Living Earth Awareness

Drawn from "Renewing the Flow: Clean For Life", part of Cynthia Alves' Living Earth Awareness series. approx. 750 words

Ten, certainly twenty years ago, if anyone had heard of 'global warming' it was mostly thought to be a quirky, panic idea that we really didn't need to bother about. Maybe them but not you and me. Now its big news, which oddly also makes it easier for us to overlook or ignore other global crises that we are making. Pollution is one among many. Most pollution is hard to see, and easy to place the blame elsewhere.

Yet all the planetary ills that are now critical to life on Earth are interconnected, just as all life in Earth is connected – one life. Part of what connects all human-made planetary ills is how they arise from our deepest mis-beliefs about what we are, and the destructive attitudes that lead us to act against life.

Whatever mess we're making, human belief is one kind of 'cause' that we hardly ever question. Our values come from our attitudes, so beliefs direct our choices and actions. Observe all the language that is attached to cleaning products – for personal, home and industrial cleaning. Our belief that life threatens us (and not the other way around!) becomes glaringly obvious. Because we are afraid (very afraid!), we make war on life. Defend before you are attacked! We kill germs that threaten us (do they really?). Life is out to get us and we need strong stuff to combat it.

If you think this is over dramatic, or even a joke, then stroll with fresh eyes down the aisles at the supermarket and observe the products for war. Then multiply what you see: counting all the stores, from superstore to corner shop, imagine what is being sold just to the UK population. This is a lot of pollution and poisons that we are pumping into our air, water and ground every day. This is a lot of war. Let peace begin with me.

It is not sentimental whimsy to observe that what we do to Earth we do to ourselves (and our children, and all creatures). It is fact. Eckhart Tolle, author of the "Power of Now" series, brings our attention in "A New Earth" to the workings of the human dysfunctional mind. Most simply, we believe that we are separate from the rest of creation. This mistake is how we can, on a daily basis, behave as if once any substance has left the border of our own home's walls that is has nothing to do with us. Inside the walls may seem clean, but it has become so by pouring the pollution 'out there'. "Separation" is how we can imagine that the rest of life is so threatening to us that we wage war on Earth's other creatures and living systems.

The physical materials of our bodies, the air we breathe, the water we drink and grow our food with: all is Earth. After billions of years of evolution, we, humanity, are how Earth has stood up to walk, and with us is evolving a new kind of memory and awareness.

Changing our mind is what is going to help us to make peace and stop poisoning our planet, and address all the crises. More than laws, though they are playing a part. Important too is choosing to use only healthy-for-all-life cleaning substances for self, home and everywhere else. Fashion will become a motivation for some – especially if there's money in it! Yet its the human mind that will truly turn the tide of our destructive unawareness and war mongering.

Developing consciousness of our unity with all Earth's life and each other: this change of mind brings a change of heart, of belief and so of choice, decision and action. Being aware of mis-guided beliefs that let us be fooled into dirty cleaning, LINK and into believing that we are victims of a very dangerous world – these will dissolve. Consciously choosing peace in every moment and in every part of our lives, and letting our inner wisdom guide us, helps us dissolve fears, and see that creation really is mostly a beneficent place. Learning to look straight on, honestly and without judgement, at the part of our mind that fears the peace that is always within, and that knows our connection with all of life. This awareness brings healing light to all life. Then the pollution in the mind, once seen, no longer drives our choices. The motivation and willingness to change how we behave toward life, including how and with what we clean, comes from being willing to change our mind and choosing to know and live peace.

Cynthia Alves, copyright 2007

Let peace be the TOP of your life's priorities.