317
Experiences with the Metaphysics of Nature
herd is a group soul, with each individual cow an aspect of that. I learned that each soul as a part
also held the blueprint of the whole … and that separation is an illusion created by our intellectual
beliefs. We do not think holistically.
Awkward showed me the energies of the land. To most farmers, soil is just soil, land is just land,
good, bad, or indifferent. This is not so. Just as with all life, soil is living. By this, I do not mean only
the micro- and macro-life teeming within the soil, I also include the mineral aspects of the soil as
particulates. Everything is energy. If I viewed the soil as dead or half-dead, as a substrate that I had
to somehow grow living pasture upon, then I would create my own opposition to this growth. Not
only this, but I would unwittingly create the conditions that would support my belief that the soil is
dead rather than living. Conditions such as drought, or excessive rain, or subsoil hardpans may all
be collectively created by unwitting farmers. As I said earlier, it is all about energy.
Farming is more about the wielding of consciousness than almost anything else. We have not
even begun to farm the land, we only think we do. Most farmers are like people attempting to follow
a path with their eyes closed. This does not make them bad or wrong, but we do need to awaken to a
new and vital era of more enlightened agriculture. I concede, however, that it is a huge leap forward.
Bio- or organic farming was and is a wonderful frst step, but this next quantum step is long overdue.
As a dairy farmer, I had a serious problem. I feel a touch of embarrassment to admit that even
though I truly liked my cows … I hated milking. It took me only 8 weeks to learn how much I
detested the regular, monotonous work of milking twice a day, every day. Fortunately, I had no idea
that I would spend the next 8 years milking them, but in hindsight, I realise that this was the perfect
way to teach a person completely lacking in self-discipline, and this was something that I greatly
needed in my life. My hate of milking meant that I was mostly bad-tempered in the milking shed.
The cows picked up on my energy and liberally doused the whole milking shed in hot, green, liquid
poo! They kicked and were continually agitated, making the process of milking far more laborious
than it needed to be. As far as I was concerned, however, it was all their fault, not mine!
Only a few weeks after my association with Awkward started to deepen and develop, an incident
happened in the milking shed that began a major change my life.
I brought the cows in as usual with my trained cattle dogs, and in a particularly bad mood, I commenced milking. One of my skittish, long-legged Friesians came towards the milking stall, and just
as she entered, she kicked out at me. She caught me a heavy whack on the quad muscle of my thigh,
the leg going instantly numb. As I struggled not to fall over, my rage boiled and I did something I
had never done before. Picking up the leg-chain, I swung it in an arc around my head, before bringing it down towards her ribs as hard as I could.
It all went horribly wrong … or perhaps I should say, it all went perfectly right!
As the leg-chain approached her ribs, she danced out the way and again kicked out. The leg-chain
caught on her ankle, and she kicked again. Now, in a blur of speed, the leg-chain did a double arc
and was hurtling towards my head. I automatically put up my arm to stop it. The next thing I knew
was a terrible, agonising pain as the leg-chain wrapped around my arm. The pain was so bad I did
not know whether to vomit or faint, but I managed to do neither. However, in that moment of intense
pain, powerful words were forcibly and indelibly imprinted into my consciousness: ‘I did this to
myself’.
In that moment of agony, I knew that I was the cause of all the chaos and turmoil in the dairy. I
knew that I was the author of my pain … and in that moment, my consciousness changed. In what
way exactly, I had no idea, but I knew I was changed. It was 4 days before I could milk again. My
arm was black-blue and purple. It was 4 months before the bruise fnally left the bone in my forearm
and I was without pain. But the results were remarkable. I had changed.
Within myself, I knew I had changed. When I was able to recommence milking, every cow
was quiet, no agitation, no chaos, no hot green poo all over the place. My frustration at milking,
my anger, had vanished. It gradually dawned on me that every one of my hundred milking cows
knew that I had changed. From then onwards, the mayhem of the previous 2 years in the milking shed ended because my anger had disappeared. The cows were aware of my changed state of
Experiences with the Metaphysics of Nature
herd is a group soul, with each individual cow an aspect of that. I learned that each soul as a part
also held the blueprint of the whole … and that separation is an illusion created by our intellectual
beliefs. We do not think holistically.
Awkward showed me the energies of the land. To most farmers, soil is just soil, land is just land,
good, bad, or indifferent. This is not so. Just as with all life, soil is living. By this, I do not mean only
the micro- and macro-life teeming within the soil, I also include the mineral aspects of the soil as
particulates. Everything is energy. If I viewed the soil as dead or half-dead, as a substrate that I had
to somehow grow living pasture upon, then I would create my own opposition to this growth. Not
only this, but I would unwittingly create the conditions that would support my belief that the soil is
dead rather than living. Conditions such as drought, or excessive rain, or subsoil hardpans may all
be collectively created by unwitting farmers. As I said earlier, it is all about energy.
Farming is more about the wielding of consciousness than almost anything else. We have not
even begun to farm the land, we only think we do. Most farmers are like people attempting to follow
a path with their eyes closed. This does not make them bad or wrong, but we do need to awaken to a
new and vital era of more enlightened agriculture. I concede, however, that it is a huge leap forward.
Bio- or organic farming was and is a wonderful frst step, but this next quantum step is long overdue.
As a dairy farmer, I had a serious problem. I feel a touch of embarrassment to admit that even
though I truly liked my cows … I hated milking. It took me only 8 weeks to learn how much I
detested the regular, monotonous work of milking twice a day, every day. Fortunately, I had no idea
that I would spend the next 8 years milking them, but in hindsight, I realise that this was the perfect
way to teach a person completely lacking in self-discipline, and this was something that I greatly
needed in my life. My hate of milking meant that I was mostly bad-tempered in the milking shed.
The cows picked up on my energy and liberally doused the whole milking shed in hot, green, liquid
poo! They kicked and were continually agitated, making the process of milking far more laborious
than it needed to be. As far as I was concerned, however, it was all their fault, not mine!
Only a few weeks after my association with Awkward started to deepen and develop, an incident
happened in the milking shed that began a major change my life.
I brought the cows in as usual with my trained cattle dogs, and in a particularly bad mood, I commenced milking. One of my skittish, long-legged Friesians came towards the milking stall, and just
as she entered, she kicked out at me. She caught me a heavy whack on the quad muscle of my thigh,
the leg going instantly numb. As I struggled not to fall over, my rage boiled and I did something I
had never done before. Picking up the leg-chain, I swung it in an arc around my head, before bringing it down towards her ribs as hard as I could.
It all went horribly wrong … or perhaps I should say, it all went perfectly right!
As the leg-chain approached her ribs, she danced out the way and again kicked out. The leg-chain
caught on her ankle, and she kicked again. Now, in a blur of speed, the leg-chain did a double arc
and was hurtling towards my head. I automatically put up my arm to stop it. The next thing I knew
was a terrible, agonising pain as the leg-chain wrapped around my arm. The pain was so bad I did
not know whether to vomit or faint, but I managed to do neither. However, in that moment of intense
pain, powerful words were forcibly and indelibly imprinted into my consciousness: ‘I did this to
myself’.
In that moment of agony, I knew that I was the cause of all the chaos and turmoil in the dairy. I
knew that I was the author of my pain … and in that moment, my consciousness changed. In what
way exactly, I had no idea, but I knew I was changed. It was 4 days before I could milk again. My
arm was black-blue and purple. It was 4 months before the bruise fnally left the bone in my forearm
and I was without pain. But the results were remarkable. I had changed.
Within myself, I knew I had changed. When I was able to recommence milking, every cow
was quiet, no agitation, no chaos, no hot green poo all over the place. My frustration at milking,
my anger, had vanished. It gradually dawned on me that every one of my hundred milking cows
knew that I had changed. From then onwards, the mayhem of the previous 2 years in the milking shed ended because my anger had disappeared. The cows were aware of my changed state of