If you have read any of my earlier blogs, you will know that I know that there is no such thing as coincidence. I know that everything is happening in divine order, especially when I ask for God’s will to be done, as I do at the end of my meditation first thing every morning and last thing before I go to bed at night.
You may also know that I have been undertaking courses at American Institute of Holistic Theology (AIHT). What you may not know is that I have just finished an introductory course in Islam, and am about to start my next course – Native American Spirituality.
While waiting for my course books to arrive, I started reading a book which a new member of our New Spirituality Study Group had recommended earlier this week: Spirit Song, by Mary Summer Rain. This is the story of Summer Rain, as she learned the old ways of seeing the world, from an old, physically blind woman, who could see so much more than any sighted person could.
When using my intellectual mind to try to think of a subject for my blog today, I wondered what I would write about when the information which Islam had given me was left behind, and the information which Native American Spirituality could give me was not yet taken up.
Imagine my surprise, when I realised that Allah, The Great Spirit had found a way for me to combine the two.
During my meditation, I knew that I must write about the signs which The Qur’an bids Muslims to notice throughout creation. Whether or not Muslims have been able to find it during their reflections and observations, the natural world is a reflection of the oneness of God. As I learned in my course, Islam’s main theme is the oneness of God.
Although I hadn’t quite connected all the dots at the time, it was the unity of nature, about which I learned during high-school Biology lessons, which convinced me that there must have been a Creator of all this.
Although science would have us believe that life was initiated on the Earth, not by a Divine Creator, but by a random chemical reaction, my logical mind rejected this idea, when presented with all of the facts of biological life. The evidence of the interconnection of all life on Earth was too numerous to discount:
- the cycle of life which deposits the nutrients from animal and plant waste products and dead bodies back into the earth to be taken up again through the roots of plants, which provide these nutrients back to the animals who eat of their nectar, fruit, and plant bodies;
- the transpiration of water from the leaves of plants, from water which would otherwise be lost into the earth, but which now can rejoin the water which is evaporated from the surface of the vast seas to provide us all with the liquid of life which falls again to Earth from the clouds;
- the fact that plant photosynthesis requires the carbon dioxide which we animals expire, and in the process creates the oxygen which is vital to our existence on the planet.
- Of course, this could not occur without the light from the Sun,
- and none of us could survive without the Earth’s atmosphere which protects us from the harmful rays of that same beneficent Sun.
- Why, even the Biology text book is called The Web of Life, confirming that all of life on Earth is connected.
How can all this be result of a random chemical reaction?
Yet, what I have come to know about God and her creation, is that the answer to a question is never black and white, and there is never just one way to look at an event. Often the answer is both/and, not either/or. It is quite possible that the evidence may lead us to understand that life was created with a grand plan by a Divine Creator, but also was initiated with a random chemical reaction.
I was not surprised when I read this morning, in Spirit Song, that the teachings of the old wise woman confirmed the lessons of The Qur’an, and my biology textbook.
This is the lesson that she gave:
“Now, in old days Peoples love all stuff. They love trees, mountains, grass, animals, all stuff. Sacred powers were nature forces: wind, water, fire, lightning. Peoples know Father Sky and Earth Mother parents of all life. Every creature have a spirit. All nature be People’s church. It be bad stuff to force Great Spirit to crouch down into one building. Great Spirit everywhere! It forever duty of Peoples to every day give prayers to Great Mystery, to be thankful. These prayers more important to Peoples than food even. All Peoples see Great Spirit in black rain clouds, hear Him in thundering waterfalls. Peoples make all acts in life a sacred act. Peoples know sacred silence is voice of Great Spirit. This silence be the balance of mind, body, and spirit. Peoples give away all one’s stuff. They know stuff not where Great Spirit be. Stuff not important!…that true love. That pure love!”
The lesson continued:
“Self have to go first – then pure love can come into hearts. In old days Peoples give all stuff away to other Peoples. They no love stuff, they only love other peoples, Earth Mother, and Great Mystery.”
As I learned from my study of Islam, the practices which demonstrate submission to Allah are a means of letting go of the ego, of – Self having to go first, before pure love can come into hearts. Muslims demonstrate their lack of love of stuff with alms giving, and their gratitude to Allah in their daily prayers, and their annual Ramadan fasts. In an ideal Islam, they would indeed love all of Allah’s creation, including other peoples and Mother Earth, and they would all love Great Mystery – Allah.
God continually tries to remind us that We Are One; we are one with each other, one with all of God’s creation, and one with God. God has been reminding us of this in all of the scriptures, in all of the sacred texts, and in the sacred web of life on Earth. How long before we finally get it?
Today’s message from the Tao Te Ching, presented in the perpetual calendar of Dr Wayne Dyer – Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, was written by Lao-tzu 25 centuries ago, and is another reminder of our humble place in this Divine Creation:
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? It cannot be done.
http://www.newspirituality.org.au/