Other Sources that View Humans as One With the Earth

I am very intrigued with the statements in the Essene Gospels (in more than one place) that mankind is one with the Earth. If you don’t happen to agree with it, that is totally your prerogative – and I expect the most pervasive belief.

However, consider this: Could it be that the more things we find from a variety of sources (yes, including native peoples’ beliefs) lend credence to that statement? When that happens in my spiritual readings (or, as you’ll see below, even reading that I don’t think is “spiritual”), I get excited. If I find a saying from the Old Testament that matches a passage from Hinduism that says much the same thing as the Essene Gospels and also happens to be found in Jesus’s or Confucius’s teachings, I tend to think there’s something to it.

So here are a couple other things I found that also hold that humans are “one with the Earth”:

Surprisingly, from the novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan  by Lisa See – an often gut-wrenching tale of friendship between two women in China in the 1800s (how many of us have any idea of what life was like for people, and women especially, in that culture and time? Wow!): “We spoke delicately about the essential elements that must be in place for a baby to take hold and whether or not our husbands obeyed these rituals. Everyone knows that the human body is a miniature version of the universe – the eyes and ears are the sun and moon, breath is air, blood is rain. Conversely, those elements play important roles in the development of a baby….”  (page 141).

And there is this from Chief Seattle of the Dwamish tribe:
“This we know, all things are connected,
Like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons of the earth.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

As I close this posting, I encourage us all to be more mindful of the Earth. She cannot nourish us if she is clogged, polluted or neglected. We depend on good soil (and clean water) to grow the plants both we and the animals need to eat. And we eat the animals who ingest the plants (or whatever other things man gives them to eat.)

Consider picking up that piece of litter or tossed-away soda or beer can when you’re outside. Pull the weeds in your garden (and yes, I usually apologize to them as I do this) that may be impeding the nutrition your trees or flowers need. Send a blessing to the land as you walk by and affirm that it/she be healthy and nutritious for all that grows in it/her. That way we also bless life for ourselves.