Episode Transcript
We Americans enjoy a wonderful and powerful way of life, but internally and in relationships, we may wish for better. Join me as we look beneath the surface and gain insights to transform every aspect of your life. My name is Dr. Ann O'Hare, and this is The Spiritual American. Hello everyone and welcome to the Spiritual American. My name is Dr. Anne O'Hare and I'm your host. And today we're going to have a very nice episode called Nature as Teacher. So I hope you'll enjoy this. It's going to be really fun. And so before we get started, if you're watching on YouTube, please consider like sharing and subscribing because. That helps YouTube trip the algorithm and get our content out to more and more people. And of course, please consider sharing this with your friends and family so they can benefit as well. So today we're going to talk about nature and it's funny because in spiritual effort, there's, uh, where do I begin? Okay, so let's say just generally speaking, let's say you want to become a better person, right? So spiritual effort might mean I want to become a better person. I want to become, I'm going to use some words here. Maybe I want to get over my ego. So I want to become egoless. Maybe I want to become viceless. Like I want to become, I want to quit smoking or I want to stop drinking or I want to live a better lifestyle or something like that. So let's say egoless, viceless, maybe divine or other words that I can use to describe I want to be a good person. I want to be a kind person, something like that. And sometimes relating all of this to God or to religion is. not so clear or not so easy. But I find that there's a little shortcut that we can take to these experiences or these insights. And that is to look at nature. And for those of you Christian friends out there, you know that Jesus used nature a lot as examples. Look at the lilies, look at the birds. I use the birds all the time. They're just easy to use. But there's a lot of wisdom in there. So we're going to break it down a little bit. I'm going to use some examples and we're going to talk a little bit about how nature can teach us how to be spiritual or let's say natural, our best human stage or personality. So the first thing I put here is purity. So nature is pure. Now, what do I mean by that? Wow. So let's do those words again. Like egoless, viceless, benevolent, there's a lot of words there, but before we get all, let's just start with purity. So let's say egoless. If I'm egoless, that would mean that I'm pure. So let's look at a bird. So a bird, a person, a human being might feel like, well, I need, I need to get that job because I'm the one that's best qualified for that job. And that person is not qualified for that job. So therefore I feel jealous of that person or they got the promotion or they're better than me at this and I'm therefore jealous. So you could say that that would be ego. I feel a little bad about myself. I'm comparing myself to somebody else and therefore I'm creating this kind of sorrow experience. Now think about a bird for a minute. Imagine a bird, and I've used this example on the podcast before, we're going to go a little more in depth today and have some fun, but imagine a bird sitting in their nest and complaining to the other bird in the nest, you know, that bird over there has a better nest than us. And I don't, I can't believe it. And we, how can it be? I can't believe that they have a better nest than us. What did he use? What kind of twigs did he use? Where did he get those twigs? How come we couldn't get those twigs? Birds don't have that experience right? So it is possible to be alive on earth and not have that experience, so purity is kind of an overarching, concept and I'm going to use it, purity of the mind and purity of the experience. Okay. Animals, birds, plants, and everything in nature, Do not have the same experiences that we have in our mind. Let's say the vices or ego, for instance, like we were just saying, or bad desires, let's say desires. You could say animals have desire, but it's not the same desire. It's not like, okay, let's say you have a tree and the tree is sitting there being a tree And the tree looks over at the hill and says, I can't believe that tree got the better real estate up there. Need to be up there. I shouldn't be down here. I deserve to be up there. I really want to be live on a hill. I don't want to live here. I want to live on a hill. Does tree do that? No tree doesn't have that experience. So it's possible to live without having jealousy or desires. It is possible, right? Think about kids, like little children, maybe they want something, but even before they want it, they don't know it, that they want it until it's in front of them. And then they're like curious or whatever. Let's talk about little children, like two year olds or something, or three year olds, they're very curious, they're interested, they're curious, but they're not creating jealousy and covetousness. Things like that in their mind and suffering because of it. So purity would mean that I have no desire. I have no ego and I'm just living here living the life that I'm actually living. And not feeling the need to compare or contrast any aspect of my life with anybody else. I live in Florida and we have alligators. I live by a lake and we have alligators. So could you imagine if the alligators were like unhappy about the lake that they're living in? Or unhappy and saying, you know, I, I, where did this lake go to? We had it all to ourselves and now there's seven alligators in here. What happened to the neighborhood? This is, this, this lake is going, going crazy. I can't believe it. The alligators don't think that way. If there's 10 alligators in there, there's 10 alligators in there. So purity, you could say, is also the ability to, to be with things as they are. It's funny what we do, isn't it? It's like we create an alternate reality based on our desires. And then we project that onto what's happening and make what's happening wrong. I'm going to say that again. We create a reality inside our mind, and then we say that this is right. And this is how it should be. And then we project that reality onto the way things are. And say that that they, that the way it is, is wrong. And the way I think it should be is right. There's no animal or no plants that do that. Next, uh, quality of nature, simplicity, simplicity, right? They don't make life harder for themselves. They wake up, they do their thing, they eat, they, they mate, they have relationships, they whatever, and then they die. They're not sitting there hoarding, hoarding things. Maybe you could say like maybe squirrels hoarding nuts or something like that, but that's part of their nature. They're not hoarding because they're anxious and they can't let go. I'm trying to be funny about this, but I know that some of these things are really serious, like serious problems that human beings have. If you think about it, like what's wrong with us? Is it possible to live my whole life with no judgment, no desire? I'm going to say it is possible, but we have to get control of our mind for it to be possible, right? Next thing, intelligence. Nature has its own intelligence. Think about dogs or cats or pets. Any pet owner will tell you they have a personality they have, you know, they have intelligence, not only animals, but also plants and, and the way things work, like the bugs and the, like the way an ecosystem works, it has some kind of intelligence, it works together somehow. I think of the body too, like the human body, because I'm in healthcare, so I kind of know a little bit about that. So all the aspects of the body work together as this unit. But if I look at one aspect, like if I look at the bloodstream or the blood vessels or something like that, it's a whole universe unto itself, but that's only one aspect of this whole dynamic unlimited instrument that is this human body. So with nature, there's an intelligence behind what's going on in nature. It's a beautiful quality. Next thing, naturalness. No, there's nobody trying to be something that they're not. There's no cats trying to be dogs or, I mean, I know I see videos of their, oh, my cat thinks he's a dog or this thinks it, that's just because they're picking up behaviors from who they're around, but they don't think that they're a dog. We project that onto the animal, right? The animal's just doing what it does, but we project those thoughts onto the animals. You don't see a bear trying to be, a stork or an ostrich, they are who they are. So there's a naturalness about nature. There is no phoniness. You could call that innocence too, like naturalness or innocence about nature. The next one is harmony. Everything works together. There's no resistance. It's not like the lion killed the zebra and then the zebras staged a protest. Because of the violence of the lion, the lion ate the zebra and the zebras are aware that this is the way it is. One of the main points I'm trying to make here is that we human beings have a really hard time just being with the way things are. Nature is fine. Exactly the way it is. I was thinking the other day, I was telling, I might've said this on the podcast, but think about a tree, right? And a tree would give fruit, would give apples, say it's an apple tree, would give an apple to the Pope and would also give an apple to a serial killer. The tree doesn't know the difference between the Pope and a serial killer. If somebody gets killed at the base of a tree, the body will decompose and become fertilizer for the tree. The tree doesn't know that they couldn't find the killer or that, the justice system failed because there was no justice The tree doesn't know any of that. That's not to say that it's not important at times in our life as according to what's going on in our life. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that there are life forms and there are circumstances and there are processes on this planet that don't include ego, that don't include sorrow, that don't include right and wrong, that don't include the consciousness of needing anything. That don't include resistance to reality or creating alternate realities. It's funny. The thing that makes us have the most sorrow is the thing that can also save us. Because if I create a reality in my mind that I'm a soul and I am harmonious by nature and I am pure and I am simple and I am all these things that kind of match nature. Then I'm a match. To that. It is possible for me to live like that. I don't have to live with sorrow. I don't have to live with discontent, unhappiness, jealousy, those things that we experience all the time and think are normal. I don't have to. That doesn't mean I'm not myself. Of course I'm myself, but maybe all these other things are not necessary. So nature can teach us how to be alive. How to be on this planet and not have all of that internal suffering. The last one here I put is benevolence. And I gave the example the other, on the other podcast of there was a bird, drowning in a pool of the gorilla pen And the gorilla went up and took the bird and took it out of the pool. I saw another thing where. One dog fell into the pool in the backyard and the other dog was trying to help the other little dog. It's natural to want to help and it's natural to care. Animals care, maybe not the same way as human beings do, like maybe they don't have all the extra thoughts about it, but there's a naturalness in wanting to assist or cooperate with others. That that is a natural. quality of being here. I'm going to say that even with all that's going on in the world right now, I still can have control of my mind and I still can have control of my experiences. And if I look at the tree, and I look at the water, and I look at the elements, and I look at the animals, and I look at the flowers, and I look at the, like Jesus said, right? Look at nature. Sometimes when we're in nature, we feel it, don't we? We feel something. There's something that we experience when we're in a natural setting. If we allow ourself to feel it, right? We can feel the harmony. We can feel the vibrations of peace and naturalness and purity in nature. So if I feel it, it must be in me too. So, what have I learned from, from this? What, what, this has helped me, like I said in the beginning. This has helped me when the loftier ideas of spirituality don't seem to be helping me. Like for instance, if I say I need to be quiet in meditation or I need to be silent or I'm not supposed to be gossiping or I'm not supposed to be this or that, sometimes those behaviors are not easy to stop right away. But I find that then if, in those times, if I can think of nature, I kind of chuckle to myself, like the tree doesn't care, the tree's like laughing at me for being so upset, but from the heart, I mean, what nature can really show us is the kind of personality that we can have. That is okay to be simple. It's okay to be. Kind and I don't have to be projecting and creating sorrow in my mind all the time. It takes a little bit of time takes time to deprogram some of that, but it is possible to live in a positive and also in reality instead of creating another reality and try and blaming this because it doesn't match what's in my head. I mean, I picked that up along the way. We have this idea, this is the way the day should be. This is the way it should be. And when it's not, what happens? You don't see a bird sitting, sitting there and throwing a fit saying, darn it, why is it raining? I didn't want it to rain today. I had all these plans and now it's raining and now I can't do this and I can't do that. The birds don't think like that. It rains, it rains. It doesn't rain, it doesn't rain. I don't know. It just seems so. Simple to me in a way, but it's hard because we have a lot of momentum behind the other stuff. And this is why meditation is essential to begin to see what's going on in there and begin to lessen it, dissolve it, de emphasize it, and then check in with nature every once in a while and see, cause it's a really good examples and they're very sweet and fun and enjoyable to be around nature. So I'll leave it there. I hope that that's given a little food for thought and maybe next time you're upset about something you can just check in, well, what would a tree think at this time or what would a bird think or what would a, squirrel think or. What would the bear be thinking? Would a bear be having, being upset if this was happening? Bear doesn't even know what it is. Bear doesn't know what a computer is or, that's another thing. We're all into this technology, right? And we're acting like it's so real. An animal would come and knock it over. They have no concept of the meaning of it. Like we're so sophisticated as human beings, right? Can we be sophisticated and not full of sorrow? I want to say yes. I want to say yes. And nature can give us a little clue sometimes here and there. So I'll leave it there. Remember our slogan is heal, empower and serve. And so until next time, take care. You
