Om

There was an idea passed to me from a kind and loving friend some years ago, about the love we owe to the planet. "I am not an environmentalist," she said, "I'm an Earth warrior." As the years have gone by, my natural and somewhat casual inclinations toward conservation and responsibility have evolved into a much more settled and practiced habit. There is little joy I glean from consumption of any beverage or food that requires much suffering on the part of nature; either in the form of pollutants direct or along the way, or the toil and sacrifice of humans and other beings. In short, what I am saying, is that plastic bottles, and any unnecessary consumable product is a source of more suffering than gladness, and they are therefore of no attraction to me. When the scope of the classification "unnecessary" is investigated, the range is great indeed.

So awaken to the fact of reciprocation, I gladly urge everyone: our mother Earth provides everything and more; enough sustenance and energy and light for our good health and bliss. The wisest and most compassionate and greatest of humanity have all chorused a singular yet intricate refrain - Socrates to the Zen masters to the Western mystics have all spoken to this. If I or any person but seek the best of humanity's wise-persons, they will find the key to happiness and peace and love is within their breast - the power to change courses is always at hand.

But in today's Earth the old wisdom meets a new crisis - our home is in peril. . . and so the ancient wisdom is applied to the current situation and is as effective and true as ever. To live on this planet for a long time means to learn to tread as gently as possible.

In the end, all my words, and all our actions, are nothing; but in the meantime, our suffering seems very real. So it profits us to become the awakened beings we are capable of being. Here is the plan: love and give and take nothing more than is necessary. We remember everything: far more and vaster intelligence is at hand and at command than we steadily realize. There is no dearth of information in any human being, merely a steady stream of choices, the quality of which leads to states of beatitude or of suffering. We have a chance to become anything. . . our main power of control is our filter; what perceptions and suggestions we behold and believe creates worlds which we then explore and believe to be our limit. From the beginning, and in the present, and into the future, however, we are not limited, but limitless.

Every word and thought fades away into our inner light; and if we grow stronger day by day, we become more in line with a harmonious love which never fades from the world. All that is good tell us we are strong: all that is evil tells us are weak - for every thought and every word works its effect.

It is not vain to think we are unique and beautiful; indeed life on earth is infinitely unique and beautiful. However, great effort is indeed called for, in order to reach a divine state. To be alone with the mountains, to begin to understand the unlimited vastness of our being; these things are steps along the Way. To reach the love of being which states unequivocally, "I am nothing but the All, and all is Light," and to feel the infinite calling toward wholeness and oneness, this is our potentiality, our inheritance, and our destination if we but choose to embark.

The Way is whole and complete. Language is a symbolic representation of our world, but the world is not representable by blocks and segments; for there are no blocks or segments in stark reality.

The light of the genius of humanity is indeed worth living by; and the love of the pure children of this light is indeed strong enough to heal our increasing population. What perfection is available to all of nature's beings, but denied to us? What wholeness is available for trees, frogs, antelopes, and ants, but denied to human beings? There is none - we need but order our lives toward simplicity, toward unity and nobility, and we will defeat all new dangers, which are more subtle but not at all less discernible, if a patient eye is given to them.

Children, it is often said, lead the way, and it is ancient wisdom but not understood or remembered or lived by: to enter God's kingdom we must become like the sacred child. It is possible for genius to be innocent and pure, indeed our best work is only perhaps done in this vein. There is an entirety of love and joy within ourselves; the small can experience the whole, to know the light, and know identity in this knowledge.

Responsibility must again become a precursor to play. We owe everything, absolutely, to the Earth, and so ought we give everything in return? There is no lack of pleasure in the self-controlled life; indeed it is the time-honored way of increasing our ability and powers of mind and body - of concentration, insight, and calm, and towards a perfection of form. Indeed there is a misleading aspect of realization - when we look into History, and we see ourselves as equal to the heroes, as Emerson points out, indeed we are seeing the truth obliquely; our being as a reflection and mirror to the world. . . this pre-emptive glimpse need not lead us to indecision and forgetfulness. There is no reason or excuse for not giving a great effort into the questions of life. It is our world that made us, but we created that world.