Earth Day 2007
Jan NovotkaIHM Center, Scranton, PA
April 16, 2007
Earth Day Reflection 2007
The Little Fish
(adapted from Anthony de Mello, The Song of the Bird)
Once there was a little fish searching for the ocean.
He came across an older and wiser fish and said, "Excuse me, sir, I am looking for the Sacred Ocean."
The older fish replied, "The ocean is what you are in now."
"No, sir, this is water. I am looking for the Sacred Ocean."
We all carry within certain beliefs about reality that are not necessarily true.
We all have preferred perceptions and ways of interpreting what is Real.
Our perceptions and beliefs can actually be an obstacle to seeing and experiencing what is real. We'd rather live in the shelter and comfort of our illusions than be challenged by truth, by the Real.
One of our deepest and most destructive illusions is that we are separate from the Earth.
The earth is there, outside us, apart from us, other than us. Yet, how can this be?
Are not the leaves and the tree one?
Are not the trees and the forest one?
Are not the grains of sand and the beach one?
Are not whales and the ocean one?
Are not the eagle and the sky, the lizard and the desert, the mountains and the Earth one?
Is not all we see part of Earth? One with Earth?
Are not we and the Earth one?
To care for the human community is to touch the Earth.
To choose to live more consciously of the Earth and her future is to make a choice for humanity. There is no separation.
The thought that we are separate is illusion. Humans are not separate from the earth or from nature. We eat Earth, breathe earth, wear Earth, drink Earth¼Even our tears are Earth, the salty waters of ocean. Just as parasites and bacteria within our bodies feed off our bodies and are one with our bodies so too we live within the Earth, as the Earth, and feed off Earth. We are Earth dancing, singing, loving, praying. You and I can never be separated from what we are.
Separation is an illusion. This illusion is the root of all sin, of all war, of unnecessary destruction, death, and pain. And this illusion fosters fear. Fear of the unknown results in keeping our distance, from ourselves, others, the natural world, and even God. Fear causes us to pretend all is well than to deal with what is. We would deny the existence of something or some reality rather than be changed by it. The illusion that we are separate alters our perceptions, perceptions of people, circumstances, cultures, relationships, our Earth and our God.
Separateness is an illusion! It is merely a perception that has evolved over time within the consciousness of the human¼and humans think their perception of reality is the whole of reality. This is far from the truth.
Peter Russel, in his book From Science to God, explains how life might be viewed from the perspective of other beings. If you were a dolphin the world you look out into is not the world that humans see. The dolphin uses sonar to perceive and does not perceive a solid body. It can sense the shapes and movements of my internal organs: "the beating of my heart, the churning of my stomach and the states of my muscles" are visible to the dolphin. Snakes see the heat of their intended prey. "Bees see in the ultraviolet range and are sensitive to the polarization of light."
Actually, our entire world of experience is a construct within the mind. The image of the world that appears in the mind is quite different from the actual physical world. But that's a whole other talk.
"There is no species who perceives all of what is and what happens." Judith & Herbert Kohl
The amazing thing is that consciousness is still evolving and the perception that "I" am separate is losing its hold.
You and I are separate...illusion!
The Americans and the Iraqis are separate...illusion!
Land and sea are separate...illusion!
Humans and Earth are separate...illusion!
Separateness is part of a fading consciousness.
A new consciousness is awaking in humans all over the planet. It is a consciousness that lives in the reality of utter oneness, seeing all as one body, one being, one essence. We are One. All is One. This is the truth. There is One Sacred Communion that includes the whole of existence and dare I say, non-existence, the realm of the manifested as well as the realm of the unmanifested. The emerging consciousness is not just a new way of thinking or a new belief or a paradigm shift. It is a tectonic shift that alters the very foundation of our experiencing, living and relating at all levels: self, family, community, global community, earth community and God. There are thousands of humans around the world who now live in this new consciousness in a sustained and permanent way. Others are awaking to it and are beginning to get glimpses of its emergence.
*How would our world change is this Consciousness of Oneness emerged as the primary mode of consciousness within the human community?
On this day of remembering Earth may we receive the memory of Oneness, of the Larger Self, the remembrance of who and what we are. We are one with this planet, each other, each species, each race. There is one Life process and we are one with Life. We are Life's expression. As Eckhart Tolle teaches, "It is not my life or your life, but Life. We are the dance. Life is the dancer." All is one dance, dancing the dance of Life.
On the night before Jesus died he uttered this prayer: "May they all be one, as You and I are one." That we might be the realization of this prayer! That we might wake up out of the illusion of separateness and awake within a consciousness of oneness.
On this day of remembering the Earth, our home, our extended body, may we wake up to the realization that all is One, that we are fundamentally living in Sacred Communion with everything. We can't create this communion. It already exists. All we can do is wake up to its presence, its reality. The kingdom of God is at hand but not yet realized!
There is a new consciousness emerging in the human, an awareness, a realization that is deeper than thought, emotion, or reason. Consciousness is waking, experiencing itself as One Self, One Being, One Life. And it is doing this within the consciousness of individuals, within you and me.
Song: All Is One (Jan Novotka)
We are not two, but one.
There is no them, just one.
Separation and division is illusion.
All is One. All is One. All is One.
Once there was a little fish who was searching for the ocean.
He came across an older and wiser fish and said, "Excuse me, sir, I am looking for the Sacred Ocean."
The older fish replied, "You are in the ocean."
"No, sir. This is water. I am looking for the Sacred Ocean."
Are we not like the little fish, unable to see beyond our perceptions, our illusions, our beliefs about Earth, about God, about each other, about ourselves.
If only we could open the eyes of our minds and hearts and see that we are in the Sacred Ocean. We live in Sacred Communion already. We live in God.
If we could remember this, if we could wake up out of our small consciousness into the consciousness of One, would anything change?
