Last weekend, as I hiked up one of the trails at Yellowstone, I looked across at the Grand Prismatic Spring. There, an interesting sight greeted my eyes. The people walking on the boardwalk next to the Spring were mostly hidden, except for a few who appeared within a window in the steam produced by the azure-blue spring. It seemed as though they were mere phantoms hovering above the ground, alternately being revealed and then concealed by the steam, seemingly diaphanous themselves. It occurred to me that this phenomenon is a metaphor for the lives of each of us. We each have a tendency to take our own individual existence so seriously, yet our lives are actually quite fleeting. Each of us is meant to be simply a means by which the Great Mystery knows its own beauty and goodness. We appear on Earth for a brief 80 or 90 years, live our lives, and then disappear back into the vast spaciousness of the Divine. Perhaps our individuality survives the grave, and perhaps it doesn't; I am confident that whatever form we take after death will be supremely fulfilling. I'm inclined, however, to think that our consciousness will then be less individualized and more global. I guess I'll eventually find out, like everyone else! In any case, we "sophisticated" Homo sapiens often act as though our individual existence in the present form is SO permanent! It's surprising, in a way, that we slip into this half-illusory tendency so easily. After all, our individual identity - our ego-self - is so fragile, so susceptible to being hurt by others and by the challenges of life. When we identify too completely with the ego-self - a temptation we ALL fall into - we feel tight, constricted and claustraphobic. The ego-self causes us so much suffering, as Jesus, Buddha, and a whole host of others continually remind us. Yet still we hang on to it for dear life! I do appreciate the fact that each of us adds some completely new and unique facet to Divine Awareness, one that no other person or being is able to contribute! Yet I'm also convinced that our individual awareness and existence are actually on loan from ANOTHER. It seems to me that one of the goals of spiritual practice is to help us go beyond our fleeting ego-self and to identify instead with the SOMETHING GREATER out of which we all emerge. Please, God, may I - and may all of us - come to a greater awareness of that deep mystery!
Photo: Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY; August 31, 2013
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