During a winter sit spot next to a rabbit hole I was lucky enough to be graced by its presence.
After a few minutes sitting still, he came bounding out, and it was then my work to practice invisibility. In order to get close to animals one must be in a state of utter non-intimidation.
Practices ranging from bodily stillness, careful and calm breathing, graceful non-intimidating eye movement, to even the intensity of thoughts will all effect an animal in an instant; as their life depends on determining if we are honing in our senses upon them and therefore a potential predator. By not setting off these triggers, which becomes a meditation, each animal encounter becomes our teacher of deepening our awareness of how we hold ourselves in the world. It is also a teacher of reminding us how the chaos of our inner lives broadcasts ripples outward and effect others around us. Animals, being so attuned, show us this in a more subtle way than people can.
Deeper still, If we pay attention to what we are feeling and thinking at the moment an animal graces us with its presence, we can learn a great deal about our lives. By comparing our internal state with the symbolism and meaning of each animal, like in a dream, this is the practice of working with animal totems which native people worked with. Rabbit totem is a special messenger. This was the closest I have been to a wild rabbit.
Dan De Lion is an earth herbalist, forager, musician, and teacher. He teaches through Return to Nature, providing classes, lectures, and seminars on wild food foraging, mushroom identification, herbal medicine making, as well as primitive and survival skills with a focus on wild foods and forest medicines. He also incorporates the philosophies of yoga, alchemy, meditation, and mysticism into his classes, lectures, and seminars and brings a deep rooted indigenous medicine perspective of practicing intuition with plants, in a systematic and earth-based way – Check out more at www.returntonature.us.
During a winter sit spot next to a rabbit hole I was lucky enough to be graced by its presence.
