and death, old age and pain, and drinketh of the water of immortality." 13 ARJUNA: "What are the characteristic marks by which the man may be known, O Master, who hath surpassed the three qualities? What is his course of life, and what are the means by which he overcometh the qualities?" 14 KRISHNA: "He, O son of Pandu, who doth not hate these qualities -- illumination, action, and delusion -- when they appear, nor longeth for them when they disappear; who, like one who is of no party, sitteth as one unconcerned about the three qualities and undisturbed by them, who being persuaded that the qualities exist, is moved not by them; who is of equal mind in pain and pleasure, self-centered, to whom a lump of earth, a stone, or gold are as one; who is of equal mind with those who love or dislike, constant, the same whether blamed or praised; equally minded in honor and disgrace, and the same toward friendly or unfriendly side, engaging only in necessary actions, such an one hath surmounted the qualities. And he, my servant, who worships me with exclusive devotion, having completely overcome the qualities, is fitted to be absorbed in Brahman the Supreme. I am the embodiment of the Supreme Ruler, and of the incorruptible, of the unmodifying, and of the eternal law, and of endless bliss." 15 Thus in the Upanishads, called the holy Bhagavad-Gita, in the science of the Supreme Spirit, in the book of devotion, in the colloquy between the Holy Krishna and Arjuna, stands the Fourteenth Chapter, by name --The Three Qualities of Nature K Rajaram IRS 3724 4724 On Wed, 3 Jul 2024 at 20:23, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > Sparkling & Dancing leaves in the evening sun and wind. > > On Wed, Jul 3, 2024, 8:18 PM Markendeya Yeddanapudi < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> -- >> *Mar*Nature, the Great Professor >> >> >> >> The living of life, is living in nature, as nature, in the Biosphere, as >> the Biosphere, then in the planet earth, as the planet earth and ultimately >> as the vacuum, the great abstract phenomenon of perception and >> understanding. With your eyes you can see just 00.0037% of the totality. >> With the eyes you always see the 3D shapes. This basically false seeing >> happens only on the surface of the earth, that too only up to about ten or >> fifteen miles into the troposphere. From the stratosphere on, in the entire >> universe, your eyes are useless or no longer mislead you into the false 3D >> seeing. >> >> If you can see everything, atoms, paricles, nothing etc, then you cannot >> see the 3D shapes including yourself. You enter the great abstract arena of >> perception and understanding, teaming up emotionally and perceivingly with >> every other life form in continuous hormonal interaction. Real learning is >> always feeling and emotional embedment, in the internal hormonal >> communication, developing liaison with the internal hormonal communications >> of the other organisms. The Hormones of the organisms of the Biosphere team >> up into one single organism. >> >> The basic paradigms of perception and understanding of all organisms >> fuse, creating the great paradigm dynamics in the troposphere among the >> organisms of the Biosphere.Breathing, smelling, sensing, perceiving, >> understanding and learning becomes the great collegial team up of all >> organisms. Learning is mainly and only feeling, that too as a member of the >> Biosphere, as the Biosphere. >> >> Today by cutting the gigantic emotional macro and anatomical connect to >> the Biosphere and nature, and employing technology to do the studentship, >> we have maimed ourselves almost completely. >> >> It is time for every university, to maintain huge nature parks where >> nature is completely free, with absolutely no human tampering. A student >> can enter that park and practice teaming up with the organisms of the >> Biosphere. What all he/she has to do is to close the eyes and make the mind >> blank. After the practice of the blank mind or simply Dyana, brilliant >> revelations start flashing into one, engulfing the total internal hormonal >> communication system. Every organism develops close emotional bond with the >> student. The basic paradigms of perception and understanding develop from >> the great abstract arena of nature. They free one from the Cartesian >> paradigms. >> >> The concept of education of nature is emotional and physical growth with >> health and rapture of every organism. Nature becomes the great sacred >> professor. Actually it becomes your own body, where your hormonal and >> nervous systems govern the reasoning of your mind. Wound to any part of >> nature automatically communicates into you, just like the pain you >> experience when there is even small prick on your body now. The same effect >> takes you over, for the whole nature as your own body. >> >> Ecology is actually The Macro Biology and Zoology, with nature as one >> single organism. >> >> As it is we are repudiating our componentship in nature and the >> Biosphere.We have to assume the scientific mind wherein we must believe >> that we are outside observers of nature or as not part of the Biosphere. >> And we have to become the economic man, who destroys nature to live the >> economic life. We have created a very big world of lunacy. >> >> We drag the tiny tot from its emotional enrichment with nature directly >> and put it in the Cartesian galley to row the mechanized lessons for life. >> We have become so mad, we assume that the destruction of nature is economic >> development! >> >> YM >> >> Chat GPT >> >> >> >> ### Nature, the Great Professor >> >> >> >> **Integration with Nature** >> >> >> >> Living authentically means living as part of nature, embracing the >> biosphere and the planet Earth. To truly understand life, one must move >> beyond the limited perception of the world provided by our senses, >> particularly vision. Our eyes can only perceive a tiny fraction of reality, >> and they often deceive us with the illusion of three-dimensional shapes. >> This illusion is confined to the surface of the Earth and the lower parts >> of the atmosphere. Beyond the troposphere, traditional vision becomes >> useless, freeing us from these deceptions and allowing entry into a broader >> realm of perception and understanding. >> >> >> >> **Holistic Learning** >> >> >> >> Real learning is a deeply emotional and physical process, driven by >> internal hormonal communication and interaction with other life forms. Each >> organism in the biosphere contributes to a collective emotional and >> perceptual network. This network creates a dynamic paradigm of >> understanding that is constantly evolving through the interconnected >> experiences of all organisms. >> >> >> >> **Emotional and Sensory Education** >> >> >> >> To reclaim this holistic form of education, modern universities should >> create large, untampered nature parks. In these spaces, students can >> practice deep mindfulness (Dyana), making their minds blank to receive >> insights from nature. This practice allows for emotional bonding with other >> organisms and fosters a deeper understanding that transcends Cartesian >> paradigms. The natural environment itself becomes the ultimate professor, >> guiding students through direct, sensory, and emotional experiences. >> >> >> >> **Reconnecting with Nature** >> >> >> >> When students engage deeply with nature, they experience personal growth >> and health in harmony with the environment. They learn to feel wounds to >> nature as personal pain, reinforcing the understanding that all life is >> interconnected. This holistic perspective redefines ecology as a >> macro-biology and zoology, viewing nature as a single, interconnected >> organism. >> >> >> >> **Critique of Modern Education and Technology** >> >> >> >> Modern education often disrupts this natural connection by isolating >> students from their environment and emphasizing mechanical and >> technological learning. This approach undermines the emotional and physical >> enrichment provided by nature. Current economic models further exacerbate >> this disconnect by valuing the destruction of nature as economic progress, >> a notion that is fundamentally flawed. >> >> >> >> **Proposed Educational Reforms** >> >> >> >> - **Nature Parks in Universities**: Establish untouched nature reserves >> where students can practice mindfulness and connect emotionally with the >> biosphere. >> >> - **Sensory and Emotional Learning**: Emphasize learning through direct >> experience and emotional engagement with nature rather than through >> detached, mechanical methods. >> >> - **Holistic Health and Growth**: Foster education that promotes >> physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being in harmony with the >> environment. >> >> >> >> ### Further Reading and Exploration >> >> >> >> 1. **"The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben**: Explores the >> complex interconnections among trees and other organisms in forests, >> emphasizing the importance of these relationships. >> >> 2. **"The Overstory" by Richard Powers**: A novel that delves into the >> lives of various characters whose experiences with trees change their >> perspectives on life and nature. >> >> 3. **"Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv**: Discusses the >> importance of connecting children with nature and the benefits of outdoor >> play for emotional and physical health. >> >> >> >> These sources provide deeper insights into the themes of >> interconnectedness, holistic education, and the critique of modern >> technological and economic paradigms. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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