Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Melt the ice of your concepts so that the fluid water of free perception can flow.



"Lakes and rivers can freeze in winter, and the water can become so solid that people, animals, and carts travel back and forth on its surface. At the approach of spring, the earth warms up, and the waters thaw. What remains then of all that solid ice?




"Water is soft and fluid, ice hard and sharp. We cannot say that they are identical, but neither are they different - ice is only frozen water, and water is only melted ice. It is the same with our perceptions of the external world. To be attached to the reality of phenomena, tormented by attraction and repulsion and obsessed by the eight worldly preoccupations, is what causes the mind to freeze. Melt the ice of your concepts so that the fluid water of free perception can flow.. . . Simply allow your thoughts and experiences to come and go, without ever grasping at them."

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche,
Tibetan Buddhist





Photos: (Top) Ice patterns on Lake Agnes, Never Summer Range, CO, December 12, 2014; (Middle) Boat and reflections on Horsetooth Reservoir, Larimer County, CO, December 13, 2014; (Bottom) Indian Paintbrush and Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park, MT, July 21, 2014

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