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.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Because the God who dwells at the heart of each creature has eternally emptied himself out in ecstatic love, we have a multitude of mirror-images, but NO originals!


Following a Buddhist approach to reality, we might say that every creature in the cosmos is actually a mirroring of every other creature.  In fact, there are ONLY mirror-images, but no originals!  This is one way of interpreting the teaching on sunyata, or "emptiness."  In other words, all beings are empty of a substantial self.

A Christian mystical approach can add an interesting twist to this scenario. It would claim that actually - in principle - there really ARE a multitude of originals reflected in the mirror that each creature embodies.  However, because the Divine Presence indwelling each of those creatures is eternally EMPTIED-OUT in ecstatic and blissful love, all we have left are the mirror-images.

How amazing!  The cosmos is composed of a multitude of mirror-images with no Originals, because those Originals - in God - have eternally emptied themselves out in ecstatic love!

Theologian Raimon Panikkar calls this "The Cross at the heart of the Godhead."  However, it is a Cross that is - in the final analysis - endlessly ecstatic!

Photo: The perfect reflection of Beckwith Mountain in Lost Lake makes it difficult to tell which is the original, and which is the reflection.  Indeed, from a higher point of view, BOTH are reflections!

Lost Lake is off the Kebler Pass Road near Crested Butte, CO.  This photo was taken on September 22, 2012.

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