FROM THE HEART

Environmental Awareness is at the top of many agendas these days, but how many people actually plumb the depths of the question "what is the environment?"? From the point of view of biodiversity conservation, the classification of objective phenomena and the uncovering of the relationships between them is essential. But from the point of view of a human being facing an inevitable death, these tasks are irrelevant. This will sound like blasphemy to many readers, but what many spiritual traditions tell us is that whilst we should engage in appropriate action - which for an ecologist may mean ecological research - such action should be regarded as a vehicle for the expansion of one's awareness, i.e. it is not what you do but how you do it which counts. Being concerned not with success and failure but rather with your attitude and perspective leads you eventually to the realisation that all activity takes place in the mind only and that the reality of any given moment - that which is free of all concepts and distinctions - never chances. The identification of oneself with an ever-changing but short-lived lump of flesh and bone becomes so deep rooted that we interpret everything we see and hear as an affirmation of its reality, with what has been said above sounding like nonsense. Hence either an extremely subtle intellect, a near death experience or contact with the mysterious and awesome power of an enlightened being become necessary before we are able to abandon our complacency and embrace the "faith" which reveals our delusion. If we look at any one of the remarkable variety of plants and animals in the World, we have to admit that there is something there which no scientific instrument can measure. This "essence" or "consciousness" is undetectable because consciousness is always subjective. It cannot be known, because it is the knower. That which you refer to as "1" is indivisible: there cannot be more than one "me". And as many ancient scriptures have declared, the whole World exists within yourself and that self pervades the entire Universe. (Even modern western science has for some time known that matter is all made of one and the same energy.) Think of the implications! With this new understanding we can start to talk about the "environment" as this essence of manifestation: the Self, Universal Consciousness, the Void (in the absence of anything graspable by the senses), Allah or God - whichever term you feel most comfortable with. Or we can be polytheistic and refer to many different gods or aspects of the Unknowable. Perhaps we should just call it "X"? Either way it does not really matter because the experience of it cannot be put into words: it is approachable only through self-inquiry (who or what am 1?) and it is as an exercise in and prompting towards self-inquiry that I write this. This contemplation can be practised at any time and during any activity. Once one spark of the "Truth", as it were, lights up (albeit briefly) the barren landscape of false identification and the apparently solid world of diversity that follows, then the seed of motivation for self-inquiry has been sown - because the experience is, although beyond all imagination, extraordinarily blissful. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" said Jesus. "God is Being, Consciousness and Bliss" say the Indian scriptures. All this can lead you to live the life of your dreams. What you once thought of as your life (including the World and its problems - as well as birth and death) may continue as before, but inwardly it is revealed as a mere drop in the ocean of infinite potential - and you do not waste time taking it seriously. Paradoxically, however, you begin to feel incredible love and compassion and those with whom you come into contact may also be drawn into this space. You thus begin to help the "environment" in a very real way. ANON.

P.47