Samsara of Nature

As human beings, we are born of nature. Like a child held in the womb of a mother, receiving sustenance through the umbilical cord - we too receive life force through our connection with mother Gaia.

Creation stories from indigenous tribes around the world tell the stories of how we emerged from the mud and waters, endowed with seeds and skills to make our way on this beautiful place. Crafted by the forces of the cosmos, we came to be here, on the earth... we did not arrive from anywhere else. We are created from these oceans and forests.

However, for some reason (which many people are seeking the answer to) some people forgot this connection. Some have forgotten the connection to Gaia, to lifeforce, and to the universal intelligence that we are running through our bodies. "If, as many spiritual traditions tell us, consciousness pervades nature through and through, then we can, and should, relate to nature -- both terrestrial and cosmic -- as consisting of vital, sentient, beings, not as dead objective things. We will then recognize the connection that exists between each one of us and the whole of nature" (Vaughn, pg. 394).  

However, once this connection has been realized... then what? How do we move forward in a world that demands we constantly engage with the capitalist machine of destruction? How do we pay our bills, buy our food, and sustain our lives once we become aware of the fact that we are meant to do no more than listen to the trees, the bees, and the waters? What then? What "job" do we make of that?

This is the conflict of those waking up in our present culture. Asleep for so many hundreds and possibly thousands of years we are awakening into a moment that it is hard to understand how we arrived to. "It is often said that humanity, even the world, is now a race between consciousness and catastrophe" (Vaughn, pg. 394). But the question remains, once we have awakened to consciousness... what do we do? The problems are so overwhelming. Does my dedication to recycling really make a difference? How helpful is it, really, to give one more person psychedelic medicine and help them to heal their trauma at age 68. So what if they find peace, then what?

We are stuck. We are at a collective impasse. No one knows where to go. No one has a map. I witness individuals who are said to be some of the greatest thought leaders, highest paid medicine people, and most revered spiritual teachers act out the same programs over and over and over. We all are stuck on the wheel of samsara that is our job, monthly expenses, new clothes, parties, and gasoline. We are all, constantly seeking more. I do not know a soul who has released themselves from this cycle of desire, need, and greed.

Wetiko is alive and well.

We all are stuck on the wheel of samsara that is our jobs, monthly expenses, new clothes, parties, and gasoline. How do we get out? And what more... how do we get others out?

I write this as someone who has worked with psychedelic medicine since I was 13 years old. I have seen the edges of the universe time and time again. I have gone deep into the jungles and mountains and sat with the earth. I have lived outside for months, listening, receiving. I have spent over 5 years in therapy, healing my own trauma, unwinding my own wounds. I spent the entire decade of my twenties working in nonprofits, supporting at-risk youth.

And still, I have few answers.

I don't know how to break this cycle.

I don't know how to come back into alignment and harmony with creation.

I sit here, a willing student, humbled by the mystery of our times.