Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee & Hilary Hart ⋅ Spiritual Ecology: 10 Practices to Reawaken the Sacred In Everyday Life (2017)

© Maria Matala 'Human Print'

1. Walking

"Nature speaks to me and I listen. Nature calls and something deep within me responds, and I just need to give it space. (...)

The Earth give us sustenance: the air we breathe, the food we eat. She is generous in so many ways, even as we forgot Her and abuse Her."

2. Breathing

"With each breath we consciously connect the two worlds, the world of the spirit and the physical world. (...)

Returning to the breath is a return to the soul, a recognition with what is sacred. This simple and primary practice is essential for well-being and for healing, for the individual and the whole. (...)

Improving your breath you improve the flow of energy, of chi. (...) the deeper the breath, the more you are able to dissolve energy blockages in your mind/body."

3. Gardening

"This act is a return to the great cycles of life (...)".

4. Seeds and their stories

"Working in the garden, plating seeds in the soil, returns me not only to the earth, but also to one of humanity's oldest and most profound stories. The story of the seed planted in the earth (...) is one of our most ancient stories fertility. It tells of the mystery of death and rebirth (...), a spiritual rebirth".

5. Cooking with love

"Food and love arte two most vital forms of human nourishment. (...) Cooking with love is natural, because through cooking we give. Cooking and serving food is one of the most ancient and basic human gifts.

6. Cleaning

"Once I realized that everything is part of one living whole, that nothing is separate, I understood how everything needs care and attention. I bring this feeling and awareness into my cleaning. (...) I feel strongly that just as I should only have what I need, I should only have what I can look after, love and care for. (...) I sense that it comes from a deeper knowing of how everything is part os the fabric of love."

7. Simplicity 

"(...) bring a simplicity to how we spend our time, how we use our attention — to be mindful in how we live.

8. Prayer

"The heart's witness of the Divine — listening, watching, being fully attentive within the heart, becoming receptive in our whole being — is a profound way of attuning ourself to be sacred."

9. Death

"The real wisdom is being aware when a cycle is complete, when a stage of life's journey has come to an end, has come to fruition."

10. Meaning and the Sacred

"The "sacred" is not something primarily religious, or even spiritual. It is not a quality we need to learn or to develop. It belongs to the primary nature of all that is."

*