Listening Deeply | Nature Practice | Intro Talk

This is a series called Listening Deeply. In these tracks, practice awareness and stay focused on embodying the beauty of nature inward and outward. We explore more as we delve deeper and hope you enjoy it.

In this series of meditations and talks, we'll be exploring:
—how to connect with nature outside
—why nature is so good for our physical and mental health
—listening deeply to our bodies, hearts, and minds
—how to connect more deeply to inner love, peace, and wellbeing
—how awareness leads naturally to insight

Transcript

So welcome to this series called Listening Deeply.

And here we're exploring what it means to listen deeply with all of our senses while loving the beauty of the natural world.

So practicing awareness,

Mindfulness in a very effortless and natural way.

And I don't know about you,

But I find that connecting deeply with nature can be the most magical and yet very grounded way to come home to myself.

Here's a poem by Chief Dan George.

The beauty of the trees,

The softness of the air,

The fragrance of the grass speaks to me.

The summit of the mountain,

The thunder of the sky,

The rhythm of the sea speaks to me.

The faintness of the stars,

The freshness of the morning,

The dew drop on the flower speaks to me.

The strength of fire,

The taste of salmon,

The trail of the sun,

And the life that never goes away.

They speak to me.

And my heart soars.

For me,

This really sums up how it is to connect with nature.

But the elements seem to almost speak to us when we're there.

So amazing to pause,

To breathe in the fresh air,

And to open to that beauty within nature,

Isn't it?

Something that feels for me anyway so fundamentally human.

And something that our indigenous ancestors instinctively knew how to do,

That sometimes in modern industrialized society we forget.

Yet this world,

The modern industrialized world,

Is relatively new,

Just a few hundred years old.

And this native past that we all have,

It's not so ancient.

And we can reconnect with that,

With that innate nature-based wisdom,

If we seek it.

And this is something that becomes more and more important for me in my path,

To connect with this very simple,

Very raw,

Wild,

And pure wisdom that's both in the nature outside and in the nature inside.

It's in the land,

In the elders,

In our ancestry,

In our blood,

To do this.

So to begin with,

I would like to acknowledge a few people in different traditions,

Just to let you know where this particular practice of listening deeply comes from.

I've always practiced eyes-open meditation,

Being part of the world and not separate from it.

And this style of practice,

Which is often called open awareness,

I learnt from teachers,

First in the Nyingmö tradition of Buddhism,

With whom I also went on to study the heart practices,

Loving kindness and compassion.

And for several years I lived and worked on retreat centers where it was just a joy to walk in the hills and valleys and practice.

For several months each year I lived in a tent in the forest.

And my meditation journey continued into the fertile territory of shamanic,

Tibetan,

Vajrayana,

And Dzogchen,

Vivid worlds upon worlds,

And yet at their essence,

Pure simplicity.

So I studied and practiced like this for a few years,

And then a few years ago I was thrilled to join the mindful self-compassion community,

Which in my opinion is a very loving and caring circle of beings who bring the ancient practices for cultivating kindness right up to date in a psychologically safe way,

Which meet our modern human needs.

And the mindful self-compassion course is really a wonderful medicine for the crippling self-criticism and low self-worth that is rife in our society,

And yet the course itself is completely secular and backed by research.

And the community and teachers there,

Especially Chris Germer and Tina Gibson,

Really taught me to listen deeply and care for the needs of the heart and the body.

And now I'm delighted to be a trained teacher and able to hold that space for others too.

So I've done a lot of different meditation and mindfulness teacher trainings,

But in terms of my own practice,

I'm inspired by nature connection,

By the sit spots and soul quest practices of nature philosophy Australia,

Whose teacher was Tom Brown Jr.

And also by the wilderness and indigenous immersions of the anthropologist and meditation teacher Joan Halifax Roshi,

Which you find described in the book,

This Fruitful Darkness.

Such amazingly vivid descriptions of adventure into the wilderness to discover both oneself,

As well as to really meet nature in a very,

Very deep way,

Depending on the elements and the environment in a way that we knew how to do in our tribal past,

But that in modern life we can become very disconnected from actually how much we depend on Mother Earth and how much it is our duty to take care of her.

And certainly any time I've spent in the wilderness has reminded me of how dependent I am actually on nature and how this idea of being independent and influential of our own accord is actually an illusion.

And then our sense of self starts to become very different.

The boundary between what is us and what is nature starts to dissolve in a really healthy way that we feel more connected actually.

Retreat time is personally really precious to me.

I've spent about a year of my life in solo retreat,

Much of that silent and another two years living on different centres that support others to retreat.

I'm grateful to have spent several months retreating in a cabin in woodland in Denmark,

In monasteries in the mountains of India,

In the Himalayas and in Burma where my Insight teacher Ashin Tejaniya really taught me that when awareness becomes natural,

Learning just arises naturally.

And funnily enough it was here that I first watched a video from Miriam Rose and Gunma from the Nauru,

The Daly River area of Australia,

This indigenous teacher of listening to nature in quiet,

Still awareness which she calls dididi.

The simplicity of this practice was like nectar to my heart.

It felt like all of the instructions that I'd ever been given for meditation just simplified,

Really boiled down to their essence.

And for me very resonant because Australia is now the land that I call home.

I'm also very grateful to the mountains of the Aguila National Park in Queensland,

Australia,

The traditional land of the Jinibara people where I've spent many,

Many days walking and sitting and listening to the land.

And many of these talks and practices took shape there and to be honest sometimes I almost felt like I was in some way guided or heavily influenced by the rainforest there.

And over the last few years I felt called to earth my shamanic interests and calling in guidance from ancestors,

Elders of the land and receiving law from traditional teachers like Peruvian master Carlos and the Irish shaman John Cantwell.

And this work has also arisen here in my garden in the city of Brisbane which is traditionally called Myangin by the original custodians who are the Terrible and Jagga people.

I felt so lucky to have river and gum trees and wild patches right there in the back garden and so it was possible for me to connect with nature within minutes every day.

A real joy and privilege.

So many of my nature meditations have happened here and I feel both a love for and a love from this land.

So thank you.

Yeah,

A deep thanks to all my teachers,

All my friends on this path and deep gratitude to nature as the teacher.

By which I mean both the nature outside and the nature inside.

So just wanting to pay my respects to my different influences and map them out so you can hear what they are but just to be very clear,

What we'll be exploring here has no ism.

These practices are not about getting you to believe anything or indoctrinating you into anything.

They're very simply about awareness and insight which I'm referring to as listening deeply.

Essentially what are you noticing?

How are you relating to the life that's arising in your nature or outside in nature and what do you learn from this?

That is it.

What do you notice?

How do you relate to that?

What do you learn from it?

So no philosophy here.

It really is just about awareness.

And just as in nature,

You know,

The wisdom that arises from this kind of experiential learning is not something we can rush.

Intelligence arises from gathering information in kind of the same way that flowers blossom from seeds if we nurture them.

Like a blossoming flower,

Intelligence arises in its own time.

Like flowers,

This is not something for which we can set a deadline.

Yet the process is the same.

We can say if we keep paying attention and if we keep caring enough,

Wisdom will arise.

Just like flowers,

If we keep paying them enough attention and caring for them,

They will bloom.

So this is actually a very simple journey,

But the learning is always unfolding.

It's endless.

There's deeper and deeper layers of learning about ourselves that emerge as we allow our relationship to our experience and to ourselves to unfold in awareness.

And this learning is very personal.

You know,

I can't have any insights for you.

You have to have them.

So there's no special kind of transference of knowledge here,

Just exercises that anybody can do,

Allowing their own learning and their own inner guidance to arise.

So you are completely free to hold any philosophy,

Any other belief you choose or none whatsoever.

Because on this journey,

You're in charge and the ultimate authority is in you.

The ultimate teacher is in you.

And yet I'm very privileged to be perhaps one of your guides.

So all we're going to be doing is listening deeply to our nature.

And what is meant by this?

Well,

When I say listening deeply,

First of all,

I mean tuning in with all of the senses,

Tuning into the life that's flowing,

The experiences that arise around us in nature and inside us in our inner nature.

And there's a heck of a lot to say about this,

Way too much for one guided audio.

So the idea is that this talk is the introduction to a series of guided practices and talks.

This one just setting the context and then getting you practicing as soon as possible without too many details so that this journey stays experiential.

So expect more detailed talks to come where we'll go into more depth,

More detail about the different elements of our experience,

How we connect more deeply with nature,

How we become explorers of our inner nature and what our inner nature is composed of,

Its biology or its botany,

If you like.

Now I'm using the words inner nature here a lot.

So you might have the question arising already.

What is that?

What is that inner nature?

Well,

We might be familiar with the natural world outsiders.

When we say nature,

We often think of trees,

Forests,

Oceans,

Deserts,

Mountains,

Jungles.

Yes,

This is all nature.

And as our adventures in awareness unfold and we explore the natural world insiders,

We come to understand the often hidden world of thoughts,

Emotions,

Sensations,

And we discover we are also life,

Nature.

And this might seem like a grand statement,

But it's very easy to forget that we are natural too,

When we live in the city and we spend most of our time in a car or on a device.

Biologically humans are carbon based life forms and our cellular bodies contain many,

Many ecosystems.

There's digestion,

There's respiration,

There's reproduction,

There's the brain and the nervous system,

All of these different operations happening.

And our bodies,

Our hearts and our minds are just as conditioned as the natural world outside.

Just as conditioned as the natural world outside.

By conditioned I mean our bodies,

Our hearts and our minds are the result of many different components,

Their systems,

And they're also the result of cause and effect.

You know,

As we imagine in modern life,

We imagine ourselves ever more autonomous and self-sufficient,

We forget that we are each the result of cause and effect,

But this is the truth.

You know,

Our bodies are the multi-celled genetic inheritance of our parents.

Our emotions are conditioned too,

Conditioned by our genes,

Our upbringing,

Our relationships,

And by our species.

Because we're human mammals and like all mammals,

We seek to bond with others.

We have hormones like oxytocin which support us doing that through a sense of feeling loved and cared for.

And this bonding is absolutely necessary for living in community as mammals do.

And yet we also share features with the lizard family,

For example,

Our nervous systems,

We have this ancient fight or flight response which triggers emotions like anger and fear and hormones like adrenaline and cortisol that really help us to move very,

Very quickly out of danger.

So our bodies are conditioned and likewise our minds are conditioned.

If we think about our minds,

We have thought patterns,

We have beliefs,

We have intentions and ideas,

And these are all influenced by our environment,

Our language,

Our culture,

Our friends,

Our families,

All the people we meet and all the information we absorb.

Even though it might feel like we are having unique thoughts,

That thinking is conditioned too.

We are in fact the result of everything we've ever been into contact with.

So what does that mean for us as human beings?

Are we just at the mercy of the world at large?

Are we just at the mercy of fate,

Destiny?

No,

We're aware.

We are aware and here with awareness we can learn and we can choose how we act in order to influence our future.

And you know,

We as human beings are unique.

Just as jungles have some things in common,

For example,

Jungles all occur in tropical and subtropical climates,

Yet each jungle is unique in its particular flora and fauna.

And so too,

We as human beings have so much in common with each other,

Yet each of us unique in our body,

Heart and mind makeup.

So the only explorer who can truly map and know the unique territory of you is you.

Scientists,

Doctors can measure so many of your vital statistics,

But yet never know your dreams,

Never know your intentions,

Your ambitions,

What it is that you love or what makes you sing and dance.

Those things can't necessarily show up on a computer screen or with scientific instruments.

So to explore our nature we have to go in there,

We have to know our nature ourselves.

We don't have to do this alone because there are wonderful guides,

Wonderful guided practices,

Friends,

Teachers to help us on our way so we can find safety and community with people who are treading this path or who have trodden this path before and have rich learning to share.

So this series aims to be like a field guide to help you explore while acknowledging that the journey is yours and that all of the learning that arises is yours and that you can trust that,

You can trust your own wisdom and let it guide you.

So what will we be covering here in this field guide?

Well just as there are clues that botanists look for in the outside world,

For example if we're trying to identify a plant we look at the size of the plant,

We look at the leaf shape,

Whether the leaves arrange themselves in pairs or alternately along the stem and we look at things like what colour the flowers are or what kind of fruit the plant produces.

So these are all clues and a good botanist knows which clues to look for.

But likewise in terms of the inner world there are clues to what we can study and see and this is what I like to call our inner botany,

The botany of the inside world.

For instance if we're trying to identify a particular thought pattern we can look at which kinds of thoughts are habitually occurring.

Is it planning?

Is it daydreaming?

And we can look at the emotional current that's driving them,

You know is this being driven by desire or anxiety or anger?

And we can look at our relationship to them.

Are we hooked into these thought patterns?

Are we resisting these thought patterns?

What's the intention or the urge or the view behind the thought pattern?

And so we'll go into thoughts as well as other elements of our inner botany in a lot more detail in further talks and practices.

So although this series is entitled Listening Deeply,

It really goes beyond listening.

We begin the pathway of listening using all of our senses,

Gathering information and as we gather information and we settle our concentration we start to see patterns emerge and as we start to see patterns emerge this leads to learning.

So this is wisdom,

You know learning here meaning wisdom.

So wisdom kind of naturally arises out of awareness and this is not a kind of mystical thing you know this is actually the shape of any experiential learning process.

So let's say you were enjoying watching birds and you were studying two birds.

Here in Australia we have these beautiful little birds called Superb Fairy Wrens.

Beautiful little hedge birds with fantails that you find in the forests here.

So let's say we're watching two of these Superb Fairy Wrens and we notice that one is very colourful,

It's bright blue and it's dancing around the other who's still sitting,

Watching and brown in colour.

Well previously we learned that often in the bird kingdom male birds have brighter plumage and engage in courtship rituals.

So as we study these Fairy Wrens this wisdom arises,

You look deeply at what these birds are doing,

You see a pattern,

You can compare it to the experiential knowledge that you already have and this allows some kind of learning or insight to arise.

And this process is exactly the same when we study anything including ourselves.

So this process of listening deeply,

Waiting for learning to emerge brings us deeply intuitive guidance on what to do and what not to do,

Meaning what action to take in life or what action not to take.

And so this is how these practices actually become the basis for very very practical wisdom that we can use in everyday life.

So really these practices are not about blissing out or disconnecting,

These practices are really very very useful and practical and really about being in the world and acting skilfully in the world.

So they all begin from listening,

Listening deeply,

This simple act of paying attention in a caring way.

So as we journey together you can expect us to cover how to listen and connect with nature,

What to look for in the nature outside,

What to look for in the nature inside,

Body awareness,

Breath awareness,

Using the senses,

Exploring thoughts,

Feelings and emotions,

Exploring our relationship to experience,

Allowing wisdom to naturally arise from what we're studying,

Listening deeply to the heart and with the heart,

Cultivating gratitude and appreciation of nature.

How to listen to suffering and pain with compassion,

Living in reciprocity,

Giving and receiving,

Exploring universal laws like impermanence and cause and effect,

Listening deeply in relationship with others,

Living in balance with nature and causing no harm,

Taking the wilderness with us into life and work,

Self as an ecosystem,

As part of nature,

Listening to our deeper nature,

The deep inner teacher and naturally awakening with a wild and pure heart.

So saying all of this I'm really excited to share this with you because it's my deep deep love as well as my life's work and every day going to practice mindfulness in nature I wake up delighted to go and practice listening deeply.

I really love it,

Love being outside,

Love taking time to connect to the natural world and to feel a bit more connected to myself and somehow connected more to a sense of place and purpose because of this deep listening.

And then there is something deeper,

Something perhaps a bit more mysterious.

What lies beneath experience itself?

Because under the surface of these ever changing sensations,

Thoughts and emotions lies a deeper sense of presence and knowing and being,

A kind of livingness or as Miriam Rose and Ganma says,

A deep spring in us,

Something that feels both magical and yet very very simple,

Just awareness.

Something that feels both deep and spacious and light.

Maybe best not to put too many words to this but let it be something that we check for ourselves in our own experience.

What is behind everything that we're experiencing?

And this has many names in many different traditions,

You know,

Soul or essence of mind or life force or spirit.

Perhaps it's best left to each of us to investigate and decide for ourselves.

Nevertheless this place of sacred livingness is something that many people say they touch into the more deeply they listen in nature.

And you are warmly welcome to walk this wild path with me.

So are you in?

Then let's go.

But before we set off on our big bold adventures,

Here's a little housekeeping.

I'd love to explain just a few more practical points about how to use these talks and practices.

So when you hear guidance to listen deeply to nature,

It simply means tuning in.

So listening deeply with all of the senses,

Not just with the ears like conventional listening.

And don't worry,

This will be very very natural,

You know,

Like when we go hiking or we go to the beach,

We just simply receive through all of our senses,

Simply being.

Holding the wind on our skin.

Warm sand under our feet.

Smell of wet wood.

Or the taste of the salty air.

So listening deeply means deeply hearing,

Seeing,

Feeling,

Tasting and smelling.

And tuning in to the thoughts and feelings inside.

So when we're in the forest,

Ah,

We notice we feel calm.

Oh,

And then we notice a worry arising.

When we're lying on the beach,

Maybe we notice some physical tension in my shoulders.

Ah,

And then we notice it start to melt away into the sand.

So listening deeply also means having an awareness of this inner life.

Can be really wonderful to do these listening deeply practices outside.

So nature really supports us to feel connected and alive.

And for some of us nature can feel a bit scary too.

So choose somewhere that feels okay for you to be.

It could be somewhere really wild.

Or maybe you prefer a garden or a park.

And if we're just connecting to the natural world from indoors,

Maybe you can look through a window or look at a plant.

And failing that,

We can always use these practices just to explore any space that we're in with our senses,

But with a sense of the world at large.

You know,

For instance,

Whatever space we're in,

We will hear sounds from both inside and outside the space.

We might see light coming in from outside.

And I'll be inviting you to practice in any posture you like.

You know,

We can do these practices sitting,

Standing,

Lying,

Walking.

So your choice.

And yeah,

You know,

Some of these postures have a different feel.

Hiking meditation feels a lot more active than sitting meditation.

Lying down meditation can feel a lot more sleepy than sitting meditation.

That's okay.

It really is about you listening deeply to your needs as well.

You know,

What is your body asking you for today?

And we can still enjoy nature connection with mindfulness,

Moving,

Lying down,

Just as much as we can sitting still.

This is a particular style of Insight Meditation,

Which almost feels like non-meditation.

It might feel quite different to the other meditations that you've practiced because here we're completely being natural,

Just allowing ourselves to use our senses and be guided by present moment awareness.

Not trying to do anything,

Not trying to get anywhere,

Not trying to improve our concentration or access states or imagine other realms.

And you know,

You might enjoy those kinds of practices.

That's great.

Please keep doing them.

But here,

Listening deeply,

We're simply tuning in,

Tuning in more and more deeply and just taking in what's natural.

Which sounds easy,

But we'll all experience mind wandering and how much the mind loves to invent or worry or ruminate.

So let's touch down.

Let's touch the earth.

Let's be here now and breathe and marvel at the beauty of nature.

No need to add anything.

No need to take anything away.

If you can,

You're invited to give yourself the gift of single tasking,

Meaning not multitasking,

Meaning just doing this practice if you can.

And if you can treat yourself like this,

Honestly,

You'll feel the most benefit.

So these practices are designed to allow us to cultivate awareness in everyday life so that over time we can just integrate awareness into anything we're doing.

You know,

We can be aware while we're driving,

While we're doing the tishes,

While we're talking.

Just taking time to practice without multitasking is so nourishing because there's no subtle agenda or striving running the show in the background.

Let me give you an example.

It's the difference between watching the ocean waves while we're hurrying along the beach,

Trying to beat our personal best time for a five kilometer walk or watching the ocean waves as we meander along the beach,

Savoring what we see with nothing else to do.

You can feel the difference,

Hey?

There's nothing wrong with wanting to beat our personal best time,

But there's definitely an agenda going on.

Whereas just taking time to be in the elements and use our senses can take us to a very timeless,

Connected state of being.

Very present,

Very grounded,

But at the same time,

Very deep and deeply connected to our own intuition and wisdom,

As well as deeply nourishing.

So you are cordially invited to give yourself a holiday.

Permission to let go of other agendas,

Responsibilities,

Pressures as you do these practices.

And as we'll be using all of our senses,

Including the sense of hearing,

As you continue to listen to the practices particularly,

You might like to listen either through speakers or just with your earphones in one ear,

So another ear is open for the sounds around you and you can tune in there,

As well as take in these instructions.

So that's the housekeeping done.

I would love to invite you to put all of this now into practice and begin this quest.

So if you have time,

Inviting you after this talk to go to the first guided practice in the Listening Deeply series.

And let's have a go at connecting with the nature outside and the nature inside by listening deeply.

You You

Reviews

What a wonderful way to experience our own nature, body and mind.
Thank you.

What a beautiful talk, very relaxing and soothing in itself, but also inspiring and informative. I've always felt very connected to nature, and I can relate to everything said here. Life can get hectic and we tend to forget this deep innate connection with nature, and also with our inner nature. I 'm looking forward to start Listening Deeply. Thank you so much🙏

💖💖💖I am so glad I found you! fabulous💖

Lovely. I look forward to hearing more. Deeply! 🙏