Nature and Spirituality

31 of March: Love, Peace, and Enlightenment

Love is care, quality time, and the language of nature

River, trees, sky, sunshine, wind, things and emotions

My weekend has recharged my energy after a hectic week of the new jobs in a new workplace. It’s a great environment for me to apply and practice all of the skills and values learn from School of Gumption. The outstanding take-away is Calm, Compassion and Collaboration which are amazing to my life, on top of work application.

The trip to An Giang with Hai Yen strongly replenishes myself with love, enlightenment and peace. The trip does not just mean the name of the place itself, but it includes collective elements of people, knowledge and nature. The actions do not exist unless there is a context. As long as there is a certain context, a certain place to come, things will naturally happen, there will be lessons to learn. That’s the School of Gumption’s learning philosophy of learning from everywhere.

Hai Yen enjoys talking to me and developing me because she sees the growth inside me. It means that it’s worth for her spending quality time on a person who is ready to listen and take action. In general, it’s the spiritual law that if an advice is given and not activated, our energy giving that advice will be lost. That’s why she loves growing youth or those who are totally willing to take her teaching humbly and authentically. So do I. Though I haven’t had the ability to develop people yet, it’s my principle to share my stories to those ready to open their mind and heart towards me. Otherwise, I would invest my energy and time on more worthwhile purposes.

One of my enlightenment I got is how powerful nature is! With a passion for nature, in the way of traveling, enjoying and immersing in nature, I have never thought of the idea that nature is the greatest teachers of humankind. It turns out that most of the great inventions of human beings are created based on the concept of nature ranging from human, animals or rain etc. Some fantastic creations are innovated and inspired by nature such as AI, wind farm, water cube etc. Hai Yen said that nature recycles everything and why don’t we learn from nature. Human come from nature so the law that governs nature is the law governs human. There is only one absolute truth in life which is the truth of nature. What works with nature will work with human. There comes the concept called “Biomimicry” meaning “innovation from nature”. Biomimicry to me covers the overarching essence of biology, science and education and triggers a question that is what is the point of learning biology and ending up doing nothing later on? Should this great point of learning from nature included and taught in our daily life? What should be the outcomes of learning biology or any kinds of subjects in the educational programs in schools?

Nature has such incredible beauty that human are hardly aware of. I have watched a short videos elaborating on “spiritual healing: things we can learn from nature” which totally gives me more nature-related enlightenments.

Acceptance and non-resistance.

A green tree doesn’t resist turning read when autumn approaches. Leaves do not resist falling when winter arises. This stands deeply rooted in the ground with the wonder ability out in the openness. The branches of a tree spread wide surrendering to the universe.

Peace and harmony

Every tiny piece of nature harmoniously coexist and stay connected. It is magical like music. Our life needs peach and harmony, too.

Limitless freedom and potential

Birds soaring through the sky represent limitless freedom and potential available to us if we release our fear. However, without taking the risk of the first flight, we won’t find the internal freedom we desire, we must dare to take our feet off the ground and spread our wings and soul.

Beauty in simplicity

Nature is simple and modest. Arrogance and “pomp and show” will not fetch us anything. God’s creation is such it speaks volumes even though it’s not extravagant. We should be rooted and down to earth.

Intelligence

Human beings have untapped intelligence locked away inside our mind. When we get into our nature and start investigating life with an attitude of curiosity, we’re led down a trail to amazing discoveries and gain practical problem-solving skills.

The art of happiness

Animals are great teachers of emotional resilience. Listening to a bird singing at the dawn in the mist of a storm will help us understand the art of happiness.

Keep growing

The seed does not stop growing from the time it is sown till it reaches its zenith. It reaches out to the sky with a spirit soaring. It grows little by little steadily. It achieves what it likes at its space. This is how we should approach our goals in life with steadiness and poise.

Clarity

Rain washes away negative emotions. Water is required to cleanse negativity in the world and allows a space of clarity. It is through showering and soaking in a tub that we clear our bodies from the stagnant and negative energy of yesterday and replenish with positive energy. Let shower with the intent of cleansing our spirit and mind.

Responsibility and collaboration

Ants and bees are amazingly collaborative communities. They all participate together to benefit together in the communities. Each part is necessary to the community and nature. We each have our own calling that is best-performed by us. We should embrace our special responsibilities, share it proudly with the world and always do our best.

Whatever is a natural trait, there is no way to stop it from its own course. A stream can never flow upstream as the way it is. A kid’s curiosity can be undermined to a certain extent but kids would never stop asking questions and observing the surroundings. I love observing details, people, the surroundings or wherever I go or live. Many things in life are taken for granted but the fact is that they have such abundant meanings and roles in life. A small power pillar has been standing at the corner of the street for years and no one ever noticed its size, original producing place, materials, colors or functions etc. Similarly, how the bottle is connected to the bottle cap is actually an amazing invention taking a long time to realize it. The way Hai Yen teaches Design and Technology in SG is practical and interesting to the majority of students, no exception for me. She likes bringing her students to the super market or real fields out of 4 walls of a classrooms to observe items, products and learn from them. Children have their excellent inner ability to ask questions and observe.

Why these abilities have been widely suppressed over time when they grow up into passive adults and end up being criticized for not taking the initiatives to learn? If their parents don’t set too much limit and control children’s autonomy to think, act and live, how can children unleash and develop their potentials?

What a parenting approach! We think that it is of ability to create good development process for the kids by setting up daily compulsory schedules for the children, it can easily turn into a trap of killing the kids’ freedom and creativity to solve their own problems, let alone life’s problems. This is more or less the ultimate consequence of going against nature.

Spirituality is that we follow the energy that leads us to something beyond what we think. Love is the language of nature. Nature is a great teacher and inspirer of human to love, live and grow. I am diving in nature and loving nature day by day…

#curiosity

#calm

#love