Ways to Experience “Dadirri” in Nature

Dadirri. It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri recognizes the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us … When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness.

“My people today recognize and experience in this quietness the great Life-Giving spirit, the Father of us all. It is easy for me to experience God’s presence. When I am out hunting, when I am in the bush, among the trees, on a hill or by a billabong; these are the times when I can simply be in God’s presence. My people have been so aware of Nature. It is natural that we will feel close to the Creator.” – Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, Aboriginal teacher and artist

natureAletheia Luna – Ever since I learned the meaning of the word dadirri in a conversation I was having with an Australian aboriginal friend of mine, I immediately fell in love with its significance. I was teaching him about ‘Pachamama‘ (what we call mother nature in Quechua) and other of my indigenous ways of looking at the world, while he was teaching me about his.

Nature is one of the best healing and teaching environments that has been used by every indigenous culture to reconnect with God, or with the Divine. In a time where we are so materialistically centered, it is unsurprising that we often take for granted a gift that is so freely available. Continue reading