Living Earth Meditation and Study Group

Living Earth Meditation – April-October

Living Earth Meditation is offered at 9 a.m. on Saturdays at 1400 Gary St., Columbia, from early April through early October. It is a collaborative program of our church, the Columbia Friends Meeting and Show Me Dharma and will be facilitated by Peter Holmes, Ph.D., and Tricia Straub.

The format will be silent meditation outdoors with an opportunity to share insights and reflection – being at home in Nature while building a connection between spiritual practice and ecological awareness.

Sacred Earth: The world is not a problem to be solved – it is a living being to which we belong. The world is part of our own self, and we are part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature. When our Western monotheistic culture suppressed the many gods and goddesses of creation, cut down the sacred groves and banished God to heaven, we began a cycle that has left us with a world destitute of the sacred, in a way unthinkable to any indigenous people. The natural world and the people who carry its wisdom know that the created world and all its inhabitants are sacred and belong together. Our separation from the natural world may have given us the fruits or technology and science, but it has left us bereft of any instinctual connection to the spiritual dimension of life – the connection between our soul and the soul of the world, the knowing that we are all part of one living spiritual being. It is this wholeness that is calling to us now, that needs our response. It needs us to return to our own root and rootedness – our relationship to the sacred within creation. Only from the place of sacred wholeness and reverence can we begin the work of healing, of bringing the world back into balance. – Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee in Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth

Intentions: To seek deep, embodied, joyful relationship with ourselves, each other, and all the rich diversity of beings that comprise our Living Earth. To awaken to the realization that we are all connected, that we are all part of a constantly changing Mother Earth. To become aware that to consider humans as separate and independent is a dangerous illusion that causes immense suffering in this world. To live into the awareness and the mystery of constantly changing, complex life system (Gaia) that sustains us and is one of the wonders of this Universe. To realize that all we love arises inseparable from Earth and from the living Earth community in ways endless and unfathomable. To pay respects to the lands, waters, creatures, and rooted ones of each place. To be grateful for the rich life that we share with all earthly beings.

Living Earth Study Group – October-March

The Living Earth Study is a book study and discussion group aimed at connecting ecological and spiritual awareness and seeking to bring harmony and healing to our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the Living Earth. It will be held from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on first and third Saturdays at Show Me Dharma, 1600 Broadway, Columbia. The first book will be Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. The sessions will be facilitated by Peter Holmes, PhD, and Jared Belden, MA. Our present ecological crisis is the greatest man-made disaster this planet has ever faced – accelerating climate change, species depletion, pollution, and acidification of oceans. A central but rarely addressed aspect of this crisis is our forgetfulness of the sacred nature of creation and how this affects our relationship to the environment. There is a pressing need to articulate a spiritual response to this ecological crisis. This is vital and necessary if we are to help bring the world as a living whole back into balance. Sign up to attend by email.