Love is an intellect that gives us knowledge of one another.

 

Currently, I'm teaching a class on Contemplative Christianity at Naropa University in Boulder. Naropa was founded by a Tibetan Buddhist lama back in the '70s, and it is a fascinating place to do interreligious dialogue. In any case, one of the things I appreciate about Christian Mysticism is its emphasis on love as a means of knowledge. A 12th century Cistercian monk named William of St. Thierry understood that "Love is an intellect that gives us knowledge of God" - and, we might add, of the Earth and of one another. Truly, we cannot claim to know another person until we've practiced divine love as a means of uncovering the sparks of sacredness that lie hidden deep within them. We certainly hope that others will do similarly with us

Photo: Rosy Paintbrush blooms, with Medicine Bow Peak in the background; Snowy Range, WY; June 29, 2013

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During these storm-times, air and ice and water and the mighty mountains are rejoicing in their strength!

"During these storm-times, when the whole brave world is in a rush and roar and ecstasy of motion - air and ice and water and the mighty mountains are rejoicing in their strength and singing in harmony!"

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: The Loch in a fierce windstorm; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 28, 2014

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The alpenglow is the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God!

 

"The sun is setting . . . The range is baptized in the divine light of the alpenglow, and its rocks and trees are transfigured . . . The alpenglow is the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God . . . Stay on the good fire-mountain and spend the night among the stars. Watch their glorious bloom until dawn, and get one more baptism of light. Then, with fresh heart, go down to your work, and whatever your fate, under whatever ignorance or knowledge you may afterward chance to suffer, you will remember these fine, wild views and look back with joy to your wanderings . . . "

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: A ragged Subalpine Fir is silhouetted against a windswept Long's Peak radiant with alpenglow; Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 27, 2014

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I love the energy of windstorms!

I love the energy of windstorms! On a day like this, the best I can do is to brace myself on my snowshoes, stick the camera out into the storm, shoot, and hope for the best. I'm pretty pleased with this particular result

Photo: Windstorm on the Loch; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 27, 2014

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You've got to PAY for your beauty!

I've always been convinced that "You've got to PAY for your beauty" with some kind of hardship endured while out in Nature.  Often that "payment" involves hiking or backpacking long miles, enduring clouds of mosquitoes, waiting for extended hours until the lighting is just right, getting up early for sunrise, or hiking back to the trailhead by headlamp after sunset.  Any suffering I endure while out in Nature becomes like the labor pain necessary to give birth to a new - more unitive - state of consciousness.  However, yesterday I had to pay in another way.  It was perhaps the windiest day I've ever encountered in the Great Outdoors. While focusing on the prolonged alpenglow radiating from Long's Peak, my fingers and face were getting colder and colder.  The fingers on one hand finally went numb and rewarmed only with a great deal of pain.  Then, this afternoon, I realized that my nose has a frostbit spot, acquired yesterday.  I guess I'll need to pay more attention next time!

Photo: Limber Pine and Long's Peak at sunset; Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 28, 2014

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Winter's big with summer in her womb.

"Winter's big with summer in her womb."

Vita Sackville-West,
English writer, poet and gardener

I don't know about you, but I need a reminder of summer right about now!

Photo: Colorado Columbines, American Lakes Basin, Never Summer Range, CO; July 13, 2013.  About a half-hour after I took this photo, the clouds unleashed the most intense hailstorm I've ever seen!

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Better keep yourself clean and bright. You are the window through which you must see the world.

"Better keep yourself clean and bright.  You are the window through which you must see the world."

George Bernard Shaw 

Photo: Rabbitbrush and rock window; Devil's Backbone Open Space, Larimer County, CO; January 27, 2014

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Hiking through a slot canyon embodies perfectly the practice of Contemplative Prayer.

 

During the practice of contemplative prayer, we sink below the level of thoughts and emotions, and allow ourselves to be drawn into the abyss or canyon of our innermost being. There, we sense obscurely that our awareness is magnetized by the presence of the One who dwells in love within the bottomless depths of the soul. It is there that we are held and embraced, while our thoughts and emotions flow - far, far above us - like stars, meteors, and distant satellites traveling across the sky. Because this embrace is so close - so all-absorbing - we are necessarily called to transcend experience and to exercise faith in its all-engulfing reality. For here, even the observer is absorbed in divine Love, making an objective observation of the union impossible. Meanwhile, we marvel at the fact that - even though we, and the Beloved, remain locked in this inner embrace - nevertheless, all things somehow make their appearance in the "sky" above us, like echoes resounding with no original word ever spoken! As Meister Eckhart once exclaimed: "It is an amazing thing that something flows forth and nonetheless remains within . . . All creatures flow outward and nonetheless remain within [in God] - that is extremely amazing!"

Photo: Joanne hiking through Peek-a-boo Gulch, Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, UT; May 25, 2013

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Solitude and Silence are Mutual

During today's hike in the falling snow, I felt immersed in a profound experience of solitude and silence. The solitude embodied a sense of oneness with the Beloved, in which my love for God is the same thing as God's love for me. The silence associated with this solitude reminded me that bliss - a sort of divine afterglow - involves a profound sense of contentment in which both God and I are lost in love.

Photo: Yucca and natural window; Devil's Backbone Open Space; Larimer County, CO; January 27, 2013

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Things in Nature seem to be simply intense condensations of Silence.

 

"When the silence in nature is so dense that the things in nature seem to be only more intense condensations of the silence, then it seems as though man, too, ceases to possess the word, and the word is only a chink in the silence."

Max Picard,
"The World of Silence"

Photo: Notchtop Mountain and wind-carved waves of snow; Two Rivers Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 20, 2014

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To get these glorious works of God into yourself - that's the great thing!

 

"To get these glorious works of God into yourself - that's the great thing!"

John Muir

Photo: Male cones of Engelmann Spruce; Lion Lakes, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 24, 2013

 

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Beautiful things act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.

 

"The surfaces of the world are aesthetically uneven. You come around a bend in the road and the world suddenly falls open. When we come upon beautiful things, they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space."

Elaine Scarry
"On Beauty and Being Just"

Photo: Snow Lily, a cascade, and Mt. Alice in the background; Lion Lakes area; Wild Basin, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; June 24, 2013

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Yellowstone is the best place to be awakened and healed from the stresses of city-life.

 

 "Yellowstone Park is perhaps the best place of all for people who are suffering from the vice of over-industry, who are three-quarters dead by doing good and making money. For it is full of novel and startling wonders. Here, if anywhere, you will be awakened and healed."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: The Grand Prismatic Spring; Yellowstone National Park, WY; August 31, 3013

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"Raven Steals the Light"

 

There was a time many years ago when the earth was covered in darkness. An inky pitch blanketed the world, making it very difficult for anyone to hunt or fish or gather berries for food. An old man lived along the banks of a stream with his daughter, who may have been very beautiful or possibly quite homely. But this didn't matter to the old man because, after all, it was dark, and who could tell?

The reason why the world was dark had to do with the old man, who had a box that contained a smaller box which in turn held many other boxes. In the very last and smallest box was all the light in the universe, and this was a treasure he selfishly kept to himself.

The mischievous Raven existed at that time because he always had. He was none too happy about the state of the world, for he blundered about in the dark, bumping into everything. His interfering nature got the best of him one day when he stumbled by the old man's hut and overheard him muttering about his boxes. He instantly decided to steal the light but first had to find a way to get inside the hut.

Each day, the young girl would go to the stream to fetch water. So the Raven transformed himself into a tiny hemlock needle and floated into the girl's bucket. Working a bit of his trickster magic, he made the girl thirsty, and as she took a drink, he slipped down her throat. Once down in her warm insides, he changed again - this time into a small human being - and took a very long nap.

The girl did not know what was happening to her and didn't tell her father. One day, the Raven emerged from her as a little boy- baby. If anyone could have seen him in the dark, they would have noticed that he was a peculiar-looking child, with a long beak-like nose, a few feathers here and there, and the unmistakably shining eyes of the Raven.

Both father and daughter were delighted with their new family addition and played with him for hours on end. As the child explored his new surroundings, he soon determined that the light must be kept in the big box in the corner. When he first tried to open the box, his grandfather scolded him profusely, which in turn caused a crying and squawking fit, the likes of which the old man had never seen. As grandfathers have done since the beginning of time, he caved in and gave the child the biggest box to play with. This brought peace to the hut for a brief time, but it wasn't long until the child pulled his scam again - and again and again - until finally only one box remained.

After much coaxing and wailing by the child, the old man at last agreed to let him play with the light for only a moment. As the child tossed the ball of light, he transformed back into the Raven! Snatching the light in his beak, he flew through the smoke hole and up into the sky.

Then, the world was instantly changed forever. Mountains sprang up into the bright sky and reflections danced on the rivers and oceans. Far away, the Eagle was awakened and launched skyward - his target now clearly in sight.

Raven was so caught up in all the excitement of the newly- revealed world that he nearly didn't see the Eagle bearing down on him. Swerving sharply to escape the outstretched talons, he dropped nearly half of the ball of light, which fell to the earth. Shattering into one large and many small pieces on the rocky ground, the bits of light bounced back up into the heavens, where they remain to this day as the moon and the stars.

The Eagle pursued Raven beyond the rim of the world. Exhausted by the long chase, Raven let go of what light still remained. Floating gracefully above the the clouds, the sun as we now know it started up over the mountains to the east.

The first rays of the morning sun brought light through the smoke hole of the old man's house. As he wept in sorrow over his great loss, he looked up. It was then that he saw his daughter for the very first time. She was very beautiful and smiling, and that made him very happy!


This story is told by the Haida Nation and other Native nations of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest

Photo: Raven at Fairy Falls; Yellowstone National Park, WY; August 31, 2013

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The West is the native home of hope.

 

“One cannot be pessimistic about the West. This is the native home of hope. When it fully learns that cooperation, not rugged individualism, is the quality that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have achieved itself and outlived its origins. Then it has a chance to create a society to match its scenery.”

Wallace Stegner

Photo: Ranch entrance, near Dubois, WY; August 30, 2013

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John Muir understood that all creatures have feelings and troubles and joys just like people.

"Papa taught us from the time we were small children that all creatures have feelings and troubles and joys just like people, and that we must always remember that fact and be considerate of them."

Helen Muir, on her father

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Two bull elk; Lumpy Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2014

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The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of Solitude.

 

"The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude."

Aldous Huxley 

Photo: A lone hiker walks the beach on a foggy day; Second Beach, Olympic National Park, WA; July 24, 2013

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The old naturalists could be surprised by the ordinary events of life.

 

"The old naturalists were so sensitive and sympathetic to nature that they could be surprised by the ordinary events of life.  It was an incessant miracle to them, and therefore gorgons and flying dragons were not incredible to them."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: A weathered tree stump and snow patterns on a mountain lake at sunset; Zimmerman Lake, near Cameron Pass, CO; January 18, 2014

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I love Colorado's dynamic weather!

 

One of the things I love about living in Colorado is the fact that our weather is so dynamic. Two days ago, the temperature rose to 62 degrees. When I hiked up to my wintertime meditation spot on a sunny granite ledge high in the foothills, the thermometer on my backback registered 80 degrees! Last night, it snowed two inches, and the temperature is currently at 12 degrees. When I got up this morning, I took this beautiful shot fifty feet from my front door. A half hour later, the foothills were completely obscured in fog. Tomorrow, it's supposed to get into the 50s!

Photo: Canada Geese and the misty foothills, taken from just across the street from my house; Larimer County, CO; January 23, 2014

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"You shall have joy, or you shall have power," said God; "you shall not have both."

" 'You shall have joy, or you shall have power,' said God; 'you shall not have both.' "

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: Spirea (pink) and American Bistort (white), with the peaks of the North Cascades in the background; Mount Baker Wilderness, WA; July 23, 2013

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The green mountains are always walking . . .

"Priest Daokai of Mt. Furong said to the assembly, 'The green mountains are always walking . . .'  You should examine in detail this quality of the mountains' walking.  Mountains' walking is just like human walking.  Accordingly, do not doubt mountains' walking even though it does not look the same as human walking . . . 'In the mountains' means the blossoming of the entire world . . . If you doubt mountains' walking, you do not know your own walking . . . You should know it as a fact that mountains are fond of wise people and sages . . . When you investigate mountains thoroughly, this is the work of the mountains.  Such mountains and waters of themselves become wise persons and sages."

Eihei Dogen,
13th century founder of the Soto Zen School

Photo: Snow patterns on Zimmerman Lake with the Medicine Bow Mountains in the background; near Cameron Pass, CO; January 18, 2014

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The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture!

"The glow of inspiration warms us; it is a holy rapture."

Ovid

Photo: Alpenglow on Long's Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 20, 2014

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The arrival of an insight enables our lives to shimmer with radiant meaning.

 

To me, the most exciting experience I can have is the arrival of an insight that puts all of life in a fresh perspective. The hallmarks of an arriving insight are a sense of "aha!", joy, unity, awe and wonder. Insight is a personal presence who visits us, as the Greeks understood in talking about the "Muse" as a feminine being, and as Christian mystics realize when they call her "Sophia Wisdom." Without her, life would be colorless; WITH her, it shimmers with radiant meaning. As the prophet so aptly puts it: "Without a vision, the people perish."

Photo: The sun peeks behind a ridge above Two Rivers Lake, with Notchtop Mountain jutting up on the right; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 20, 2014

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How artistic is Nature!

Isn't it amazing that water - the substance which composes the bulk of our bodies, thereby making life on Earth possible - is able to assume such wintertime artistry? I find myself irresistibly drawn to lakes - the natural "reservoirs" of our life-blood source - because of the endless patterns created by wind, freezing, and thawing in the surface layers of snow and ice. How artistically creative is Nature!

Photo: Wind patterns on frozen Zimmerman Lake; near Cameron Pass, CO; January 18, 2014

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Surely joy is the condition of life.

"This life is not for complaint, but for satisfaction . . . Surely JOY is the condition of life."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Alpenglow radiating from Long's Peak; Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 20, 2014

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Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!

 

"Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado!"

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo: Alpenglow on Nokhu Crags; Never Summer Range, CO; January 18, 2014

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"You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake.  You must be able to extract nutriment out of it.  You must have so good an appetite as this, or else you will live in vain."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Wind-carved patterns in the snow, Zimmerman Lake, near Cameron Pass, CO; January 18, 2014

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What qualities do you absorb from a wildflower meadow?

 

Last week, I learned that many Apache mothers traditionally bathed their babies in water saturated by wildflowers. What a wonderful practice! I imagine this as an effective way for the growing child to absorb the qualities of the natural world and then to radiate those qualities to everyone he or she meets. Similarly, whenever I hike through a wildflower meadow, I feel I am bathing myself in a lake of spirituality. From the flowers, I absorb a sense that my core self is attractive, radiant, fragrant, lively, and tenacious. What qualities do you absorb from wildflowers?

Photo: Lupine flowers and the peaks of the Tatoosh Range; Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 29, 2013

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You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in.

"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in."

Arlo Guthrie

Photo: Late sunlight shining on Gem Lake; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 11, 2014

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Between every two pine trees is a doorway to a new world.

 

"Between every two pine trees is a doorway to a new world."

John Muir

Photo: Ponderosa Pines and Lumpy Ridge; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2014

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Lichens are an amazing example of the fact that cooperation is just as important as competition in the evolutionary process.

 

Lichens are an amazing example of the fact that competition is not the only force driving the evolutionary process. Cooperation is just as important. Each lichen is composed of both algae and fungi organisms living together in a symbiotic relationship. The algae contain chlorophyll which uses sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates for the nourishment of both organisms. The fungi, on the other hand, provide a substrate on which the algae can grow, as well as a primitive network of roots, called hyphae. These roots in turn secrete an acid that gradually dissolves the rock, allowing rudimentary soil to form. The soil is then available for use by small plants, which in turn decompose into larger soil particles when they die. While living, these plants serve as food for small animals, which in turn are eaten by larger animals. Where would any of us be without lichens?

Photo: Lichen growing on a sandstone boulder; Reservoir Ridge Natural Area; Larimer County, CO; January 8, 2014

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I live next to the foothills of the Colorado Rockies . . .

 

I live next to the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. This shot was taken last week about a hundred feet from my doorstep, right at sunset. Fortunately, the owner of the field - which is used both for growing hay and grazing horses - has thus far resisted the impulse to subdivide the land for houses. Deer, coyotes and foxes use it quite regularly. Once in a while, a mountain lion even makes a visit to the western edge of the field.

I love coming home from work, late at night after a full evening of janitorial cleaning. As I sit in my office at home, eating a few scoops of Boulder Ice Cream and working on a Nature Photo-Quote, I listen to the coyotes bark and howl from the field just beyond my window. Before bed, I go outside and gaze up at the Milky Way. There are no streetlights on my block, and the stars shine in all of their glory, reminding me that the elements present in my body, in the field, in the horses, in the foothills, and in the cells of those crazy coyotes, were all formed "out there." And I am struck by the realization that we - and everything else on this amazing planet - are ALL One.

Photo: Larimer County, CO; January 8, 2014

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The primeval outdoor scene - its solitude and sense of removal - become a part of our consciousness.

 

"In looking back [on times spent outdoors], there was a growing appreciation of deeper meanings; . . . the primeval scene, its solitude and sense of removal was becoming part of my consciousness . . . Subtle influences were seeping into me as surely as water seeps into thirsty ground, penetrating every fiber of my being, coloring my every reaction."

Sigurd F. Olson

Photo: Evening light on Lumpy Ridge; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2014

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Why do we cling to the past when the spiritual journey is meant to be so fresh and new?

 

I often ponder the fact that we as human beings have a tendency to value the things that are fresh and new in every aspect of life except ONE - the realm of theology and religion. For some reason, we have a tendency to focus on past revelations more than on the expansive insights of the present and future. We do indeed need the past; after all, it is pointless to "reinvent the wheel." But the spiritual journey is so fresh, so filled with ever-expanding possibilities, continually in the process of creating larger and vaster Wholes from the brightest and best insights of the past. Why would we want to fixate on the past alone when the Creator is here with us - and within us - TODAY?

Photo: Wind-created snow patterns; Lumpy Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2013

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According to Emerson, we are not meant to have disciples!

"I have been writing and speaking for twenty-five or thirty years, and have not now one disciple. Why? Not that what I said was not true; not that it has not found intelligent receivers; but because it did not go forth from any wish in me to bring people to me, but rather to themselves. I delight in driving them from me. What could I do, if they came to me? . . . This is my boast: that I have no school followers. I would account it a measure of the impurity of my insight if it did not create independence."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1858

I love this quote! I chose this photo because this particular aspen tree is so unique. How could any other tree be quite like it?  And yet - and here is the fascinating thing - aspen trees in any given grove are all interconnected through their common root system!  That means that when each of us lives according to our own individual identity, we contribute our unique gifts to the Whole!

Photo: Contorted Aspen tree in a driving snowstorm; Bierstadt Moraine, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 10, 2014

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We are meant to "wrestle" with God!

 

 

There's a playful element in the Creator that wants us to fight against what appears to be divine resistance to our dreams. This includes intense questioning of what seems to be the "divine will." Hadewijch, a medieval mystic, called this feisty attitude "noble unfaith" and believed that God values it much more than a faith which is resigned to a difficult situation. Here the story of God fighting in the form of an angel with Jacob has obvious resonances. Because Jacob persevered so intensely, he was granted the blessing for which he sought. But more importantly, God renamed him after this incident, calling him - and his feisty descendents - "Yisrael," which means "God- wrestler."

Bull Elk sparring; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2013

 

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Our lives arise from a reservoir of vast silence - the presence of the One who is eternally lost in love.

 

On Friday, I snowshoed up to Bierstadt Lake. The switchbacking trail was completely drifted over, and I was the first to make it up to the lake after the snowstorm a day earlier. I love visiting mountain lakes in the wintertime. The sense of spaciousness, solitude and simplicity - all rolled into one - puts me in a meditative state of mind that helps heal the stresses caused by life in society. Like these grasses barely jutting up above the snow, I remember that my life arises from a reservoir of vast silence - the presence of the Source, the One who is eternally lost in love.

Photo: Grasses on Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 10, 2014

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Dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs to ascend to the kingdom.

 

"Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.  Enter eagerly into the treasure house that is within you, and so you will see the things that are in heaven; for there is but one single entry to them both.  The ladder that leads to the kingdom is hidden within your soul.  Flee from wrongdoing, dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend."

St. Isaac the Syrian,
7th century

Photo: "Stairway to Heaven," Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 11, 2014

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Solitude teaches us to sink our roots down into our innermost being where the water of Life dwells.

 

I found this Limber Pine growing out of a crack in a boulder with just a bit of soil for nourishment. It reminded me to spend time in solitude, where there doesn't seem to be much of any substance happening, at least not in the way of exciting events. In solitude, there is a simplicity that teaches us to sink our roots down into our innermost being where the water of life lies waiting in silence, hiddenness and secrecy.

Photo: Limber Pine growing out of a crack in a boulder; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 11, 2013

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We need a new religion grounded in an evolutionary-ecological worldview.

 

"When I consider how much misery religion has brought, and how much human and natural capital is consumed in producing and maintaining it, I am not easily convinced that its positives outweigh its negatives.  So, I often think we need an entirely new religion.  At least, I think this until I remember that the kind of affective connections to the earth and its living systems, the feelings of wonder and awe at the beauty and bizarre surprises in our universe, the kinship some people feel toward their fellow living travelers in this earthly odyssey - all have long been part of the human experience.  It seems to me, however, that it would be much easier to develop sustainable societies if religions were firmly grounded in an evolutionary-ecological worldview . . . Even though I am a naturalist, . . . I can think of no better term than 'miracle' to describe all I perceive.  Even the bizarre fact that I am here to perceive it, reflect on it, and share my musings strikes me as nothing less than miraculous.  In this, I fully understand the impulse of scientists and others who fall back on religious terms to express their deepest feelings of delight and wonder at all they sense and know."

Bron Taylor,
"Dark Green Religion"

Photo: Lewis Monkeyflowers just below Siyeh Pass, Glacier National Park, MT; August 1, 2013

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Looking at the mountain sheep leap up the mountain, I often cried out, "That was good! . . . Well done!"

 

"I saw a fine band of mountain sheep . . . They leaped up the face of the mountain just where I thought they wouldn't, and perhaps couldn't, go . . . Looking at them I often cried out, 'That was good!' . . . I exulted in the power and sufficiency of Nature, and felt like saying aloud to God as to a man, 'Well done!' "

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Bighorn Sheep ram, Big Thompson Canyon, CO January 11, 2014

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The fog finally cleared!

 

The day I took this photo, the weather was anything but promising. All morning and afternoon, Rainier had been fogged in, with not even a glimpse of her magnificent form peering through the clouds. I debated on whether I should make the drive up the long, dusty dirt road to the primitive campground at Mowich Lake, especially if there was little chance that the Mountain would "come out." However, I went ahead anyway, set up camp, and hiked three miles up to Spray Park, right at timberline. When I arrived - at around 3 P.M., the landscape was completely socked in. Rather than head back down, I decided to take a nap, so I donned my mosquito-net headgear, found a comfy rock, and went to sleep. When I woke up - about 5 P.M. - I noticed that there were a few holes in the clouds, enabling a peekaboo view of the Mountain. A half hour later, the summit was completely clear! With the aid of the late-lying sunlight, I was able to take hundreds of magnificent pictures. Then, just after sunset, the fog again rolled in, completely covering the peak once more. As I hiked back down the trail by headlamp, I reveled in the amazing time I'd just spent on the most beautiful mountain in America. What a day!

Photo: Avalanche Lily at Spray Park, Mount Rainier National Park, CO; July 28, 2013

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Afflictive emotions become less heavy when we see them suspended, floating in the vast sky of spiritual awareness.

Here's another shot of the Limber Pine cone that seemed to hover above the lake-ice yesterday. How might our lives change if the things that seem so oppressively heavy - especially afflictive emotions like anger, bitterness, worry, disappointment and unfulfilled desire - are actually suspended, floating in the vast sky of spiritual consciousness, which in turn is a participation in that of our Source? Our lives, I'm convinced, would be utterly transformed, allowing us to maintain a lighter touch with the various anxieties and challenges of life.

Photo: Limber Pine cone resting on the ice of Gem Lake; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 11, 2014

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Extreme weather baptizes and washes us clean of the stresses and ego-concerns of life in society.

 

I took this shot on the most challenging day I've ever spent photographing in the outdoors.  The clouds really let loose, and it poured all day long.  I had trouble keeping the camera dry, and got water inside the monitor screen, damaging it for a week afterwards.  But the day was amazing!  Like John Muir, I felt like I was being baptized in the storm, washed clean of the stresses and ego-concerns of life in society.  On the way back to the campground, I saw a grizzly bear in the distance, but my camera was much too wet by then to be usable.  What memories!

Photo: Wild Buckwheat flowers and Grinnell Lake on a rainy day; Glacier National Park, MT; August 2, 2013

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Winter brings a sense of inner peace, simplicity and centeredness.

Snowshoeing through the winter woods in the midst of lightly falling snowflakes brings a sense of inner peace, simplicity and centeredness.  Just as the landscape seems to be sleeping, so it teaches us to rest deeply in our divine source - in the Beyond Within.

Photo: Lodgepole Pines in the snow; Bierstadt Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 10, 2014.  No, this is not a black-and-white photo :)

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All creatures are echoes of the Creator's never-spoken love-word, resounding with their own "added words" and in a "different voice"!

 

A few days ago, I mentioned a creation myth based on meditation experience. Here, the Great Beyond - whom we call "God" - was just about to "speak" a divine love-word. However, before he could utter that word - or even think it - he lost himself in ecstatic bliss, emptying himself out into the vast expanses of the universe as a sky-like universal awareness or ground of being. We discover his ecstatic presence in wilderness spaces and in the vastness of our own meditative awareness. However, even though his word was never spoken - SURPRISE ! - every species, individual and landscape feature somehow has managed to appear - through the processes of biological, geological, cultural and spiritual evolution - as though out of nowhere, as an echo of that never-spoken word! The amazing thing is this: even though that word is singular, all things echo it in their own unique and varied way. It is as though the word returns to the Creator in a billion different echoes, each of which has new words added on - words which he never even thought to speak - each one in a DIFFERENT VOICE! As Meister Eckhart exclaimed: "God spoke one thing, and I heard TWO!" And, we might add, three and four and a hundred and a million and ten billion! Indeed, we could even say that the purpose of creation is to bring this kind of surprise alive within each of us - in our own unique experiences of awe and wonder - which then transfer to the inner life of the One who dwells within us

Photo: Avalanche Lilies on a misty day; Spray Park, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 28, 2013

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The basic question is this: Why should ANYTHING exist?

 

"The basic question is this: Why should ANYTHING exist?  NOTHING would be tidier."

Edward Abbey

Photo: Cow Parsnip and sea stacks; Second Beach, Olympic National Park, WA; July 24, 2013

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Because the spiritual journey is endless, we are ALL about at the same place!

I love the term "spiritual journey." To me, it implies that the spiritual life is endless, and that no goal - neither "enlightenment," nor "transformation," nor "salvation," nor "union," etc. - is ever fully reached. Sometimes I'm tempted to compare myself to another person on the journey, acting as though I've traveled a mile, while they've only gone an inch. However, when I remember the infinite nature of the path ahead, I realize that both of us are actually just about THE SAME in our spiritual development! I love the way true spirituality always fosters this kind of humility, an attitude that is so necessary in a world where each of us has a tendency to think WE alone are right!

Photo: Wind-created lines in the snow; Lumpy Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2014

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The Tao fulfills its purpose silently and makes no claim.

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth . . .
The Tao is ever creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever . . .
The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled.
Oh unfathomable source of ten thousand things!
Oh, hidden deep but ever present!
I do not know from whence it comes . . .
The great Tao flows everywhere . . .
The ten thousand things depend upon it; it holds nothing back.
It fulfills its purpose silently and makes no claim.
It nourishes the ten thousand things,
And yet it is not their lord . . .
The ten thousand things return to it,
Yet it is not their lord.
It is very great.
It does not show greatness,
And is therefore truly great."

Lao Tzu,
China, 6th century B.C.E.

Photo: Sunset clouds over the Twin Owls; Lumpy Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; January 7, 2013

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