Mountains Inspire a Disciplined Life

The brisk air and steep inclines of the mountains inspire a disciplined life, which is one of the great keys to happiness. Discipline - which usually involves some form of saying 'no' - creates the boundaries of a psychological "container" that allow the divine life to spurt up and over the lip and overflow like a lovely inner fountain. Paradoxically, the more consciously enclosed within our own self we are, the more easily grace is able to overflow from our lives, watering everyone around us. In the absence of such limitation, the self-container keeps getting bigger and bigger, and the divine life is thus never able to overflow for the benefit of all.

Photos: (Top) Mountain Bog Gentian and Mount Rainier; (Middle) Mountain-Ash berries and Mount Rainier; (Bottom) Mount Adams, as viewed from the slopes of Mount Rainier. All three photos were taken at Mount Rainier National Park, WA, on July 28, 2015

The six directions are holy and mysterious beings.

"The six directions are holy and mysterious beings. With them and through them we send our voice to God."

Frank Fools Crow
Oglala Lakota medicine man

The six directions are West, North, East, South, Up (Tunkashila: Grandfather) and Down (Grandmother Earth)

Photo: Indian Paintbrush, Tipsoo Lake, and Mount Rainier, Mount Rainier National Park, WA, July 30, 2015

Mount Rainier steals my vision! . . .

In the presence of Rainier and her meadows, I frequently lose all power of thought. Gazing on her, I find, is like seeing a lover unclothed for the first time. I’m left speechless and stunned by the majesty of the view. In fact, it seems as though the peak always finds a way to steal my visual capacity away from me, until my eyes are really hers. She is then able - through my vision - to gaze with playful haughtiness on her own amazing beauty! I recognize this phenomenon whenever I feel my awareness gripped by the overwhelming beauty of the setting . . .
 

Photos: (Top) Mount Rainier, Tipsoo Lake and Elderberries; (Middle) Cliff Paintbrush and Mount Rainier; (Bottom) Detail from one of Rainier's glaciers. All three photos were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, WA on August 28-30, 2015

Seeing the World as Lover

"When you see the world as lover, every being, every phenomenon, can become - if you have a clever, appreciative eye - an expression of that ongoing erotic impulse."

Joanna Macy
Buddhist Deep Ecologist

Photo: Fireweed, Reflection Lake, and Mount Rainier, Mount Rainier National Park, WA, July 28, 2015

To become who we truly are in our deepest core - that is the most fundamental task of the spiritual journey

To become who we truly are in our deepest core - that is the most fundamental task of the spiritual journey.

Photo: Stephen hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail near Mount Rainier, WA, on July 30, 2015

Mountains teach us to remain grounded in our own True Self.

In Wilderness Mysticism, the solid "thereness" of a mountain teaches us that we must be grounded in our own deep identity before we can ever hope to have anything to offer to the world. This identity does not define itself in accordance with the ever-shifting opinions of other people - or of society - but according to its own true and unique nature.   I don't mean this in a linear, once-and-for-all sense, but in a spiral manner. In other words, we must be grounded EACH TIME before we give. As the spiritual adage goes: "You must HAVE a self before you can GIVE AWAY your self."

We get in touch with this interior groundedness through spiritual disciplines like silence, solitude, mantric prayer, journaling, reflection, and times of fasting from the media-and-entertainment culture. These practices then enable us to give from our own deep center, an experience which is also deeply fulfilling :)

Photos: (Top) Early Fall colors; (Second) Reflections in a pond; (Third) Partridgefoot and misty Mt. Rainier; (Bottom) Lewis Monkeyflowers; All four photos were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, WA on July 28-30, 2015

I long for the high places - they are so clean and pure and untouched.

"I long for the high places - they are so clean and pure and untouched."

Ansel Adams,
landscape photographer

Photo: I love how this Alpine Buckwheat plant is thriving in pumice soil. To me, it amplifies Ansel Adams' insight about the cleanness and purity of mountain vistas. Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 29, 2015

The Earth is the only paradise we ever need . . .

"The love of wilderness is a hunger for what is always beyond reach. But it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need - if only we had the eyes to see."

Edward Abbey

I've always been fascinated by those cultures - like the Hopi people of the American Southwest - who view the "afterlife" as simply a return, in spirit form, to THIS world in order to help those who are still living here in embodied form. To me, that seems a lot less narcissistic than going off to a "heaven" far removed from this Earth :)

Photos: (Top) Fireweed, Reflection Lake, and Mt. Rainier; (Second) Partridgefoot flowers, a hiker, and Mt. Rainier; (Third) Lava, the Tatoosh Range, and Mt. Adams as viewed from Mt. Rainier; (Bottom) Birds-beak Lousewort and Mt. Rainier; All four photos were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, WA, on July 28, 2015

Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization.

"Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization."

Margaret Murie

Photo: White Heather, volcanic rock, and a misty Mount Rainier; Mount Rainier National Park, WA, July 28, 2015

Adversity is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to hide it.

"Adversity is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to hide it."

Horace
Roman poet (65 - 8 B.C.E.)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, record-breaking drought and heat meant that the wildflowers at Mount Rainier were mostly finished blooming when we arrived during the last week of July. I've been featuring the wildflowers I DID find, which were blooming mostly in the marshy areas or along streams. However, the other place where I found them was in large flats of solid, crumbled pumice. It was quite amazing, really, to discover pockets of color thriving in what appeared to be simply fields of volcanic rock. My theory is that - given their environment, located in a region above treeline where frequent winds and moisture-draining soils are standard fare - the plants are ALREADY used to drought conditions and therefore did just fine with this year's added dryness and heat. In any case, it was amazing to find these flowers thriving in what appeared to be pure pumice!

Photos: (Top) Cliff Paintbrush; (Second) Pussypaws; (Third) Pasqueflower seedheads; (Bottom) Alpine Lupine. I found all of these flowers growing in pumice soils above treeline in Mount Rainier National Park, WA on July 28-29, 2015

Drought at Mount Rainier

I've visited Mount Rainier many times over the past several decades, almost always during the last week of July. However, this past visit was different than any other. Last winter was one of the mildest on record, with low snowpack amounts and warm temperatures, followed by a hot spring and summer. The result was a wildflower season that occurred six weeks early! While usually when we arrive the spring flowers are just beginning to transition into early summer blooms, this year, the flowering season for most species had already finished, leaving the Park feeling a lot like autumn. Because of this anomaly, I had to exercise a bit of creativity with my photography. 

I WAS able to find a few species - like the purple Gentians seen here or the magenta Monkeyflowers I've been featuring over the past several days - still blooming in marshy areas or next to streams. However, I found myself focusing quite a bit on clusters of bright orange Mountain-Ash berries and the ruddy Fall leaves of an unidentified tundra plant. I wonder what conditions next winter will bring, especially since an El Nino pattern is currently in the forecast?

Photos: (Top) Mountain-Ash berries; (Middle) Mountain Bog Gentian; (Bottom) Unidentifed leaves of a tundra plant. All three photos were taken in Mount Rainier National Park, WA, on July 28-29, 2015

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out just how far one can go!

"Only those who will risk
going too far can possibly
find out just how far one can go!"

T.S. Eliot

I believe this is true in every field of endeavor. When we are passionate about something, people will invariably call us "obsessed," "addicted," "unbalanced." However, innovators MUST possess the seemingly one-sided kind of drive that keeps them plowing through all of the blocks, challenges and nay-sayings that would prevent them from carrying out their vision. If "going too far" is a flaw, it is the risk necessary to advance on the path of creativity. Like the pendulum on a clock, we can only find our balance by swinging - at least temporarily - to the extreme side of a particular direction.

Photos: (Top) Lewis Monkeyflowers and Mt. Rainier; (Middle) A hiker on Mt. Rainier; (Bottom) Partridge-foot flower and a hiker on Mt. Rainier. All three photos were taken at Mount Rainier National Park, WA on July 28, 2015

Ta-co-bet: "The Nourishing Breast"

Mount Rainier is my favorite mountain massif, and I make a pilgrimage to see her almost every summer. For me, much of her mystique arises from the fact that I experience her as feminine. After all, members of one of the local tribes, the Nisqually, call her "Ta-co-bet," which means "nourishing breast." As a volcano that is part of The Ring of Fire, she embodies the fierce beauty of the Goddess. This beauty in turn effects mystical union through The Mountain's capacity to elicit a desire in my heart which melts my identity in order to make my soul One with her. In so doing, she begins to know and celebrate her beauty and grandeur through MY eyes, My mind and MY heart! What a calling!

Photos: (Top) Mt. Rainier reflected in a pond, with Magenta Paintbrush growing on the shoreline; (Middle) Detail from one of Rainier's glaciers; (Bottom) Fireweed, Reflection Lake, and Mt. Rainier. All three photos were taken in Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, on July 29-30, 2015

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive . . .

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Dr. Howard Thurman
African-American mystic & theologian &
spiritual advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photos: (Top) Stephen on the Skyline Trail; (Middle) Lewis Monkeyflowers, Magenta Paintbrush, and Mount Rainier. These two photos were taken at Mt. Rainier National Park, WA on July 28, 2015; (Bottom) Rhododendron flowers and a fire-scarred Redwood, Redwood National Park, CA, July 26, 2015

At its best, the National Park idea to something larger than ourselves.

"At its best, the National Park idea to something larger than ourselves."

Dayton Duncan

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Photos: (Top) Bird's-beak Lousewort (Pedicularis), moss and Mount Rainier; (Middle) Mount Adams as viewed from Mount Rainier. These two photos were taken at Mount Rainier National Park, WA on July 28, 2015; (Bottom) Redwood trunk, Redwood National Park, CA, July 26, 2015

Tears of longing water the creative imagination.

Tears of longing water the creative imagination.

Photos: Magenta Paintbrush, Pyrola, and Owyhigh Lakes Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 24, 2014

A day in the woods makes us immortal.

"Talk of immortality! After a whole day in the woods we are already immortal. Where is the end of such a day? . . . One day is a thousand years, a thousand years is one day, and while yet in the flesh you enjoy immortality."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photos: Beargrass, sunrise and sunset, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2015

Salvation comes through being mirrored.

Today in my Contemplative Christianity course, we are studying several of the third century mystics - St. Irenaeus of Lyons and Origen of Alexandria. What most people in our culture don't realize is this: in the early days of Christian Spirituality, "salvation" (the process of being made whole) had nothing to do with the modern theory of substitutionary atonement. Christ's death was NOT viewed as a payment to God for human wrongdoing. Rather, the LIFE of Christ was emphasized (even for Origen, who lived in the age of martyrdom), and Jesus was viewed as a mirror in which each of us is finally able to see our own true self. One of the favorite scriptures of these mystics emphasizes the liberation that occurs when we truly SEE ourselves in the mirror of Christ. It says: "But we, who with unveiled faces all contemplate as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Accordingly, Origen could write:

"Let us always fix our gaze on the image of God - Christ - so that we might be able to be reformed in its likeness. By contemplating the divine image in whose image God made us, we will receive through the Word and his power that form which had been given us by nature. The purified spirit, which has risen above earthly things in order to enjoy with clarity the contemplation of God (the Word), is DIVINIZED by what it contemplates. This is what the Apostle meant in saying: 'and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness.' "

This principle of salvation by mirroring was re-emphasized over and over again by the later medieval monks. It is also, as J. Philip Newell points out in his book, "Christ of the Celts," a major principle of Celtic Christian spirituality. Newell summarizes this tradition when he says, "Christ comes to reawaken us to our true nature
 . . . HE is our memory."

The question for each of us, Christian or not, is this: what in particular serves as OUR salvific mirror? For me, the beauty of Nature - and of the Divine, including Christ, who is present within the natural world - serves as a mirror in which I am able to find my own qualities of expansiveness, openness, beauty and light. Since early childhood, wilderness explorer John Muir has functioned as another of those mirrors. In him, I am able to see my own passion, playfulness, joy and interior wildness. For each of us, the primary mirror will be unique to our own personality. May each of us discover this day the primary mirrors that reveal to us who WE really are!

Photo: Mount Rainier mirrored in Reflection Lakes, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, July 26, 2015

We are now in the mountains, and they are in us!

"We are now in the mountains, and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photos: (Top) Joanne on Mt. Rainier; (Middle) Indian Paintbrush and Reflection Lake, with Mt. Rainier in the background; (Bottom) Subalpine Fir trees with the Tatoosh Range in the background. All three photos were taken at Mount Rainier National Park, WA, on July 26, 2014

"Republicans and Democrats" - what names to write after considering the lilies!

 

" 'Republicans and Democrats' - what names to write after considering the lilies!"

John Muir

Happy Election Day! The reference here is to Jesus' statement about "considering the lilies" in Matthew 6:28.

Photos: (Top) Snow Lilies, Snowy Range, WY, June 29, 2013; (Middle) Glacier Lilies, Mount Rainier National Park, WA, July 28, 2013; (Bottom) Pond Lilies on Nymph Lake, with snow all around, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, October 27, 2014