Discover the profound connection between nature's five elements and our intrinsic bond with the universe through meditative introspection.
Here is a look into nature's intricacies as we explore the five elemental building blocks, revealing the meditative path to a deeper understanding of our universe.
There is a light that is lighting all life, a breath that is breathing all, vibrant rivers coursing through our veins and the valleys we see, space expanding in the galaxies and in our minds. The Five Auspicious Shrines are sacred portals for healing that connect us to the great web of life, return us to original intimacy, and restore us to wholeness. This soul journey is the one we have been waiting for—a pilgrimage not in the world, or of it, but as it.
The five elemental and energetic shrines of the earth, the physical body, and the soul’s subtle pathways are the five elements of nature:
Each of the five elements of nature can teach us how to care for ourselves, one another, and our planetary home.
As I was writing this material, a poignant thought interrupted my writing. It became an internal dialog that went something like this: What are you doing? Well, I am trying to describe how God is fully present in nature, in the world. Why don't you just tell people to go look? Ok. That's really it. So, how?
How do we look?
First, we can look at ourselves and observe the structure of being embodied. As human beings, our feet are on the ground—literally touching the earth—while our heads, our crowns, reach for the sky, associated with the heavenly realms. What is in-between?
The mind, the mental field (including our faculty of discernment and intuition), is the middle ground between body and soul. The seeing that we need becomes possible with a purified mind and an awakened heart.
Without that awakening, what we see with physical eyes, brain, and mental field is objectified as "other." Nature becomes a commodity, and we become consumers. As consumers, we try to restore ourselves but end up depleting our own reserves. We need to deconstruct the wall of ignorance between us and nature.
There is a pattern in nature that connects. "To see the world in a grain of sand" and the cosmos mirrored in the human body, mind, and soul is a profound and practical method for contemplation and meditative insight.
The five elements of nature —earth, water, fire, air, and space (or ether) are the basic building blocks of all creation. Everything in nature, including our bodies and minds, is formed of the elements. Focused contemplation of any element can be a doorway into the heart of reality, an experiential introduction to the original intimacy of oneness with all life.
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