our souls and the truth of our bones
when we look up at the cosmos we can
feel a sense of interconnected wonder
with the universe and a sense of oneness
and when we reach down and see an
butterfly on a blade of grass we can
feel a sense of oneness for the entire
world but for the first time in history
most of us live in cities where cement
covers the earth and buildings stand
where trees once lived I’d like you to
remember the last time you touch the
bark of a tree or put your hand in the
soil of the earth what did it feel like
what was that experience like can you
remember a time when you were walking in
a field of woods or on him not sunny
mountain paths with them with the Sun on
your back feel that experience can you
imagine having that connection with
nature in the city the first time my
hand touched the soil doing the MIT
mindfulness in nature practices in the
hills of Northern California I felt a
connection to the earth I’d never
experienced before
It was as if the Sun warmed energy of
the earth connected with a current in my
palm it was warm and it was comforting
and it was grounding jack Kornfield
writes in the Thai forest Buddhist
tradition nature’s truth that’s the
tradition where these mindfulness and
nature practices come from Mark Coleman
retreat leader is also a wilderness
guide and meditation teacher he’s
brought these practices to us and more
and we’re collaborating on a mindfulness
and nature art project called the
awakened and wild experience well we’ll
bring these practices like exploring a
tree with all your senses to cities like
Los Angeles and New York and we’ll
create a garden especially for the
practices and take them also out to
parks and neighborhood green spaces so
that everyone everywhere can connect
after the retreat I moved to Manhattan
and I had so much trouble connecting
with nature in the midst of New York
City I actually would go to California
quite often to connect the nature which
was ridiculous but I’m not the only one
trying to connect with nature this
summer I was in a cab and the cab driver
told me during the holidays he brings
douglas-fir into the taxi and on that
hot humid summer day he’d spread leaves
across the dashboard because it feels
like a rest but for so many of us and
especially this generation of children
we don’t we haven’t we’ve lost that
spark that connection with nature so
many kids don’t know the touch of the
tree against their hand they don’t know
the aroma of fresh from the garden basil
squeezed and and and picked freshly so
that they can really really connect with
it and so many of them don’t know how to
climb a tree can you imagine what this
means for kids not to know how to be in
nature can you imagine what this means
for the children and for the planet not
to have the sole enhancing life-giving
connection with nature it was in a
different taxi ride a ride that I got
the idea for the mind force of nature
practice it came to me with an urgency
that I never experienced before and as I
worked on the project
I saw the practices worked in the city
and they worked on me I became more
connected to nature trees that had just
been part of the city landscape before
suddenly became friends after all the
earth is our body it creates an oxygen
we breathe it sends it out into the air
it’s it sends it out to be recycled into
the air that’s all around and sustains
us the rains become us through the water
we drink and the Sun nurtures very food
we eat a Zen master Thich not on has
said you can see a cloud in a cup of tea
now I’d like you to take the bamboos
that you were given when you came in
and if you’re watching you can use a
house plan at home mark created this
beautiful meditation for nature that
I’ve adapted for us to do here first be
with a bamboo the way you might nor
ordinarily maybe you’re thinking about
your schedule what you might have for
lunch just be with it casually without
notice how this feels in your body to
only casually connect to the play on now
connect to the bamboo sink your hand
fill each into connecting with the
bamboo fill the bamboo on each one of
your fingers or the different places of
through your fingers notice the texture
is it silky and rough or some other
and let your fingers play with the
leaves the way a child might maybe even
rubbing the leaves on your skin notice
as you feel and engage to the sense of
touch how this changes your relationship
with the plan now
absorb the plant with your eyes take it
in the way a child might allow your eyes
to go wherever it engages you whatever
it touches you now let your senses drip
to open and upward breathe in through
every pore of your body feel the
ambience and spirit of this plant let
yourself drop below the ordinary level
of observation where you might expect to
have a particular experience and sense
feel into the fact that we’re all part
of an interconnected ecosystem even if
you can only sense this truth for
now that you’re open to the plant think
about all the other life forms that
you’re in relationship with from the
birds and the trees to the insects and
the grasses be aware how is you
participate and engage in these
relationships the changes in your body
[Music]
the first time I led the practices
indoors so through the group of artists
in the loft in New York City one woman
who had a tiny bamboo like yours said as
she looked at the bamboo she felt a
sense of oneness with the inner kind
with the ecosystem she never experienced
before to the degree that she had a
newfound compassion for an insect she’d
seen earlier that morning and considered
a pest Christine let’s take of Missoula
Montana a place with spectacular and
abundant natural beauty says even there
the mindfulness and nature practices
intensify her experience of nature she
says they’ve made her much more
sensitive to all her experiences in
nature whether it’s the bees buzzing
around or the wind coming through the
tree that now feels like her own breath
a new york with lynn gordon every day
after she drops her son off at school
stops in a garden and doesn’t Matt
mindful some nature meditation practices
for 10 to 20 minutes she’ll notice the
changes in the trees and the way that
the fountain sounds she said the
practices have made her much more
sensitive to the vital part that every
every organism plays in our
interconnected universe she said they’ve
also made her more aware of the changes
in the temperature in the air and its
humidity she says now when she tries to
be and when she goes into nature she
tries to be in nature not just do things
in nature and they’ve changed the way
she’s raising her son the summer they
spent much more time outdoors we are all
a miracle of 20,000 genes humans have
nearly the same number of genes as worms
were also connected all of us even to
the cosmos the carbon that makes up the
stars makes up us too we are one but in
the world of buildings ideas and things
that separate us we forget who we really
are the seeds the very seeds that give
us life by their nature through toxic
chemical
now put our ecosystem at risk and
studies showed that rats exposed to the
chemicals in common grocery store fruits
and vegetables will pass them on
generations forward these are not small
affects but the most important thing to
know is that we can change them by what
we do now
studies show that mindfulness transforms
our brains of both children and adults
those of us who’ve done contemplative
practices know their transformative
power and this is exactly the kind of
transformation we need to stop climate
change what could be more powerful to
heal our earth than compassion born of
intimacy with nature
intimacy leads to understanding and
understanding to love what greater power
for transformation is over than love all
the great leaders teach us this from the
Dalai Lama to Martin Luther King to
Gandhi they all led with love never
forgetting as Martin Luther King said
the fierce urgency of now and for the
planet there has never been a fiercer
urgency than now can you imagine if our
cities became places of harmony with
nature the earth is our mother our body
she’s born in the same cosmos that makes
up us all can you imagine if we all
lived as one with nature if you take the
transformative effects of mindfulness
and being in nature and act them the
fierce urgency of now what greater power
will there be to stop the trajectory
were on with the warming of the small
blue planet our only home with climate
refugees estimated to reach 100 million
by 2050 and more is expected to break
out over over water can you imagine if
we all lived as one with nature
truly truly as one as indigenous peoples
– what would that mean for us what would
that mean for our children
our planet and city’s nature is truth
and the truth is we are one world one
nature how can you live this truth how
can we all live this light the earth
loves us how will you love her back thank you