Right View
In this chapter I will be delving into several features of reality, we might call them1. The phrase Cosmic Nature, like using a capital ‘N’, is a way to distinguish that I’m talking about the larger foundational and interconnected aspects of the natural universe and not merely the flora and fauna one sees when going camping.
As such, Nature includes cities, cars, pollution, cancer, movies, smartphones, ice cream, war, peace, birth, and death - the totality of the cosmos. It also includes the sacred and wondrous flux of all matter and energy that makes our life and experience possible. An enlightened one would be at home and connected at the top of a mountain or a skyscraper; in a valley or a coal mine; on earth or on mars.
Before we get into these features of Nature, it is important to understand the underlying rationale on which these descriptions are framed. It is also important to understand the reason this section on Cosmic Nature is a part of this book and important to a spiritual practice - and, why so many ancient traditions integrated careful observations of Nature2.
As I mentioned earlier, it is our misjudgments that lead to the pathos of unhealthy emotions. This suggests that becoming wiser and happier consists of bringing one’s character into alignment with Nature. With true judgments, the resulting emotional responses will be appropriate to our true conditions and, therefore, healthy and fruitful.
Of course, these judgments and misjudgments we make are deep. They come from a lifetime of experience, practices, and ritual that cultivates profound experience3. As such, they are not easily changed on an intuitive, reflexive level. Reading and simple agreement with them won’t do it. But, the words are the beginning. And so we will use words to outline our first step. If we are to align with Nature, it is important to step back and get a better understanding of this cosmos in which we find ourselves.