Many of the great philosophies and ancient traditions have common underlying principles. These are the principles that help us to understand human nature, to guide our behavior and the choices that we make as we walk our journeys through life. Ecopsychology and the Hakomi principles (mindfulness, organicity, non-violence, mind-body holism, and unity) have a direct and natural connection and they could have a profound significance in the way we choose to live our lives in the world today and within today’s ecological crisis. Ecopsychology explores our interrelationship with the more-than-human world along with how we are part of a larger process. It helps us to expand our awareness from the little “me” to a larger “Me” that includes knowing that everything is connected and related. The Hakomi principles are the foundation for the method of Hakomi, and they are also a guide to living our lives. For the Hakomi therapist to be effective there must be a deep understanding and integration of the principles held within the being of the therapist.
Mindfulness, awareness of what is, is the key operating principle that makes it possible to wake up to ourselves and the world, and to participate in creating lives that feel healthy at the deepest core of our being. This includes awareness of how we are connected as well as how we are disconnected from ourselves, each other, the earth, and spirit. It includes paying attention to that which feels joyful, as well as that which feels painful, so that our choices are based on direct experience and true feelings, rather than being caught in the busy mindlessness of our ceaselessly racing minds and old habits that are no longer useful. Mindfulness can be a first step in reweaving our connection with the greater world.
Ultimately we are living beings participating in a co-evolution that has been happening for 4.5 billion years on this planet. Within our nature is an organic wisdom to grow and heal and move towards wholeness. If you have ever been in an old growth forest, or walked through any wilderness environment, you will have been witness to the incredible intelligence of nature. Everything is in balance with everything else. Life and death cycle naturally and beautifully; there is nothing that we have to do to manage or take care of anything because living systems contain the natural wisdom required for life to happen. Humans contain the same natural wisdom, but we complicate our lives by trying to manage and control things because we are not able to trust in the wisdom and organic unfolding of the universe. We imagine the “universe” to be something out there. We forget that the universe is everything, and that everything is part of what we consider to be ourselves.
Non-violence is simply a reverence for life and allowing what is natural to be. It is like going with the flow of the river without trying to control or manipulate the situation. When we become aware of the beauty and intelligence that is inherent in nature, and how we are ultimately interrelated, we naturally develop a desire to care for the earth. We develop a natural compassion for all beings and an attitude of non-harming.
Our ability to know, to know what is true, to be aware and alive, does not come from the mind alone. It does not come from the body alone. We perceive and we are able to be aware that we are perceiving. In our efforts to understand how we are able to perceive we separate mind and body so that we can study how it all works. We created the term “mind” and the term “body,” and so we think they are two different things. But is there actually a place where one begins and the other ends? We can say a certain part of our body is the brain. But is that the only place where we know things? Memories the conscious mind cannot process are held in the body. Traumatic experiences that are too painful for the mind to process get stuck in the body. Recent research has confirmed that neurons in the heart create an electromagnetic field that is five-thousand times stronger than the brain. (Armour, 2003) Tibetans do not have a word that distinguishes heart from mind, yet our culture places so much emphasis on the importance of the “mind” that we often overlook the fact that our bodies are an important source of information for what is actually happening. Remembering to listen to our mind-bodies allows us to be truly aware of ourselves and of the world around us directly and truthfully.
Everything is connected and interdependent. We sometimes think that we are separate and alone, but in essence we are all made up of the same energy, the same substance. All matter is made up of vibrating energy, and there are forces that hold energy together into forms. Everything in existence is an expression of those forces. In Grace Unfolding: Psychotherapy in the Spirit of the Tao-te Ching, Johanson and Kurtz (1991) question our ability to recognize, on more than an intellectual level, that everything is an expression of the Tao. “Do we correctly see our interdependence with all life, and live a life of gratitude and compassion? Or does our consciousness organize our experience and expression through all sorts of fearful, distorting illusions that lead us into harmful ways?” (p. 120).
The illusion of separation is what creates much of our suffering on this planet. We imagine that we are separated from ourselves, from each other, from the great Mother Earth, and from Father Sky. In Coming to our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005) quotes Albert Einstein’s response to a Rabbi’s request for help in understanding the death of his sixteen-year-old daughter:
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security. (p. 338)
REFERERNCES
Armour, J. Andrew (2003). Neurocardiology: anatomical and functional principles.
Heart Math Institute, 03011.
Johanson, G., & Kurtz, R. (1991). Grace unfolding: Psychotherapy in the spirit of the
Tao-te ching. New York: Bell Tower.
Kabat-Zinn, Jon (2005). Coming to our Senses: Healing ourselves and the world
through mindfulness. New York: Hyperion.
Authors: Lana Marie Willie and Dr. Michael Hutton
