Dialoguing with Nature, The Nuts and Bolts, 3

Natural/physical/biological intelligence feels, acts, and expresses differently than human intelligence.


Over time, with practice, the difference between your thinking and communication from natural/physical/biological intelligence becomes crystal clear.


At that point, you will have no problem trusting that a two-way dialogue with a force and a wisdom other than yourself is taking place. It will be so obvious to you that you'll wonder how you could ever have questioned or doubted it.


What's more, you won't be a candidate for the "funny farm," despite the culture's ridicule of tree huggers and animal psychics. Spending regular, quality time with natural/physical/biological intelligence sharpens the mind, heals the body, and enlivens the emotions.


Wouldn't you agree, dear sun?

Many thanks to my friend Aleah Williams for this photograph.

Dialoguing with Nature, The Nuts and Bolts, 2... Nature and Mother

In my last post I wrote: 

"Just remember that a dialogue with natural/physical/biological intelligence is a dialogue. 

"There are two parties involved—1. You. 2. Nature intelligence. 

"If you are stating an intention with presence, sincerity, and concentration, and you don't want to just talk to yourself, the next step is to give the other side the space and time required to demonstrate that it hears you and it responds to you." 


I think that another major "sticking point" at this juncture is trust. To give Nature intelligence space and time to respond, requires trust on our side. Otherwise, we'll rush in, trying to control events. 

Developing trust in natural/physical/biological intelligence necessitates that we heal our abandonment wounds so that we aren't caught off guard when Nature intelligence responds to us in ways that don't meet our expectations of the mothering we never had. 


I have been working with my own abandonment wounding quite intensively over the past few weeks, via the following dialogue with natural/physical/biological intelligence: "Nature, I give you 100 percent permission to shift my abandonment patterns to patterns of abundant, respectful, balanced attention that comes in the forms of ... " I then list the forms of attention I desire. I wait until I feel Nature intelligence is finished reorganizing my body for that session, and then I thank natural/physical/biological intelligence for the work it has done. 


I do not believe that this work with Nature intelligence can change the behavior of anyone who might want to abandon me. Getting back to a major theme of this post, we cannot ultimately control the free choices of others. We can, however, leave behind our tendencies to become enmeshed in abandoning relationships. We can increase our ability to notice, receive, and celebrate enlivening attentiveness and care from Nature and those humans willing to offer it to us.

Dialoguing with Nature—The Nuts and Bolts 1

Stating an intention, what it is we want to accomplish, is easy for most people. Stating that intention with great presence and one-pointed concentration is also within the realm of everyday experience for most of us, at least in short spurts. Probably people with meditation experience are better at it.


It's the next step that can cause difficulty, It is indeed quite culturally alien to many of us to allow our bodily intelligence, and by extension, the natural/physical/biological intelligence that embraces us, to just do its own thing.


"Trying," "working," and generally being dictatorial towards natural/physical/biological intelligence within the bounds of our own body and home are much more the order of the day.


So here's the key to resolving this particular "sticking point" in working with natural/physical/biological intelligence. 


Just remember that a dialogue with natural/physical/biological intelligence is a dialogue. 


There are two parties involved—1. You. 2. Nature intelligence. 


If you are stating an intention with presence, sincerity, and concentration, and you don't want to just talk to yourself, the next step is to give the other side the space and time required to demonstrate that it hears you and it responds to you. 


It's just like having a conversation with another person. If you never stop talking, you'll never hear what the other person knows.

Yin Attitude

To be successful, dialoguing with natural/physical/biological intelligence requires what might be called a "yin" attitude. Receptive, open, a willingness to learn.


Most meditation practices are quite different than dialoguing with natural/physical/biological intelligence.


When you dialogue with Nature intelligence, you don't visualize energy going anywhere, as in many Taoist and Tantric practices. Neither do you try to do anything in particular with your mind, other than to listen to your soul's partner in the life enterprise, namely natural/biological/physical intelligence. In dialoguing with Nature intelligence, you decide what it is you want to have happen in your body and/or your consciousness, and you let Nature intelligence provide the how by which it happens.


In this exploration, there are techniques, but no hard and fast formulations as to how things work.


When we tell Nature what it is we want to accomplish, images and words may come to our awareness. Nature's images usually combine instruction, customization to your life history and needs, great liveliness, density and multi-layering of meaning, and often humor... all at once! The quality with which natural/physical/biological intelligence "speaks" is unmistakeable, and distinct from the qualities of human-initiated communication or art-making.


When Nature intelligence is allowed free play, your life energy might—and in my life, often does—move and reorganize the body in complex, organic, subtle, never-repeated patterns. 


To get the most out of a dialogue with Nature intelligence, it's important to set aside all preconceptions, even ideas that you carry from holistic and spiritual traditions. While all traditions of knowledge, whether they be western, eastern, northern, southern, holistic, analytic, meditative, goal-oriented, spiritual/religious, or atheist/agnostic carry truth about Nature intelligence, no tradition carries the whole truth about Nature intelligence. That whole truth can only be supplied by natural/physical/biological intelligence itself and communicated to us in bits and pieces as we expand our receptivity.


It's my view that the combination of beauty, fluidity, and power you can see in motion in this video comes from an attitude of receptivity to and creative/collaborative partnership between the human soul and natural/physical/biological intelligence. 

The Tourist and the Tour Guide

A moment's backtrack to why it's a good idea to be loyal and attentive to your body.

Try thinking of your soul as a tourist in this physical realm.

Your body is made of physicality, and you can think of it as the tour guide.

Furthermore, your body is a tour guide that's 100 percent there for you.

Isn't it time to give your tour guide the acknowledgement he or she deserves?

I've lived my whole life in North American cities. If I travelled to yak country, like the folks here, I'd be just as grateful as them for my tour guide.

Who knows where your soul has been living lately? Thank goodness it's got a body to see it through the Earth experience!

This video about tour guiding moves into some interesting territory at about 45 seconds:

Surprise and Delight

Some invitations...

Try looking at your body in the mirror with curiosity, rather than judgment.

Try paying attention to your breathing with a sense of openness as to how your body might choose to breathe next.

Try watching a cloud change shape.

Try sitting under a tree and simply feeling what it's like instead of thinking about whatever else is happening in your life.

Notice what happens when you start giving Nature space to be itself... in YOUR life.

Do you think it's worth the effort? Do you feel moments of delight? The occasional surprise?

Partnership with Nature—The Promise of Joy

Imagine a world in which we partnered with Nature's intelligence.

Our bodies would be well-nourished and healthy. 

As a result, living our life purposes would become much easier to accomplish.

Our creativity, and therefore our culture's institutions and infrastructure, would reflect Nature's intelligence. Precision and spontaneous responsiveness would exist in balance with one another. Order would not be rigid and hierarchical, but rather, beautiful and organic. Exuberant variety and originality would fit in seamlessly with the whole.

Our relationship, family, and community structures would reflect ecosystems, in which diverse beings live life woven into a network of mutual support. The group would acknowledge the value that every person's uniqueness brings to the network, and every person would feel that their authentic contributions are of tremendous value to the group.

Marketing and salesmanship as ways of life could cease. The emphasis would not be on convincing others that you have something of value to offer. The social emphasis would be on assisting you to become your most authentic self, so that the full depth and breadth of your contribution could be made available to all.

This video discusses the advances being made in our partnership with Nature intelligence in the scientific field.