I was asked to print this pair of maps, which come from Patrick Whitefield's book 'The Living Landscape,' and to put them on everyone's seats before the 'Aluna' film showing. We need to think about our local rivers. The contrast between the two images seems very graphic: the natural course of the flowing river as it once was, and the distorted, disjointed, angular waterway that it has become. Some kind of healing is required, but exactly what is beyond my understanding.
All the same a project, a course of action, has gradually been forming in my mind. It has arisen from three things coming together over the past winter: the floods on the levels, the Kogis' message to look after the rivers (and focussing on our local rivers seems all the more pertinent after seeing the film), and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee's four point plan. The four points have given a shape to what I want to do in relation to the river. I shall do my best to explain how this might play itself out as I come to understand it better. Here I just want to explain briefly what the four points are.
Llewellyn is my Sufi meditation group's spiritual teacher. His focus on what he terms 'spiritual ecology' is a refreshing approach from a spiritual teacher. He has written several books on the terrible state that the world is in, and how that is a reflection of the terrible state of our inner world. Until very recently however he has met the question of 'what shall we do about it?' with his belief that it is not for him to tell people what to do; but people kept asking, and then in a moment of inspiration he came up with his 'four point plan': witnessing, grieving, payer, and action.
"Witnessing--an awareness of what is happening in the inner and outer worlds. It means a state of awareness that sees without judgment, without expectation, without wanting anything, and in particular without wanting anything to change."
"Grief –This is our Earth, which has given us so much, and this is where our children and our grandchildren will grow up—and what we are doing is almost unspeakable. It is a betrayal of life itself. And we need to feel this, to grieve and to love."
"From this grief comes the third stage, Prayer. Prayer is the soul’s most basic response. It is our cry to God, to our Beloved, in times of distress. And my sense is that this primal cry from the soul is also the Earth’s prayer—the Earth is crying to God through us—our prayer is the voice, the calling of the Earth."
"Action is the fourth stage. We live in a world that needs us to act ... The problem with most action at this time is that it comes from the same mind-set that created the problem, the same conditioning and values that are destroying our world. This is why first we need to pray, so that we are aligned with a different set of values, a consciousness that is not conditioned."
http://www.workingwithoneness.org/articles/darkening-four-point-plan
All the same a project, a course of action, has gradually been forming in my mind. It has arisen from three things coming together over the past winter: the floods on the levels, the Kogis' message to look after the rivers (and focussing on our local rivers seems all the more pertinent after seeing the film), and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee's four point plan. The four points have given a shape to what I want to do in relation to the river. I shall do my best to explain how this might play itself out as I come to understand it better. Here I just want to explain briefly what the four points are.
Llewellyn is my Sufi meditation group's spiritual teacher. His focus on what he terms 'spiritual ecology' is a refreshing approach from a spiritual teacher. He has written several books on the terrible state that the world is in, and how that is a reflection of the terrible state of our inner world. Until very recently however he has met the question of 'what shall we do about it?' with his belief that it is not for him to tell people what to do; but people kept asking, and then in a moment of inspiration he came up with his 'four point plan': witnessing, grieving, payer, and action.
"Witnessing--an awareness of what is happening in the inner and outer worlds. It means a state of awareness that sees without judgment, without expectation, without wanting anything, and in particular without wanting anything to change."
"Grief –This is our Earth, which has given us so much, and this is where our children and our grandchildren will grow up—and what we are doing is almost unspeakable. It is a betrayal of life itself. And we need to feel this, to grieve and to love."
"From this grief comes the third stage, Prayer. Prayer is the soul’s most basic response. It is our cry to God, to our Beloved, in times of distress. And my sense is that this primal cry from the soul is also the Earth’s prayer—the Earth is crying to God through us—our prayer is the voice, the calling of the Earth."
"Action is the fourth stage. We live in a world that needs us to act ... The problem with most action at this time is that it comes from the same mind-set that created the problem, the same conditioning and values that are destroying our world. This is why first we need to pray, so that we are aligned with a different set of values, a consciousness that is not conditioned."
http://www.workingwithoneness.org/articles/darkening-four-point-plan
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