Nature's Blueprint for Ego Detox
We aren't separate from nature and remembering this simple fact can open our minds and hearts
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I recently guided a mindfulness hike east of Tokyo on a mountain called Nokogiriyama. Back a 1,000 years ago this site was setup as sort of a “Disneyland of Buddhism,” featuring a massive Buddhist stone statue, the largest standing Buddha statue in Japan, along with 1,500 statues of enlightened beings (arahats) and the Goddess of Mercy, Kannon.
It’s one of the more spiritual hikes that I’ve done. Meditating in front of a giant Buddha and walking barefoot on stone steps that are a thousand years old brings a certain presence of mind and stillness that can be profound. I wanted to share a few insights from the hike while it’s fresh on my mind.
#1. Meditation Is Easier Outdoors
The Buddha, Siddartha Guatama, was enlightened under a Bodhi tree. In the decades after that he spent traveling and teaching, he used a lot of nature metaphors to make his point: Deep concentration is like a still pond. Spiritual maturity is entering the stream. Liberation is like a lotus flower rising from the bottom of muddy water, unstained.
He likely spent more time outdoors then he did indoors. This is pretty different then our modern predicament. When people try and meditate in their comfortable, quiet rooms, they are often flooded by thoughts. Unwilling to sit with this, they get anxious and cut their meditation short. “Meditation is hard, I have too many thoughts…”
When you’re in nature, you don’t have to try. The mind quiets down naturally because there are so many “anchors”. Sounds of birds, the breeze against your skin, and the earth beneath your feet all bring you back into the present moment. So when you do have a distracting thought, it’s a lot harder to get locked in to a thought or zone out. Nature is always reminding you to be present.
#2. You Are Literally the Earth
The word nature didn’t exist in most indigenous cultures. It’s a relatively modern idea. It’s only when we started to see ourselves separate from nature that we created a word for it. Of course, it’s a false dichotomy. Humans are just an incarnation of nature. We are part of nature.
It’s fascinating to think that the materials ejected from supernovae over billions of years created the elements on the periodic table. The elements created in the hearts of stars become the building blocks for planets, including Earth and all life on it. Every single atom in your body comes from the stars.
If this feels too incredible, then just look around you. We are in a constant dance and exchange with our environment. With each breath you inhale oxygen released from forest and plankton. And each breath you breathe out is carbon dioxide, absorbed by trees and grasses. Every time you inhale and exhale you are changing the atmosphere!
And remember that your body is 70% water. Water comes from the springs and the lakes and the rivers. When you drink it, you don't just pee it out, your body absorbs it. In drinking water, you are actually becoming the rivers and the lakes. You are part of the cycle; inside and outside, clouds, rivers, lakes, oceans.
#3. Big World, Small Problems
Mountains receive any weather — snow, rain, lighting, wind, extreme heat and cold — and yet none of this matters to the mountain. It remains at all times its essential self. Sitting on a mountain and tapping into this sense of stability amidst ever-changing weather can be a great way to embody those same qualities. Thoughts, sensations, emotions are just constantly coming and going like the weather. Even if you’re not on a mountain you can still do this guided youtube Mountain Meditation to feel the stability and equanimity that comes from nature.
When we were at the top of Mt. Nokogiri overlooking the bay, mountains and expansive horizon, one hiker in our group mentioned that her problems now felt tiny. Pointing to the city miles away she said “That tiny cubicle in that building somewhere over there…that’s where my so-called problems and conflict with colleagues happens. But it’s such a small part of the world, it’s really not a big deal.” The lesson from being on the top of the mountain has nothing to do with “reaching the top” or “conquering the mountain,” but rather about getting perspective.
When you put a teaspoon of salt in a cup of water, it tastes salty. When you put a teaspoon of salt in a swimming pool, you can’t taste the salt! The same concept applies to our thoughts and seemingly “big problems.” The only reason they are big is because we get overly attached to them, contract our minds into thinking more about the problem, and therefore make them bigger. This goes in a vicious cycle. But when our mind expands and we have a feeling of spaciousness, the problem becomes like a bit of a salt in a big pool. Being in nature, looking at the sky, the expansive horizon can give you that inner opening and spaciousness.
#4. Nature Has No Personal Preferences, Why Do You?
At the start of the hike, we all chose an animal. Whenever we had the desire to complain, perhaps about the weather or the hundreds of steps to climb, we would make the animal sounds instead of complaining. Rawrrr….Meoww…Wooff wooff (or in Japan, dogs go “wan, wan”). Making a silly sound to release that frustration had a way to completely dissipate the complaint because there was no more thought to fuel it. That energy had been released.
Speaking of complaints, animals don’t complain, they just do their thing. Nature is absolutely perfect the way it is. When you let go of identifying with ego, your labels and identities and constant othering, there is very little to grasp on to…and very little to complain about. Realizing this means to admit that any complaint has nothing to do with external circumstances and everything to do with your resistance to reality.
Nature is a great teacher for this reason, especially during weather that is unpleasant, where you just have to surrender and let it be. It took billions of years of evolution and streams of immeasurable events to come to this moment. It’s mysterious and unfathomable that you are even alive and breathing. What do you have to complain about?
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment below. :)
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