The Voice of the First Day
‘We have lived and kept the earth as it was on the First Day ‘
Words of Aboriginal Elder
Ayers Rock at Sunrise
Uluru ( Ayers ) Rock is an important ‘pilgrimage’ site for Australian Aborigines. It is a sacred place and a symbol of how these people revere and respect the land. Like many of the aboriginals peoples of our planet, land is sacred and certain places are especially so. For me the words of an Australian Aboriginal Elder ‘ We have lived and kept the earth as it was on the First Day’ still make an impact. I first heard them several years ago on a Retreat in Austria with Sister Ishpriya and the memory is still vivid today. They remind me of the importance of our environment and its impact on my spiritual journey. But first let us put them in a wider context.
All, the aboriginal peoples of the world have ‘creation stories’. These have been handed down from generation to generation. They are people’s attempts to explain the source and wonder of creation . They are an attempt to place creation in a context and to help us to understand our part in the ‘wholeness of creation’. The following are some further words from an Aboriginal Elder, who was answering the perennial call or search of the ages ‘ Where did all this come from ‘ ? These words convey the sacredness with which the Aboriginal people treat the earth, the land and all living things.
The Voice of the First Day
They say we have been here for 60,000 years
But it is much longer.
We have been here since the time before time began.
We have come directly out of the dream time
Of the creative elders
But it is much longer.
We have been here since the time before time began.
We have come directly out of the dream time
Of the creative elders
We have lived and kept the earth
As it was on the First Day
As it was on the First Day
The Blue Planet
For me these words demonstrate the respect and awe that some peoples have for creation. They convey a sense of the sacredness of Mother Earth, a sense that our modern world could benefit from experiencing. Arguably, we have done more in the past few centuries to despoil, destroy and detract from the environment and in the process have damaged our wonderful home – the Blue Planet.
My understanding is that so much of our modern attitude towards our planet is rooted in the Western sense of Duality. This has emerged over the past 8000 years and has arguably become more marked due to the Roman- Grecian influence on our culture and religions. This has led to a tendency to separate ourselves from our environment, nature and the planet. This was not always so. My own roots are in the Celtic Tradition. This was once a culture that revered the environment and the sacred in all. However, this too succumbed to Roman patriarchal influences.
Thus we in the West have a tendency to see things as opposites or as either or. Examples of this are :- Sacred versus Secular , Intellect versus Emotions , Right versus Wrong, Male versus Female, West versus East and so on. This constant either : or attitude saturates so much of our modern thinking and society. It has played a big part in creating divisions between us and our planet and between us as members of the human family. Thus we can so often act as ‘conquerors ‘ of the world and thus feel we can take whatever we want.
Yet our Planet , which is part of the evolving cosmos, has been around for billions of years. It is an amazing organism that has supported and co-created an amazing diversity of organisms; plants, animals, birds and peoples. It can provide all we need and are ever likely to need. Perhaps, we have lost sight of our real ‘needs’ and have become too focused on our wants.
Walking with our Border Collie
Rear View of Die Quelle - Sadhana Ashram
Of course it can also be important to take longer periods out. To find times of silence and solitude. In fact , as I stated earlier, it was during a Silent Retreat at Die Quelle , the ISA Sadhana Ashram in Austria, that the theme of walking our dream trek , an Aboriginal ides, was so prominent. Because a common spiritual analogy is that of life being a ‘Journey’ and this is both an inner and outer journey. In many cultures important milestones in life (e.g. entering adulthood ) are marked by an outer journey. In aboriginal culture the person goes on a Dream Trek – a walk about. They are encouraged to walk with great awareness and ,as Buddhism exhorts us, to ‘examine the ground on which we stand
My idea and intentions on Retreat are loosely based around these concepts. They provide me with the opportunity and the ‘space’ to reflect on ‘the ground on which I am standing’. Retreats give me the opportunity to reflect on this inner and outer journey and to assess the balance between the twin needs of living in my outer and inner world. I can ponder , but not necessarily find definitive answers, to the following questions:
Where am I on my journey ?
How am I physically, psychologically and spiritually ?
What changes, however small, could I begin to make to address any imbalance?
Meditating in the Cave of the Heart
These are complex, difficult but extremely important questions and difficult to answer. However, the silence and solitude of Die Quelle, along with the daily rhythm helps to calm down the inner noise and thus assist in encouraging an attitude of deep inner listening. This is further helped by the regular periods of Group Meditation and focused of mindful , mindfulness and my own particular Sadhana of Zen Walking , a practice of mindful, slow walking. I also daily take long walks in the surrounding hills, with its beauty and splendour. After several days of descending into the silence, I find that the psychological begins to slow down and I can begin to listen to the ‘inner voice’. If , like me, you believe that there is an Ultimate Source to creation, God by whatever name you call it, then this ‘inner voice’ is connected to the Spirit. Listening attentively and mindfully to this is to begin to listen to ‘ the voice of the first day’ . Each day I arise presents me with a fresh opportunity to be open to the Spirit, to listen to myself, others and the beauty of nature. All speak of the beauty, inter-connectedness and the wonder and marvel of creation.
Times of Retreat heighten my awareness of all this and particularly to the fact that on my body-psyche journey I am part of this glorious planet. I am part of a world that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years and , as the Aboriginal Elder suggests, a world that has been here since the time before time began. So what can I do to begin to address the balance? What can I do to begin to live up to the challenge that the words of the aboriginal elder faces us with. Have we kept the earth as it was on the first day and what will we hand on to our children ?
There are no definite answers to these questions. They provide me with an on-going challenge and an ever-present responsibility towards developing my awareness and , recognising the inter-connectedness of all, I can continue to play my part in :-
‘creating a planetary vision
and a universal heart of compassion’
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