PANHUASCA!

The cosmos has no origin. It is the origin and source of itself, and the whole of Nature is divine. Nature was here before me – she is really my mother, my father, my creator. Nature arouses in me not only admiration but also reverence.

To contemplate the god which is Nature, I don’t close my eyes; I open them. Nature is always at hand, and I contemplate it both inside me and outside me. I see existence, flux and action; the cosmos moves by itself, an innate exuberance in a constant state of change.

I see that I am part of this movement. I am a citizen of the whole world; we feel separate until we understand that we are not. I am part of the Earth, part of the Solar System and the Galaxy, which belong to the universe, to the divine. I recognise my own divinity when I see that I am part of the universal divinity.

I understand that everything exists within the nature of the cosmos, known and unknown. I understand that the universe – absolute existence – can only be subject and object of itself. It is sufficient to itself; it simply “is”. I perceive the beauty and grandeur of universal nature, its totality, its divinity, its luminescence.

I have found meaning in focusing my attention here and now on the beauty, the power and the integrity of nature, and – in this way – in honouring, celebrating and feeling life more fully. I understand that the meaning of our lives is to be part of the universal consciousness; we are one of the parts of the universe which is capable of contemplating itself. I have found meaning in looking for transcendence, focusing my attention on the universal infinite, nurturing my vision of divinity by contemplating nature.

After early childhood, when one comes to the age of reason, it is very easy to stop perceiving and experiencing this sense of divine unity, to stop seeing the magnificent light which emanates from Nature. We forget that we are part of the universal whole; we start seeing ourselves – in thoughts and feelings – as separate from the rest, focused on our mental lives, buried in symbols centred on ideas and concepts and their limitations.

Along with language, we acquire the ability to classify things in groups and categories, ceasing sometimes to see the mystery of their “unicity”, their surprise, their unexpectedness, the extraordinariness of their mere presence, their singularity, their reality.

We develop a kind of membrane, a veil, a grammatical filter between the world and ourselves. We enter into a kind of limitation, which ends up restricting and conditioning our ability to be enthusiastic, to be enchanted. Life, existence as a whole, seems to lose something of its shine and its charm, becoming more ordinary, familiar and trivial – an illusion created by our consciousness.

But magnificence is always at hand, and by once more awakening the child and creativity in ourselves, we can gain access to this glorious vision of everything in a constant state of flux and transformation. One of the tasks which we must undertake as adults is to find once again that pristine, childlike, creative vision, in order to embrace all creatures and the whole of nature.

Everybody has access to nature through their senses and emotions, and everybody knows what best awakens in them the perception of the sacred. The heart of our pantheistic work is to highlight the feeling that we are fully part of the great sacred cycle of life.

The expression “mystical experience” might suggest something difficult to achieve, but in fact it signifies merely something more hidden and secret – something almost indescribable, experienced mysteriously, like beauty or the scent of a flower.

Pantheistic mysticism tries to facilitate the perception of our unicity, deepening our reverence for nature and the universe. For me, such an attempt is made easier by sharing a sacred medicine like

Ayahuasca tea, a traditional
potion from South America. It is a mystical and traditional drink which – when served in a ritualistic context and taken with the right intention – can lead to the experience of God in us, the “namaste” of followers of yoga.

Dr. Regis Alain Barbier – president of the Ayahuasca Pantheist Society.

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