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Trees Are Family: A Story From Russia |
| August 15, 2006 by admin |
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In a remote area of one of the mountainous regions of Russia, just north of Mongolia, commercial industrial interests will soon begin tearing up this land that grandparents and great grandparents, and great, great grandparents grew up on. Trees will be cut down, and worst of all, the sacred places - a bald patch on a mountain, and a hill - are at risk of being violated.
"Bad things happen when trees are cut down", the people say. "A child can get sick, or all of our cattle might die. Maybe there will be a flood. Our nature is very easily offended."
The villagers in this region practice Buryat shamanism, a set of beliefs that centers around a reverence for nature. Trees and rivers are worshiped. The main prayer rite in the spring celebrates "the earth waking up". Upset deities can be troublesome.
"Technologically, we are becoming more modern", one woman being interviewed said. "But we have lost the sense of living. I'm not against civilization. But my forefathers are from the trees. I am afraid for them."
Adapted from a New York Times article, Feb 19, 2003. (Photo of Mongolian trees is by satellite360. Some rights reserved.
Please also read the comments about trees made by Fear-No-More Zoo Founder Adi Da Samraj. |
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Native American Story: Alice Talks to Bees |
| August 7, 2006 by admin |
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From the book Rolling Thunder by Doug Boyd. Rolling Thunder was a well known Cherokee medicine man with whom Doug Boyd spent time in the early 1970's. (Photo at left by RogerGW shows a black horehound. Some rights reserved).
The tent was down and nearly folded when Rolling Thunder drove into camp with Alice. Spotted Eagle ran back to the main tent to fold up Alice's camp chairs and Coleman stove.
Alice came down the path toward me, walking very fast.
"I want to tell you something," she puffed. "I had the most interesting experience gathering herbs up there," she said, "and I'm so anxious to tell you about it. It couldn't have happened without Rolling Thunder, I know, but I actually communicated with the bees. I actually talked to them and they understood."
She was excited. "Rolling Thunder told me on the way back. He said, 'Now you tell Doug first and then you write it all down.' He said that you should write about the mind and consciousness things, and that I should write about animals and wildlife. Is that what you are doing?"
"Well, maybe. I guess so, sort of," I answered.
"Well, you should. Anyway, we went to get horehound plants up there near the old ranch. Rolling Thunder knew right where they were. He agreed to show me because he knew I needed horehounds. As soon as we got there Rolling Thunder made his prayer and his offering. Then I saw that the plants were absolutely covered with bees. I'm deathly afraid of bees; it frightens me just to look at them and they always sting me. So I just didn't know what to do. I was just ready to leave. Well, Rolling Thunder talked to me; he was so kind and gentle. He sensed what I was feeling, without my saying anything. He told me I was really not afraid of animals or any living thing. I only thought I was. And he reminded me how I had always loved animals and had taken care of them on a farm in my childhood.
"He told me that the fear of any living thing is based on misunderstanding. He said, 'Now, Alice, I want you to talk to those bees. I saw how you talked to the dogs just a little while ago. You talked to the babies and to the mother and you said the right things in the right way. If you can talk to dogs that way, you can talk to bees, and they will understand. They won't understand the English language, but they'll understand your meaning as you say it.'
"So he told me what to say to the bees. I was supposed to ask the bees to share the plants with me, to tell them I wouldn't harm them, and to explain that I needed the plants for good medicine, but I would leave enough for the bees and for seeds for the coming year. He told me to say it loud and clear. He said he would be sitting behind me, and he wanted to be able to hear my voice.
"I did as he said, and, do you know, the bees actually understood me, and they moved! I just can't describe how I felt. All the bees on the plant I was looking at moved. They all moved together to the back of the plant. I took only the front half of the plant which they had left me, and then I moved to another plant covered with bees, and the same thing happened again! On one of the plants, when the bees moved back and I started to cut, they all made the strangest buzzing sound. It felt as though they were somehow speaking, telling me to stop, and I was understanding.
"I looked at Rolling Thunder and he said, 'There now, you see? You and the bees have agreed to share and now you're cutting back too far. They'll expect you, now, to do as you said.' So I cut only the front half very carefully. Then Rolling Thunder came up to me." She paused and she appeared to be filled with emotion. "And he said that this was a gift of the Great Spirit!"
We also recommend The Bridge To God, a Talk by the Avataric Great Sage Adi Da Samraj (founder of Fear-No-More Zoo) about the participatory attitude that allows Nature to be a bridge to the Divine. |
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A Letter |
| July 26, 2006 by Stuart |
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At this critical juncture in history, when both human and environmental crises seem almost insoluble, when religions and science, philosophy and politics, and the countless conservation and aid organizations, show little ability to heal the burgeoning havoc and destruction, there is an alternative that we must finally turn to.
We must assume our collective human and spiritual responsibilities — beginning with ourselves, our actions and directions. There is an ancient tradition of spiritual wisdom provided by authentic spiritual teachers who offer their profound help to humanity. Speaking from the depths of their spiritual realization, such great beings call us to a course of understanding and action that can set things right. At this moment in human history, Adi Da Samraj, a Spiritual Master of the highest degree, calls all people of all nations to collectively make changes in the world for the benefit of all beings, both human and non-human.
Adi Da Samraj speaks from an overwhelming desire to see humanity create a new destiny in this time, one in which we become the agents for the more benign movements in nature rather than continuing as the destroyers of both man and nature. Adi Da has given his entire life to imparting his unifying wisdom for the ultimate benefit of all beings.
The following statement, declaration, and Heart confession of Adi Da, excerpted from a talk he gave on November 4, 1994, is offered below. May it encourage the worldwide understanding and recognition of all beings, whether human or not, as being equal at Heart.
We encourage everyone to carefully study and make use of Adi Da’s vast and profound wisdom, no matter your field of study, work, or faith.
Fear-No-More Zoo is but one of the many seeds of a great Vision of Adi Da's, a Vision of all beings living in right Spiritual relationship with one another, in cooperation tolerance and peace, informed by the Gift of Contemplative surrender to the Divine Being.
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“I Am Here to Embrace Everyone”
(Excerpted from a talk given by Samraj Adi Da, November 14, 1994)
Quote : At heart, all are One.
At heart, a human being is not the slightest bit different from the reptiles, the birds, the former dinosaurs, the elephants, the plants, the trees, the wind, the sky, the microbes.
Apart from their function in conditionality, all beings are the same. Human beings are not uniquely to be Saved.
All beings, even all of conditional manifestation, is the Sphere of My Work. I do not make the slightest jot of distinction between a human being and any other form or appearance. There is none to be made. Appearing before you in human Form, I Play with you in human terms. But My work, moment by moment, altogether, encompasses All — not only all human beings, not only all beings, but everything.
I am in Conversation with all beings and things. It is not that only human beings are full of ‘soul’ and everything else should be chopped up and eaten for lunch! If you examine beings other than the human, feel them, are sensitive to them, enter directly into relationship with them, you discover that they are the same — and not just the somewhat bigger ones, like my parrots, but the mosquitoes, too, which you swat out as if they were nothing.
At heart, human beings are manifesting a potential that is in all and that is inherent in conditional existence itself. Whether this potential is exhibited or not, whether it is made human or not, makes no difference whatsoever to the Divine Self-Condition. All is One. All is the same. All equally require Divine Compassion, Love, and Blessing, the thread of Communion with the Divine made certain and true and directly experienced.
All.
Therefore, the Sphere of My Work is all beings and things. Literally it is so.
This is literally how I Work. I cannot size up one being or thing against another — the devotee against the non-devotee, the human against the non-human, the Earth against some other place. I cannot do that.
I am Doing a universal Work.
I Am here to receive, and kiss, and embrace everyone, everything — everything that appears, everything that is.
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Swami Vivekananda and His Pet Animals |
| July 17, 2006 by admin |
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The following except from "Vivekananda: A Biography" by Swami Nikhilananda (published 1953) was forwarded by K.M. of Seattle.
"After the Swami's return from East Bengal he lived a relaxed life in the monastery, surrounded by his pet animals: the dog Bagha, the she-goat Hansi, an antelope, a stork, several cows and sheep and ducks and geese, and a kid called Matru who was adorned with a collar of little bells, and with whom the Swami ran and played like a child.
"The animals adored him. Matru, the little kid, who had been—so he pretended—a relation of his in a previous existence, slept in his room. When it died he grieved like a child and said to a disciple: 'How strange! Whomsoever I love dies early. '
"Before milking Hansi for his tea, he always asked her permission.
"Bagha (the dog), who took part in the Hindu ceremonies, went to bathe in the Ganga with the devotees on sacred occasions, as for instance when the gongs and conchs announced the end of an eclipse. He was, in a sense, the leader of the group of animals at the Math. After his death he was given a burial in the grounds of the monastery."
Swami Vivekananda was a great Indian Spiritual Teacher who left his body in 1902. Many people with psychic vision or past life remembrances feel that Swami Vivekananda, in his passion to serve the Westernizing world, was reincarnated in the West to provide the deeper personality vehicle of the Avataric Great Sage, Adi Da Samraj, founder of Fear-No-More Zoo. In response to these visions and memories Adi Da has clarified the nature of His relationship to Swami Vivekananda. |
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Through the Gates of Fear-No-More |
| January 5, 2006 by Stuart |
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The formal entrance of Fear-No-More Zoo, at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, has for many years included the graves of three special animals. More recently a fourth grave was added. The four animals buried at the Zoo Entrance are two dogs, a cat and a Bactrian bull camel.
These four beings were, and are, Spiritual intimates of Avatar Adi Da's. While alive each of them served Him in unique ways. As each one passed away Adi Da had them ceremonially buried at the entry gates of Fear-No-More Zoo. In this, and in other ways, Daji Megan, Dama Nitya, Monroe and Jingle Baba, continue to serve Avatar Adi Da, and all of us, in a unique capacity.
"If you go there sensitively", as Adi Da recommends, the entrance to Fear-No-More Zoo imparts a profound message.
To all who formally pass through the gates into Fear-No-More Zoo the message communicated is, "See how life goes, how it ends... See how your own body and mind, and those whom you love, will soon die. Understand life as a passing thing and, like the non-humans, notice that there is no way around this. So rather than seek to escape death (by whatever fantastic means), surrender into life, as the animals and plants do. Freely Contemplate in natural whole-bodily Communion with the Divine and, like the non-humans, enter into the disposition of Fear-No-More. Be made simpler by the vision of life. Stay focused in this, and do so more and more."
The tacit knowledge of their inevitable bodily death, and their awareness of being just another morsel in the food chain, is what moves the non-humans into free and easy Contemplation of the Divine Presence that lives and breathes everything.
The human being's usual response to mortality is to generate an endless search, and flight, from the possibility of death altogether. We tend to choose this, rather than simply relaxing, trusting and surrendering into life itself.
By coming into Fear-No-More Zoo, and making right use of it through observing the animals' Contemplative participation in life, is to begin to understand the right, and truly moral, response to existence in our humble, temporary bodily forms. If you are sensitive to them, you may also feel the animals intentionally, and sympathetically, drawing you to freely Contemplate the Divine as they do... This is the practice that Adi Da, and the animals, recommend when you visit "Fear-No-More" Zoo.
Adi Da Samraj: I don't imagine the non-humans as being lowly or separate, or different in any sense whatsoever. And that's what you should realize when you go to Fear-No-More Zoo. That's how you should use it, to support your sadhana. It's about 'fearing-no-more', about going beyond the knot of separate self, being in the Condition of the Samadhi of Real-God-Communion, and, at the level of form, participating in the Great Unity.
Fear-No-More Zoo exists within the conscious awareness of life and death, and herein it develops its Sacred functions, and purposes, from the point of view of surrender, compassion, acceptance, love and wisdom.
-- Stuart Camps, Fear-No-More Zoo, California |
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"Planet Bytes" is a service mark of the Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd.
Original photos & writings are
© 2005-2006 The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.
All rights reserved. Perpetual copyright claimed.
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