Seventh Quarterly Newsletter from the Ziraat Council

FANA-FI-GAIA

Beltane - May Day 2023

7th Quarterly from the Ziraat Council

Note from the Council

Greetings Friends from around the World, fellow Souls on the Path,

I’m writing from near the Salish Sea, in the Pacific Northwest Region of North America, where Spring sprouts with green, blooms in color, croaks in the twilight, bursts with birdsong, pours in grace, and shines with warmth. Change is constant. But Change feels easiest to recognize and welcome during the rapid growth and the return of light of the season of Spring.

A couple months ago, mid-winter, I found myself, fasting on a 4-day solo retreat in a wide and silent and star-filled desert. It was a return; a turning again towards wild nature and towards True Nature. Why is it that humans return time and again, through every generation, through every hardship, through every season of life, through all kinds of joy and calamity to the All-Encompassing Embrace of Nature for retreat, repose and reflection?

Consider countless Indigenous People around the world on Rites like Vision Quest or Walkabout.

Consider Buddha, under the Bodhi tree. Jesus, in the desert. Mohommed, in the cave.

Consider other less-often-named luminaries and saints and sages, the spirit leaders of Humanity.

To reach what they taught and bring what they brought, each of us must seek what they sought.

Unlike another meaning of the word retreat, practicing Nature retreat is not about escape. Retreat does seem to involve walking away, but the essence of retreat is really turning towards. Turning toward Presence, which is a moment to moment choice not dependent on a particular length of time or practice. Still, for many of us it is important to create regular routines of return and practices of Nature retreat. To sandbag out the flood of normal doing and thinking for extended periods of Being seems to create pathways out beyond the well-traveled nonsense of the modern experience. Offering ourselves to the guidance of those who know the road of return through regular travel can be helpful, whether that’s a trusted teacher or a promising program. (Consider attending a Khilvat, a Sufi Sess hin , or Sufi Camp Retreat.)

As always, Nature, the Infinite Presence of the One Being is available as soon as your next breath, it’s as ever present as the whispering wind, larger than the great silent desert, more beautiful and bewildering than the vast ocean. My encouragement this Spring is to plant seeds of retreat in the garden of your daily life. Make time to retreat to Nature in both small and large ways during the days and weeks of this next growing season.

Sit outside once a day. Take a day-long walk. Plan a weeklong wilderness retreat.

Return Again!

Blessings of the Season,

Hamid

From Our Ziraat Website

Nature Meditations

“The Nature Meditations [of Inayat Khan] are standard practices I give in khilvat (retreat or solitude) along with other walking, breath, contemplation and insight practices where the emphasis or focus is put on the natural world. The beauty of building a deepening consciousness from a foundation emphasizing nature or, one could say, the essence of nature, always returns to the authentic quality of nature.”

Khalif Saladin Pelfrey

Read More Here

Excerpts from Ziraat Reader

Nature Meditations of Hazrat Inayat Khan

Let my spirit reflect, O Beloved,

the beauty of Thy color and form.

Let Thy beauty shine through my heart

as through the clouds spread the rays of the sun.

Thou art the ocean

and I am the wave.

Let the sun of Thy glory

shine in my heart.

Ziraati Changemakers

Sheikh Vakil Forest Shomer

Did you know 2023 marks the 50th year!! Sheikh Vakil Forest Shomer has been a full-time seed professional. He actively harvests and disperses wild plant seeds as a spiritual act of remembrance, a practical act of regeneration, a lifeway and livelihood. Vakil is a steadfast Ziraat cornerstone, and we’re grateful he compiled the Ziraat Reader. Thank you Vakil, for your deep influence on the Ziraat Ray of the Ruhaniat.

"Master Wild Seed Man" Sustainably Harvests Wild Seeds to Restore the Land

Darvesha interviewing Vakil

Keeping Up

Mother Trees and the Social Forest

There shouldn’t be anything surprising about trees having complex collaboration and communication systems below the surface of the earth, yet how often do we really stop our busy-ness and listen to these planetary elders. Trees undeniably offer more than just wood and oxygen to our physical well being and beauty to our existence. Check out scientist Suzanne Simard’s research confirming the unique inter-connected consciousness of these “Illuminated Souls,” our kin, the trees.

Suzanne Simard | Mother Trees and the Social Forest

Biomimicry

Janine Benyus popularized the term Biomimicry in her 1997 book emphasizing how imperative it is for our species to turn to the pattern language of nature for wisdom about living well and getting our human needs met without destroying the sources. "We’re awake now, and how do we stay awake to the living world? How do we make the act of asking nature’s advice a normal part of everyday inventing?" Check out this recent interview from the OnBeing Podcast:

Biomimicry - An Operating Manual for Earthlings

Practice

One of the opportunities and blessings of the Sufi Path is substituting Silence for everyday thoughts and substituting Truth for our normalized, socialized patterns of behavior. How much of your attention goes towards what you don’t want? How much of your life energy gets channeled into compulsive patterns that leave you with a tired spirit, wondering what the purpose of life is? Good practice removes life energy from what is unhelpful, and redirects it towards nourishing action or non-action. Helpful practice brings the light and change of Spring to unhelpful habits unconsciously carried through winters of separation. And, Nature is a particularly helpful practice partner!

Try this.

As you sit or stand outdoors, close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. Without trying to change it, notice how your breath is right now. After a bit allow the breath to come into an easy rhythm.

Now, direct your attention to the sounds around you. Without trying to overly identify or label the sounds, notice what quality the sounds have? Are there loud or harsh sounds? Is there wind or birdsong? Are there water sounds? Can you hear human sounds? Motor or machine sounds? How do the sounds feel in your body? Remember, sound is actually touch. An originating movement vibrates air molecules, which touch others, and the vibration spreads across space. That vibration contacting, touching, your eardrum is what is called hearing! What is the quietest sound in your field of listening?

Allowing the sense of hearing to just be there, turn your attention to the feelings in your physical body. Internally, is there pain or tightness, ease or joy? How does the earth feel below you? Notice the steady, gentle tug of the earth’s gravity. Is there moisture, heat or coolness in the air? Is there air movement? Where do you feel it on your skin?

Allowing the senses of touch and hearing to just be there, add the senses of taste and smell. What can you taste or smell in the air? What quality does it have, sweet, pungent, earthy, sharp…? Perhaps turn to a tree or a flower or a small handful of earth and smell it. What is that like? Can you detect moisture or dryness with your sense of taste and smell?

Allowing those four senses to be present, finally, open your eyes. Without words, take in the shadow, light, color, and shape. No need for labeling. Just look. Spread out your attention to the periphery of your vision and let movement and pattern come to the forefront. Look! As if really seeing for the first time. Let the light come into your eyes without having to send your consciousness or rational mind out towards what is beheld. Behold, allowing Beauty to be the only filter.

Now with all senses active and mind quieter, turn to what is beyond the 5 senses.

The Silence. The Stillness. The Presence that holds it all.

Take in the total movement, and rest in Being

❤️🔥Hamid

All Photos in this newsletter by Hamid Daniel Kirchhof