The Earth Spirit and the World

Speaking at a meditation retreat in Lamorna, Cornwall, 14 June 1981.

The purpose of the meditation I teach is to sink deeper and deeper into our unconscious, through the levels of the mind. The lowest level of the human unconscious contains the realisation of the One Man. Men and women are divergences of this Man of which we are all a unique part. It is most glorious and beautiful, represented by all the wonder of nature - the one thing that has excited us more than anything else: the smell of the sea or the new-mown hay, the crash of the surf, the richness of the earth, the flashing wings of the birds. All that delights us exists in this level of the mind as one entity, a spirit. I am talking of a realisation: I have made it real. I have seen it. I am it and I have been it. It is a spirit, so real and beautiful - the Spirit of the Earth. It is the basis of the human psyche.

All things come from the Earth Spirit. It is what Man is. It is the earth nature and the character of the earth: the nature we all love and know, of which we are all a part and from which we came; and the character of the earth is our idea of the earth - all the forms we see, every image man has ever had of the earth, and every image of decency based on a principle, All our most wonderful ideals are of the Earth Spirit. The reason we all treasure love, forbearance, nobility, loving kindness, compassion, is because of the character of the one and only Man. Even the most depraved self has some awareness of it. We are all moved by acts of courage, compassion, forbearance, because this is our original driving character; and we are all trying to get back to it.

There is only one nature. Our nature is that nature. But unfortunately human nature is not that; it was invented to escape death. Human nature is based on the character of the One Man but always gets the truth wrong, because it cannot face death. And it distorts love.

Men spoil their children with kindness and call it love; then wonder why the child turns his back on them. The child looks to us for wisdom. So does the man and that is why he eventually despises the world, though he cannot put his finger on what is wrong. The world is a distortion of original truth, as kindness is a distortion of love.




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