Bernd’s weekly blog No.6 : The Return To Nature

Hi everyone!

I am composing these words within a little shell, a cocoon of walls and ceiling and air conditioning, feeling intensely aware of the vast world just outside these walls. Tomorrow I take off for a short while to Kintamani, a beautiful higher altitude region in Bali, for those who don’t know, with the express purpose being to immerse myself, in the company of my lovely partner, in nature. Trees! Fresh air! All these things that so often become a luxury for the modern, busy human, yet are absolutely necessary to help us actually feel a part of the world from which we have divorced ourselves so thoroughly…

I remember reading an excellent book more than ten years ago, Touching Enlightenment: Finding Realization in the Body, by Reginald Ray. It had a massive impact on me (well worth the read!), and in essence tells of the spiritual/human journey being one of becoming more and more truly natural once again. Reggie speaks of the rise of agriculture and animal husbandry, some ten thousand years ago, as being the start of our inexorable separation from the world all around us.

I can relate. 

It is all too easy to stay indoors, or visit commercialised nature, such as happily sitting on a beach, with a cocktail in one hand, fries in the other, using one’s nose to scroll IG on the phone. We have created such comfortable, “safe” havens for ourselves by way of our buildings and other such structures.

I am certainly not complaining about such structures! I do love my comforts, and appreciate being able to type these words without swatting away insects. Yet this is entirely the problem. Perhaps I should actually be more disturbed by the lack of natural surroundings on a day to day basis. I do recall an evening very recently where, upon completion of all tasks behind me, I sat in my home looking at the wall (and it is a very nice wall, with lovely plants and art!), and feeling a sudden yearning to look upon trees and grass and ocean instead.

Nature is calling us! And we need her. We may not realise it, but we need her.

The interesting thing about yogic disciplines is that they are really all about recovering our natural state. In fact, that term is often used in both yogic and Buddhistic forms of practice; to recover the natural state. We are not living in a particular natural manner. Look at the posture of the average human being these days. Since the rise of all these wonderful devices, we have collectively lowered the height of the human race! ;-) Stooping, hunching, drooping is the order of the day, apparently.

The reason yoga is so damn hard is that we have a LOT of work to do to recover our spine, our hips, our whole body in fact. Our energy levels are not as they should be. Our minds and hearts are totally out of alignment! My wonderful teacher, Guruji Pradeep Ullal, likes to speak of alignment as being the primary task of all of us. And yes, he means physical alignment, but not just that, by any means! 

We are misaligned. In a disturbing amount of ways, we are misaligned. In other words, not living in a natural way.

All this may sound like bad news. Well, yes, it is. Hopefully however, none of you are too shocked by these words; I would think they are not a surprise to you. The good news?

From day 1 of dedicated yogic practise, you can begin to recover your natural body, energy, mind, and heart. You just need to be willing to work. Not even for such a long time every day! I always tend to feel you do as much as you can while still honouring the demands of your life, and your personal level of engagement. In other words, if you are still able to focus and are able to stay present and inspired, keep going! Half an hour of focused and skillful calibration is worth a great deal. Of course, the more you do, the swifter the process.

The second little task? Spend more time in nature! Hang with some trees, some bodies of water, some actual nature. If you live in a place where there isn’t so much around, that’s ok, make the effort to perhaps at least once a week get out there. Take a little trip on the weekend and feel your feet on the actual earth (maybe ignore this advice if your land is currently snow covered!). It doesn’t need to be all day, whatever you have time and interest in.

In Kintamani, I intend on simply being in the presence of this incredible, magical world we live in, in the company of my beloved. Devices will be largely tucked away, and the life all around me allowed in.

Time to return to who we are.