I am at home in the entire universe.
— Swami Nirmalananda

Whatever spiritual practice we are engaged in, it must address the environmental issues that our planet faces, or else our practice is irrelevant. The yogi strives to live in harmony with nature and to perceive all of life as imbued with consciousness. A yogi does not see him- or herself as living in the world, but rather sees the world as his or her own expanded self: the Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth. What is realized in the enlightened state is the interconnectedness of all. It is our job to nurture and protect the Earth, as she is our own greater body; what we do to her we do to ourselves, and without her we have no physical existence.

photo of activist Julia Butterfly Hill “treesitting” in Luna by Shaun Walker