An allegory is “a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.”, according to Oxford Languages. Allegory typically uses the general lines of one story, to show that these same general lines are present in another story. This is called analogy. One could say that analogy is on the level of any object within a story, what allegory is on the level of a full story. Analogy is a fine tool for discovering similarities, that can be very important on the spiritual path. But it is also very important if we want to understand climate change.
A lot of beautiful initiatives exist in the world today to combat climate change. It is very important to care well for the planet of which we, as a species, are such a major part. And so many things are said about it. Many true, some a tad too idealistic, sometimes a tad too realistic. But almost all of it is viewed through the lense of scientific research. To me, as a Yogi, no matter how valuable I too deem modern science to be, a question comes into mind: what about all the areas of life that science does not understand yet?
We tend to forget sometimes, in the overload of insight, practicality, beauty and truth that science produces, that there also still very many things that science still does not understand yet. And to overlook that this means having a blind spot! We have to take into account also that which is — as of yet — unknown to us. But how to go about doing so?
This is exactly a major part of what spirituality is here for. Spirituality is here for moving beyond what is already known. For dealing with progressively bigger pictures. For making sense of what lies beyond the now and for cultivating attitudes to be as ready for what may be coming as you could possibly be ready for without knowing what it is. And if we want to do this, if we want to get to know the not-yet-knowable, we can employ analogy to gather information.
Having trained myself in this for years — something which you can also do quite simply for yourself if you would like to — and employing this technique of analogy to aspects of the story of climate change a very clear similarity comes to mind. We can regard the planet as a giant living entity, of which the globe is the physical body. In this way, healing our planet means healing its physical body. If we then regard humanity as being an important part of the life that is our planet, healing our own physical bodies suddenly becomes healing the physical body of the planet. In a similar fashion, healing our mind becomes healing the mind of our planet. Developing our consciousness becomes developing the consciousness of our planet.
We, as a species, are like a vital organ in the being that is our planet. One organ with problems may cause problems for the other organs around it also. In this way, the story of climate change becomes an allegory to the story of the state of humanity. And also vice versa! The story of how we are doing as a species can be easily made into an allegorical tale of how our dear planet, Earth, is doing.
But regarding the subject of climate change in this way also lays bare that working on ourselves. The quality of our consciousness, feelings, mind and body at each moment in time is a chance to improve ourselves. And thereby the quality of our planet. Our health and vitality are intrinsically linked with the health and vitality of our planet. We ARE our planet. And our planet is US.
Spend a few moments reflecting on this. Looking at climate change through the lense of allegory and analogy. See what it brings you when you do this. What new insights, new hypotheses, new explorations, new actions will it bring you?
For me personally, it is perhaps best phrased like this:
Heal yourself to heal the planet. Heal the planet to heal yourself.
Will this phrase become a part of your approach to life too?
