Navarro, Leah
Learning from a Cosmic Sister
by Leah Tolentino
Thank you for all of those who posted their insights and thoughts. These continue to expand my Universe.
As a student in ASI in the mid-80’s, one of the first things I learned was that a person understands a particular reality from the experience of that reality. One knows what a table is as one experiences, (through seeing, touching, using, etc.) the flat surface and the (usual) four legs of the table.
How about “Cosmic perspective “. Could anyone begin to understand such a seemingly “nosebleed” (Reference: Joan post of Nov. 25) concept through personal experience or the lived experience of other people?
This made me go back to my own experience with what seemed to be a theoretical and a “nosebleed” concept such as Creation Spirituality. What really made me understand Creation Spirituality were not foremost books with mega-complex jargons nor my White-skinned teachers (although I also acknowledge the lessons imparted by my teachers). What really made a significant and lasting imprint in my understanding, (and in my teaching/sharing/facilitating) were experiences of Creation Spirituality through the rituals of our people, co-creating programs with an indigenous teacher, learning the practices of different spiritual traditions, art as meditation, works of healing (on various levels), and re-connecting with the land. I was also helped tremendously by the lived experiences of people across time and space divides, shared through text, images and life-practices, that mirrored to me with greater clarity what Creation Spirituality is.
As a student and seeker of life lessons, I search for models who can teach us what is “cosmic perspective”. In this path of searching, I was led back to Hildegard de Bingen. Hildegard breathes, loves, works, paints, prays, researches, composes, heals, lives with a “cosmic perspective”….. We can listen to her:
I am the breeze that nurtures all things green, I encourage blossoms to flourish with ripening fruits. I am the rain coming from the dew that causes grasses to laugh with the joy of life.
She recognizes vividly the aliveness of creation. She sees the movement (breeze), the scent (blossoms), the touch (rain), the
sensation (grasses to laugh) of every single element , and sees a Divine imprint. Are these not attributes of cosmic perspective coming from the voice of someone who lived it?
And Hildegard lived in the 12th century, as the abbess of a large and influential Benedictine abbey. Hildegard’s life tells us that ”cosmic perspective” is not a new “invention” of the modern mind. It dates back way before Brian Swimme became a mathematical cosmologist! Let’s look at one of her paintings:
Hildegard gives us a picture of the Whole, an appreciation of interconnectedness and the importance of working for the survival and
sustainability of the Whole. Another cosmic perspective attribute that Hildegard’s life was a living testament of. From her 42nd year, up to her death at 83, Hildegard – in preaching, writing, painting, theologizing, healing, organizing, founding – was creatively working for the Whole! She wrote nine books on theology, medicine, science and physiology, as well as 70 poems and opera. And she was a full time abbess!
It feels like I am just scratching the surface as I learn from Hildegard. There is still so much to learn.