Trustee Duties

DUTIES: HEAL, NURTURE & REVERE self, others and the planet

Why are these duties so important?

We live in a time of transition, a time when all is changing and being challenged – weather systems, ecosystems, our interaction with nature, our understanding of other beings. We now understand that we are all interconnected and interdependent. Somewhere along the line, our actions as human beings have created enormous instability to the planet and the millions of species who reside here. Much of which is familiar to us and deemed the ‘norm’ is no longer working and is being challenged. Sometimes change brings with it with destruction. Sometimes destruction is beneficial. It can alert us to practices that are do not work. With destruction also comes new birth, and new avenues open wide to be explored. There are many choices as to which route to take; the issue is which route is the one that will provide life for all. Applying the duties – heal, nurture and revere – will create life rather than destroy or restrict. Application of the duties, deepens our understanding of the three values – We are All One, Life is Sacred and Love is All.

Healing the Planet

For example, take the humble bumble bee whose ecological integrity is threatened globally. Reports of Colony Collapse Disorder are escalating, pointing to breaches of their Right to Exist, their Right to Habitat and their Freedom to Be. It could be said that all their Rights & Freedoms have been challenged. A combination of factors are probable, including the extensive use of pesticides, pollution and mono-culture farming. There is no one simple quick fix answer. Life in it’s very essence for all beings is complex, multilayered, multidimensional.

Without the honey bees we have no pollination and we will lose over 60% of our foodstuff – it would lead to dramatic loss of fruit and vegetables almost overnight, with disastrous consequences (see Vanishing Bees). The bees are like the canary in the mine. Like the canaries who died when there was not enough air to breathe and were the alarm for men to get out, so here the death of the bees are a warning system that all is not well. The tragedy of the bees is but one small example of the need to re-examine our interaction with the planet. It suggests the need for us to heal the process that has led to the loss (eg. stop the use of pesticides on crop and restructure farming practices to make them productive for the bees), nurture the food systems and the habitat that the bees require, and revere their ability to provide such an essential task for us which ensures our very survival. Our lives depend on the bees; if we take care of them, we take care of ourselves.

Healing Self

Our Duties apply equally to ourselves as well as to others. To heal, nurture and revere ourselves brings new wisdom and understanding. We each have enormous capacity to do so, physically, mentally and spiritually. We can do so in so many ways, whether by use of meditation, by detoxing mind and body, eating healthy foodstuffs and use of complementary therapies. To attend to ourselves is to nurture and revere, to recognise that we are worthy of our attentions. As time is speeding up, we are challenged to slow down. By taking time out for ourselves we give ourselves time to look inward and self examine. This is time well spent, especially in a world where we are pressured to ‘do’ ever more and ‘be’ less. In a world that never sleeps, our challenge is to learn how to bring balance back into our lives.

Our bodies are changing and adapting to new planetary energies, and if we pay attention to ourselves and our needs, we each can learn how to accommodate the transition as smoothly as possible. The more we ignore our own issues, the more problematic they become, resulting in ruptures, explosions and disturbances – both physically and emotionally.

Detoxing is an enormously effective healing mechanism. Like a blocked drain, so we too have impacted our systems by the food we eat, the air we breathe and the negative belief systems we hold onto. To unblock the drain one has to to flush out the stale build-up of residue – and that can mean having to push, prod and prise open. Dislodging the trapped gunk can often give rise to unpleasant, odiferous sediment! Just like the clearing of the drain, much that is unattractive is brought to the surface ready to be released. It may be trapped toxins, it may be bottled up emotions. Our emotions are our indicators of our true state of health. To deny ourselves of our emotions is to deny ourselves. Only once they are brought to the surface can they be released and so then the healing commences.

Just as planetary systems are out of kilter so are we. The planetary disturbances are an extension of our own problems. To know that we are all interconnected is to know the first value – that we are all one. By healing ourselves we are in effect helping to heal the planet. Like an onion, the removal of each layer is an unveiling of ourselves, a raising of our consciousness. This in turn sets off an energy vibration that taps into the supergrid of the planetary consciousness, helping to raise the energy for those around us, as well as untold others, to benefit from. With healing for the wider community comes the deeper understanding of the second value, that life is sacred – both ours and the planet’s.

Power of Thought

Our very thoughts change what happens to us and our immediate environment. We know this from the extensive evidence now presented by quantum physicists and scientists. What if we extend this to planetary healing? The Japanese Professor Masaru Emoto, author of The Secret Life of Water, demonstrates the power of intent to change the content of water molecules. By just giving specific intent to damaged water, be it polluted or disrupted by an external event, the structure of the molecules can be altered and healed. Over 70% of our bodies are water- think if we apply that intention to ourselves – and approximately 70% of the planet’s surface is covered in water. What if we apply that intent to heal to the planet? If we were to come together and collectively decided to help heal the planet, think how powerful a solution that would be.

Seem incredible? Try the following experiment: take two flowerpots, place a seed of choice in each, use a separate watering can for each. Place a sticker with “love” on one, “idiot” on the other. Every morning, water your seeds and think “love” for the first, “idiot” for the second. Compare the outcome. One will flourish, the other not. Think what we could do if we were to apply that thought exercise to ourselves, our children and the planet. This exercise and many more have been undertaken by many children and adults in Japan and throughout the world. The implications for healing are enormous.

Opening the Path to Love

To love is to be heart-centred, to embrace that Love is All – the most important value of all. To feel and express from a position of love brings creativity, joy, happiness. But, it is not all ice cream sundaes – this requires a bit of work! Take time out, turn off the radio, television, take up yoga, leave your every day concerns and worries behind, empty your brain and simply soak in the beauty of the world that surrounds you. If you can, go on a retreat, book into a sweat lodge, spend time up a mountain, or simply walk in the nearest park. Give yourself time to reconnect with nature. This is time for you. This is time well spent.

One way to focus on self healing is to open our chakras. By opening up our first 4 chakras we open ourselves up to the value of love – self love and love for all other beings. Each of the 4 chakras corresponds to the 4 sets of Rights & Freedoms.

Base:

Right to Exist + Right to Habitat = Freedom to Be

identity (existence) + survival (habitat) of the self = one

Sacral:

Right to Diversity + Right to Ecological Integrity = Freedom to the Natural Cycles of Life

creativity (diversity) + sexuality (ecological integrity) = merging of partnership/creation of life

Solar Plexus

Right to Not be Polluted + Right to Restorative Justice = Freedom to Healthy & Clean Environment

feeling, intuition (pollution of thought, action and surroundings) + will power, purpose (restoration) = healthy relationship with others, symbiosis.

Heart

Right to Compassion + Right to Peace = Freedom to Be Loved

emotional intelligence (compassion) + appreciation of the beauty of life (peace) = love of all

We as people do not need to be controlled, managed or taught. What we need is to be encouraged, accepted and loved just for who we are. We need not be governed by a set of rules that would tell us what we need to learn and what we need to express. We need to be given a supportive space to explore who we are and what we want, with the assistance of others who have our best interests at heart. This is true for humans and non humans alike. All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings or stars, it to love and be loved, to be accepted, cherished and celebrated simply for being who we are. Is that so very difficult?

Derrick Jenson “A language older than words”