Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
Simply follow nature, Rousseau declares. Sade, laughing grimly, agrees.
The heavens and the earth, the woods and the wayside, teem with instruction and knowledge to the curious and thoughtful.
From the pine tree, learn of the pine tree; And from the bamboo, of the bamboo
Read nature; nature is a friend to truth.
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
The wind in ones face makes one wise.
As in everything, nature is the best instructor.
He was taught by the river. Incessantly, he learned from it. Most of all, he learned from it to listen, to pay close attention with a quiet heart, with a waiting, opened soul, without passion, without a wish, without judgement, without an opinion.
Since we are part of nature...we empathize deeply with its ways... they serve as models of how things should be.
Every life lesson that trickled its way into my being came from a mutually respectful relationship between the environment and my family. We were raised to appreciate the teachings of animals and the untouched magnificence of raw natural beauty. This understanding of our precious and complex ecosystem has carried me throughout every chapter of my life and is a significant column of my identity.
The deepest words of the wise man teach us the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows or the sound of the water when it is flowing.
When we shout at the oak tree, the oak tree is not offended. When we praise the oak tree, it doesn't raise its nose. We can learn the Dharma from the oak tree; therefore, the oak tree is part of our Dharmakaya. We can learn from everything that is around, that is in us.
Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Also learn from holy books and wise people. Everything - even mountains, rivers, plants and trees - should be your teacher.
Momo listened to everyone and everything - even to the rain and the wind and the pine trees - and all of them spoke to her after their own fashion.
More and more as we come closer and closer in touch with nature and its teachings are we able to see the Divine and are therefore fitted to interpret correctly the various languages spoken by all forms of nature about us.
Anything, everything, can be learned if you can just get yourself in a little patch of real ground, real nature, real wood, real anything ? and just sit still and watch.
We know more from nature than we can at will communicate.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things We murder to dissect. Enough of Science and of Art; Close up these barren leaves; Come forth, and bring with you a heart That watches and receives.
It is not easy for a man to be as great as a mountain or a forest. But that is why the creator gave them to us as teachers. Now that I am old I Iook once more toward them for lessons, instead of trying to understand the ways of men. They tell me to be patient. They tell me I cannot change what is, I can only hope to change what will become. Let the grasses grow over our scars, they say, and let flowers bloom over our wounds.
I often think flowers are the angels' alphabet whereby they write on hills and fields mysterious and beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn.
You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.
Wildness was ever sounding in our ears, and Nature saw to it that besides school lessons some of her own lessons should be learned, perhaps with a view to the time when we should be called to wander in wildness to our heart’s content.
The book of Nature is that which the physician must read; and to do so he must walk over the leaves.
Live in the fields, and God will give you lectures on natural philosophy every day.
