CONNECTING THE DOTS
You can't separate yourself from nature until you connect the dots.  You have to do the work.  Why the need to separate from nature?  Because, in the end, and throughout, the realm of nature is where the six transformations are constantly taking place - birth, growth, disease, decay, old age, and death, called Sadurmi in Vedanta.  But transformation does not take place, and your Soul Atman is not subject to these six despoilers.  So make sure that It is not, not even in pretend mode....

Divine life is a connected life -- earth is connected to smell, water to taste, etc.  Without this knowledge one lives a random life, or even worse, and if one lives a life of distraction, then you have a fragmented life.  If you go to death in a fragmented state, then what else to expect than that you are born in a similar condition thereafter.  Read in the Gita what Sri Krishna says about the different types of wombs in which beings get reborn.  This much ought to begin to formulate a little dispassion in you, and when that occurs you are on your way towards setting foot on the spiritual path.

Get an inner life!  That is what the real Christ said, and wanted for you.  Become a free soul.  Enough of this foolish and painful evolution into outer space, and of constantly grinding out bones and nerves and flesh as condiments for death's endless feast.  If you want free you are going to have to involve a channel through the external object to the eternal Subject, from the seen to the seer.  Reality is subtle.  It demands painstaking powers of detection.  Who knew that there was oil in a tiny sesame seed?  To know this you have to meticulously gather a 1000 seeds, invent a press, and squeeze them firmly to get even a drop of that nutritious oil.  In like manner, if you can distill your consciousness to just one drop of Essence you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.

[Babaji presented the next subtle step in this practice of involution:]
After connecting earth with smell, water with taste, etc., one must plumb the subject of the gross elements to subtle elements - earth is solidity; water equates to liquidity, fire to luminosity, air to homogeneity, and ether to all-pervasiveness.  These are not mere cosmological facts to memorize.  We make this connection for the initial purpose of being able to say, "I am not the body," "I am not matter."  Cosmology is not just about planets and galaxies.  There is also religious cosmology, which is a breadcrumb-like trail of inner connection leading us to the Self.  In  this regard, the interconnectedness of all things deals effectively with all that changes.  But what you want to realize ultimately is your true Self that is Changeless.

Give up the idea of the Self in the body, prana, or mind.  The Self isn't in matter!  The Self is in the Self -- where else would it be?  Lord Buddha talked about the self in the Self in the Dhammapada.

I am not nature; Brahman is all.  How to make sense of this?  Nature has come out of me.  This is the state of "U" in AUM, and this is how we connect the dots of what is inside and outside.  The Vivekachudamani puts it like this:
Drsyam pratitam pravilapayan san
san-matram ananda-ghanam vibhavayam
samahitas san bahir-antaram va
kalam nayethah sati karma-bandhe
Reduce the world which you see all around you into Brahman, which is an indeterminate mass of pure, conscious Awareness.  Rendering the external and the internal into one indivisible principle, meditate upon That.  Then pass your time contentedly and be free.

First, finding yourself in a body, you think that you and nature are separate; this is ignorance.  Then, through experience and practice, you see that all of nature has come out of you; this is awakening.  Then, you see that Spirit and Nature are entirely different; this is enlightenment. After that, you realize that only Brahman exists, and this is liberation.

What's the difference between Cosmology and Philosophy?  Cosmology cites origins, lokas (worlds), particles, etc., --  all which pertains to time, space, and causation.  Philosophy is the transmission of the Truth spoken of in the nondual scriptures -- how ideas, thought, and wisdom connect to reveal that all worlds exist within.  You can idealize the Real for a time, but that will only get you as far as form can take you.  Then you must realize the Ideal.  If you want true spiritual realization you will have to transcend form. 

Cosmology explains the apparent movement in Reality.
Philosophy explains the immovability of Reality.
Spirituality is the result when one has implemented philosophy.

"Good" is when you want to know the inner worlds and how they lead up to Brahman.  "Better" is philosophy which is the living knowledge that permeates all the worlds.  "Best" is spirituality, which makes realization your own.

Everything emerges from your mind.  All the worlds are within you.  Regarding the mind, there's cosmic, collective, and individual mind.  If you think only in terms of your individual mind it will stultify you.

Understanding the manifested, the unmanifested, and the Supremely Unmanifested is important.  What we call birth and life is the manifested.  What we call death is only the unmanifested.  The Supremely Unmanifested is the acreate Brahman, your Self.

The rishis took Consciousness for granted, but materialists take the worlds in the bhutakasha for granted.  If you want to merge in formlessness, form has to be merged into the Word.  It's just a practical matter.  So experiment making all form soluble into Brahman.

There's no mystery in the Universe.  The greatest of mysteries is you.  The universe has come out of you.

Luminaries have traced the gross to the subtle and found this process of involution in themselves -- found Truth in themselves.  This world is a projection of God.  They saw that earth was a projection of solidity in God's mind; water was a projection of liquidity in God's mind, etc.  To prove this to yourself you practice involution -- earth to smell to the thought of solidity, water to taste to the thought of liquidity, and so forth.  In  this way you connect the dots to your Source.  The result is Consciousness.

When you no longer have length, width, height, or any dimension or proportions, then space has effectively collapsed and you see particles of prana, then particles of thought, then particles of light-filled intelligence.  This is involution -- returning to the first cause, the primal origin.  Then there is Brahman....

Buddha embodied and talked about the interconnectedness of all things.  The upshot is that all of this that we see is a projection, not a "creation," and it all consists of vibrating particles emanating from mind.  The process moves from thoughts and ideas to gross object.  You won't see this if you don't connect the dots.  Once one sees the interconnectedness of all things, one wants free of all things...for the Self is not a thing.

If you have mastered this interconnection of all things, you have knowledge.  If you have knowledge of something, you have mastery over it.  But if you are in ignorance of it you are in fear of it, thus in bondage to it

All knowledge lies within you.  This sets on its ear the notion that there is a creator god that creates something out of nothing.  When you realize the interconnectedness of all things, you will want to get separation from them.  Doing this removes all doubts, as in khyati - clarity.