"As Within, So Without" (Or My Paper Towel Dilemma)
If you can get your hands on the New York Times, Thursday the 21st of March, read the article in the House & Home Section called "A Year without Toilet Paper." It's an inspiring and thought provoking article about a youngish couple living in "an elegant pre-war on lower Fifth" who are adopting extremely radical environmental strategies for, what they are calling, a No Impact way of life. They will do this for a year and he, in turn, will write a book about their experiences.
Here are some of the things they will be doing: Using no toilet paper! (Think bowls of water and lots of air drying.), doing without newspapers, magazines, television, any conveniences (planes, trains, automobiles, even elevators), no plastic bags, or anything new. They are also eating only the food grown within a 250 mile radius of Manhattan, so meals may include things like shredded cabbage with fruit-scrap vinegar (for some reason, olive oil (Italy?) and vinegar (?) are out), mashed parsnips and yellow carrots, homemade yogurt and thyme tea.
They are using lots of beeswax candles and those greenish but oh so environmentally correct curlicue-shaped fluorescent light bulbs and they are wearing only hand me downs. I know, I know - all this in their million dollar pre-war two bedroom on lower Fifth, probably plenty of money, good education. It's sort of the Waldenization of the Big City by Rich People. But, let the righteous indignation go for a moment, and take their No Impact experiment for what it is: An attempt at lightening the load on the environment and setting an example for all of us on how to do it.
What they are doing is all very appealing to me and got me to thinking a lot about how much more I could do for the environment. Then this train of thought lurched into the "As Within, So Without" adage and vice versa.
I've been pondering the "Within/Without" statement for awhile now and have come to the conclusion that it is actually a very profound law of higher consciousness. "As Within, So Without" implies to me that the more cleaned up we are inside - physically, spiritually, emotionally - the more our outer life works. Because since our thoughts create our reality, the cleaner and more well-intentioned our thoughts are, the nicer will be the world we create for ourselves and for others.
How might we do this? First of all, by physically cleansing our bodies, inside and out, and secondly, by agreeing to do our best to remove the psychic Gordian knots and the convoluted ego-speak in which most of us indulge thus arriving at a more simple way of thinking, doing and therefore being.
The inverse of "As Within, So Without" would also be true: The more our outer life is cleaned up and simple and thoughtful, e.g. what the couple from NYC is doing, the more our inner life is cleaned up. I can see the two working hand in hand, because I can see it happening in my own life. The more cleaned up I get inside, the more I want my outer environment to match my inner cleaned up self. This includes a simpler life style which in turn includes consciously making less of an impact on my environment. It means more every day thoughtfulness and being a better steward of my land and environment. It means more gratitude and appreciation for life in general.
But what can real people, like you and me, do to help? We can all watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and cluck helplessly every time an Alaskan glacier the size of Rhode Island falls into the sea, or tsk tsk about how our rainforests (the lungs of the earth, for god's sake!) are being destroyed or how our very own pristine wildernesses are being logged to death, but it's really all rather abstract, isn't it? What can we - as individuals, as one person - REALLY do to help keep an intact, livable earth for our children and the future generations? Or, what can we do every day?
I don't claim to know much, but here are a few simple things that we all could do: Certainly recycling everything to the best of our ability, taking cloth bags to grocery stores, supporting our Farmer's Markets from the first day they are open in the spring, buying only organic products, both food and body products from reputable stores. Then, how about taking our own containers to restaurants instead of using their Styrofoam "doggie bags?" Taking our own cups to coffee and tea houses and taking our own baggies and containers to buy bulk foods. Buying recycled goods when we can, like printer paper. Reducing our use of plastic and paper products.
(Thus my dilemma regarding paper towels: I am profligate with paper towels. I love my paper towels. I buy large unmanageable blocks of paper towels from Costco. I use many paper towels every day, for wiping counter tops, stoves, floors, my nose, my hands, my dogs, for everything. I think paper towels are cleaner than sponges or dish cloths. So I suppose I could say that it's the hygiene principle at work here. I will try to be better.)
Here's more: Pick trash up from streets and lawns and either throw it away or recycle it. Try not to buy anything new. I love to haunt second hand stores - book and clothing - and I actually find quite a bit there that I like and end up feeling really GOOD that I am just re-using, and re-cycling instead of generating the need for more new, thus playing into the hands of our too-capitalistic society. Use what you already have and think twice about buying new. Don't buy anything you will have to throw away.
Don't make garbage or make as little as you can. If you have money, try solar. Build Green. Buy a hybrid car. Don't use VOC paints. Live your life as a variation on the theme from environmentalists: "Leave only footprints; take only photographs." Walk on the earth and in the world as softly and as unobtrusively as you can.
In conclusion: Clean yourself up inside on all levels, and see, amazingly, how your intention to cleanse yourself will translate very subtlety into how your outer environment will change for you. You will find yourself becoming more aware of what's outside of you and you will be more willing to do good things for your environment when you become more aware of what's going on inside of you.
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