Advanced Ecopsychology: Questions and Answers

Q: What is ecopsychology?
A: Ecopsychology is an awareness of life as one.

Q: How is life one?
A: We are a part of a web of invisible relationships. We will die and this web will go on. While we live we take from and give to this web constantly.

Q: How can I experience this awareness?
All life is aware of existing. When we simply exist, empty of animal or human content, we are one with all life. This oneness is the source of compassion and joy.

Q: What is the use of this awareness?
A: As love teaches you to see the invisible lines that connect us to the water, soil, plants, farmers, processing plants, chemicals, landfills, etc… Behavior shifts naturally as we experience ourselves as connected to love. This deep sense of connection is best cultivated through getting out and spending time in reflective receptivity.

Q: Why does it hurt so much to think about or be in nature?
A: Pain is resistance to compassion. Compassion is the stream of energy pulling us back towards our original awareness of our own phenomenal existence. Investigating pain honestly reveals that we are in love with misery and suffering, and even addicted to it. Clear investigation of the pain of existing reveals the stream of compassion which in turn carries one into the basic awareness of existing as peace.

Q: How do I bring this ecopsychological awareness of oneness into the human world?
A: Our negative treatment of the natural world mirrors the oppression of our inner wilderness in the human world. The way to freedom is kindness, restraint, consideration, and unconditional love for self and others.

Q: How do I share ecopsychology with others?
A: Treating the natural world with respect and care comes naturally to some people. But it hurts to be sensitive to nature at first. The concepts of microcosm describes the personal purificatory realm of nature as self and the and macrocosm describes impersonal participatory realm of the kosmos as divinity. Developing a microcosmic practice of primal spirituality is the best way to share ecopsychology, especially if it is attuned to the sacred cycles of year, month or day, which is readily understood by many people. Honoring the year cycle involves the sun, the month cycle involves the moon, and the day and night cycle involves the earth itself. Examples would be honoring the dawn and dusk, acknowledging the full and new moon, and practicing the eight solar festivals, known today in pagan circles as the sabbats. Involving others in these rituals are the best way to share real ecopsychology with others because they are not intellectual.

Q: Anything else you want to say about ecopsychology?
A: You don't have to be a screaming greenie or urban pagan to play with nature. It's for everyone, after all.