Beauty is never a commodity. We don't pay for it with money, but with our own LIVES.

After years spent exploring beautiful natural areas, I've come up with an adage I think is relevant: "You have to PAY for your beauty."  This might include such things as enduring mosquitoes, deer flies, ticks, persistent drizzle, thunderstorms, extremes of temperature, doing a 15 or 18 mile dayhike to get to a beautiful destination, acquiring cuts, scrapes or bruises.  In photography, it means waiting for long periods of time until the light is just right, getting up before sunrise, and hiking in the dark by headlamp after sunset.  On windy days, it includes waiting for the split second when that flower becomes still enough to photograph, just before the next gust arrives.  It also includes having to delete thousands of photos where the light or breeze was NOT just right.

But working with cactus brings new meaning to the adage.  Almost every time I find myself lured into photographing a cactus plant, I end up with hundreds of tiny spines in my fingers.  Fortunately, I have a pair of tweezers on my Swiss Army Knife that comes to the rescue in situations such as these.  A few times, I've accidentally sat on a neighboring cactus, and acquired inch-long spikes that went straight into my . . . well, you get the picture.  After this past trip, I returned home with a leg full of prickles, and had to enlist my wife's help in removing them.

For me, there is something very "right" about this situation.  Beauty is not something we can clutch, possess and own, not even in a photo.  Rather, we have to sacrifice something of ourselves into the experience in order to make it truly ours.  In other words, it has to "hurt." For me, a true experience of beauty involves union, and this experience means that part of me must  "die" and dissolve into the beautiful thing in order to be reborn within it.  For unless I become part of the beauty I'm photographing, I don't really experience the spiritual dimension of the encounter.

Beauty is never a commodity.  We don't pay for it with money, but with our own LIVES.

Photo: Purple pad of a Prickly-pear cactus, with a backdrop of sandstone cliffs glowing in last light; Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT; November 25, 2012

Use erotic desire to penetrate the world with love.

"Inhale the energy of erotic desire into your heart, and then feel outward from your heart, feeling the world as if it were your lover.  With an exhale, move into the world and penetrate it, skillfully and spontaneously, opening it into love.  . . . Make love with the world in this way, all day, pervading and dissolving all unease.  Feel the world against your body like a naked woman, vulnerable and alive, and allow the front of your body to press into and through the world's body, liberating the knots of accumulated pain . . . Feeling through and through and through is your only freedom . . . A man's attraction to the feminine must be converted from attraction TO the feminine into attraction THROUGH the feminine . . . The very light of your consciousness shines as the world, and it is looking back at you, appearing as woman . . . Your ultimate desire is for the union of masculine consciousness with its own feminine luminosity, wherein all appearance is recognized as your deep, blissful nature . . . Like a slingshot, the momentum of your desire can be used to deliver you to the Source."

David Deida, 

teacher of Kashmiri tantra

Photo:  "The Phallus," Dewey Bridge Member of Entrada sandstone from the Jurassic Period; Arches National Park, UT; November 26, 2012

God calls us into the desert, into the solitude of His own heart.

"God is using everything that happens to lead me into solitude . . . Everything I touch cauterizes me with a light and healing burn.  I can hold on to nothing . . . Today I seemed to be very much assured that this solitude is indeed God's will for me, and that it is truly He Who is calling me into the desert.  Not necessarily a geographical one, but the solitude of His own heart in Which all created joys and light and satisfactions are annihilated and consumed."

Thomas Merton, 1947

Photo: The Joint Trail, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT; November 25, 2012

Dwelling in the Vagina of the Earth

For me, hiking through a slot canyon in the desert Southwest is a deeply spiritual experience, one that involves elements of both the sacred masculine (God, the Great Beyond) together with the divine feminine (Sophia, Mother Earth, Gaia).

Embraced on both sides by canyon walls that are barely wider than my body,  I feel as though my masculine identity is "squeezed," embraced and held within the vagina of the goddess.  From this experience, I gain insight into the fact that whenever I encounter a beautiful object in the world around me, there is a two-way relationship involved.  There, when the object draws my attention, I realize that it is acting of its own accord to hold me within its loving embrace.  Thus, my experience of beauty is less one of grasping the object, and more one of being-grasped.  In the process, I come to realize an intimacy with the world - a sense of belonging - that is truly transformative.

However, standing in the depths of a slot canyon gives me an awareness of the sacred masculine as well.  For me, the experience is a perfect embodiment of contemplative prayer, known in its modern form as "centering prayer."  During this prayer, I practice letting go of all thoughts and feelings, allowing myself in the process to sink within the depths of my being and be HELD by the magnetic presence of the God who dwells endlessly deep inside the core of my being.  Here, in this intimacy, all concepts go dark - an experience similar to standing in the depths of the narrow slot canyon - while thoughts and feelings flit far "above" me, like birds flying past in the sky beyond or the stars circulating still farther beyond at night.  Here, I sense that the magnetic, attractive power of divine love welling up from the core of my being is also a sort of "gaze" in which God lovingly holds and regards me.  In this experience, the fact that God (as Great "Beyond") transcends all concepts during the nighttime of contemplation, AND dwells (as the "Beyond Within") endlessly deep at the center of my core, are both experiences of the transcendent quality of the sacred masculine.  However, the sense that I (in my masculine identity) am squeezed on both sides within the darkness of this interior canyon gives me an awareness of the immanent feminine dimension of MY OWN soul, which surrounds me on all sides. 

In any case, dwelling within the vagina of the Earth and inside the canyon of the soul frees me from an obsession with having to grasp at reality, and instead enables me to let go and BE grasped.  Such, I've discovered, is the liberating reality of the contemplative life.

Photo: Redosier Dogwood leaf glistens in sunlight within the depths of the Joint Trail; Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT; November 25, 2012

The Phallus and Vulva are symbolic of deeper spiritual realities.

On the topic of sexuality, our societal attitude can be SO unimaginative and literalistic! For example, when people encounter sexual organs depicted in isolation from the rest of the human body, they automatically jump to the conclusion that such images can only be considered pornographic, unless of course they find them situated within an obviously medical context. In other words, people seem unable to view the depictions as transparent to any sort of deeper meaning. Why, I wonder, do we allow ourselves to fall into this rut, over and over again?  Here, grumpy second-wave feminists, finger-wagging fundamentalist preachers and sex magazine publishers depicting the same worn-out erotic scenarios for the gazillionth time are actually all in the same boat. All three have become mired in literalism, seemingly unable to find any deeper meaning within the realm of explicit erotic images.  

However, the situation has not always been this short-sighted and unimaginative. Thomas Moore, in his book, "The Soul of Sex," reminds us that "Ancient religions often detach the phallus [and vulva] from the body, like the ritual lingam and yoni in India, and treat this separated part as a celebration of the organ and its rich religious symbolism and NOT as emotional castration" (pp. 127-128).  Moore is referring here to the fact that - all over the landscapes and within the religious temples of India - the stylized lingam and yoni appear as vibrant symbols of SPIRITUAL realities: of Shiva and Shakti, of the sacred masculine and feminine.

Unfortunately, our culture has no such carvings - at least not within a religious context - but we can't escape the fact that our LANDSCAPES contain geologic formations that possess a definite resemblance to the lingam and yoni, especially within the deserts of the American Southwest. These forms, I would argue, contain a surplus of meaningful spiritual significance. 

Thus, for example, whenever we see a lingam or phallus embodied in a rock formation while out exploring the natural world, we might think of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "principle of correspondence," according to which external physical realities are always symbolic of inner spiritual realities. Applying this principle to the realm of sexuality, we might say that the phallus or lingam represents the penetrative capacity of a disciplined meditative gaze to see clear THROUGH material forms into the sacred masculine spaciousness out of which all things arise.  This gaze, directed VERTICALLY in an upward or downward direction, sees all forms - sexual ones included - as jewel-like crystallizations of the transparent and sky-like vastness of divine awareness, or of the the interior abyss of divine love that opens up within the human soul.  

This sort of awareness offers us liberation from the tightness and claustraphobia that our usual constriction around the events of life - and around the seeming solidity of the ego - so often elicits. Here, our constriction is replaced instead by a vast and spacious (or endlessly deep) freedom. 

In addition, this same penetrative gaze - directed HORIZONTALLY across the world - is also able to see through each individual being in order to understand how it is actually a variation on the reality of every other adjacent being.  In other words, all things are transparent to one another when we view them from the perspective of the feminine web of life within which they are situated. This awareness in turn brings liberation from an obsession with individual objects of lust, and instead places all things within a wider and more spacious divine context.

Similarly, whenever I see a yoni or vulvic form within Nature - in a cave, a slot canyon or a tree crevice, for example - I think of the ability of all beautiful things to hold and "squeeze" us within their intimate embrace, making us realize that we are truly loved and appreciated.

Interpreting the lingam and yoni in this symbolic sort of way is NOT, I would argue, a case of mere sublimation, an attitude which makes the assumption that all spiritual energy is simply a variation on the realities present within the realm of sexuality.  Instead, the spiritual traditions of the world help us realize that the true situation is actually the other way around; in other words, sexual energy is simply one variety of a more intense and general SPIRITUAL energy, one that is rooted in the masculinity of God, the Great Beyond, and in the femininity of Mother Earth, Gaia, Sophia.

In our culture, however, we are not accustomed to viewing particular things - such as the lingam or yoni, for example - as symbolic of more universal divine realities.  As the great German theologian Paul Tillich often said, we moderns are all children of nominalism.  That is, we have a tendency to remain agnostic about universal realities, and pretend that only particulars, or collections of particulars, are real.  In this case, we act as though a person who believes otherwise is from another planet if they suggest, for example, that the phallus might be a symbol of the penetrative quality of meditative awareness, or that the vulva represents the all-embracing quality of the circle of life. Spiritual teacher David Deida is a clear exception to this tendency, and I wholeheartedly recommend his work.

We should know better, of course, since our own biblical book of the Song of Songs - filled as it is with elaborate poetic descriptions of the erotic features of the human body - was brought into the scripture because the compilers viewed it as a symbolic allegory which speaks of the love affair occurring between the feminine human soul and the masculine spirit of God.  In fact, when I engaged in research for my Master's thesis, I had to read hundreds of sermons written by the Cistercian monks of medieval Europe, who - I discovered - viewed each body part described in the Song as symbolic of a specific INNER and spiritual reality.  Unfortunately, however, most people are not even aware of such a rich and symbolic tradition.

We will never find liberation from the literalism of either the pornographic or moralistic realms of our society until we cease taking life so superficially and instead view each aspect of reality - erotic ones included - as symbolic of deep INNER and SPIRITUAL realities.  Only in this way will we activate our own creative and imaginative capacities for symbolism and experience the sense of self-esteem that arises whenever we help bind together all of life's particulars into something much more Universal!

Photo:  "The Phallus" occurs in the Dewey Bridge Member of Entrada sandstone, formed during the Jurassic period and carved by wind, water, freezing and thawing; Arches National Park, UT; November 26, 2012.  The wood in the foreground is from an old Rocky Mountain Juniper.  For more information about erotic forms that occur in Nature, you might want to check out http://thejetpacker.com/nature-porn-20-famous-penis-rocks-vagina-caves-and-breast-mountains/ ..

The spiritual wisdom of the ancestors still inhabits the canyon country of the desert Southwest.

One of the reasons why I return again and again to the redrock desert of Utah for my four-day spiritual retreat is because I feel I am somehow supported by the wisdom and spirituality of the peoples who lived in that region millennia ago.  One can often find their rock art scattered throughout the area during hikes and exploratory drives.  Especially engaging are the pictographs painted in red iron hematite on canyon walls by the Archaic Barrier Canyon peoples, who lived and raised crops in the area at least as early as 2000 B.C.E., and perhaps as early as 5000 B.C.E. Many give the appearance of "aliens" - anthropomorph bodies with insect-like heads, often with large, bulging eyes, perhaps symbolic of a shaman having a vision. Indeed, some Native Americans say that human beings did not paint these panels!

Many first-time visitors to the redrock canyon country of the Southwest feel that their everyday mind is somehow "messed-with" by spiritual presences who inhabit the land.  For me, a frequent occurrence is to hear a fly buzzing while hiking alone in some remote canyon, yet thinking I hear human voices instead.  On our family's very first camping trip to this area, one of my daughters - who has a gift for sensing spiritual presences - felt inexplicably scared because of the things she was able to perceive.  Today, as an adult, she appreciates the sense that the ancestors still dwell in the landscape, but as a little girl, it was a bit overwhelming.

I often think it would be interesting to create a book of short interviews in which canyon country visitors could share their experiences of desert spirituality in this amazing region!

Photo: Sego Canyon Pictographs, Thompson Springs, UT; November 23, 2012

Retreat time spent in the desert makes us still enough to truly feel the light of our own creative inspiration.

Every year, I do a four-day retreat in the Utah desert during the period immediately following Thanksgiving Day. It feels right for me to be alone in the cleansing simplicity of the desert during Black Friday, with its surplus of frenetic consumerism and stress.

As all of us are acutely aware, daily life can be filled with a whole host of busy activities, projects and stresses, all of which have a tendency to drain us of the inspiration that is our spiritual food. Finding our center in the midst of such turbulence can be quite challenging. It is for this reason that I find it absolutely necessary to set aside special times to enter the inner desert of my being, where all is silent, simple, and devoid of the water of the usual consolations. The external desert helps me do just that. This silent land of candy-striped red-and-white rock, sand and sky enables me to become still enough so the light of creative insight can appear as though out of nowhere, allowing my heart to glow with subtle joy in the midst of a chaotic and stressful world.  

Sitting by the campfire for five hours each night gives me the space to meditate, reflect, read and journal with a restful attitude that isn't often present during the course of my ordinary life in town.  Here, in the desert, the Great Mystery can more readily speak to me within the creative capacity of my own thoughts, employing the still, small voice of which the biblical prophets so often spoke.  It is this voice that can barely be heard within the uproar of life in the city, but which magically reappears within the desert whenever we are truly still. 

Photo: Alpenglow, Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT; November 23, 2012

The orange of sunset is an embodiment of the warmth of divine Love, radiating from the heart with each exhalation and divinizing all things.

The orange of sunset is an embodiment of the warmth of divine Love, radiating from the heart with each exhalation and divinizing all things.

Photo: Ponderosa Pine at sunset; Bingham Hill near Bellvue, CO; November 16, 2012

The central idea of the Eastern Orthodox tradition is the divinization and transfiguration of all things.

The central idea of the Eastern Orthodox fathers was that of theosis, the divinization of all creatures, the transfiguration of the world, the idea of the cosmos and not the idea of personal salvation . . . Only later Christian consciousness began to value the idea of hell more than the idea of the transfiguration and divinization of the world.  The kingdom of God is the transfiguration of the world . . .

Nicolas Berdyaev

Photo: A cottonwood tree - reflected in an irrigation ditch - is divinized in sunset light just across the street from my house near Fort Collins, CO; November 22, 2012 

In our gratefulness, the Cosmos becomes aware of its beauty and goodness.

Gratefulness is not just a response we make to the beauty and goodness we've received from the Creator and from this amazing Earth. Rather, gratefulness is itself perhaps the major gift WE give the Whole.  For we are the mind and heart of the cosmos, allowing the beauty and goodness of all things to celebrate themselves through our perception, both inward and outward. Each of us is important in this task, for every person has a unique vantage point for gazing upon the world and its sacredness.   Here, no two perspectives are the same.  It is our calling as artists of life to discover the ways in which all of these perspectives - all of these ways of being grateful - complement one another and contribute to the greater Whole. This Thanksgiving Day, may we be mindful of the beauty of OUR unique gift.  For thanksgiving is truly a major form of GIVING.

Photo: Twisted old-growth Limber Pine; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

When we give thanks, let us be mindful of the health and well-being of the ENTIRE web of life of which we are a part.

During Thanksgiving, we express gratefulness for the blessings that we and our family - and perhaps our nation - have received over the previous year.  However, limiting thanks to the well-being of just our own immediate sphere is like being grateful for just one color of the rainbow, to the exclusion of all the others. When we give thanks, I suggest that we think of ALL of the creatures, landscapes, peoples and genders - all of the  colors of the rainbow - that make up the web of life on which our lives depend.  For unless all of these different parts of the rainbow / web are healthy, none of us will be.  In Buddhism, this truth is expressed in the image of the Net of Indra, where each creature is viewed as a jewel tied to a node within that interlocking web.  Here, each jewel - each creature - contains a mirror that reflects all of the other jewels.  Thus, every jewel is an integral part of every other jewel. In Christianity, St. Paul calls this network of beings the Body of Christ, and compares each person and ethnic group to a different part of that universal body. He reminds his readers that the hand, for example, cannot tell the eye it doesn't need its services, and vice versa.

This time of year, it is especially important to remember the Native American and First Nations peoples  who lived in this land long before Europeans arrived.  The first Puritan Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, during a three-day feast. Whether it was the first official Thanksgiving Day is a matter of debate. But we might pay special attention to the Thanksgiving Feast of 1637, when the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony celebrated the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children who had gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony.  Mercenaries of the English and Dutch had attacked and surrounded the village, burning down everything and shooting whomever tried to escape. The next day,  the Governor of the Colony declared “a day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children.”

Obviously, when our families gather for a celebration this Thanksgiving Day, we are not sanctioning such massacres.  In fact, many of us barely even think of the Puritans or of their Thanksgiving celebrations.  But it is important for us to remain mindful of the fact that Native Americans and First Nations peoples may not feel the same way we do about this holiday.  Therefore, as we celebrate, let us give special consideration to the well-being of the indigenous tribes whose Earth-based wisdom will be needed if ANY of us are to survive the challenges of living in an industrial society.  This holiday, let us therefore remember the ENTIRE web of life, and work to ensure the health of all nations, peoples, genders, landscapes and species.

Photo: Sunset layers, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

Can a contemplative make a living in the midst of a hyped-up, marketing-oriented world?

I find it challenging to live as a contemplative in the midst of a marketing-oriented society.  While our culture thrives on hype and self-promotion, a contemplative radiates quietly, like ruddy alpenglow appearing suddenly - unannounced - on a mountain peak in the midst of a grey and cloudy sky.

In the 6th century B.C.E., Lao Tsu wrote these profound words: "Those who are wise embrace the One and set an example to all.  Not putting on a display, they shine forth.  Not justifying themselves, they are distinguished.  Not boasting, they receive recognition.  Not bragging, they never falter . . . The Tao does not show its greatness, and is therefore great . . . A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, and is therefore good."

In our time, there are billions of voices, all screaming: "Look at ME!  Buy MY product!  You need what I have!" In such an atmosphere, it would seem that a contemplative - living according to the principles set forth by Lao Tsu - is hardly even noticed.  And yet even contemplatives, like everyone else, need to make a living from their craft, and find it necessary therefore to engage in a bit of marketing. Such selling will of necessity be low-key if the contemplative is to maintain his or her integrity.  But do people hear such soft voices in the midst of a world of hyped-up yelling?  I often wonder. Yet I hold stubbornly to a conviction that somehow, somewhere, people DO indeed notice, and are drawn to the contemplative's gifts.  I also trust that these same folks will want to purchase their goods and services. Is this a foolish faith?

Photo: Alpenglow suffuses Storm Peak and a portion of Keyboard of the Winds, with Long's Peak looming just behind; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

All living things are gnarly.

"All living things are gnarly, in that they inevitably do things that are much more complex than one might have expected."

Rudy Rucker,

mathematician, computer scientist, and author

Photo:  The twisted grain of an old-growth Limber Pine stands out against the backdrop of Otis Peak; Lake Haiyaha, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

Each of us is born out of the blissful self-loss of both God and Goddess.

Today, on my birthday, I find myself reflecting on what an amazing thing it is to be born.  Most astonishing for me is the fact that NONE of us is ever planned; the particularity of our own unique existence is ALWAYS a surprise, both to our parents and to the Universe at large.  Of course, our mother and father may have decided in a generalized way that they wanted to have a child, but they could never have conceived the idea of US.  After all, they had no way of knowing what we would be like - our gender, our personality type, our calling in life, our gifts, our challenges, our physical appearance.  Like ruddy alpenglow appearing suddenly on a mountain peak, each of us arrived - unexpectedly - in all of our glorious uniqueness!  Here, it is important to note that we were conceived NOT when our parents remained in full control of their faculties, but - ideally, at least - when both LOST themselves in blissful abandon, in a sort of "little death,"  as the French would say. Similarly, the Creator - appearing in a two-sided unity as God - the Great Beyond, Father Sky - and the Goddess, the Immanent One, Mother Earth - may have planned in a general way to create a world brimming full with creatures.  However, in order to give birth, they had to LOSE themselves, emptying out their essences in blissful ecstasy, thus enabling each creature to be born in the ensuing silence of love. We might say, in fact, that we experience GOD'S self-loss in the sky-like absorption that occurs in our awareness during meditation practice, and we encounter the GODDESS' self-loss in the seamless flow of planetary events that has no beginning and no end, a process that seems to occur all by itself, like an orchestra playing with no players! Significantly, both God and Goddess apparently experience endless SURPRISE at the multitude of various of beings that emerge out of their mutual self-loss.  And it is this surprise that is the goal of of the cosmos and the ultimate purpose of the birth of each one of us here on Earth.

Photo: Alpenglow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

Unless we can contribute something from our experience ofwilderness solitude, derive some solace or peace to share with others, then the real purpose is defeated.

"Wilderness can be appreciated only by contrast, and solitude understood only when we have been without it.  We cannot separate ourselves from society, comradeship, sharing, and love.  Unless we can contribute something from wilderness experience, derive some solace or peace to share with others, then the real purpose is defeated . . . I have had my share of solitude and know whereof I speak.  It is beautiful to me, for it brings back perspective and the sense of timelessness.  I come back to the friends I have left, stronger, better, and happier than when I went away . . . [M]y perceptions and understanding of life's problems [are] more uncluttered after the cleansing powers of solitude."

Sigurd F. Olson
"Reflections from the North Country"

Photo: A single Subalpine Fir stands silhouetted against a radiant sunset sky; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

Alpenglow melts all things into universal beauty as a part of their Maker.

"Things become still more impressive steeped in the divine light of the alpenglow.  All their earthiness disappears into spiritual beauty.  Then they seem neither high nor low, but melt into universal beauty as a part of their Maker."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 166

Photo: Alpenglow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 17, 2012

If we don't discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.

"If we don't discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us."

William Feather
Publisher

Photo: A rugged Limber Pine grows on the shore of the Loch;  Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 16, 2012

The greatest occasion will be the slowest to come.

"I believe there are people now living who have never opened their mouths in a public assembly, in whom nevertheless there is such a well of eloquence that the appetite of any age could never exhaust it; who pine for an occasion worthy of them, and will pine till they are dead . . . The age may well go pine itself that it cannot put to use this gift of the gods.  These people live on, still unconcerned, not needing to be used.  The greatest occasion will be the slowest to come."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Sunset at Vedauwoo, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 2, 2012

This silence is Christ's love for me.

"This silence is Christ's love for me."

Thomas Merton,
Trappist monk

Photo: A contorted Ponderosa Pine glows in last light; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, WY; November 3, 2012

His skies have sanctified my eyes.

"His skies have sanctified my eyes."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Lory State Park, CO; October 30, 2012

I live my life in widening circles . . . I circle around God.

"I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I've been circling for thousands of years
and I still don't know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?"

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo: Wild Raspberry leaves, lichen-covered boulders, and altocumulus clouds; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

All becoming has needed me. My looking ripens things.

"I feel it now.  There's a power in me

to grasp and give shape to my world.

I know that nothing has ever been real

without my beholding it.

All becoming has needed me.

My looking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet and be met."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo:  Sunset on Long's Peak, Keyboard of the Winds, and Pagoda Peak; Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 9, 2012

A compliment is most effective when - like the setting sun - we disappear from the need for a response.

Life can be pretty simple. When we offer a sincere compliment to someone, it causes them to glow.  Chances are high that they will in turn will feel complimentary toward those around them, which will then cause the OTHERS to glow. The potential for spreading this kind of happiness is endless.  The key, it seems, is to disappear from the scene without expecting a response, or to change the subject immediately after offering the compliment.  In doing so, we embody the apparent thoughtfulness of the evening sun, which disappears over the horizon immediately after making all things glow in the most mellow and beautiful light of the day.  When we act in this way, the other person will know that the compliment was intended as an end in itself, with no hidden motives.  After all, what can be more fulfilling than knowing that we have helped bring joy to another's day?

Photo: Raspberry leaves glow in last light; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

I want to love the things as no one has thought to love them, until they're real and ripe and worthy of You!

"Dear darkening ground, . . .
Just give me a little more time!
I want to love the things
as no one has thought to love them,
until they're real and ripe and worthy of you.

I want only seven days, seven
on which no one has ever written himself -
seven pages of solitude . . ."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo: Last light glows at Vedauwoo, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

God says to each of us: "Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in."

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.  No feeling is final . . ."

Rainer Maria Rilke

Photo: Orange lichen flames on a boulder as shadows from nearby aspen trees decorate the rock; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 2, 2012. I love the sense in this poem that God is both distinct AND is hidden within the mysterious and dark core of our being.

People rarely get angry if they are confident in what they are doing. Anger comes more easily in moments of confusion.

"People rarely get angry if they are confident in what they are doing.  Anger comes more easily in moments of confusion."

The Dalai Lama

Photo: Rocks and sky elicit a sense of confidence in me. Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

It is the intangible values of the land people need.

"Intangible values are hard to define, explain, or measure . . . We do know they stir the emotions, influence happiness, and thereby make life worth living.  They are involved with the good life, but sometimes I wonder if we know what the good life really is.  They are so important that without them it loses its meaning.  We talk about the intangible values of environmental protection and know we cannot embark on  any effort or program of conservation without them.  Back of all concrete problems, the intangibles are the ultimate key.  They give substance to the practical, provide reasons for everything we do, and are so involved and integrated with conservation efforts it is impossible to separate them . . . It is the intangible values of the land people need.  The conservation of waters, forests, mountains and wildlife are far more than saving terrain. It is the conservation of the HUMAN SPIRIT which is the goal, and that is what is meant by the good life, one with the opportunity to find peace and quiet somewhere beyond where they happen to live."

Sigurd F. Olson,
"Reflections from the North Country"

Photo: A misty day on the Arthur's Rock Trail really put me in touch with the intangibles!  Lory State Park, CO; November 10, 2012

Lessons of ice for the inner spiritual journey.

Freezing kills plants when the ice crystals - which are sharp and elongated, like a needle - puncture the cell walls, allowing the interior fluids to bleed out.  However, some plants prevent this kind of damage by possessing an antifreeze substance in their sap.  This natural chemical works to protect the plant cells by converting ice crystals from their usual needle shape into a ROUND crystal, one that has no sharp edges.  Here, the ice does not disappear, but simply changes form.

Transformative spirituality does something similar.  Rather than working to get rid of strong or afflictive emotions - like anger, lust or doubt - it converts them instead into a different form.  Thus, for example, anger changes into a penetrative energy that pierces THROUGH the surface of the offender in order to find transparent and spacious divinity lodged there.  Lust is transformed by taking one's attention off the object of desire and placing it instead on the sensation of longing lodged in one's heart.  Using one's exhalations, this energy is then spread to all of the other objects in one's environment, enabling them ALL to sizzle with erotic energy.

In this way, emotions that would normally remain detrimental to one's spiritual freedom instead become sources of expanded growth.  It is this kind of transformation that is one of the great gifts of spiritual practice.

Photo: Needle-like snow crystals decorate a Wild Geranium leaf, with Arthur's Rock looming in the mist; Lory State Park, CO; November 10, 2012

Poetic, paradoxical language initiates us into the realm of Divine Mystery.

Some say that language gets in the way of our experience of the Divine.  On one level, that is true.  It is important always to live from a sense of Mystery that is ultimately beyond words.  However, I believe that language - used in a poetic manner, one that embraces a love of paradox - can also initiate us into the realm of the Divine.  A world of echoes-with-no-original-sound, or of mirror-images-with-no-substance-as-their-source, or a sense-of-being-embraced-in-love-with-no-One-doing-the-embracing are all examples of the power of language to elicit a mystical experience of God that then leaves the mind suspended in a profound sense of wonder.

Photo: Red feldspar in a boulder of pegmatite adds color to the shadowy form of Arthur's Rock looming in the distance; Lory State Park, CO; November 10, 2012.  Notice how both forms have the same shape.

I do not wish to be shut up in a corral.

"I do not wish to be shut up in a corral. All agency Indians I have seen are worthless. They are neither red warriors nor white farmers. They are neither wolf nor dog."

Chief Sitting Bull, Lakota

"I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it …I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die."

Chief Satanta, Kiowa

Photo: Carving near Loveland, CO; November 9, 2012.  For years now, I've wished I could remove the fence around this carving.  Since I can't, I've never taken seriously any of my photos of the statue.  This past Friday, however, I suddenly realized that the fence has great symbolic value when viewed as a metaphor that stands for the tragic removal of American Indians from their ancestral homelands.

The more thrilling, wonderful divine objects I behold in a day, the more expanded and immortal I become.

"It would imply the regeneration of mankind, if they were to become elevated enough to truly worship stocks and stones . . . If he who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a benefactor, he who discovers two gods where there was only known the one (and such a one!) before is a still greater benefactor.  I would gladly improve every opportunity to wonder and worship, as a sunflower welcomes the light.  The more thrilling, wonderful divine objects I behold in a day, the more expanded and immortal I become.  If a stone appeals to me and elevates me, . . . it is a matter of private rejoicing.  If it did the same service to all, it might well be a matter of public rejoicing."

Henry David Thoreau, 1856

Photo: Engelmann Spruce tree and lichen-covered rocks at Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012.  Thoreau, like his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, would not disagree that all of these various "gods" or deities are expressions of a single divine Reality.

Matter is frozen bliss, crystallized or condensed Consciousness.

"Bliss - conscious, intelligent, everlasting, all-pervading, ever new joy - has frozen itself into physical creations."

"Matter is crystallized or condensed Consciousness. ... a mass of condensed energy; and energy is frozen Cosmic Consciousness, or God".

Paramahansa Yogananda

Photo:  A rock, ice, and sky-reflecting water spread out on Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; November 9, 2012

I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time, too.

"I have never got over my surprise that I should have been born into the most estimable place in all the world, and in the very nick of time, too."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Alpenglow sunset light on Vedauwoo Rocks, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

The only way to possess beauty is to create a work of art from it.

"On an autumn excursion, Sigurd Olson witnessed a stirring sunset from the shore of a river . . . [I]t was all too much beauty for him to capture.  [H]e wrote the next day:

'It was almost more than I could bear.  It hurt me.  I wanted to run away and sob.  It hurts me today.  Why should it - it should make me happy.  Is it because I am over sensitive or that I realize that I can never attain or hold such beauty?  But I must if I am not to go insane.  I must capture some of that somehow - create something durable.' "

David Backes, "A Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson," p. 96

Photo: Sunset at Vedauwoo Recreation Area, with Mt. Meeker and Long's Peak looming in the distance; November 3, 2012.  Olson DID capture some of the spirit and beauty of the North Country in his amazing writings!

Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it.

"Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one. I am a painter."

Paul Klee

Photo: Oregon Holly-grape leaves, with Turtle Rock in the background; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY

A Christ-inspired nation is one that is MOST diverse.

"Walk cheerfully over the world, ANSWERING that of God in everyone."

George Fox, 17th century
(founder of the Quakers)

This past Saturday, I spent the day at Vedauwoo Recreation Area (pronounced VAY-da-voo, or VEE-da-voo), located in the Sherman Mountains of southeastern Wyoming, about an hour from my home in Fort Collins, Colorado.  While hiking there, I was struck by the way in which such a seemingly disjointed pile of rocks nevertheless forms a beautiful work of art, especially in the case of those rocks that are covered with vibrant patches of green, yellow, orange or grey lichen.  I stayed until sunset, the time of day when alpenglow light fires the formation a bright, fluorescent orange, even though - from where I was standing - the sun had actually  disappeared just BELOW the horizon, thereby placing it out of sight.

Then on Tuesday - Election Day - I found myself amazed at the diversity of different people elected to the U.S. Congress.  For example, we had the first openly gay and the first Buddhist senators (both of whom were women) and the first practicing Hindu (also a woman).  In fact, the latter congresswoman will be sworn in using one of India's sacred scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita. Since the election of this past Tuesday, we now have twenty women in the Senate, most of whom possess a vision for the good of ALL of society's members, rather than focusing on the prosperity of just a few.  In addition, I find it fascinating to ponder the fact that a major force in this election was the 18 to 29 age group, many of whom possess a more positive view of diversity than the bulk of their older counterparts.

Some would claim that this trend toward diversity is a move away from Christian faith, but I see this issue in a completely different light.  Interestingly, I recently watched a PBS/Frontline series entitled "God in America," where I learned that BAPTIST MINISTERS (can you believe it?) were the first group to push for the separation of church and state, thus guaranteeing that they - and those of other faiths - could worship freely in the otherwise Anglican state of Virginia.  Their champion was none other than Thomas Jefferson - a Deist - who disagreed with their Baptist doctrine but nevertheless believed strongly in their push toward religious freedom for all.

For me, the act of encouraging other religious traditions to flourish in America is a profoundly CHRISTIAN act.  This may fly in the face of those Christians who view their faith as the only true way, and who see their Christianity as the sole basis for an America blessed by God.  But a contemplative lifestyle of prayer and meditation has put me in touch with a Christ who is profoundly HUMBLE and self-emptying, one who never  points to himself, but rather to God and to others.  I am in fact intrigued by the gospel accounts where Jesus is portrayed healing a person, telling them in the process: "YOUR faith has healed you!"  Somehow, Jesus' presence was the catalyst - acting as a sort of mirror - for a person to awaken to their own faith.  Often, he told the healed person "Tell no one about this," and immediately disappeared from view.  Or, I think of the Jesus who appeared in an unrecognizable form to several disciples on the Road to Emmaus in order to encourage them, and who then disappeared suddenly into thin air in the very moment when their hearts melted into a unity in the act of recognizing who he was.

Like George Fox, founder of the Quakers, my experience of Christ is of a divine person who serves as a humble mirror, revealing to others their inherent faith, or as an alpenglow sun, illuminating the gifts of others while disappearing from view over the horizon of Being.  Here I concur with theologian Robert Morgan, who writes: "Jesus reveals nothing about himself except that he is THE REVEALER.  The point is not WHAT is revealed, but THAT the hearer is challenged by the Word [i.e., by Christ as the "Light of the World"] to understand himself in a new way, no longer dependent upon the world for security but dependent upon God.  The 'true light' of John's Prologue is the state of having one's existence illumined, an illumination in and by which a person understands HIMSELF."  Here, the Light of Christ seeks to have all attention focused not on the light itself - i.e., on the person of Jesus - but on the THINGS it illumines.

I feel myself most an embodiment of Christ's presence when I serve as this sort of spiritual alpenglow - helping others uncover the places where the Divine Presence is ALREADY working in their lives, rather than trying to make them follow my particular path.  In fact, I enjoy envisioning myself disappearing from view, like the alpenglow Sun over the horizon of manifestation, leaving the person to glow in all of their God-given glory.  In addition, I find that the ability to LEARN from the other person in the process of revealing their own innate glory is the most Christ-like thing I can do!  After all, as a follower of many of the teachings of Process Theology, I have faith that even the Creator continually learns more and more about the riches of divine Beauty through HUMAN eyes and hearts!

Interestingly, some Christian theologians have viewed Christianity as the "highest" faith precisely because (in their view) it is most open to being changed by other faiths.  For example, Wolfhart Pannenberg says: "It is precisely the ability of Christianity to be changed by others . . . which constitutes its superiority and its ability finally to supercede all others . . . Successful religions are successful by virtue of their ability to assimilate what is of value to others."  Although I disagree with Pannenberg's  attitude of religious one-up-man-ship, I do think he is correct in recognizing the fact that many of the most influential Christian thinkers over the ages have also been the most open to learning from and assimilating elements of other spiritual traditions.  Here, one has only to think of the history of Christian thought, where Plato, pagan spirituality, Aristotle, and modern movements like Existentialism all were highly influential in shaping an up-to-date theology.

Thus, for me, encouraging America's diversity - especially in its various religious forms - is a profoundly CHRISTIAN stance, both through the act of shining the light of Christ's love on others (thus allowing their  faith to glow, each in its OWN unique way), and through actively learning from their most cherished spiritual insights.  America's diversity may at times look like the rocks of Vedauwoo - all jumbled up, without rhyme or reason - but it becomes a great work of art when - through grace and our own hard work - we begin to see EVERYONE united into One by a humble, self-emptied divine Light.  Such is the America I love and believe in, and such is the Christianity I seek to embody.

Photo: Alpenglow radiates at sunset from Vedauwoo Rocks, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

The Light of divine Love transfigures and fuses and changes all things into religion.

"When we read, 'And God said: LET THERE BE LIGHT,' we are too apt to think only of the light of the sun.  But it is not the sun that makes the day, it is Love.  In this Light of lights, rocks and seas and everything is not only illumined, but transfigured and fused and changed into religion."

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 162

Photo: Sunset light illumines a dead Limber Pine, a living Ponderosa Pine, and the Vedauwoo Rocks; Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

Rest in a mind like vast sky.

"Develop a mind that is vast like space, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle or harm. Rest in a mind like vast sky."

The Buddha
from the "Majjhima Nikaya"

Photo: Lichen-covered rocks and a sky filled with alto-cumulus clouds; Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

Perhaps the present life is the only place where we can find - and follow - our "bliss."

Joseph Campbell:  Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis' "Babbit"?

Bill Moyers: Not in a long time.

Joseph Campbell:  Remember that last line?  "I have never done the thing that I wanted to in all my life."  That is a man who never followed his bliss . . . You may have a success in life, but then just think of it - what kind of life was it?  What good was it - you've never done the thing you wanted to do in all your life.  I always tell my students, go where your body and soul want to go.  When you have the feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off . . . The religious people tell us we really won't experience bliss until we die and go to heaven.  But I believe in having as much as you can of this experience while you are still alive.

Moyers:  Bliss is now.

Campbell: In heaven you will be having such a marvelous time "looking at God" that you won't get YOUR OWN experience at all.  That is not the place to have the experience - HERE is the place to have it . . . If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.  When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you.  I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be . . . If you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

Photo: A magpie sits at sunset on the topmost branch of a Ponderosa Pine snag, with Long's Peak and Mt. Meeker looming in the background; Westridge, Lory State Park, CO; November 6, 2012.  

As I listened this past weekend to the interview between Moyers and Campbell from which the above passage is taken.  I was struck by the fact that we are called to find and live our "bliss" RIGHT NOW.  Before this point, I'd always thought of the afterlife as a place where the bliss we are experiencing now will be intensified and unhindered by the challenges and distractions of this present life.  But what if - instead - the afterlife is a place where we will be so devoted to the process of SERVING  "the face of God" in others - i.e., in the living - that we will have no time to focus on our own experience?  And what if the reservoir out of which we will draw strength for that kind of giving can only come from the bliss we experience HERE AND NOW?  Something to ponder :)

Our present state of perfection, no matter how great and perfect it might be, is merely the beginning of a greater and superior stage.

"Our present state of perfection, no matter how great and perfect it might be, is merely the beginning of a greater and superior stage.  Thus the words of the Apostle [Paul] are verified: the stretching forth to the things that are ahead involves the forgetting of what has already been attained (Philippians 3:13) . . . The graces we receive at every point are indeed great, but the path that lies beyond our immediate grasp is infinite . . . Thus we never stop rising, moving from one new beginning to the next . . ."

St. Gregory of Nyssa, 4th century

Photo: Sunset on the Westridge, Lory State Park, CO; November 6, 2012

Read not the "Times." Read the Eternities.

"How rarely I meet with a person who can be free, even in thought!  We live according to rule.  Some people are bedridden; all are world-ridden.  I take my neighbor, an intellectual man, out into the woods and invite him to take a new and absolute view of things, to empty clean out his thoughts of all institutions of men and start again; but he can't do it, he sticks to his traditions and his crotchets.  He thinks that governments, colleges, newspapers, etc., are from everlasting to everlasting."

"The last two Tribune newspapers I have not looked at.  I have no time to read newspapers.  If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire, - thinner than the paper on which it is printed, - then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them."

"Read not the  ' Times.'  Read the Eternities."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Aspen trees and the Vedauwoo Rocks glow in last light; Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 2, 2012.  Obviously, we in these complex times will continue to read the newpapers and think about what kind of government we have.  But perhaps we can take a tip from Thoreau and focus a bit more of our attention on larger realities.  Time spent in Nature is one way of helping us make this shift.

Nature is more fundamental than politics.

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

John Muir

Photo: Glacier Lilies, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 25, 2012.  The reference here is to Jesus' statement about "considering the lilies" in Matthew 6:28.

Imagination allows us to taste rock, ingest it, become one with it, and then embody its qualities in all of our actions.

Sometimes rock, when illuminated just right, seems like something one could eat.  Perhaps a lightly- frosted birthday cake, white chocolate fudge, or some kind of pastry.  The visceral nature of this sort of imaginative experience points, I believe, to the fact that we are meant to take the spiritual presence of the rock inside us, digest it by means of the liquifying capacities of love, let it flow into our veins, and then embody it in all of our actions.  When we become one with the rock in this way, we take on the qualities of strength, self-confidence, steadiness, and the ability to let life sculpt us into something beautiful.  At the same time, our union allows the rock to know its majestic beauty within OUR eyesight, sense of touch, and appreciation.  It is this kind of mutual union that is meant to suffuse every experience of life.

Photo: Vedauwoo rocks at sunset, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012

Spiritual masters are called BOTH to reveal their flaws, AND to show the tools they've discovered for transforming those flaws.

Our flaws generally involve the over-expression of one side of our personality.  For example, we may be oversensitive, over-aggressive, or overly focused on the sexual aspect of our being or on the things that make us angry. We may have a tendency to engage in action to the detriment of contemplation, or vice versa. The traditional model of religious perfection treats the spiritual master as someone who has already overcome all of their flaws, and who is now perfect - or at least close to perfect.

However, recent history is filled with cases of spiritual teachers who eventually reveal their clay feet.  A hidden affair, sex with their disciples, a penchant for materialism, or a drive to lord it over others are examples of some of the flaws that suddenly reveal themselves.  The result is often disillusionment on the part of their disciples, or a general skepticism regarding religion for those who don't consciously see themselves on a spiritual journey.

I believe that a new model is needed in our time.  Rather than acting as though all of their flaws have been overcome, spiritual masters should be open to revealing some of the ways in which they are still untransformed, AND the practices and tools they use to overcome their flaws.  Martin Luther used the phrase "Simul iustus et peccator," which means "simultaneously righteous and a sinner."  While I don't agree with Luther's view that the human core is innately sinful, and that "righteousness" consists in having this sinfulness covered by Christ's sacrifice as though by a mere cloak, I do resonate with the sense that we are always righteous (at our core) AND flawed (in the sense that we do not always live up to who we are at our core), BOTH at the same time.

Some early Christian writers -  Irenaeus of Lyon being a notable example - made a distinction between the IMAGE of God that dwells within our essential core, and our LIKENESS to that image, which manifests itself in our actual behavior on a day-to-day basis.  Here, these writers discovered hidden meaning in a passage included in the first chapter of Genesis, where the author says that we are made "in the image and likeness of God."  Irenaeus translates "likeness" as "likening" - a verb - thereby emphasizing the realization that we are always working to actualize - in practice, through the "likening" - the essence of who we really are; that is,  the "image."  In other words, we continually seek to become more "like" the core image in our everyday attitudes and actions.  I would add the fact that since our divine core is infinite, we will be FOREVER in process, working on expressing the richness of that core in endlessly new ways.  Thus, we are forever perfect (in our core) AND falling short of that perfection, since our true self admits of a limitless number of ways of actualizing its profound richness within our daily life. This is simply Luther's "Simul iustus et peccator," translated in a more positive way.

Following this model, I have committed myself in my teaching and writing to reveal BOTH the ways in which I am still challenged by the unbalanced aspects of my personality AND the tools I've found for beginning to transform those aspects.  For me, this involves finding the sacred dimension present within such things as an oversensitive nature, a typically male preoccupation with erotic energy, the tendency toward depression, and a desire to be seen as special (a part of the artistic temperament: the "Romantic," the Type Four personality on the Enneagram). I believe this approach is necessary both to remain true to the virtue of honesty, and to encourage others who find themselves in a similar place.  After all, spiritual growth is an endless process, and without some aspect of the personality that still needs further transformation, I - like all of us - would be deprived of the energy that is so necessary in driving and vivifying my spiritual journey.  Besides, like the tree shown in this photo, we sometimes appear much more interesting to others when we are NOT perfectly balanced!

Photo: A twisted, weather-beaten Limber Pine frames the Vedauwoo Rocks at sunset; Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; November 3, 2012