There is another book that I wanted to review, but felt it would make the blog too “heavy.” I hope to review it in a future posting, but in the meantime, I just want to mention the title since it related to mothers. It is called Every Mother is a Daughter by Perri Klass (daughter) and Sheila Solomon Klass (mother). They are both writers in their own right and I believe this is their first collaborative effort. It is available in book stores and online and makes a wonderful Mother’s Day gift for any female, since we are all daughters.

I took this picture in the courtyard of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, TN outside the former stables where we ate lunch in a horse stable. The women allowed me to take their picture, so I hope they don’t mind that I posted it. I love hats!

(This photo and the one below were taken on our trip out West last summer to the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.)

Spiritual Ecology is the realization that all forms of reality, from the densest material forms (Earth=Body) to the most subtle spiritual forms (God=Spirit) are the same. The only difference between the spiritual and the material is that the material form from the molecules are closer together (denser), whereas in the spiritual form the elements are farther apart and are therefore harder to find (more subtle). This topic is one to which those of us who are interested in the survival of the planet must address ourselves. It is the consciousness that our environment is nothing other than ourself and that working for the goal of a healthy planet is absolutely related to our well-being.

Many of us realize that the caring and maintenance of a safe, peaceful earth is essential to life. Do we see the relationship of our body (the home of our soul) to our earth (the home of our body)? Our bodies have blood and the earth has rivers. Our bodies have bones and the land has minerals. Our bodies have skin and the world has soil. Our bodies have hair and the earth has grass and weeds.

All beings on this planet are part of one family. We all trace our ancestry back to the same source ultimately. Just as in a family there can be harmony and peace only when there is a sense of loving, caring and sharing among all the members, so the answers to our problems, on a world level or a community level, will appear when we treat all people as if they are our relatives, accepting them with love and having concern for the well-being of all.

How is it possible to help people who live in other parts of the world or who we have not yet met? Simply by living a life of individual and local conscious ecology. If there are people hungry anywhere on the planet, then we who have food must eat lower on the food chain to provide more for those who have less or none. Happiness and serenity cannot be realized through material possessions, which merely gratify the organs of sensory perception and the ego. So perhaps our values should change from acquiring more for ourselves to a philosophy of sharing and serving those citizens of our global family who are in need. (Not from Ellen Sue: There are many people already doing this.)

We ought to follow the examples of those beings on the planet who treat the earth as if it were their very own body, with gentleness and gratitude. This brings us to the idea of the meditative process, which lowers the requirements of our needs: less food, oxygen and space, and therefore allows us to create less of a burden on the resources available. As one draws into oneself, one discovers the renewable source within, through a connection with the supreme. These conscious people can be trusted to heal the planet and lead us onward to a holistic-holy ecological universe.

Note: This article by Arthur Baral first appeared in Vegetarian Voice, the publication of the North American Vegetarian Society. Check out their website www.navs-online.org for more information on vegetarianism, especially their annual Summerfest in Pennsylvania. While this essay was published back in 1981, like Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (See my review of her groundbreaking book in Reviews), it is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was first written. Also, I put in bold the phrases that I thought needed special emphasis.