Categories: Other Meditation Teachings
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all! Today, let us explore a profound topic: how to understand nature through your own mind. As we deepen our spiritual practice and study the mind, we come to a remarkable realization: the mind and nature are not two separate things. They are like one. There is a deep similarity, an absence of difference, that begins to dawn on us.
The Direct Experience of Oneness
When you reach this understanding, you begin to see the world differently. Looking at the environment, the trees and plants, the vast sky, the feeling of the wind, the warmth of the sun, all these natural processes feel directly connected to your own mind. This is a very deep spiritual and mental state. It is an insight that can be cultivated through meditation, especially through the practice taught by the Buddha known as the Satipaṭṭhāna, or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Even tranquility meditation, known as Samatha, can lead to a certain level of this understanding.
As you develop your mindfulness and clear comprehension, what is called Sati Sampajañña, you will inevitably begin to have this experience. If you follow the teachings on mindfulness presented here and practice diligently, this realization will surely arise. For those who are already systematically studying the mind, trying to understand its nature with diligence and practical effort, you may have already felt this connection.
For others, it may not have happened yet. But if you continue on the path, you will definitely experience it. There is a certain rhythm in nature, a continuous flow. Through spiritual development, you can directly witness within yourself that you are becoming one with this natural flow.
From Theory to Lived Reality
You will come to understand that the Buddha’s teaching, what we call ‘Buddhism’ today, is fundamentally a teaching about this very nature, about the processes of reality. To feel this, however, you must be practical. Someone who only listens to teachings, who is limited to books, or who stays within other conceptual boundaries cannot grasp this. It cannot be an intellectual exercise alone.
As you study your own mind and your thoughts, you will discover states of profound peace and tranquility. These states are deeply comforting. When the mind settles into this comfort, the mental defilements, known in Buddhism as kilesa, things like greed, anger, and delusion, can be temporarily suppressed or even removed. Through consistent training, as these defilements are abandoned, you begin to perceive the world with new clarity.
You start to notice things in nature more profoundly than ever before. You see that your previous way of experiencing nature was entirely different. Now, it feels completely new, a transformed perception. Therefore, if you study and practice the Buddha’s teachings without being trapped in limitations, you will find your spiritual growth. You will gain the ability to recognize for yourself, from within yourself, what this ‘nature’ truly is. This is the point where you directly realize that this is a practical path.
The Importance of Consistent Practice
However, if the mind of the practitioner is not stabilized, for instance, reaching the stable stages of awakening the Buddha described, such as Sotāpanna or Arahant, this connection can be lost. In fact, it is best to forget these labels for now. If you stop your practical training, you might have a moment where you experience this deep connection with mind and nature, but you won’t be able to sustain it. Why? Because you are no longer engaged in the practice. For such a person, nature becomes distant again. The opportunity to savor this profound unity is lost.
We have often spoken about the various obstacles that arise on the spiritual path. One such obstacle is losing this precious opportunity to experience the oneness of mind and nature. Some people learn to see these challenges as tests of their practice. If you can view them this way, you can proceed with better understanding and reach higher stages. But those who don’t recognize these moments as tests can get caught and fall back to their previous state. It is important to be aware of this.
A Pure Mind: The Gateway to Nature’s Embrace
Let me repeat: this process of developing the mind and uniting with nature is something you must understand through practice. This experience arises when the defilements in your mind are eradicated or at least subdued. When thoughts connected to sensual desire, ill will, and various other unwholesome states are quieted, a profound clarity emerges. This inner change allows you to gain a true understanding.
With a purified mind, you can see nature with your eyes more clearly than ever before. You can hear its sounds with your ears in a new way. You can perceive the different qualities of the air through your nose, the very breath you need to live becomes a source of mindful experience. And you can feel the world more deeply through your skin, through your body. For this to happen, your mind must be pure.
A person with an agitated, restless mind cannot experience this connection with mind and nature in any way. Such a person is not in a place to experience nature’s reality; instead, they are lost in the illusions created by nature, the world of sensual pleasures and other distractions on this earth. Their path leads them away from even thinking about the deeper reality of nature.
Liberation: The Ultimate Truth Within Nature
If you gain a proper understanding of these principles, you will be able to experience this unity. One day, as you travel this path, you will begin to understand that even Nibbāna, the ultimate liberation, is a part of this very nature, a part of this universe, although it is on a level entirely different from everything else.
The Buddha appeared in the world to teach us how to understand nature and how to walk this path. He explained the process, the ‘system’ of reality. Through practical training, you can come to know this for yourself, from within yourself. This brings a beautiful and liberating state of mind.
Think about it: when you have a problem, what do you naturally seek? You try to find tranquility. You try to connect with nature. You don’t usually try to listen to a song at that moment. You say, ‘Leave me alone, let me be in peace,’ and you seek solitude in your room. Your mind is agitated, and you instinctively know that peace comes from being alone and steadying your mind. That is what most people desire.
No matter how many songs, dances, or how much money we have in this world of senses, we still try to experience the environment. We travel to other places, to areas rich in nature, and stay there to find temporary mental well-being. This innate desire is already within you. This is what the Buddha came into the world to teach. You have the ability to achieve this state without spending any money, without unnecessary exhaustion, simply by putting forth effort for your own liberation.
Surrender to the Flow, Don’t Fight It
Therefore, with faith in yourself and in the Buddha’s teachings, you should engage in constant practical training to experience this truth. A person who truly understands this will never try to change nature. They surrender to nature. They become obedient to it and live in accordance with it. The people in the world today who do not understand this are the ones who try to act against nature.
They think that with a few activities, a little progress, they can conquer nature, invade it, and overcome it. But you have seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears the countless stories of what happens to such people. They are unable to overcome nature and sometimes have to pay with their very lives.
The Buddha’s teaching is the teaching of nature itself. If you study this nature through your own mind and walk the path, as you learn to surrender to nature, nature itself will begin to help you. From that point on, your journey and your mind will become clear to you through direct experience, and freedom will arise from within your own mind. This is the truth you must experience.
However, what prevents you from experiencing it are the various forms of greed, hatred, and delusion, the unwholesome roots of lobha, dosa, and moha, that are active within your own mind. Because of these, you have been unable to understand. But if someone realizes this and tries, thinking, ‘I must destroy these defilements, eliminate them, or at least suppress them,’ and if a degree of wisdom arises, perhaps due to past good karma, then he or she will certainly be able to walk this path and arrive at the proper place.
The Supreme Law of Cause and Effect
For the person who has practiced this, who has come to know nature, who has surrendered to it and become one with it, it becomes clear: even an unseen god, if one exists, is subordinate to this natural law. Any powerful person in this world, even the Buddha himself, is subject to it.
You will realize that there is no creator god, no almighty deity anywhere. You will see that everything happens due to a cause and is the result of that cause. From that result, new causes are formed, which bring new results. You will understand from within yourself that this is a teaching of cause and effect, a hetu-phala dhamma.
Then you will see for yourself, and I repeat this, that there is no unseen or seen force, no power whatsoever that transcends this energy, that goes beyond this reality we call nature. This is something you can experience and understand for yourself. To be able to bring your mind to this level is a great merit, a great skill. Remember that you have this potential within you. Practice this and try to experience it without getting caught up in concepts of race, religion, or caste. Through this, you will gain the ability to walk the path.
A Concluding Blessing
I have offered this teaching about spirituality in a different way, hoping that through it, you may also experience this deep connection. I will conclude this teaching here. May you all be able to realize and understand these truths through your own practical experience. May you be blessed. May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
We invite you to walk this path with us. Read our teachings, and most importantly, apply them practically in your own life. as you practice, questions will naturally arise. Please feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comments below, via email or contact form. I will do my best to offer guidance in future talks based on your progress. For now, begin this practice with an open heart and a mind free from expectation. Cultivate it correctly, and may you find the clarity and peace you seek.
Thank you for joining us. We hope this blog will be of great benefit to your spiritual journey.
May you all be well and happy.
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!.
