What you are seeking, is seeking you. – Rumi
Nature speaks through wordless communication. People can achieve a deeper self-awareness beyond the familiar structures of meaning if they open their mind while communing with the natural world. The transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote about what he called the “transparent eyeball”. To discover the divine presence within, a person had to experience oneness with nature by allowing the natural world to overwhelm the senses. In “Nature” Emerson wrote, “We return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity… Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.”
Emerson’s metaphoric transparent eyeball combined internal spiritual and external tangible visions to reveal symbolic meanings in nature. By actively “seeing” individuals leave behind their ego and merge with the deeper world. This merger of the human spirit and nature opens a doorway to sacred realms. Humanity has created an artificial world atop the primordial natural world. The control mechanisms of this manufactured life constrict, restrain, and contort individuals to fit acceptable standards. Civilization domesticates the wild natural spirit of mankind. This dominion of affected mannerisms binds the soul to artifice.
The constrained soul yearns for an undefined better life. Self-expression empowers self-esteem which expands self-awareness and opens the path to self-actualization. I believe these paths lead through Nature. Millions of people are seeking a deeper understanding of life. There are thousands of theories, classes, and courses available. But in the end these all require the seeker to adapt their true self to the structure and stricture of someone else’s pathway. But to experience one’s own unique flow state requires the individual to adopt several techniques to suit their experiences. Their way can be revealed through meditating in nature and experiencing, as Emerson said, the currents of the Universal Being.
Spending solitary time in nature can bring about what Freud called the Oceanic Feeling experienced by infants who have not differentiated their identity from nature. Sri Ramakrishna said: There exists an Ocean of Consciousness without limit. From It come all things of the relative plane, and in It they merge again. I did not set out to discover this Ocean of Consciousness. Months ago I sought to write more meaningful posts due to the pandemic in order to encourage optimism and positive feelings. As I meditated and rummaged the same one mile or so of beach repeatedly, finding beauty in the minute details and the ever-changing ocean. Something powerful hidden within the: animals, the wrack line detritus, the stones, and patterns of shifting sands called to my soul as I took photos and meditated. Earnestly seeking inspiration repeatedly across the same physical space, opened a channel to a higher consciousness. The word ecstasy comes from the Greek ékstasis, meaning “outside of oneself”. The ecstasy I experienced brought me into an extraordinary spiritual space. For me, nature opened the Way. I believe humans evolved to feel the sacred everywhere. I hope you can find what you are seeking.