The universe and nature have a history. Since long ago, humanity studies the mysteries of the sky. Even before there were such modern telescopes and other devices that help astronomers today, the ancient people have turned their gaze to the stars.
Have you heard of the constellation "Orion" or the constellation Canis Major? Constellation names are associated with myths, legends and customs of society.
Like the rivers, mountains, forests tell their history, it is our task to learn how to listen and interpret the messages that is sent to us.
The Southern Cross is a constellation that was very important in a time of great voyages in the 16th century, having the shape of a cross it can be seen only in the Southern Hemisphere, mariners could be located through it. Despite being the smallest of the constellations that can be seen from Earth, the Southern Cross had a huge importance in the history of navigation.
We unlearn all that. With the use of science we read the history recorded in layers of each being. But that knowledge did not come into school curricula or turned into general culture. It has turned into technique to dominate nature and accumulate.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau contributed to changing the superstitious and hostile vision that many had of Nature. His was the fashion to practice broad walkings around woodlands and forests in search of plants, that were ranked carefully in his herbarium, which is today at the Museum Carnavelet in Paris. Those walking exercises were always accompanied by philosophical musings, methodically recorded when each walk ended. After his death, these notes were published by the romantic title of “Les reveries du promeneur solitaire” (The reveries of a solitary walker), appeared with overwhelming success in 1782. The goal of those travels was to get purified. In Rousseau’s philosophy, nature provided a balm for us to exorcise the hypocritical life that we were forced to live in society.
1782-2011
Unravel the secrets, thunder and lightning are no longer considered as a punishment from the Gods, we know they are natural phenomena. Nobody has time to hear the wind, listening to the ground, looking at the clouds anymore. We purify our vanities in luxurious baths with bagged smelling herbs, taken from what have remained from forests.
Indeed, the hypocrisy now enters the forest and gets lost in the woods. It is said that the stars were moved around or hidden by the pollution generated in large cities. We aimlessly go in circles.
I wonder why we need dominating. Get knowledge to dominate. We are not trying to interact with nature; we get evolved to take advantage of it mercilessly. We can not devote our time to life, but we use every minute to master time. 24 hours is not enough for us to do everything we want, because we always want more.
Mankind is part of nature, balance generates peace, fulfillment.
Photo credits , Kiran Poonacha photografy
Watch the eagles, they interact with the wind, get carried away by it. While the poor chickens flap their wings desperately and only reach a few meters.
Only when do we learn to harmonize ourselves with nature rather than dominate it, we will evolve.
The reveries of a solitary walker contains 10 meditative "walks".
ReplyDeleteThis short paragraph comes from his Seventh Walk:
"I have sometimes thought rather deeply, but rarely with pleasure; almost always against my liking, and as though by force. Reverie relaxes and amuses me; reflection tires and saddens me; thinking always was a painful and charmless occupation for me. Sometimes my reveries end in meditation, but more often my meditations end in reverie; and during these wanderings, my soul rambles and glides through the universe on the wings of imagination, in ecstasies which surpass every other enjoyment."
Thanks Joane,
ReplyDeleteJean Jacques Rousseau was a follower of the closeness to nature and claimed that man's problems stemmed from the evils that society had created and did not exist in the wild world.
He said:
“Most of our issues come from ourselves and we would avoid almost all of them by living a simple life, steadily and solitary that nature prescribes for us"