People and institutions will inevitably disappoint us, but . . .

Lately I've been relearning an old lesson; namely, that people and institutions will inevitably disappoint us. I know too that others could say the same of me, even though I strive to minimize the suffering I cause as much as possible. The Gospel writers had it right when they reported of Jesus: "He entrusted himself fully to no person, for he knew what was in a person." Earlier this week a friend whom I respect immensely fed back to me my own words: "We only ever have 'God.' " And, I would add, the Goddess, Mother Earth, Sophia. When I truly embody this realization, then I'm able to maintain a lighter touch on people and as a result am empowered to enjoy their presence for what it truly is, in a relaxed, non-expectant manner.

Photos: (Top) Reflections and conifer pollen in Lake Solitude; (Middle) Pink Columbines with The Grand Teton in the background; (Bottom) Fog rolls in over The Grand Teton; Grand Teton National Park, WY, July 4-5, 2015

Human beings are not our primary source of meaning in life . . .

"Jesus did not fully entrust himself to any person, . . . for he knew what was in a person."

John 2:24

Again and again, life teaches us that people can never be our primary source of meaning in life. At their worst, they are fickle, narcissistic and mean. At their best, they serve as windows through to a much vaster Love - one that is indeed expressed in snippets through people, but that is designed to leave us hungering for union with our Ultimate Source. In silence and solitude, we realize that our lives are carried out in the relationship between Transcendent Father and Immanent Mother, and in the creative tension that occurs by dwelling in the middle between the Two. People are born, live and die, but our relationship with the Divine endures forever. And for me, the primary vehicle of revelation about the Ultimate Relationship occurs within the natural world.

Photos: Elk grazing, Rawah Range from Trail Ridge, and Wallflowers, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, June 8 and 12, 2015

I come from the One who is Openness.

"I come from the One who is Openness . . . When disciples are open, they are filled with light. When they are divided, they are filled with darkness."

Jesus,
"The Gospel of Thomas" 

Photo: Pasqueflowers opening, with Greyrock in the background, Roosevelt National Forest, CO, March 30, 2015

We are called to quench the infinite thirst of Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor.

"I thirst."

Jesus

"We are called to quench the infinite thirst of Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor."

St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Photos: Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, March 27-29, 2015

The Web of Life Spoke Through Jesus, and Speaks Through You and I

When exoteric-oriented Christians hear the Gospel of John report Jesus as saying: "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me," they use this statement as a way of promoting religious exclusivism in the world. It is this kind of mindset that motivated the historical oppression of indigenous peoples on this continent and elsewhere. But this reading of the text lacks insight into the way the event actually occurred. In reality, the speaker of these words was - in the very act of sounding them - TRANSPARENT TO THE ENTIRE WEB OF LIFE: to the multi-faceted Self which permeates and is composed of all things. In fact, it wasn't really Jesus who spoke these words, but - as it were - an ECHO resounding through him. If we could have seen him when these words were said, we would have seen NOTHING - only the spot where Jesus stood becoming transparent to the world around him. And so it is meant to be with you and I, and with each of the seven billion other people in the world, and with countless numbers of plants, animals and landforms which all make up the grandeur of this planet. EACH of us is meant to be a unique way in which the ENTIRE Web of Life can speak its truth and celebrate its own immense beauty, energy and goodness!

Photo: Ice decorations on Two Rivers Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, March 23, 2015

My students mirror my own youthful enthusiasm in the quest for Life's meaning.

During my hike in the mountains on Friday, I came upon a snowman that some youthful soul had built on a rock jutting out from one of the lakes. Its discovery reminded me that I too feel like a child traveling on the interior spiritual journey, as well as when I'm out exploring the Great Outdoors. The awe, wonder, joy and passion of this amazing life keep me constantly feeling like a kid, even though I am 56 years old. I understand now why Jesus declared that we can never really enter the "kingdom of God" unless we "become like a child!" I also realize why the eternally-youthful John Muir has been so inspirational in my life ever since I first discovered his writings while in the third grade.

This, I believe, is one of the reasons why I love teaching college students so much. I find myself brimming with excitement as a new semester is about to begin, for I learn from them just as much as they learn from me. Filled with an intense enthusiasm in their quest for the meaning of life, the students mirror my own constant passion for discovering the reason why we are all here in this crazy but beautiful world. Together we realize that there is never an end to the discoveries we can make on this lifelong journey! Such a multitude of fascinating ideas, insights, revelations, individuals, personality types, unique combinations of masculine-and-feminine traits, spiritual paths, philosophies, cultures, ethnicities, religious traditions, plant and animal species, landscapes, planets, and galaxies to learn from . . . Where does it ever end?

I can't escape the feeling that I am like a kid in a candy store, and that each one of us is called to provide to the Whole an utterly unique puzzle piece of meaning - one that has the potential for interlinking with all of the other pieces that compose the grand and beautiful jigsaw puzzle of Life! With such an adventure constantly in store for us, how could boredom ever be an option?

Photos: Long's Peak, Snowman, Bear Lake and Mills Lakes, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 2, 2015

Our lives are an embodiment of sacred rivers!

"Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water."

Jesus

When we view our lives as human expressions of rivers - which is easy to do, especially when our very blood is composed of the water arising from a local water source - then we don't take too seriously any of our mental or emotional states.

Whether feeling calm or turbulent, we realize that liberation comes from identifying with the seamless flow of the river itself, which in the case of our spiritual Source, has neither beginning nor end!

Photos: Cottonwoods flame along the Cache la Poudre River, near Fort Collins, CO, October 25, 2014

The golden glow of autumn aspen trees embodies the self-emptying love of Christ

For me, the golden glow of the autumn aspen trees is a direct embodiment of the reality of Christ.

Not the predictable Jesus of conventional religion, the one who is forever claiming how great he is, or how different than us he is, or how much we need him to save us. Rather, this is the Christ who is perpetually and eternally SELF-EMPTYING, the one who says: "You will do GREATER things than I have done, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12) - in other words, "because I am disappearing back into the Source."

Here, Christ becomes the warmth of a quiet, radiant love which melts all things into One, who disappears in the act of enabling them all to manifest THEIR OWN golden glow. This, I believe, is TRUE salvation! In so doing, he teaches US to act similarly - to become the potent force of love that quietly blends all beings into one Reality, while disappearing for all eternity from the need for recognition!

Photos: Aspens near Kebler Pass, CO; September 27 and 28, 2014

Only one thing is needed.

 

"You are anxious and disturbed about many things.  But only one thing is needed."

Jesus,
Luke 10:42

Photo: Near sunset, Badlands National Park, SD; May 16, 2014

Come into being as you pass away.

 

"Come into being as you pass away."

Jesus,
Gospel of Thomas

Evening-Primrose blossoms often last only a day or two, but they are extremely fragrant. To me they are a supreme embodiment of the principle that each and every moment is like a fireworks explosion: in the very instant when the display is most intense, it is also in the process of disintegrating. In fact, the appearance of things IS their disintegration.

Photo: Pale Evening-Primroses, with the North Window in the background; Arches National Park, UT; May 4, 2014

All things are created through divine self-emptying!

 

Lakota elder and chief Albert White Hat, Sr. tells the story of the Creator - Inyan - who "began creation by draining its blood and from this blood created a huge disk around itself.  Inyan called this disk Maka, the earth."  Then, "Draining its blood for each new creation, Inyan became weaker and weaker.  The last to be created was the Human nation."  "When creation was complete, Inyan was dry and brittle and broke apart and scattered all over the world."  Similarly, in the Christian mystical tradition, we have a God who creates by kenosis - by self-emptying.  Jesus embodies this kenosis when he compares himself to a seed which must fall into the ground and die in order for all things to be brought to birth.  Tibetan Buddhists speak as well of releasing all things into spacious awareness - the Dharmakaya - and then presiding over the reemergence of all things -  in all of their vividness - from that vast, transparent "Emptiness."  I'm reminded of this principle of death and resurrection as well in the lives of many of the people I know.  Because of some early trauma, each of us has ended up going into a field of work that will help heal others who've been through similar sufferings.  In this way, the "death" we've experienced truly leads to the "resurrection" of life in others!

Photo: Pasqueflowers, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 12, 2014

Whoever wants to be great among you must be the servant of all.

"Whoever wants to be great among you must be the servant of all."

Jesus

(Matthew 20:26)

Photo: King's Crown growing at Bluebird Lake, Wild Basin, Rocky Mountain National Park; June 18, 2012

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

 

"Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Jesus

(Recorded in Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25)

Photo: Ypsilon Peak made it through! View from Round Mountain, Big Thompson Canyon, CO, April 13, 2012

Quietly Bloom Without Fanfare

 

                                                        "The most fragrant of purest fragrances

                                                         comes from the ones who are spiritual but

                                                         not flaunting it.

                                                         Why flaunt your practices?

                                                         Why flaunt your good deeds?

                                                         Your flowers will attract the cosmic bees

                                                         that spread the Greatest Nectar

                                                         through humanity

                                                         as you just

                                                         quietly bloom

                                                         without fanfare."

                                                         Belle Heywood

"When you give . . . do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret."

Jesus

Photo: Mountain Avens and bee, Denali National Park, AK, June 25, 2010

The Truth Has a Spontaneous Mind of Its Own

"The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Jesus

"As a snow-drift is formed where there is a lull in the wind, so, one would say, where there is a lull of truth, an institution springs up.  But the truth blows right on over it, nevertheless, and at length blows it down."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Windblown snow on Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 26, 2011