121. Life Lessons from Mother Nature

Nature is all around us. But how often do you really connect with the great outdoors? One of the most profound lessons we can learn from the natural world is the deep interconnectedness of all living things. In this episode of Spiritually Hungry, Monica and Michael discuss the unique ways nature can expand our consciousness and impact our lives.

Transcript

At the end of the day,

It is ego.

Ego,

The bigger,

I would say,

The bigger an ego a person has,

The more powerful that ego is,

The more in the driver's seat it is,

The less ability they're going to have to be able to see,

Taste,

Feel,

Experience nature as it's intended.

Welcome to Spiritually Hungry.

I haven't told a story in a while.

Oh,

I love your stories.

I'm going to start with that.

An old Indian parable tells of a night when terrified residents were awakened by blasting and thunderous sounds outside the walls of their city.

Six brave blind scholars had been studying near the gate,

So they ventured out to investigate.

Blind scholars,

You said?

That's what I said.

So they would be my first choice to send out to investigate.

Well,

They were scholars.

Each came back with a differing report of the culprit.

A giant snake,

A strange tree trunk,

Massive leaf,

A trembling stone wall,

A whipping rope.

Each description relied solely upon whichever part of the trespassing elephant the scholar had grasped.

This story was shared in the film Awake,

Glimpses of Consciousness.

It got me thinking,

Do any of us really understand our place in the universe?

How can we when we have no way to objectively observe it?

Not only that,

I think we'll share with our listeners,

We see so little,

We hear so little.

And we think we see it all.

Both Kabbalah and science continue to show us that we're not merely conscious beings interacting with some vast lifeless unknown.

Rather,

We're part of something far greater,

Living and evolving process that relies in part upon our own participation in its unfolding.

I remember the first time this really,

Really struck me.

We had taken a trip to Big Sur.

And I remember I was so overwhelmed by the stars,

By the enormous redwood trees.

Like we were all,

We were like,

We were staying in pretty much a tree house more or less.

And we were just surrounded in nature,

Just the two of us.

And I felt diminished and humbled beneath the expansiveness of it all.

The wide sky filled with glittering stars inspired a profound realization deep within me.

It reminded me of the 99% realm that we speak about in Kabbalah versus the 1%.

The Kabbalistic idea that our senses allow us to perceive only the 1% of what's actually out there,

As you just said.

And I was struck by the extraordinary grandness in our smallness.

And there's a great astronomer and author,

Carl Sagan.

And he said,

For all our conceits about being the center of the universe,

We live on a routine planet of humdrum stars stuck away in an obscure corner of an unexceptional galaxy,

Which is one of billions of galaxies.

We now know that there are between one and 4 billion stars in our Milky Way alone,

And an estimated 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

This number is nearly impossible to comprehend.

But if you were to count every grain of sand on every single beach,

You'd enter the ballpark.

I mean,

Doesn't that just blow your mind?

It gives perspective for sure.

I could go on and on.

I will say that the Zohar,

Which is the main Kabbalistic wisdom,

States that each person is a replica of the universe as a whole.

And there was a recent study published in Frontiers of Physics.

And this is really remarkable too.

They found similarities between the structure of the observed universe and that of our own brains.

Have you heard this?

I haven't.

Among the many parallels,

Both systems are organized in defined networks with nodes,

Meaning neurons in the brain and galaxies in the universe,

Connected through filaments.

While no one's claiming that the universe is literally a giant brain,

The macro-microcosmic connection becomes increasingly undeniable.

Right.

So I think part of what we want to share with our listeners today,

Which is something I know inspires both of us very much,

Is by deepening our understanding of nature,

And more importantly,

By deepening our understanding of how little we even understand of nature.

So you mentioned before,

You know,

That we talk in spiritual terms,

That there's the 99% spiritual realm,

Which is so much greater and more vast than the physical.

But the reality is that even when it comes to the physical,

We are so blind,

So deaf.

And while I think a lot of what we're going to share is both inspiring and interesting,

For me the most important takeaway is,

Well,

If there is so much beyond what I can see,

Beyond what we can hear,

Well,

Like you said before,

How much more is there within me that I haven't even begun to tap?

And the connection to the natural world is something that the Kabbalists and really almost all spiritual traditions speak about the importance of that connection.

And I think the reality is that too many of us are not connected enough to the natural world,

And certainly I would say to its secrets.

Because once you are,

I think that necessarily leads to a spiritual understanding of things,

And certainly to a deeper comprehension of our own greatness.

I think part of it is we should start with the very onset of this idea and ask ourselves,

What is it that we pay the most attention to?

And it's probably in the 1%,

Right?

And then ask yourself,

How many times a day or in a week do you actually stop and ponder these kinds of things?

How much do you rely on nature to inform really the laws of the universe and what we can learn from it?

Because everything is connected.

We are interconnected.

And there's some things that we're going to talk about today.

Again,

I'm so inspired.

I'm just going to keep saying that because it's that anything that can make us in the moment feel humble and small is a good thing,

Right?

Well,

It's interesting because you reminded me because last week we spoke about,

I think it was last episode,

But awe,

Right?

And this is really a beautiful,

I didn't even think about it in this way,

But it's a beautiful continuation of that.

And based on what you said now,

Which I think is so important,

I'd like our listeners to stop and think about this.

One of the great purposes of nature is to gain a greater perspective.

Why do we get sad most of the time?

Why do we get concerned most of the time?

Why do we worry?

Most of it is a diminishment of vision,

Right?

This person did this to me or I'm even worried they might do it to me tomorrow.

And that's my entire world now.

What do you mean?

But there's billions of stars.

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No,

No.

This is all that right now,

All that exists is me and my fear of this person.

That's it.

And really it's just a moment in time.

And if we even talk about time,

It's just a moment.

Within the realm of nature,

This isn't even a tiny blip,

Right?

But again,

This isn't to talk down to all of us who have this problem all the time,

But I think one of the reasons why it's so important to learn about nature,

One of the most important reasons it's important to be connected to nature is that it gives you a more expansive vision of the world,

Of your place in it.

And again,

To go back to the point,

Which I think is so important,

99% of our problems come from a limited view and every negative thought,

Every negative experience,

All that it does is just closes our field of vision.

That's probably one of our greatest enemies.

And I want all of our listeners to think about it.

Today yesterday,

Tomorrow,

You got upset about something,

Something worried you,

You're worried about something else,

You have this fear or this anxiety.

What is the actual effect of that?

Or even what is the reality within which that exists,

Can exist?

Only one reality,

A tiny one,

A small,

Small sliver of not even reality,

I wouldn't call it,

But a small,

Small sliver of my experience.

But not to take away from how people might feel in that moment,

Because it feels real in the moment and it feels scary.

And the idea of the unknown,

Right?

But that's why it's important to go back to a system that is perfect.

And that is nature.

It's a system that is connected to where we come from,

Right?

It doesn't react to these things we're talking about.

The things that we react to that make our vision small,

That make us sad,

Nature doesn't react to.

Right.

And what I'd like to add to that,

Which I think is so important,

Like you said in the beginning,

Another very,

Very important,

You know,

These concepts might be things either we've spoken before,

People have heard before,

But there's a very big difference between knowing them and living them,

Right?

And the thought that we are made of all that nature is made of.

So if I come to understand that,

For example,

This universe is endless and ever expanding,

What does that say about me?

It means that I have the potential to be endless,

But that I actually am,

Right?

I have to tap into the reality of me being an endless and ever expanding force.

And to do that,

You have to know what to pay attention to.

Yes.

So,

But again,

Like I said,

That's why it's so important.

I don't think it's possible to live the life that we're meant to live unless we're learning about nature,

Learning from nature,

And experiencing at least the expansiveness,

The awesome expansiveness of nature,

And then trying to internalize that both into my consciousness and how I view my problems.

And again,

Not to diminish,

You know,

We all have problems that overtake us at times and take up our mind space,

And as we said before,

Start to limit our view.

But on the clearer days,

Let's make clear that we understand that thing that really upset me yesterday,

That thing that I was consumed with the day before,

That is not even a drop of water in the ocean of reality.

I'm not petting you right now.

I think,

You know,

It's funny,

Miles doesn't usually want to join us on the podcast.

He does today.

He does because he knows what we're talking about.

He understands what we're talking about.

Yeah,

Maybe we should do at some point a podcast about animals.

But right now we're talking about the natural world.

I know,

And Miles has really tapped in and he's taken over.

I think also another thing is that if you look to see if something's good for you,

Right?

Like again,

All of these are hints that I think the Creator gives us.

Pay attention to this.

If that thing's good for you,

There must be something novel for you.

If that other thing's good for you,

Go explore that.

So we just look about being in nature,

Right?

There's some great facts about this in statistics.

Researchers from Cornell found that it takes as few as 10 minutes in a natural setting for college students to feel happier and less affected by stress,

Both physically and mentally.

10 minutes,

Right?

10 minutes of- Of being in a natural outdoor setting.

How long does it take?

Sorry,

Did they compare it to what it takes within confines of four walls?

No,

No,

No.

We're only talking about what happens when you actually go out.

You also mentioned that another study said that you're 68% less stressed on a whole if you spend two hours outdoors a week.

Okay?

68%.

And another thing that was really interesting,

You mentioned sadness.

We know that vitamin D is so important.

Where do you get it from naturally?

The sun,

Right?

Again,

From nature.

And one of the remedies for sadness is vitamin D.

People don't realize this.

Usually when they're feeling sad,

It doesn't really make sense,

Or they're not a sad person,

And suddenly,

Like I know when we moved to New York,

I was like,

What's going on?

I'm feeling a little bit sad in a way that I haven't.

And I upped my vitamin D and that reaction went away.

I do want to start with this one book that really inspired me.

It's funny,

My dear friend and homeopath,

She's passed away a long time ago now,

About 10 years,

But she recommended this book to me 10 years ago.

And she was like,

Monica,

Because I would often talk about these things where it's like,

I don't understand why people behave this way.

Sometimes I don't understand what we're talking about.

And you get stuck on that one person who's bullying you,

Right?

Especially if it's not found.

I mean,

It never is,

But if they come out of nowhere and you're like,

Okay,

Well,

Clearly that's a message in some way that's meant to be.

If you try to make sense of it,

Just from that,

Again,

Small view,

You're never going to make sense of it.

So she recommended this book and she was like,

Everything you need to learn in life,

You need to learn from trees.

So it's a great book called The Hidden Life of Trees written by Peter Wohlaben.

And he explores the fascinating complex world of the forest ecosystem.

And he said when he began his professional career as a forester,

He knew as much about the hidden life of trees as a butcher knows that of the emotional life of an animal.

So from his 35 years of research and observations,

He found that the trees are not so different from us.

They're far from being simple,

Passive organisms,

Which you would think,

Right?

It's funny because recently I went on a hike and my friend was,

I mean,

The trees were just so beautiful and different sizes and shapes.

And she's like,

Let's hug trees.

And I was,

I never considered myself a tree hugger,

But it does pull out like a heaviness and a weight.

I started hugging trees and I have to tell you,

Honestly,

Oh my God,

I was,

It literally felt like somebody had like,

Just like I had just watched a comedy.

Really?

Yeah.

It was really powerful.

I will no longer look askance on tree hugging.

Our son Josh,

Bless him,

Is such like a pure heart and he's always light.

Like he picked the little skinniest tree to hug.

I think the tree needed him more than he needed the tree.

But what he found is that,

Peter that is,

Found that the trees experience pain and have memory.

And that's why that if a tree,

Now this is routine,

If a tree is sick in the forest,

They won't bring machines in because it frightens the trees and they have a memory of what's going to happen.

So they pull the tree out,

A sick tree with horses.

Oh,

Really?

Yeah.

They also have family structures.

They live with their children in close proximity.

They age.

A young tree is smoother and as they get older,

They have grooves and wrinkles as we do.

And part of the reason that it's hard for us to understand them as he puts it is that we can't really understand because they live on a different scale than we do.

If you had to guess,

How old do you think the oldest tree is?

1500 years?

No,

Not even close.

It's a spruce in Sweden and it's 9,

500 years old,

Which is 115 times longer than we live.

9,

500 years.

And he goes into why and how and you can.

What's it called?

It's called a spruce.

I'll put in 9,

500 year old.

I recommend to all of our listeners to do this as well.

Funnily enough,

When I started to,

I listened to the book again recently.

Old Chico is called,

Is his name.

Really?

Chico?

Do you have a picture?

It looks,

I don't know.

It was discovered when we first examined the tree line.

This can't be,

I don't know,

Is this it?

That doesn't look like it at all.

But yeah,

It's old Chico.

Oh,

Chico's old.

Old trees,

By the way,

It goes into a whole description of what happens when trees.

That's very cool.

Can you imagine 9,

500 years?

Right.

That's very cool.

It's very interesting actually.

It compares it in his book.

He compares it to adults.

Like old trees and older people go a little thin at the crown.

People tend to lose their hair on trees.

The top branches may become sparser and weaker as the tree gets older.

So actually that tree probably looks very,

Very accurate.

You would think it's like this big robust.

No,

It's actually looks old.

Yeah,

Like the large redwoods.

Right.

And like elderly people,

Elderly trees may also experience a decline in overall health as they age,

Which makes them more susceptible to disease or injury.

But I kind of thought of the book,

The Giving Tree,

Right?

Because even other trees come to help trunks that are now.

Right.

That was a very cool thing.

They feed it sugar.

And when one tree is sick,

The other trees take up their nutrients and send it to them,

Which is crazy.

Amazing.

So I mean,

And then you think about this,

Right?

If you look at like fairy tales or like the enchanted forest and like,

Oh,

It's all made up.

Actually,

No,

Not so much.

And I thought what was really interesting is that it reminds me of my book,

The Gift of Being Different.

With the gnarled trees,

The crooked trees,

The bizarre root shaped trees,

The ones that grow peculiarly or that have mossy cushions on their bark.

Those are the ones that are really beautiful,

Actually.

And when I was listening to the book on Audible recently,

We were hiking through Hudson Valley and I'm listening to this book as I'm looking at these trees and I started to pay attention to things that I hadn't in the beauty,

Just in trees.

I mean,

We're talking about all things in nature,

But there's profound lessons that we can learn.

Absolutely.

And that's why I think for both of us,

A very inspiring book.

And again,

Just bringing it back,

As I said,

For me,

This isn't just a very,

Which I do find it to be both interesting,

Fascinating about the unknown experiences that occur.

But more importantly,

When you begin to understand that everything has a system,

Right?

That trees clearly have a deep,

Deep emotional,

Caring system.

It gives you a- They have community.

They take care of the sick.

They come,

I'm going to go into other facts later,

But yeah.

But what it does is gives us the perspective,

Which I think sometimes we don't know or at least internalize that there must be therefore a system for humans as well.

And that's where the spiritual wisdom comes in.

That there's a reason why,

Again,

Just to be very simple about it,

By being selfish ultimately doesn't work.

Why being angry doesn't work.

Thinking only of yourself.

Exactly,

Because there is a system.

And for me,

Again,

The inspiration from the natural world needs to lead to concrete changes that we make.

And another book that really inspires me,

I think,

Again,

I do recommend it.

It's a beautiful,

Beautiful book by Karen Backer.

It's called The Sounds of Life.

And she talks about the fact,

Which again,

The lack of hearing that we humans have.

So I'd like to quote a little bit from the book.

Again,

For me,

It all goes to reinforce the idea of how little we hear,

How little we see,

How little we know.

And again,

Hopefully the effect of that is,

Well,

I won't get that upset about this next thing.

Or I won't let this person bother me as much.

There's a much bigger reality,

A much bigger system at play.

So compared with our cousins on the tree of life,

Humans are poor listeners.

Isn't that true?

She means it in a scientific way,

But it's definitely true.

Below the lower end of human hearing lies deep infrasound,

The realm of thunder and tornadoes,

Elephants and whales.

Many creatures can sense and communicate an infrasound,

Which travels long distances with ease,

Passing through air and water,

Soil and stone.

The planet's infrasonic chorus is continuously sounding all around you.

How interesting is that to know that if we were able to hear- It's hard to even comprehend.

Right?

To hear this entire sound of nature that is pulsing throughout the world all the time.

We don't know it,

But we hear it.

That's part of why you go even to the ocean.

It's the feeling of the sand on your feet.

It's the smells.

It's hearing the ocean.

It's enticing to all of your senses.

And there's more that- And then you're saying there's another layer to that that you can't even like,

What can't we hear?

Forget about what we can hear.

Right.

Many animals,

Rock doves and snakes,

Tigers and mountain beavers are able to hear these low frequency sounds.

So the crazy thing is that the animals are a lot more aware,

In tune.

And this is again a spiritual,

A capitalistic teaching,

But that's the fact that they are much more in tune to the sounds and therefore the reality of what's around us than human beings are,

But not humans.

Our hearing is typically confined to a relatively narrow band of frequencies between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz,

A range that narrows as we age.

So to understand that,

And this is true again,

I just find this so beautiful,

Fascinating and inspiring.

And this is because this is not just about hearing,

This is about life.

Our band of hearing is narrow,

But there's so much sound that occur above it and below it.

And for any individual to think,

Oh,

I hear all there is to hear,

Which I think is the natural ego thought,

Is so stupid.

Because even on a very physical level,

We're only hearing a tiny fraction of all that's going around.

At the other end of this spectrum,

She writes,

Above the upper threshold of human hearing lies the ultrasonic,

High frequency sounds that vibrate too quickly for us to hear.

A surprisingly diverse array of species,

Mice and moths,

Bats and beetles,

Corn and corals,

Emit ultrasonic sounds imperceptible to humans.

This is an interesting thing because this is also very much aligned with the spiritual teachings.

Our ancestors may once have been able to hear these high pitched sounds,

And our smaller primate cousins,

Tiny tarsiers and dwarf lemurs can still communicate in ultrasound.

So because it is a teaching from the czar that humans were much grander than they are now.

And she's saying as well that even in being able to hear these ultrasonic sounds of nature,

People probably were able to.

And they were able to hear in all ways.

In all ways.

Spiritual,

Physical,

Exactly.

Right.

And this,

Again,

I'll start this quote with this,

What I thought,

Beautiful saying from a philosopher.

As Blackfoot philosopher,

Sort of the indigenous Canadian people philosopher,

Leroy Littlebear says,

The human brain is like a station on the radio dial,

Parked in one spot.

It's deaf to all other stations,

The animals,

Rocks,

Trees,

Simultaneously broadcasting across the whole spectrum of sentience.

Our physiologies and perhaps our psyches limit our ability to listen to our non-human kin.

Well,

Even to human kin.

This is my point.

I mean,

You know,

Like when you're reading that,

I'm just thinking like,

I want to be with those people,

You know,

Because with those animals,

With those,

I want to live in that realm because sometimes it's like,

And you know,

You know,

When somebody comes across your path and they are so sure they know things about you,

About themselves,

About the world,

They're so sure that like,

It's like looking at a wall,

Like there's no way to penetrate that.

And then you're left with like,

Well,

I guess you have to,

This really,

I mean,

But it's,

It's not easy.

It's not easy day to day.

But again,

I want to.

I said the sureness that what I see,

What I've heard,

What I believe based on who told me what I know that to be true based on what?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So again,

I think this is a beautiful quote from the sounds of.

It is if you unpack it all.

Of life.

Right.

But most important for me when I read that is,

Do I want to,

Do I,

And I ask our listeners to ask themselves this question.

Okay.

You don't have to be too spiritual to understand now that there's so much more sound messages than what you think exists.

You are,

You have,

We have all been listening.

You don't have to be spiritual,

But you have to be open.

Yes.

We've been listening on a tiny,

Tiny,

Tiny part of the sounds that exist.

How do I open myself up to more,

To more,

To hear more?

And again,

That could be with another person that could be with nature,

But just the knowledge is so much more for me to hear.

If I understand that all my hearing up until now has been basically deaf.

So listen deeper,

Listen stronger,

Open yourself up to so much more than what you hear and what you're saying.

So practically?

Well,

Practically it means that when I'm in,

You know,

You actually,

It's interesting because you often have this advice when you're,

Which I think the thing is so beautiful when you're counseling couples.

So they'll be arguing and the husband will be saying,

You know,

You're so cold to me and she'll be saying,

You know,

You never help around that,

Whatever,

Whatever those,

And you always say,

Okay,

That's what they're saying.

What's the,

What's the want behind?

What's the hurt behind the words?

I also think there's a big difference between listening and hearing.

You can listen to somebody.

I listened to you,

But did it penetrate anything?

Am I just waiting for you to be quiet so I can speak?

I mean,

You know,

Listening,

Hearing is really being able to absorb what's being said.

And again,

Like the example you get,

You just gave seeing past anything physical,

The words,

The expression,

And see what,

What's really behind it.

You just mentioned relationships and actually just something really exciting.

I read in the life of trees and we all,

You know,

Scientists believe that pheromones in sweat are a decisive factor when we choose our partners,

Right?

This isn't new.

We know this.

In other words,

Those with whom we wish to procreate,

Right?

Cause that's how you,

If you don't like the smell of somebody,

You are not going to sleep with them.

So it seems fair to say that we possess a secret language of scent and trees have demonstrated that they do as well.

So four decades ago,

Scientists noticed some notice something in the African Savannah,

The drafts,

They were feeding on umbrella,

Thorn Acacias,

And the trees didn't like that one bit.

It took the Acacias mere minutes to start pumping toxic substances into their leaves to rid themselves of the large herbivores.

The drafts got the message and moved on to other trees in the vicinity,

But did they move closer to the tree?

Did they move to the trees close by?

What do you think?

Tell me.

No,

Not for the time being.

They walked right by a few trees and resumed their meal only when they had moved about a hundred yards away.

Do you know why?

Because the smell goes that far.

The Acacia trees that were being eaten gave off a warning gas that signaled to neighboring trees of the same species that a crisis was at hand.

How amazing is that?

Right away,

All of the forewarned trees also pump toxins into their leaves to prepare themselves.

The drafts were wise to this game and therefore they moved far away from where they were.

That's so beautiful.

And again,

Sorry you just inspired me as I was listening to that.

Another very practical lesson that I hope we and our listeners take from this,

The next time I was actually having these conversations every day,

We do what we do,

Somebody's saying,

You know,

Why is this happening to me?

It doesn't make sense,

Right?

Why is this happening to me?

Well take a step back.

The system's kind of perfect.

Nature's kind of perfect.

So do you think if the Acacia was,

Which way was the forest?

In the savanna.

In the savanna.

Their system is so perfect to protect them.

Is it possible that maybe this little thing that's happening in your life is also part of a greater system that's all perfect?

That's the problem.

We don't trust ourselves.

We don't trust those around us.

The trees never question like,

Oh,

That tree to the left of me.

Right,

But my point is- Oh,

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I'm saying that- By learning about nature,

You really get a sense of the perfect system of nature.

Which must include our lives and our interactions as well.

I'm going to give you one more example.

Beaches.

Sorry,

I didn't mean to cut you off,

But again,

Just going back to Karen.

That's very inspiring.

Yeah,

Karen Bakker,

She also uses so many examples,

But one of them is the fact that when bushes,

Flowers hear bees,

They can hear the bees,

Which is kind of crazy,

Right?

They actually start producing the- The nectar.

The nectar to draw them in.

So this interplay of nature between sounds that we don't hear often and the emitting of this toxin from these trees is just,

To me,

Just both so inspiring,

So beautiful.

And again,

For me most importantly,

It's,

Wow,

The system's perfect.

And also,

I find great solace in it.

When I'm confused by human behavior sometimes,

I really do go to this information,

This understanding,

This wisdom to make myself humble,

Make myself small.

Because by the way,

If you take all of those things so seriously,

You do think you're really important in not the great ways.

I hate to say it,

But that's the truth,

Right?

Important in all the wrong ways.

And important in it's a justified,

Like that person's doing wrong by me,

Right?

I have the right to feel hurt.

I have the right to feel,

Do I'm going to make a stand?

Yes,

But first I think we need to make ourselves small and still and humble and look to a foolproof system that's been around forever,

Right?

So there's one more example in the book I thought was so interesting.

He gives examples of these trees,

Beaches,

Spruce,

And oaks all register pain,

Okay?

As soon as some creature starts nibbling on them.

When a caterpillar takes a hearty bite out of a leaf,

The tissue around the site of the damage changes.

In addition,

The leaf tissue sends out electrical signals just as human tissue does when it's hurt.

Wow.

This ability to produce different compounds is another feature that helps trees fend off attack for a while.

When it comes to some species of insects,

Trees can accurately identify which bad guys they're up against.

The saliva of each species is different and trees can match the saliva to the insect.

Wow.

Indeed,

The match can be so precise that trees can release pheromones that summon specific beneficial predators.

Can you believe this?

That's very cool.

The beneficial predators help trees by eagerly devouring the insects that are bothering them.

So for example,

Elms and pines call on small parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside leaf-eating caterpillars.

As the wasp larvae develop- I know,

But it's so interesting.

They devour the larger caterpillars bit by bit from the inside out.

I know.

Not a nice way to die.

Both disgusting and inspiring.

But the result is that the trees are safe from both bothersome pests and can keep growing with no further damage.

Wow.

Wow.

I wanted to also share,

And again,

This is from the Sounds of Life.

So she talks about how we've lost the ability to listen.

And she says,

Deep listening is a venerable and ancient art,

Still practiced as a powerful method of revealing nature's truths.

Indeed,

Many of the discoveries recounted in this book are often in fact merely rediscoveries of older forms of environmental knowledge.

As plant ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer writes,

I smile when my colleagues say,

I discovered X.

That's kind of like Columbus claiming that he discovered America.

It's not about discovery,

But about listening and translating the knowledge of other beings.

Kimmerer reminds us that if we ask clear,

Open-minded questions and patiently pay attention,

Nature gives us the answers.

And again,

Bringing this back to practical daily practice,

When you're feeling overwhelmed,

When you're feeling upset,

Read,

You know,

I would literally take five minutes every day and read The Hidden Life of Trees or read The Sounds of Life.

And also go for a walk in nature.

Yes.

And then remind yourself,

But again,

But the thought is,

Wow,

First of all,

Like we said before,

Reality is so much more expansive.

I am not going to let this limit my view and therefore my life and therefore me and therefore my experience.

And second,

The system's pretty awesome,

The natural system,

And I'm part of that.

And therefore what I'm experiencing,

What I'm going through also must be awesome.

Basically what you're saying,

It's a reminder of the deep interconnectedness of all living things.

Exactly.

And if you look at it like that,

That is the big picture,

All living things.

And again,

But for me,

The bottom line is therefore there must be a system at play in my life as well.

Before we end,

I thought it was interesting.

There's a famous,

He's kind of a philosopher,

Writer,

Marshall McLuhan.

He wrote the book,

The Gutenberg Galaxy.

And he explains,

Which I thought was interesting,

The historical context with why we have stopped listening well.

So he talks about the interplay between technology and our senses.

The rise of movable type,

He argued,

Changed humanity's perceptual habits.

So in the 1400s,

When Gutenberg invented movable type,

The ability to really mass produce writing books that were written,

By replacing oral and scribe cultures,

Because up until then all you had was the oral traditions given over and maybe a few written by scribe parchments,

But most of it had to be oral and therefore you had to listen.

So if you think about it,

Up until 1460 or whatever,

Gutenberg invented movable type.

If you wanted to learn,

You had to listen well.

So it was a very sharpened,

Heightened use of that sense,

Right?

And not just the physical ears,

But listening through a hearing.

And energetically also.

Exactly.

And now we don't have to rely on that,

So it becomes dull.

By replacing oral and scribe cultures with print technology.

So he's not even talking about the web,

Right?

But the importance of our visual senses intensified.

So sight became much more important.

The salience of oral and oral sensing receded.

Information no longer needed to be recalled and remembered,

Rather it needed to be collected and organized.

Gone were the recitations of long epic poems,

Which cultivated the art of memory.

These were replaced by the segmentation of information,

Which cultivated the art of knowledge specialization.

Literacy replaced orality.

The Dewey decimal system supplanted Homer's Odyssey.

I just want to say one thing,

I know you're going to unpack this,

But I have a friend who,

She never had great hearing.

And then only like when she was 40,

She got her first hearing aid and she hated it because she wasn't used to hearing all of these sounds.

In fact,

She's like,

I can hear my own hair blow in the wind and I don't like that sound.

So it just reminded me of what you're saying.

For her,

Hearing much more was uncomfortable.

Right,

Right.

But the positive,

I think the lesson that I wanted to extract from that idea is we have to realize for the past 500 years,

We've diminished,

Technology has allowed us or brought us to limiting our ability to listen and hear.

And if you want to live the life that you're meant to live,

You have to go back to nature and go back to really.

.

.

By the way,

We find this in our work with people,

Probably the biggest problem that humanity has,

Probably the biggest problem we have,

And of course it relates to the ego,

Is that we don't listen.

Often we don't even want to listen,

But we don't listen,

We don't hear.

And what I hope we inspire our listeners today is with knowledge,

With the desire,

I need to hear more.

That's interesting.

I did a workshop this past week with a group of like 35 people.

And it was this idea of hearing,

Listening versus hearing.

And I asked three questions at the end of the workshop,

Said,

Who have you assigned or allowed yourself to listen to?

Because it's a choice.

We're very selective with our hearing.

Who are you deciding that you won't listen to?

Right?

Never.

Anything that comes out of a person's mouth.

And it can even just be like a person that does X for a living or a person in your life that you have a relationship with.

And the third one,

And I made them close their eyes for this one,

Because sometimes you need to cut off some of your senses to be able to really hear.

The question was,

What are you not willing to hear?

Right?

Because at the end of the day,

It is ego.

The bigger,

I would say,

The bigger an ego a person has,

The more powerful that ego is,

The more in the driver's seat it is,

The less ability they're going to have to be able to see,

Taste,

Feel,

Experience nature as it's intended.

Absolutely.

And the last quote,

This is from Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Let us bring people back into conversation with all that is green and growing,

A universe that never stopped speaking to us,

Even when we forgot how to listen.

I love that.

I quoted Sagan earlier,

The astronomer.

I like the way he says things.

So I'm going to leave you with apple pie.

He said,

If you wish to make an apple pie.

I make a great apple pie.

You didn't make it.

Well,

This year you didn't make pie crust.

No,

You do make a great one.

But you didn't make the crust.

But you didn't make the crust.

This time you brought the crust.

I am red faced with pie.

Usually you make the whole thing from scratch and that is very good.

I ask our listeners,

The only time I'll ever ask our listeners not to believe Monica.

Oh,

Hey.

But that's just you.

She's right.

But in general,

I make a great apple pie.

Okay.

Not as Michael was saying,

As Sagan was saying.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch,

You must first invent the universe.

Without the countless processes that affect the creation of the universe,

You will not be able to create the universe.

You will not be able to create the universe.

You will not be able to create the universe.

You will not be able to create the universe.

Gravity and so on.

Neither the pie nor anything else would exist.

We are nothing short of miraculous.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

So before I'd like to read a letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

It's a great letter.

So before I'd like to read a letter,

That's a perfect time to remind our listeners to continue to send your stories,

Inspirations,

Comments to MonicaAndMichaelAtKabbalah.

Com.

We are inspired by them.

Our listeners are inspired by them.

So I'd like to share with you,

This is going to be a series of emails that I will share with you from one of our listeners.

So first,

Hi Monica.

So doesn't even address it to me.

My name is Mark.

I live in Los Angeles and I am a student at the LA Kabbalah Center.

I've been a special education teacher for 30 years in the Palos Verdes School District.

I teach students in middle school who have autism and Down syndrome.

This past week I stopped at the bookstore at the center and purchased a copy of The Gift of Being Different.

This is not part of the letter,

But this is a perfect place to stop and remind all of our listeners to pause the podcast right now,

Even though it's towards the end.

And if you haven't bought your 10 copies of The Gift of Being Different,

Go to Amazon.

Com right now and order.

It's an amazing book,

Will transform your life and your kids and your families by them.

For everybody you know.

I haven't read this letter yet.

So I'm starting to get goosebumps and I'm starting to get teary eyed.

I know,

I know.

Please don't read because I'm going to share some more next week too.

I am going to finish the letter,

But anyway.

I have planned a week of lesson plans around this book.

I'm so excited to share it with my students.

We go back to school tomorrow.

This will be the perfect way to get back into the swing of things in my language arts class.

I will read them the story and then we will follow up activities throughout the week about what their superpowers are.

Thank you to you and Abigail for writing this book.

I think my students will find this very empowering.

I will let you know how it goes.

I think I heard that,

He said,

I think I heard you will be here for this weekend.

Hopefully we can say hello.

So I don't know if he came to say hello to you,

But Mark,

Thank you for sending this letter.

There's another email for Mark.

There was a follow-up to this,

Which I'm not going to read now,

But hopefully I'll share with others next week,

Which is really beautiful what happened from his.

.

.

Why don't you just finish the letter?

No,

No,

No.

That's so silly.

No,

It's long.

It's long and it's good for other students to get excited for next week.

But again,

This is so much about the podcast.

It's more about Monica's amazing book.

But as I said before,

Please do make sure to go out and buy it.

It really is an amazing book.

As always,

Continue to send this podcast,

Share this podcast with everybody you know,

Family,

Friends,

Anybody who can benefit from it.

Make sure to go to Apple Podcasts,

Write positive reviews,

Write five-star reviews,

And continue to send your letters,

Stories,

Comments to MonicaAndMichael at Kabbalah.

Com.

We are inspired by everything that you write to us and as we share them with our listeners,

They are inspired as well.

So it's a great opportunity for all of us to receive your inspiration.

And as always,

I hope you enjoyed listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it.

Stay spiritually hungry.