As Above, So Below
I was recently asked the question of how studying patterns in nature applies to a meditation practice. I am a Permaculture Designer. Permaculture designers honor what indigenous people have done for millenia: look to nature as the design model. We look for the patterns, rhythms, and the intelligent flow in nature that is always working to heal and course correct. Western civilization, and those societies mimicking it, for the most part have not been aware of or on board with this flow. Like the indigenous people we learn from, permaculture designers try to get in sync with this rhythm. We understand that we are but part of a larger ecosystem on this planet and cosmos, and do our best to design landscape systems that mimic this rhythm and flow.
Patterns repeat from an elemental, microcosmic level all the way up to a macrocosmic one. Electrons move around the nucleus of an atom just as our solar system orbits around the sun and galaxies around their black holes. The spiral shape of a snail shell is reflected in the curl of a fern frond, DNA, and curly hair; in vortices of whirlpools, hurricanes, cyclones and the chakras; and in the immense energy of spiral galaxies.
But, this is just the physical or material world - what we can touch and see.
The Universal Law of Correspondence
“Every phenomenon which has reached its full evolution or individuation has a subtler or cosmic counterpart”(1). Or commonly stated, “That which is Above is like to That which is Below”. So, our individual consciousness (citta), which we try to quiet through our meditation (yoga), has a subtle match - pure consciousness (cit). Similarly, the permaculture designer tries to understand with her individual intelligence (buddhi) the cosmic intelligence (mahat), which is the source of both the material world and its interconnections between bacteria, fungi, minerals, plants, animals, and natural forces, as well as the subtle worlds of energy and thought.
Applications to Meditation
It can be beneficial for someone new to meditation, the spiritual path or simply trying to cope with anxiety and stress to have an understanding of the cosmic intelligence that connects and holds everything together. You don't have to believe in God (Spirit, Source, Higher Power), though it sweetens the experience. But, understand that we daily already display an immense faith, whether we are consciously aware of it or not:
We have a certain level of faith (a.k.a. expectation) that we will not wake up with frog limbs, an ostrich beak, or as just a pile of amorphous goo.
The body’s cells replicate continuously, meaning we are physically a different person each day. There is an intelligence that tells a cell’s DNA to continue to make your heart into a heart and not a bone, your kidney into a kidney and not an eye. Or your breath to flow in after it leaves the body on an exhalation, thus keeping your body alive.
Yet, we are not consciously controlling these functions, replication or breathing, with all their nuances.
A doctor or healer does not heal a body; he supports the body’s innate healing process. A permaculture designer can do her best to design closed systems that support each other and serve multiple functions, but it is nature that solves the problems and heals the landscape. An example of this healing intelligence is seen in birds evolving and adapting to the radiation at Chernobyl(2). Scientists understand what is happening, but yet don’t know how and to what extent the birds' cells know to evolve.
As my guru Swami Sri Yukteswar, an enlightened saint and avatar of wisdom once said,
“The cosmos would be fairly chaotic if its laws could not operate without the sanction of human belief…All parts of creation are linked together and interchange their influences.”(3)
Understanding cosmic intelligence can allow us to “let go” of the need to control, overthink or stress our way to solutions. Nature is our evidence of an intelligence holding things together. And meditation is the most powerful tool to help us to quiet the mind and its noise of thoughts, agitations, and attachment to the limited options that we see as the only viable outcome in situations. With regular meditation practice, we are in a better position to let go and trust in this higher intelligence. Over time, we can see and experience that higher state of our Self that is not only connected to the cosmic intelligence, but also to all souls, beings and life as One.
Affirmations Can Give a Boost
Affirmations, in particular, are useful in this regard, because they are statements of truth, even if we do not yet feel access to that truth. Here are two that can help you find your center in the mind’s swirl by focusing on a higher intelligence:
“Intelligence infuses every cell of my body and all creation with life and vitality. I am whole, calm and well-guided.”
“Thy healing Light is within me, surrounding me, protecting me. I am loved, cared for, and free.”
May you know peace and experience calm in your life and environment.
(1)B.K.S. Iyengar. Light on the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali
(2)“Chernobyl’s birds are adapting to ionizing radiation”, ScienceDaily.com, April 21, 2014
(3)Paramhansa Yogananda. The Autobiography of a Yogi (p. 196). Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Kindle Edition.
