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arousing wisdom

Go to AROUSING WISDOM Book

Turn everything you know on its head.

Turn everything you say on its head.

Now you know nothing.

Be free to start thinking anew.

AROUSING WISDOM WITHIN 

For millions of years, we lived in balance with Nature and each other by heeding the intuitive wisdom of our inborn senses, such as hunger, thirst, compassion, color, sex, trust, creativity, community, and spirituality. These senses, each one a form of Nature’s love, sentiently supported our survival and brought us peace and joy.

The pace of modern culture and excessive indoor living has separated us from this comforting, inherited, sensory wisdom, leaving us dependent solely on our learned, socially-constructed skills of language and logic. These mechanical, rather than intuitive ways of knowing the world often lead us to choices that interfere with our ability to enjoy healthy relationships with the Earth, community, family, and self

By spending over 95% of our lives indoors, our connection to the reenergizing comfort of our own natural, trustable wisdom has been lost,

replaced by an incessant barrage of messages falsely attempting to persuade us that a flashy, new outfit or the latest craze is the true path to wellness and joy.

The truth is that excessive consumption of material things has not fulfilled our sense of loneliness. Instead, we have developed many harmful coping behaviors, such as compulsive spending, overeating, alcoholism, aggression, loneliness, or depression in an effort to overcome our disconnection from Nature.

Arousing the wisdom within...the wisdom of our innate senses...is essential to enhanced wellness because it is a form of Nature’s love that knows how to lovingly support us. When we heed the intelligence of our own natural wisdom, we build responsible, healthy relationships with all things. Further, we become motivated to make beneficial Earth-centered choices that support the balance and health of all natural systems, especially our own. ~ j. christina brittain  '02

Connect to the wisdom of Nature; let it be the fuel for your journey of self-discovery.

As you converse with Nature, find ways around the things that antagonize you;embrace the things that resonate within you.

Explore the blessings of the natural world;
Let them ignite your dormant passions.
Let them reveal what you genuinely want and need for enhanced wellness and joy.

Uncover the deeply buried treasure of your own wisdom that rejoices in the uniqueness of  "YOU."

Arouse your wisdom within. ~ j.cb ‘04

For enhanced wellness and joy, both our inborn wisdom and our modern skills of language and logic must be cooperatively alive.

Is there a scientific basis for valuing your intuitive senses over language and logic? YES! According to Gerd Gigerenzer, psychologist and author of Gut Feelings:

(The best decision-making may not be about) wandering off the path of language and logic and getting lost in the fog of intuition. What may look like a reasoning error from a purely logical perspective turns out to be a highly intelligent social judgment in the real world. Good intuitions must go beyond the information give, and therefore, logic.

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The source of our sensory wisdom is the long chain of living things that came before us. ~ jcb '04

When you ask Nature to guide you, it will cut a path through the thickets of false stories that have kept you from moving forward...a path of learning that will lovingly support you for the rest of your life. It will give you the courage to speak what you instinctively know. ~ jcb '05

Now are come the days of brown leaves. They fall from the trees; they flutter on the ground. They talk with the wind. I hear them tell of their bornng days, when they did come into the world as leaves. And they whisper of the hoods they wore then...They told how they were a part of earth and air, before their tree-borning days. And now they are going back to the earth again. But they do not die.
~ Opal Whitely. The Singing Creek Where The Willows Grow.

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them and try to follow where they lead.
~ Louisa May Alcott

Nurture your felt love or respect for Nature.

Never deny it.

That love is Nature's voice and consciousness, the eons, the purifying intelligence, beauty and diversity of natural systems sustaining us in their perfection.

It is the root of our deeper hopes and ideals.

For genuine wellness, we must reconnect our psyche with nature's wisdom and restore its strength and peace in our consciousness, thoughts, and soul. 
~ Michael J. Cohen

It is our disconnection from Nature's intelligence that produces the pollution, anger, and discontent we suffer today.

When we reconnect to Nature's wisdom, enhanced wellness, balance, and joy begins to flow into our lives.

We couldn't stop it if we tried. ~ jcb '03

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning
and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature - if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you - know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.

~ Henry. D. Thoreau

Reconnect to the felt sensations of your body. They are  physical, not mental. They are evolved memories earnestly awaiting conscious thought. Bring forth these wise stories eagerly awaiting conscious thought. Listen closely and heed their wisdom. They are the genuine way to enhanced wellness and joy.~ jcb '06

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs 

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The Dalai Lama on Good Karma:

INSTRUCTION FOR LIFE

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

• When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

• Follow the three R’s –

                  Respect for self

                  Respect for other’s and

                  Responsibility for all your thoughts and actions.

• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

• Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.

• When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

• Spend some time alone every day.

• Open arms to change but don’t let go of your values.

• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

• Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for life.

• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

• Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

• Be gentle with the Earth.

• Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

• Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

• Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

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Here is calm so deep that grasses cease waving.

It is wonderful

how completely

everything in wild nature fits into us,

as if truly part and parent of us.

The sun shines not on us, but in us.

The rivers flow not past,

but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating

every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies,

making them glide and sing.

~ John Muir

The darkest scriptures

of the mountains

are illuminated

with bright passages

of love.

~ John Muir,

Mountains of California

My best Acquaintances are those with Whom I spoke no Word—The Stars that stated come to Town Esteemed Me never rude; Although to their Celestial Call I failed to make reply—My constant—reverential Face Sufficient Courtesy.

~ Emily Dickinson

When we understand that man is the only animal
who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being.
~ Ernest Becker

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