FANA-FI-GAIA

Samhain ('Summer’s End') - October 31, 2024

13th Quarterly from the Ziraat Council

Note from the Council

Welcome to the Ziraat Newsletter for October 2024! 

Ziraat is a spiritual path connecting us with Nature through the writings and practices of our great Sufi teachers in the lineage of Hazrat Inayat Khan. We on the Ziraat Council like to mark the wheel of the year by publishing newsletters on each of the four crosses – the midpoints between the solstices and equinoxes. Being in tune with the changing seasons is one way to feel our connection with Nature herself. 

Ziraat in Action

Reducing Food Waste

A core concentration of the Ziraat path is sustainable agriculture, which is becoming more and more important as the human population of our planet continues to increase. Sustainable agriculture requires us to live within our budget of resources, and to eliminate or minimize the waste we produce. In recent years it has become clear that agricultural practices are one of the main drivers of climate change. In fact, agriculture and land use, along with the rest of the food chain system are thought to be responsible for 22-34% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (https://drawdown.org/programs/drawdown-science/food).

So, while we mainly need to focus on reducing our consumption of fossil fuels, we also need to look at our agricultural practices because changing agricultural practices can play a big role in reducing climate change. For example, farmers can develop practices that keep more carbon in the soil, such as with biochar, or composting agricultural waste instead of burning it. There are even new methods proposed for reducing the methane released from belching cows. On a personal level, eating less meat can be a big part of the solution.

But Project Drawdown lists reducing food waste as the first important solution to reducing climate impacts from this sector (https://drawdown.org/solutions/reduced-food-waste). According to Project Drawdown, about 50% of food worldwide is lost or wasted between the farm and the table. Reducing this waste not only would reduce the huge environmental impacts of agriculture, it could provide food for people in need.

Reducing food waste has recently become a way of life for me – and it’s fun! Now in my household meal planning revolves around eating the foods that need to be used up first. We check the back of the fridge daily. This results in creative meals outside the cookbooks which are delicious and fun to cook. Most importantly, as lovers of Nature, we view food as a sacred gift from the Earth – whether we grew it ourselves or bought it in a store or farmers market. 

Keeping Up

An unflattering look inside America’s corporate controlled food industry.

“More than a terrific movie - it’s an important movie” Entertainment Weekly

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Inc-Michael-Pollan/dp/B002UZ5CHO

Practices to Connect with Nature

Tassawuri with John Muir

Tassawuri is a spiritual practice in which we attune to a great spiritual teacher or guide and walk in their footsteps. This practice has been handed down to us by our Sufi teachers Hazrat Inayat Khan, Pir Valayat Inayat Khan and Murshid Samuel Lewis. Often they instructed us to walk embodying the great masters, such as Jesus, Mohammed, or the Buddha.

I share with you now a Tassawuri practice attuning to the great environmental preservationist John Muir. He eloquently expressed his deep love of Nature and described in his books many ways to connect deeply with Nature. One of these practices I call the ‘John Muir Walk.’ He suggests walking in a beautiful place and observing how the beauty of the landscape changes with every step you take. This is a beautiful way to connect with the present moment and receive the gifts of the beauty all around us.

Check out this video example of Tassuwuri with John Muir amongst the quaking aspens of the the La Sal Mountains in Utah: https://vimeo.com/1020352524

Wah Taho Dance in the Wilderness

‘Wah Taho’ is in the repertoire of the Dances of Universal Peace as a Zuni call to sunrise. My backpacking friends and I have adapted this Dance for use by very small groups in the backcountry. We like to pause after each repetition of Wah Taho Taho to listen for the echoing reply from the stone walls around us. We also like to sing Wah Taho to each of the four directions (instead of the inside and outside of the circle) so that we connect deeply with our surroundings in all directions. Every time I do this practice out in the wild I feel immensely more connected with where I am.

Check out this video of Wah Taho in the Canyonlands of Utah: https://vimeo.com/1020356536

There is a description of the traditional Zuni Sunrise Call excerpted from Carlos Troyer’s 1904 book, which can be found with one of the write-ups for the Wah Taho Dance:

The "Sunrise Call" is one of the most inspiring features of the morning ceremonials of the cliff-dwellers. ... Before the dawn of day breaks forth, the vibrating chime-plates are brought into action, -- their whirr reaching the outermost dwellings of the pueblo and bringing the people to the roofs and tops of the houses. All is alive -- men, women and children all appear to obey the summons of the Sun-priest to rise and greet the mother-of-life, the rising sun. With his great tuma, and amid the roar of big drums, he blazons forth the "call to rise" to the surrounding mesas, and receives from them a prompt and faithful response. Having fulfilled his first duty, he next makes a fervent appeal in the form of a morning prayer, to the "Mighty Sun-god", imploring in a low and tremulous voice aid and guidance for his people, and concludes by repeating his first sunrise call again, to the distant mesas. 

 -- Carlos Troyer, Traditional Songs of the Zunis, 1904

La Sal Mountains in Utah

Warner Lake