By Chaya Spencer
Listening to a podcast interview with the author of TheOverstory, Richard Powers, I am filled with a longing to experience an old
growth forest. I have a longing to feel
part of something so majestic, so ancient, so alive and so….BIG. Powers describes stepping into such a forest
in the Smoky Mountains and how it was a transformative experience. He spoke of
how it smelled different, sounded different, felt different. Trees there are
thousands of years old. He said, “Did I
become smaller and more vulnerable, yes, but I also became larger it a Whitman-esque
way. I started to contain multitudes, or they started to contain me.” In North America, only 2-5% of old growth
forest still exist.
I want to experience that I contain multitudes and that they
contain me. I long to feel deeply connected and part of the whole. The first law of thermodynamics, states
that energy can neither be created
nor destroyed; energy can only
be transferred or changed
from one form to another. Yoga philosophy teaches that the universe is one
energy manifesting as all of creation.
That one energy is represented by the vibration - the sound of OM, or
AUM. It has agency - the agency to create, sustain and finally dissolve all the
matter back into vibration, back into energy, back into AUM.
When I think and feel that I am a simply one manifestation
of a ubiquitous vibration, I begin to recognize that myself: my body, mind and
spirit and everything else is sacred. I
want to step into the ancient forest and feel connection, and feel that energy
that I am contained in; that huge oneness.
In the Anusara invocation, which is taken from the
Upanishads, the first line is: Om Namah
Shivaya Gurave. Nama/namas/namah is the word for
salutation or praise. It is the sense of
bowing to the sacred in everything. It
is the invitation to recognize that we’re all made of the same stuff and that
stuff is sacred and special and it is you and it is me. At the rare times when I remember this, I touch
my keyboard, the oak in the yard, my body, the food I eat, the dishes, my
family as sacred. I Namah,
I bow, I salute and honor it all.
Maybe I don’t need to step into the old growth forest after all. Maybe that for which I long is right here
with me.
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself
to the influence of the earth.”
~ Thoreau
If you'd like to join us at Shree for our book club, we're currently reading The Overstory for our March 15th meeting at 4:00 pm. You are most welcome to join us.
