January, 2020 - Sa Llavor Foundation

NATURE’S GIFTS

I often went alone. Sometimes, lost in amazement, I went deep into the woods, and I imagined that I was Mowgli, the character of Rudyard Kipling, the child raised by the wolves, so I took off almost all the clothes for the climb. If I climbed to a sufficient height, the branches grew thinner to the point that, if the wind blew, the world would lean down and then up. It was scary and it was wonderful to surrender to the power of the wind. My senses were filled with the sensation of falling, of climbing, of swinging; Around me the leaves split like fingers and the wind came in sighs and hoarse whispers. The wind also brought scents, and the tree itself certainly released its perfumes faster when the gusts blew. Finally, there was only the wind that moved between all things. Now, when the days of climbing trees have long passed, I often think of the lasting value of those first days of sweet laziness. I have come to appreciate the wide view offered by the tops of those trees. Nature calmed me, focused and at the same time excited my senses. Last Child in the Woods. Richard Louv

LIBRARY: CONNECTION WITH LIFE

We present a selection of texts that inspire the team of Sa Llavor and share in the weekly meetings as part of their pedagogical path. Fragment extracted from the book “A new Earth” by Eckhart Tolle. Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers, more fleeting, more ethereal, and more delicate than the plants out of which they emerged, would become like messengers from another realm, like a bridge between the world of physical forms and the formless. They not only had a scent that was delicate and pleasing to humans, but also brought a fragrance from the realm of spirit. Using the word "enlightenment" in a wider sense than the conventionally accepted one, we could look upon flowers as the enlightenment of plants. Any life-form in any realm—mineral, vegetable, animal, or human—can be said to undergo "enlightenment." It is, however, an extremely rare occurrence since it is more than an evolutionary progression: It also implies a discontinuity in its development, a leap to an entirely different level of Being and, most importantly, a lessening of materiality. What could be heavier and more impenetrable than a rock, the densest of all forms? And yet some rocks undergo a change in their molecular structure, turn into crystals, and so become transparent to the light. Some carbons, under inconceivable heat and pressure, turn into diamonds, and some heavy minerals into other precious stones. Most crawling reptilians, the most earthbound of all creatures, have remained unchanged for millions of years. Some, however, grew feathers and wings and turned into birds, thus defying the force of gravity that had held them for so long. They didn't become better at crawling or walking, but transcended crawling and walking entirely. Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness.