蓋亞的覺醒禮物
為什麼需要覺醒？當我們看看今天我們周圍的世界，我們看到在很多地方的破壞。人類已經離夢很遙遠，而現在橫行的痛苦，正在喚醒我們。
生命是能量的循環。我們所給予的，就是我們所得到的。地球現在正以我們對待她的方式在對待我們。不斷增加的自然災害不是大地之母蓋亞有意識的報復行為，而是能量恢復平衡的現象。我們對地球造成的創傷，現在被釋放給我們。這是陰陽的自然相互作用。由於我們的行動一直是極端的，經過時間的推移，隨著意圖達到最高點，一個相等和相反的力量正在推回來。
我們對於豐富的地球視為理所當然。我們一直用盡她的資源，污染了水、她的空氣、她的地面、傷害她的植物和動物，她在巨大的痛苦中。這是贖罪的時候了。這是回饋的時候了。現在是從我們的無意識清醒的時候了，對於我們的不敏感、我們自我服務的急迫，並開始關懷一直維持著我們生命的蓋亞。
這是一個奇怪的人性特點，一直拿取，拿取，拿取，直到沒有什麼可以拿取的。而當一切都消失了，我們會有什麼反應？我們會哀悼自己的損失和哭泣。但我們不是為被耗盡的而哭泣；我們是為自己的困境而哭泣；我們不再有自己想要的而哭泣。但很快的，我們的能量回來了，我們繼續吞噬下一個東西。我們很少為了它的緣故去回饋。我們主要的給予，都是只有當我們看到一些個人利益時。然而，真正的給予，是沒有這樣的計算的。
地球與我們是有關係的；她不僅是我們所居住的地方。幾千年至今，她對我們一直是給予一切，擁抱一切，滋養一切的大地之母……但現在她已經達到了極限。一個人能持續給予一個不會回報，或幾乎沒有感恩的人多少呢？如果你是她，你也會達到自己的極限。當沒有一些回報時，你甚至會在某些時候撤回、抗議，收回你的支持。大地之母蓋亞只是做同樣的事情，因為她是活生生、有感覺的存在。
現在困擾地球的災難，不應該解釋為只是不可避免的自然現象。我們應該承擔責任，看到她對我們的反應不是一個現象，而是一個結果。地球的災害確實是我們的不敏感和忽視蓋亞的直接結果。她再也不能維持我們的生活方式，並現在她明確的對我們表示出來。自然災害每天都在發生。我們的氣候不斷的失衡。我們的土地不斷的消耗，我們的資源不斷的收縮，我們的清水變得越來越不純淨，我們的空氣更加污濁。但是，只有當它直接影響我們的物種時，我們才會意識到這些災禍。當我們有困難時，當我們的生存資源開始削減時，我們才會意識到。
地球是強大的，但棲息在她身上的人類也是強大的。環顧我們地球的狀況，顯然我們具有影響的能力。對於這個正面的一面是，我們曾經破壞的地方，我們可以改用相同的能量來創造；我們曾經消耗和耗盡的地方，我們可以改用相同的能量來補充和恢復。我們中有些人已經甦醒，並紛紛上前修復問題。讓他們對於保存、補充、恢復和愛護蓋亞的重要性的覺醒，成為我們的榜樣。覺醒意味著看到蓋亞的感知能力和她所有生物和生命形式的感知能力。覺醒是同理心的深刻課題。當我們感受到一切，當我們在自己內在體驗到整體；當別人的悲傷在我們自己內在感覺到；當別人的喜悅在我們自己內在感覺到〜我們就在接近合一的狀態。
你四處聽到的這個「合一」是什麼？生活在合一中，就是看到在我們的內在狀態和外在世界之間是沒有分裂的。我們所做的劃分僅僅是心智理解的功能；在現實中，不存在這樣的劃分。這個世界與我們不是分開的。外在世界是我們內在狀態的投射。我們所見周圍的世界，是存在於我們自己內在的世界。你周圍看到的人都在你自己裡面。地球在你自己裡面。
這需要感知的轉變來了解。但基本上，視這世界為獨立的實體，是一個根本的幻象。世界是我們意識的直接延伸。這是在更高層面的我們的樣子。當了解我們是一體的，然後看到我們對作為地球的自己做了什麼，就會感到吃驚和不安。地球在她所有的奇蹟中是豐富多樣、精妙和令人敬畏的，而且是值得所有她所維持的生命的愛和關懷的。然而，她的實際情況是完全相反的，而且，沒有人聽到她絕望的呼喊。她必須拋出地震、火山、颶風、飢荒、海嘯和其他無數的災難性規模的災害來喚醒我們。不要讓她的努力白費。
她的故事與我們是一樣，這不是巧合。我們也是令人難以置信的生命，從神聖的智慧和永恆的光中誕生，然而在我們的化身形式中，我們造成自己和他人這麼大的痛苦。我們的身體生病，我們的頭腦在恐懼中反應，我們的心變冷。我們對自己做了什麼？我們的關係、我們的工作、我們的健康，我們的生活環境都在一條線上搖搖欲墜的平衡著。我們和地球一樣螺旋式的下降，但我們沒有看到這一點。事實上，我們和地球是非常相似的存在。我們的故事是一樣的，因為我們都是一樣的意識。
現在有個消息以大規模，在巨大的舞台上，被傳遞著。地球的慈悲是極端的，為我們充分的顯示我們對自己做了什麼。她教導我們。她正試圖喚醒我們，而因為我們睡的如此之深，僅是洞見是不足以啟發我們去改變的。看來我們必須看到自己周圍的一切被破壞了，直到我們清醒，並了解了這個。但是，謹記在心，因為我們有選擇和不多的時間。如果我們能覺醒，並在有意識的愛，和環境的恢復上努力，將環境當作我們自己的延伸，那麼我們就會採取量子性的跳躍，超越我們一直所在的地方。如果我們希望處理自己的意識，以支持意識集體性的轉變，這也是一條同樣有效的途徑。允許蓋亞的教導深入內在。她呼喚我們去喚醒。
正如甘地說的：「成為你希望在世界上看到的改變。」如果你改變了，世界將會改變〜因為這個世界在你的內在。如果你改變了〜你就會看到這個世界同時改變。改變是什麼意思？這意味著給自己你應該得到的愛、寬恕、接納和慈悲。這意味著溫和的在世界上行走，以同理心和理解碰觸他人。這是成為堅強的，生活在你的光中，但讓步……因為我們都在這裡生活。如果你的每一個呼吸是愛和感恩的運動，那麼這世界上就有一個機會。時間不早了。現在是清醒的時候了。
~Avalon
Gaya’s Gift of Awakening
What is the need for awakening? When we look at the world around us today, we see destruction in so many places. Humanity has landed far from the dream, and the suffering that is rampant now, is waking us up.
Life is a cycle of energy. What we give is what we get. The Earth is now treating us like we having been treating her. The ever-increasing amount of natural disasters is not a conscious act of retaliation from Mother Gaya ~ it is the phenomenon of energy coming back into balance. The traumas we have caused to the Earth are now being released back to us. This is the natural interplay of yin and yang. Because our actions have been extreme, culminated with intent over time, an equal and opposite force is now pushing back.
We have taken for granted our bountiful earth. We have been exhausting her resources, polluting her waters, her air, her ground, hurting her flora and fauna, and she is in great pain. It is time atone. It is time to give back. It is time to awaken from our unconsciousness, our insensitivity, our self-serving imperative, and begin to extend care to Gaya that has been sustaining our life.
It is a curious human trait, to take and take and take until there is nothing left to take. And when all is gone, what is our response? We mourn our losses and weep. We do not weep for this that has been depleted; we weep for our plight; we weep that there is no more of what we want. But within moments, our energy returns, and we go onto devour the next thing. We rarely give back, for the sake of it. We mostly give, only if we see some personal benefit in it. However, true giving, is free from such calculations.
The Earth is in relationship with us; she is not just the place we inhabit. She has been an all-giving, all-embracing, all-nurturing mother to us for millennia thus far … but now she has reached her limits. How much can one continue to give to one who does not give back, or one who barely gives thanks? If you were her, even you would reach your limits too. Even you would retract, protest, and withdraw your support at some point, without some reciprocation. Mother Gaya is only doing the same, for she is an alive and feeling being.
The calamities that plague the Earth now, should not be explained as merely natural phenomena whose time has come (means, as merely inevitable). We should take responsibility and see her response to us is not a phenomena but a result. Our planetary calamities are indeed a direct result of our insensitivity and unconscious disregard for Gaya. She can no longer sustain our way of life, and she is expressing this to us clearly now. Natural disasters occur daily. Our climate is ever shifting out of balance. Our soil is ever depleting, our resources ever shrinking, our fresh waters becoming ever more impure, our air ever more polluted. But, we only become aware of these adversities when it directly affects our species. We only become aware when we are in trouble, when our source for survival starts cutting us off.
The Earth is powerful, but so is the humanity that inhabits her. Looking around at the state of our Earth, it is apparent the impact we are capable of having. The positive side to this is that, where we have once destroyed, we can instead use the same energy to create; where we once consumed and depleted, we can instead use the same energy to replenish and restore. Some of us have awoken, and have stepped forward to repair the matter. Let their awakening to the importance of preservation, replenishment, restoration and loving kindness towards Gaya be our example. An awakening means to see Gaya’s sentience and the sentience of all her creatures and life forms. Awakening is a deep lesson in empathy. When we feel for everything, when we can experience the whole within our own selves; when the sorrow of others is felt within ourselves; when the joy of others is felt within ourselves ~ then we are approaching a state of Oneness.
What is this ‘Oneness’ that you hear about everywhere? To live in Oneness is to see there is no division between our inner state and the outer world. The division we make is only a function (or: a matter) of mental understanding; in reality, there is no such division. The world is not separate from us. The outer world is a projection of our inner state. The world we see around us is the world that exists inside our own selves. The people you see around you are inside your own self. The Earth is inside your own self.
It requires a shift in perception to understand. But basically, it is a fundamental illusion to see this world as a separate entity. The world is a direct extension of our consciousness. It is who we are at a greater level. In realizing we are one, and then, in seeing what we are doing to our own selves as a planet, is to be startled and disturbed. The Earth is bountiful, celestial and awesome in all her wonders, and is so deserving of love and care from all the life she sustains. And yet, her reality is quite the opposite, and furthermore, her cries of despair fall onto deaf ears. She must throw up earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, famine, tsunami’s and countless other disasters of catastrophic proportions to wake us up. Let her effort not be in vain.
Her story is the same as ours, and this is not coincidental. We are also incredible beings, born of a divine intelligence and eternal light, and yet in our incarnate forms, we cause so much suffering to ourselves and to others. Our bodies become sick, our minds react in fear, and our hearts go cold. What are we doing to ourselves? Our relationships, our work, our health, the circumstances of our lives are all balancing precariously on a thread. Our downward spiral is the same as that of the Earth’s but we cannot see that. In fact, we are the very same being as the Earth. Our stories are the same, because we are the same consciousness.
There is a message now being delivered on a massive scale, on a massive stage now. The Earth is extreme in her compassion, displaying for us at large what we are doing to own selves. She is teaching us. She is trying to wake us up, but because our sleep is so deep insight alone is not enough to inspire us to change. It appears we must see everything around us destroyed, until we wake up and get it. But take heart, for we have the choice and a small amount of time to spare. If we can awaken and work towards the conscious love and restoration of our environment, as an extension of our own selves, then we will have taken a quantum leap beyond where we have been. If we wish to work on our consciousness, to support a collective shift in consciousness, that is also an equally valid path. Allow Gaya’s teaching to sink deep. She is calling out to us to awaken.
As Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you change, the world will change ~ because the world is inside you. If you change ~ you will see this world transform in parallel time (means: at the same time). And what does it mean to change? It means to give yourself the love, forgiveness, acceptance and compassion you deserve. It means to walk this Earth with a gentle step, to touch others with empathy and understanding. It is to be strong, live in your light, but give way… for we all live here together. If your every breath is the movement of love and gratitude, then this world has a chance. The hour is late. It is time to wake up.
~Avalon