Love for the Living World

This talk is excerpted from Dharma Dialogues with Catherine Ingram in which Catherine discusses the tenderness that is felt for life when one wakes up--and the need for that awakening. Recorded in August 2017 in Australia.

Transcript

Welcome to In The Deep.

I'm your host,

Katherine Ingram.

The following is excerpted from a session of Dharma Dialogues held in Lenox Head,

Australia in August of 2017.

It's called Love for the Living World.

Also,

Please consider joining us for our live online sessions which are now happening one weekend a month and scheduled over several time zones to accommodate you wherever you are.

What is the most important thing you can do to help people?

Years ago when I was living in Los Angeles,

And we had frequent fires there.

In fact,

I knew a number of people who had lost their homes and it was a conversation that would go around in our circles about what if your house caught on fire,

What would you be doing?

So you always had in mind like what are you going to grab if you're going to run?

I was talking about it with one of my women friends and she said,

Well,

Of course I'd have to get my husband and my son in the car and the dogs and the rabbit.

And I said,

What about the Picasso?

Because my friend happened to have an original Picasso.

She said,

Oh yeah right,

If there's time.

And I so loved that the rabbit made it on the list ahead of the Picasso.

I loved that.

And it goes to something I read that recently that Einstein said how the quality,

Even if you might love some inanimate object such as your car,

I love my iPad.

That it would be different than how you would feel about a horse or any living thing.

Because the truth is I can say I love my iPad because I love using my iPad,

But I have a very different feeling about this bush turkey who comes every morning to get fed.

The quality of the connection to a living creature,

Right?

The quality of the love is very,

Very different.

I know this seems quite obvious,

But somehow we don't always prioritize our life and our behavior in life according to that priority.

We get,

It's easy actually,

Especially in a materialistic world,

To have a misplacement of that understanding that somehow objects can start to become more important unless you really analyze it and ask yourself what would you take if you're running out of the house and it's on fire?

Right?

You take the living beings,

Probably.

The rabbit gets to come even if the Picasso doesn't.

It's an understanding and a reflection that is more and more,

I would have to say,

Poignant in our time as we watch so much of the natural world disappearing as the extinctions are intensifying.

It's,

In a former time I might have said it's a very necessary understanding.

And that would have been necessary for survival or continuation.

I would have said that.

But now there's a poignancy to it.

And that we just love those beings who are left for their own sake.

Because I don't know that we're going to be able to save much of it.

We love it for the privilege of loving while they're still here,

While we're still here.

And we can see how our species has made this mistake,

This mistake of this misplacement of priorities that we've basically extracted from the earth to the point of sheer exhaustion of the resources and of the beings of the species that we've made extinct.

And that has been a misplacement of understanding of what was important.

The stuff that we created,

All the stuff,

All the objects,

All the testaments to our grand selves.

And the tradeoff has been the living world and the species wherein it's poignant.

And yet I find myself every day more and more kind of in love with the little birds and the little,

I saw whales yesterday and just all of it just feels like,

Oh,

The extraordinary privilege of it.

So all the more so for the ones in our lives,

The people we love,

All right,

The people we interact with,

All the more so,

All the more precious,

All the more privileged we can feel in having this time together in a time when so much else is,

We can see.

I mean,

Certainly it's no surprise that our own lives are time limited.

We know that.

But that all of it is becoming extremely time limited.

These are things I think about a lot.

I'm observing.

I've always been a news junkie,

I say.

And the information is just roaring in,

You know.

So sorry,

It's a little bit of a sad beginning of a conversation,

But it also goes to all that's left is love,

You know,

All that's left to do here is love as much and as best as you can and understand that this is a time of,

You know,

Huge changes going on on the planet.

I'm just wondering whether it's true or what your opinion is,

If we actually come into our true self,

Become more aware of what's true for us rather than this outside world that can be destructive is what you're saying,

That we can't make a change individually.

But as a whole,

As more of us become more aware of who we really are and our essence of being part of that love,

Which is what you're saying is everything.

Yes.

I'd like to think that there's hope in that and as difficult as it is for us to come back to what is real,

Sometimes it's not so easy to be in that.

But in moving through that process or journey that we're on and trusting that the universe has put us where we need to be,

Isn't perhaps that the point that we need to come home to our awareness of who we are?

Yeah.

To make that difference happen?

I think that coming home to the awareness of who we are is both the sanctuary for ourselves and the offering that comes from that for its own sake,

Whatever the outcome,

Whatever the outcome might be.

So to really in a sense detach from the outcome in the hope,

Right?

And just really sit in the center of your being and love as much as you can and celebrate as much as you can and see from that clear perspective,

Whatever is going to come to be.

If we look at the data,

If we just look at the pure data of now and we see the trends that are happening,

We are in for a lot of trouble here on this planet.

It's happening already.

We haven't yet started to feel it,

But a lot of people are feeling it,

Millions and millions and millions of people.

And as the planet heats up,

There are going to be more and more crop failures inevitably.

There are now,

There are actually big crop failures happening in Australia,

Happening in America,

Happening in all the so-called breadbaskets.

There are huge crop failures now because of the heat,

And it's going to get hotter.

And as that happens,

More and more and more millions of people are affected with shortages of food and expensive food.

And then there's a kind of cascade of problems that ensue,

Social pressures,

Wars,

Etc.

And this is just sort of the beginning of this.

This is not,

We're not even,

It's not even yet horrible for most of the Western world.

So what we have to,

My feeling is we have to find an inner resilience and an inner clarity and our own commitment to love in the face of whatever comes down,

However long we have,

Or like I just said a few minutes ago,

In any case,

Each of our lives is time limited,

Right?

We're going to die.

So to come to terms with our own personal exit and also to have some relationship to the understanding of what's going on for the masses as we're watching this unfold,

It doesn't require things turning out a certain way.

We can just come to that understanding no matter what,

And it'll be easier for us,

And it'll be a healing kind of offering to anyone else who's around us.

I understand and I used to hope that there would be a wave of awakening on the planet such that we would change our ways in time,

That we would,

That we would save ourselves,

Right?

I haven't seen that happening to the degree that it would have had to happen.

It has happened a lot in my lifetime.

It's been amazing how many people there are who are really tuning into the,

Let's call it the Dharma frequency,

And who are really living lightly on the earth,

Many,

Many people.

But the thrust and the forces of ignorance and greed are super strong and are in control of most of the governments and the corporations.

So they have the power.

And at this point now,

I think,

No matter what we do,

Even if every single person became Christ-like by tomorrow,

I don't think it's going to change the course of the destruction because the warming is more or less on its own.

So that's why I'm speaking about this this morning.

I don't often speak about it.

I hint at it now and again,

But I don't usually hit it head on.

But it was coming up very strongly as we were sitting here.

And the truth is,

I do consider this quite a bit.

I feel that I'm living in a time that might be some of the last,

It might be some of the last time for humans in history.

It's possible.

Can I just comment?

Yes,

Sure.

A few times during your reply,

I felt really strongly that perhaps awareness is a loss of awareness of how powerful love is.

And that I believe in my heart and my truth that love can do anything as terrible as what you're painting in this situation.

And even maybe losing the earth is not the object.

Or losing our bodies is not the object.

There's something far greater than even our existence.

And that we can't even imagine that.

And for us to come back to ourselves and to our truth and to believe,

To trust and believe in the universe.

Yes,

Yes.

And believe in this power of love.

Yes.

I think that's how I would like to focus on the rest of my life.

Yes,

Me too.

I believe in that too.

I find,

I have a quote in fact on different of my flyers and things.

That love is the only power that lasts.

It's the only real power there is that is truly a power,

You know.

And it's a beautiful power.

And that is what I'm saying today.

That that's what we have.

That's what we have as our sanctuary.

That's what we have as the gift that we offer.

It's not a power that necessarily prevails in all circumstances.

But it's a power in and of its own sake that is really incredible.

And,

Yeah,

It's where we take refuge.

But I also recommend,

Whether it's about the individual life or if you're looking at it on a more planetary level,

That one keeps connected to this very clear sense of what's important.

What are the priorities?

Because it's very easy to get lost about that in the cultures in which we live.

The general understanding of the culture is not clear.

It's not clear on the priorities at all.

It's backward.

As I said the other night in Byron Bay,

You know,

People are celebrated,

Lauded,

You know,

Given awards who are basically just raping the earth at high profit for themselves personally,

You know.

And it's unquestioned.

I heard the defence minister here in Australia on the radio the other day.

Basically speaking about what a great industry it would be to get into the weapons industry here for Australia.

How much money,

How much jobs and money.

And the interviewer wasn't even questioning the entire proposition.

Basically the interviewer was just questioning certain details about it.

Like,

Well,

You know,

We've got solar power coming up.

Maybe we should put more research,

You know.

She wasn't even saying it in terms of let's do that instead.

She was saying,

I mean,

Instead of just from my point of view the horrifying reaction of like,

Do you understand what weapons actually do,

What they actually are for?

Like,

Do we need more killing on the planet?

Do we need more wars really?

You know,

Doesn't the US have that covered?

So,

You know,

That's what I mean is that the priorities,

The actual entrainment,

The indoctrination of the masses is such that when you say the word profit and industry and more jobs,

No one blinks an eye when the thing that you're talking about are weapons of mass destruction.

And so it's like we live in a time where you have to be so kind of radically brave and true in your own self.

Right.

And stand against the tide in every possible way in your life,

You know.

And realize that you're not going to be in step with the mainstream.

Right.

You're just not.

And yet you are called upon in order to survive this in a sane way to keep loving,

To keep basically saying,

OK,

I'm just going to,

You know,

I'm going to love this living world and the beings in it,

You know,

Until my last breath and come what may,

You know.

But in any case,

When one is not prone to denial in one's life and not,

You know,

Willing to be distracted from the truth of things,

Then what are you left with?

You're left with falling back on your own,

Your own resources,

Your own internal place of sanctuary.

Right.

And there is one.

You know,

There is there is that place that you fall into that just says,

OK,

So be it.

We got to live here.

We got to interact.

We who are all privileged in this room,

We got to do all kinds of fun things and we continue to.

And then each day becomes all the more precious when you have this understanding.

You know,

Each.

Everything I walk into the grocery stores and I'm just amazed.

Well,

We can just.

Get any kind of food we want and hand over some paper.

You know,

And it's amazing,

You know,

We still live this incredibly privileged,

Amazing lives,

You know,

And.

I don't take any of it for granted.

Just the other day,

A friend passed away,

As I told you.

Yeah,

The day and,

You know,

These days,

Many friends are passing.

Yes,

Me too.

And some of them are not sold.

So,

Yeah,

My friend who passed out,

There was only fifty nine.

It doesn't seem so old,

But,

You know,

And somehow the inevitability of our demise.

We would apply the same love as we applying to the world.

Yes.

There's no difference.

So you could say in the 17th century when you died,

The world died.

Yeah.

As you die,

The world is dying also for you.

Yes,

That's right.

So whether it continues or not,

Or whether the species continues,

The experience would be the same.

It's just then the love is coming because it's really the only thing.

The last thing to survive would be the love.

Yes,

Beautiful.

Yeah,

Well,

I love I love your whole perspective on this.

It's beautiful.

Beautiful.

Beautifully said.

Yeah.

And I mean,

I keep coming back to just the it's almost like you're doubling down on freedom,

On love,

On being like lionhearted in the face of whatever,

You know.

Just as humans have had to be throughout time.

I mean,

We've gotten a bit soft in our,

You know,

In our generations and our few since,

Like,

Say,

World War Two.

You know,

Especially in our privileged cultures,

We've gotten a bit soft.

We've gotten we've really kind of expected longevity and abundance and,

You know,

Have what we want,

Travel where we want,

Study what we want.

You know,

Just do what anything we want and be entertained by the best entertainers on earth ever in history.

And,

You know,

That's how we've been living.

Right.

It's been a grand old time.

Time's up.

Party's over.

But,

You know,

But it isn't how most humans have lived on this planet in history.

Mostly they died young.

And they died in difficult ways and pain was a very huge part of existence,

Not being managed by nice,

You know,

Drugs to exit you out and so on.

You know,

So humans have had to come to terms and be brave and be clear and let go and love anyway and keep carrying on and for so long,

You know,

And now it's our turn.

We're going to have a particular,

You know,

We have a particular intensity to our moment here in history because we have been expecting longevity and we have actually even had a lot of longevity.

I mean,

I often reflect both of my parents are alive right now.

And I am older than most people who ever lived on this planet.

I'm already older than they would have been as an average.

And my parents are alive.

I mean,

That's incredible.

You know,

This would probably be one of the few times in history where that could be the truth.

So I'm hyper aware of the time that I live in and how we do expect,

You know,

The best of everything.

And yet we may come crashing into a wall of,

Actually of extinction.

And so it's what a time to be alive.

What an amazing moment to be here.

Right.

To have kind of caught the last act when it was the best,

You know.

So,

You know,

Really incredible time to be here.

And there's a way in which there's a certain,

You know,

When you really metabolize this information.

And it's not easy,

Doesn't go down easily.

But,

You know,

When it does finally get worked through,

There's an incredible clarity and freedom,

As I keep saying,

That comes with it.

It's amazing.

And the few people I know,

I'm in kind of conversation with a little support group around the world.

The few people who I'm marching together arm in arm with this and who study the same data,

There's a brightness in their beings.

That's kind of surprising,

You know,

Kind of unexpected in a way.

I get excited just being with this because it's like,

It's so beautiful to when you're in service.

Yes.

And this catastrophe will bring us all to service.

Yes,

It will.

And it will just bring us awake.

Yes.

Into the truth of this life,

This earth,

The needs that we have.

Yeah.

And the fact that we need each other as well.

But the comfort is taking us away from that.

So it's exciting to think,

Oh,

My God,

This lifetime,

I might just see everyone come out of their houses and wake up.

Yeah.

I think that's right to a great degree.

I think that as things intensify,

We will have to coalesce as a world community to deal with it.

Right.

We cannot then afford to be having wars with each other.

Especially if there's no like if the grids go down or something,

Then it just means that people can't live the life of distraction that we've been living.

Yes.

And convenience.

So we'll actually be faced with having to like live on this earth with this water.

Yeah.

This this land,

You know,

This local community who do I live next to?

Yes.

You know,

I think it's exciting and I think it'll be crazy because we're so under resourced in that in those ways.

Yeah.

So it'll be amazing.

Yeah,

Beautiful.

Yeah.

Well,

One another aspect that I think a lot about with regard to this is what I call Dharma resilience,

You know,

And that we need resilience on all kinds of levels in life.

But I have a feeling this kind of and you're pointing to it as well.

The you know,

The resilience of your own your own clarity and your own basic inner strength born of that clarity.

It is like we're built to be in community.

We're built to actually support and be in service to each other.

Yeah.

And,

You know,

You hear things like during World War Two,

You know,

People in neighborhoods all over the United States,

They were growing what were called victory gardens.

Right.

But they were also in intense community.

And a lot of people reported many,

Many people said that those were some of the happiest doms of their life,

Even though there was a world war,

So-called.

And even though people,

You know,

Young men were being killed and it was horrible in many ways.

But there was a way in which people felt a sense of belonging.

People were living in high prioritization of what really matters.

I know.

And it's so painful to face it on your own,

Like because we're also isolated and to face that whole destruction of the planet and our whole species and everything.

Everyone's in their little box watching their screens.

Madness,

Isn't it?

Yeah.

We're not built for that sort of thing,

But we are built for like community.

Yes.

Supporting each other.

Yes.

It'll be amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's going that direction,

Too.

You can feel it in all of the sort of more conscious communities,

Including this one.

This one's an amazing one.

There's a lot of talk about resilience here in Byron Bay and in this area.

So,

Yeah,

It's a very exciting time and obviously fraught with all kinds of difficulties.

But this is life.

You know,

This is life here on planet Earth.

So this conversation brings up for me my way of coping and even tuning into the news often.

And then at times it's like I just can't bear it.

Yeah.

It's just all the same.

It's all killings.

It's all negative.

It's politicians.

It's yes,

I've got my own kind of strategy.

And in terms of climate,

Which really,

Really distresses me,

I feel like I mean,

This last bit of the conversation of the dialogues kind of helping me because I feel so I'm just kind of burying my head in the sand because that's the way I'm coping with it and just living my life.

And is that a problem?

Well,

That's that's,

You know,

Because it's too devastating to focus on.

Yeah.

I mean,

When you began today,

It was like,

Oh,

My God,

Let's just all shoot at things.

It's hard to talk about it,

You know,

With any kind of sort of bright and shiny.

No,

And I've heard your views before.

So that's not a surprise.

But it's it's,

You know,

Some some way I just push it aside.

I think that with each of us,

One has to be just true to yourself into how much you can even stand to think about it at any given point.

And but my my sense is that the information is going to be flooding in.

Right.

It's coming in.

You'd have to be really more and more disconnected from the reality of your world as time goes forward with this to to fully deny it,

To fully live in complete ignoring of it.

It's going to get harder to do that because there are big consequences that are happening.

So my strategy is to,

You know,

Let it let in as much as I can and let that metabolize and then let in a bit more and let that metabolize.

And as it goes,

There are certain ways that it it unlocks you.

It starts to free you into an OK-ness,

Like whereby you start to say,

Wow,

All right,

I'm going to.

Can I can I accept that?

Right.

And you really look at it,

Really feel into it.

Can I accept that?

And and if you ask that question in a very deep place and if you see that the only alternative is to fight in a kind of futile way.

Then the acceptance starts to come over you,

Just like with hospice,

Just like that,

That you've seen people,

You've known people,

Perhaps who fought and fought and fought and fought.

Right.

But death came and maybe before death came,

They came to acceptance.

Right.

I've said before,

All of my Dharma friends have every last one of them.

Amazingly,

Every single last one of my friends,

My personal friends who've been into the Dharma for their adult lives,

Have come to acceptance unless they died suddenly.

But in terms of people who had illness,

If they died suddenly,

I don't know what their state of mind was at the last minute,

But the ones I've known.

And I feel that that was a process that happened.

You know,

The letting go.

Like,

You know,

Gets to a point where you just there's no other option.

You either go crazy and then go just mad inside or you go into acceptance.

And I think that's the same process with what's happening on the planet.

It's still important to live our lives in as light a way as we can.

And all that.

That's beautiful and can only help.

But again,

You do it for its own sake,

For the rightness of it,

Rather than for the attachment to the goal,

Which may not come to be.

This has been In the Deep.

You can find the entire list of In the Deep podcast at Catherine Ingram dot com,

Where you can also book a private session by phone or Skype and see my schedule of upcoming events such as our spectacular retreat in Italy next October of 2018.

If you're a regular listener,

Please consider making either a one time or a recurring tax deductible donation in any amount that is comfortable for you till next time.

.

Reviews

This was excellent and exactly what I needed this morning! Sending loving kindness to all.

A brave facing into the truth - Thank You! Waking up is always worth it.

Exceptional. Spot on for me. I see the changes, I hear the quiet where there used to be insect drone, plentiful butterflies, an ability to lay back in my country (?) backyard and easily see the Milky Way Galaxy. It deeply saddens me what man has done in the name of greed. Many need to walk away from their computers, mindless TV shows, etc...and wake up