Happy Heart-Centered Earth Day: “The green carpet of Thy heaven is spread upon the earth”
~Happy Earth Day~
The World’s Nations to sign historic Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions and halt climate change on Earth Day
Dear Friends,
~Wishing you all a beautiful and heart-centered Earth Day~
Four months ago we held a space to connect with the UN Paris COP21 Climate Conference, which resulted in 196 countries banding together and making pledges to address this issue which affects all of humanity and all of life on the planet.
We connected as a community and sent prayer, light, breath, life, and love to those meetings, and I’d like to think we helped play the part that an esoteric or mystical community can play inwardly contributing to such an effort.
After all that, today, on Earth Day, over 150 nations’ leaders will gather in New York at the UN to sign onto this agreement.
This can be a truly great moment for humanity that can become a watershed moment, a tipping point in global consciousness over the need to take action, the need to live in balance with the living planet of which our bodies are made, and within which we are a single strand in the web of life.
The theme for Earth Day is planting Trees – it says so much about intention, grounding, rooting, contributing to a healthy climate – I believe we’ll be planting roses at the Abode for this occasion – improving and perfuming the climate.
With love,
Akbar
A contemplation for the breath, heart, and mind:
The green carpet of Thy Heaven is spread upon the Earth
Breathing in “the green carpet of Thy heaven”, Breathing out, “is spread upon the earth”.
(From Inayat Khan’s Nature Meditations)
A practice to connect in gratitude and spirit with the planet and the elements that came to me in recent nature mini-retreats I’ve been co-leading:
Modified Elemental Purification Breaths
Breathing in and out of the nose, connecting with the Earth, the earth element, and the earthen elements of my body. For several breaths connecting with the earth element. Then, breathing in think “I am made of the Earth”, holding think “I thank the Earth”, breathing out think “I pray for the Earth”. Repeat several times.
Do this for each of the elements in turn:
Breathing in the nose and out the mouth for Water
Breathing in the mouth and out the nose for Fire
Breathing in the mouth and out the mouth very gently for Air
Breathing ever so gently in and out both mouth and nose simultaneously for Ether or Essence
This second practice helps me come into a deeper sense of communion, union, collaboration, and connection with the elements, helping me feel a dedication and purposeful centering in my service to the elements. When I think “pray for the Earth” sometimes that manifests for me as prayer for the polluted lands of the earth, for the endangered earth-dwelling species of which the biosphere is composed (and composed could be read here like the composition of a musical piece!), for the elemental nature of the earth within all, or as a wordless prayer that carries my love back to the Earth. The same goes for each element.
In this way, spiritually purifying and connecting with that interdependent relationship with the elements, the planet, and life. A humbleness comes to me realizing the shortness of duration each molecule stays with me, and changes over back to the planet, gaseous, liquid, solid, wave-form, light, or the more subtle particles of Qi, prana, hayy - vital life essence.