True Spirituality is Innately Spontaneous

 

The wind these past several days has been incredibly intense. During my retreat last weekend at St. Benedict's Monastery, there were periods of strong wind as well, serving as a backdrop for one of my most important realizations. While at the monastery, I attended one of the liturgies, as is my custom whenever I visit. While I enjoyed very much the Eucharist, and the sense that God is truly present within matter itself (represented by the bread and wine), I had even more difficulty than usual enduring the formality of the surrounding ceremony. In my tradition - that of the Invisible Church of the Contemplative Spiritual wing of the Radical Reformation - each moment of the day and each encounter with the people and landscapes we meet throughout the day is itself regarded as a "liturgy." I therefore have extreme difficulty with formal ritual ceremonies that were designed millennia ago and which are still carried on in basically the same manner as they always have. In my tradition, spontaneity is of utmost importance. It was therefore with quite a bit of interest that I read the following passage by John O'Donohue in a book that I bought at the monastery bookstore:

"One of the most exciting metaphors for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is that the Holy Spirit is like the wind that blows where it will. This is a radical insight into a Judaic world that [during Jesus' time] was bowed down under the weight of rampant legalism. There were hundreds of rules which wearied the conduct of life. Without this perspective on the society in which Jesus worked, we will fail to appreciate how subversive his vision and presence actually were. It would be like coming to live in a society run by the ultra right who bring their cold metallic concern to bear on issues. They have the tendency to rigidify all natural things ; the attempt to turn that which is instinctive into that which is deliberate. One of the terrible deficiencies of most fundamentalisms is that the actuality and spontaneity become frozen. The flow and risk of life get totally managed and programed into categories . . . But 'The Spirit blows where it wills' is a kind of hymn to spontaneity. The Spontaneous is a vital spiritual force. There could be a new theology written from the perspective of spontaneity. The spontaneous has a secret kinship with the unknown; like the unknown it lacks predictability and is surprising . . . At this depth there can be no ideology or program."

From "The Four Elements: Reflections on Nature," in the chapter on 'Wind.'

I'm not claiming that the Catholic Mass is in any way fundamentalistic. However, I realized this past weekend that I am indeed most interested, in the words of Jean Pierre de Caussade, in "the sacrament of the present moment." And that moment is - and always will be - innately spontaneous.

Photo: Hallett Peak in a windstorm; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 7, 2014

The more divine objects I behold, the more expanded and immortal I become.

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

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Lichen growing on a boulder; near Ashcroft, CO; April 26, 2014

Let us not allow our inner lives to be colonized by the promises of gurus and systems outside ourselves!

One of the things I realized while on retreat at the monastery this past weekend was the fact that ultimately, my own spiritual path is unlike that of anyone else. It contains elements that are completely unique, ones that not everyone else may understand or accept. This fact is, of course, true as well of every other person on the spiritual journey. While reading a book called "Four Elements" by Celtic writer John O'Donohue (which I picked up at the monastery bookstore), I was reminded that allowing ourselves to care too much about what other people - including spiritual mentors and teachers - think about us is every bit as serious as being an indigenous person whose land and culture have been colonized by outside forces. Accordingly, O'Donohue writes:

"Sometimes we are misled by the promises of gurus and systems outside ourselves. We believe that salvation can only come from outside. This is the great falsity of all colonization, be it territorial or spiritual. It robs the native land, or native soul, of the sense of its own indigenous treasures and resources. Against all attempts at programs and methods, the great art of holiness is to let oneself be. To be natural is to be holy. But to be natural is not easy in our technological and distanced world. We need to re-discover and re-awaken our sense of instinct and the ancient rhythm that still sleeps inside our souls."

Photo: This solitary mountain appeared through the mist as I was waiting yesterday on I 70 for the Eisenhower Tunnel to reopen after an accident; near Silverthorne, CO; April 28, 2014

Come ON, Spring!

This past weekend, I went on retreat at St. Benedict's Monastery.  It was blustery and snowy the entire time, and the robins singing in the brush outside my hermitage seemed to be saying, "Come ON, Spring!"

Robin, with Monastery Mountain in the background; St. Benedict's Monastery, Snowmass, CO; April 27, 2014

The sound of a rippling river drives out despair.

"Who hears the rippling of the rivers will not utterly despair of anything."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Castle Creek, near Ashcroft, CO; April 26, 2014

Beauty is the Harmony of Contrasts

 

"Beauty is the harmony of contrasts."

Alfred North Whitehead

Photo: Mount Meeker (L) and Long's Peak (R), with freshly leafed- out Cottonwood trees; near Longmont, CO; April 25, 2014

Paradise is in our very midst!

 

"The Paradise which our preachers are always locating here and there out of reach, and furnishing with harps and fountains and jewels and gold, is often in our very midst, ringing in our ears, flashing under our eyes, if we were not so stupidly deaf and confoundedly blind as not to perceive it."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Wild Plum bushes in bloom, with red cliffs in the background; Lory State Park, CO; April 24, 2014

The Efficacy of Subtle Light

 

In photography, subtle light is often the most effective in revealing the beauty of a subject. Here, for example, I waited until the light filtered through the adjacent pines was at just the right intensity to cause the pasqueflower to glow. Similarly, with spiritual insight, we experiment with various words, images and metaphors that will cast just the right light on ultimate realities, enabling them to subtly glow and radiate their liberating presence.

Photo: Pasqueflower, with Arthur's Rock in the background; Lory State Park, CO; April 24, 2014

I wish so to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events.

 

"I wish so to live ever as to derive my satisfactions and inspirations from the commonest events, every-day phenomena, so that what my senses hourly perceive, my daily walk, . . . may inspire me, and I may dream of no heaven but that which lies about me.  A person may acquire a taste for wine or brandy, and so lose his love for water, but should we not pity him?"

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Wild Plum bushes in bloom, with red cliffs behind; Lory State Park, CO; April 24, 2014

The challenges of life are buds that enclose God-in-hiding.

A contemplative perspective views every creature, person and event as a place of encounter with the indwelling God.  Some of these manifest the divine Beloved in full-flower.  This is true especially of joyful experiences, meaningful friendships and enlivening insights.  Other aspects of our lives - especially sufferings, difficult interpersonal interactions, and life-challenges - may be seen as buds that enclose a God who is still in hiding; God asleep, as it were.  Spiritual practice teaches us to employ the penetrative eye of faith, hope and love to see clear THROUGH these challenges in order to awaken the Beloved who dwells deep within them.  This practice of "seeing God in all things" is, in fact, our major life-task.

Photo: Bluebells, Reservoir Ridge Natural Area; Larimer County, CO; April 19, 2014

Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? . . . Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises?"

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Rose Hips, with the Mummy Range in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 21, 2014

Your spirit is one with the sky . . .

 

"It is a strange awakening to find the sky inside you and beneath you and above you and all around you so that your spirit is one with the sky . . ."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Boulder, Moraine Park and Deer Mountain; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 21, 2014

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken to everything else in the universe.

"Most people are ON the world, not IN it - have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them - undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate . . . [But] when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken to everything in the universe. One fancies a heart like our own must be beating in every crystal and cell . . ."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Bushes of rose hips, with Stone's Peak and surrounding mountains in the background; Moraine Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 21, 2014

Rest in the One Who is Peace itself.

"Rest in the One who tranquilizes all things, and Who is Peace itself.  Bury yourself in Him until you lose yourself in Him, and find yourself no more.  It is in the forgetfulness of the 'I' that peace dwells.  Wherever the 'I' creeps in, it throws the heart into convulsions.  Happy is the one who gives himself to God without reserve, without reflection, without even thinking that he is giving himself!"

Francois Fenelon,
17th century France

Photo: Sagebrush Buttercups with Deer Mountain in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 21, 2014

I just can't get enough of the wonder of Pasqueflowers springing up in the burn areas!

As you probably have guessed by now, I just can't get enough of the wonder of Pasqueflowers springing up in the areas that burned so heavily two years ago.  There is something utterly amazing about the way in which such beauty arises from such devastation.  I tend to view beauty in its many forms as a "harmony of contrasts,"  And the burn areas embody this principle, par excellence!

Photos: Pasqueflowers proliferating in the Hewlett Burn.  That's Greyrock in the second picture; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8 and 10, 2014

The tulips are my speech.

 

"The fountain is my speech.  The tulips are my speech.  The grass and trees are my speech."

George Delacorte,
Publisher

Photo: Tulip, Naropa University, CO; April 16, 2014

All things are created through divine self-emptying!

 

Lakota elder and chief Albert White Hat, Sr. tells the story of the Creator - Inyan - who "began creation by draining its blood and from this blood created a huge disk around itself.  Inyan called this disk Maka, the earth."  Then, "Draining its blood for each new creation, Inyan became weaker and weaker.  The last to be created was the Human nation."  "When creation was complete, Inyan was dry and brittle and broke apart and scattered all over the world."  Similarly, in the Christian mystical tradition, we have a God who creates by kenosis - by self-emptying.  Jesus embodies this kenosis when he compares himself to a seed which must fall into the ground and die in order for all things to be brought to birth.  Tibetan Buddhists speak as well of releasing all things into spacious awareness - the Dharmakaya - and then presiding over the reemergence of all things -  in all of their vividness - from that vast, transparent "Emptiness."  I'm reminded of this principle of death and resurrection as well in the lives of many of the people I know.  Because of some early trauma, each of us has ended up going into a field of work that will help heal others who've been through similar sufferings.  In this way, the "death" we've experienced truly leads to the "resurrection" of life in others!

Photo: Pasqueflowers, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 12, 2014

Meditation practice offers us a direct experience of the wonder of resurrection arising out of death.

 

Meditation practice offers us a direct experience of the wonder of resurrection arising out of death, of particular things being born out of emptiness or spaciousness.  As we focus on the outbreath, allowing our minds to become vast and spacious, we let go of all thoughts, perceptions, emotions and sensations.  St. John of the Cross calls this state "general loving awareness," and Buddhists often refer to it as "emptiness."  Here, everything specific and particular is released and let go of.  As this occurs, all of the things we've released seem transparent and non-substantial.  However, we then watch in amazement as they reappear, more vivid and colorful than ever!  John Muir puts it this way: "The pain caused by the melting of all beauties into one First Beauty disappears, because after their first submergence in fountain God, they go again washed and clean into their individualisms, more clearly defined than ever, unified yet separate."

Photo: Sand Lily with rain drops; Reservoir Ridge Natural Area; Larimer County, CO; April 19, 2014

Death and resurrection are a prominent motif in our Colorado mountains.

 

Death and resurrection are a prominent motif in our Colorado mountains. Greyrock Meadow - shown in this photo - burned in the Hewlett Fire exactly two years ago. The fire ended up charring about 7600 acres. Because the fire provided a sizable dose of fertilizer when it turned the forest floor debris to ash, pasqueflowers in the area are now more prolific than ever!

Photo: Pasqueflowers, a burned Ponderosa Pine, and Greyrock in the background on a stormy day; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; May 10, 2014

Ego is the best fuel for enlightenment!

 

 
"The ego is the ideal fuel that is exciting to burn, the best fuel that could be found in the whole universe, . . . the only fuel for wisdom . . . In fact, the very idea of enlightenment exists because of ego - because there is a contrast. Without ego there wouldn't be the very notion of enlightenment at all. You don't get rid of your ego at all. Without ego you cannot attain enlightenment, so you have to make friends with ego. You don't want to get rid of ego. That's the whole point. You don't try to get rid of ego at all - but you don't try to maintain ego either."

Chogyam Trungpa,
Tibetan rinpoche

Photo: A Pasqueflower glows next to a burnt, sap-exuding Ponderosa pine trunk; Hewlett Burn, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 3, 2014

The Cross is the fuel for Resurrection.

 

Unless we experienced suffering in its multitude of forms, we could never know the ecstasy of enlightenment or Resurrection.  Yin needs yang, just as light requires darkness in order to manifest itself in all of its glory. Obviously, we all want to end excessive suffering, which can only serve to extinguish the human spirit and causes many to give up the search for meaning.  But common sufferings and challenges - like ordinary illness, disappointment, unrequited love, and the emotional afflictions tied to the isolated ego-self - all form the gas that is necessary to fuel enlightenment.  As Rumi says, ego is the stick of incense that - when burning up - is able to scent the entire house.  During this Easter season, may we better appreciate the "cross" we each uniquely bear that is more than able to serve as the necessary condition for a full and fulfilling resurrection.

Photo: Pasqueflower in the Hewlett Burn; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014

Our Crucified Earth

 

"What does it mean for us followers of St. Francis of Assisi to take a contemplative approach to our modern-day ecological crisis?  If we dare to look and really see, we encounter Creation crucified - at our hands.  This is truly a heartbreaking and terrifying reality, almost impossible to bear without the strong spiritual grounding that contemplative prayer offers.  If Francis were to walk our earth today, he would encounter for the first time his Sister Mother Earth, Brother Wind, and Sister Water polluted and desecrated, the creatures he loved endangered and some gone forever.  Francis never experienced this type of ecological devastation since it occurred largely after the Industrial Revolution, yet the way he lived his life can teach us how to contemplate such realities and then find the courage to act. . . . For he saw that God 'humbly bends low in love and hides in weak and fragile form.' "

Ilia Delio,
Franciscan Sister

Photo: A single Pasqueflower blooms on a hillside in the Hewlett Burn; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014

We rarely meet a person who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper.

 

"Just so hollow and ineffectual, for the most part, is our ordinary conversation.  Surface meets surface.  When our life ceases to be inward . . . , conversation degenerates into mere gossip.  We rarely meet a person who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper, or been told by his neighbor . . . In proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.  You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while.  I do not know but it is too much to read one newspaper a week.  I have tried it recently, and during that time it seems to me that I have not dwelt in my native region.  The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees say not so much to me.  You cannot serve two masters.  It requires more than a day's devotion to know and to possess the wealth of a day."

Henry David Thoreau,
"Life Without Principle" (1863)  

Photo: Pasqueflowers and Greyrock, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 10, 2014

Read not The Times. Read the Eternities.

"Not without a slight shudder at the danger, I often perceive how near I had come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair, - the news of the street; and I am astonished to observe how willing people are to lumber their minds with such rubbish, - to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred to thought.  Shall the mind be a public arena, where the affairs of the street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed?  Or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself, - a hypaethral temple [open to the sky], consecrated to the service of the gods? . . . It is important to preserve the mind's chastity in this respect . . . We should treat our minds as innocent children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.  Read not The Times.  Read the Eternities . . . Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven."

Henry David Thoreau,
"Life Without Principle" (1863)

Photo: Pasqueflowers, with Greyrock on a stormy day; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 10, 2014

There is nothing more opposed to life than this incessant business.

 

"It would be glorious to see mankind at leisure for once.  It is nothing but work, work, work . . . I think there is nothing more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Pasqueflowers blooming in the snow, with Horsetooth Rock in the background; Horsetooth Mountain Park, CO; April 15, 2014

My wealth is not possession but enjoyment.

 

"O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches.  No run on my bank can drain it - for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Pasqueflowers in the snow, with Horsetooth Rock in the background; Horsetooth Mountain Park, CO; April 15, 2014

All change is a miracle to contemplate.

"All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant."

Henry David Thoreau

On Saturday, I took the first shot.  Today (Monday), I took the second.

Photos: Pasqueflower and The Twin Owls, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 12 and 14, 2014

In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven.

 

"In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Yellow Violets; Greyrock Trail, Roosevelt National Forest; April 10, 2014

Give me the old familiar walk, with this ever new self.

 

"Give me the old familiar walk, with this ever new self, with this infinite expectation and faith, which does not know when it is beaten."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Wax Currant flowers and snow, Lory State Park, CO; April 13, 2014

The Artwork of Pasqueflowers Encased in Ice and Snow

 

Yesterday, the highs were in the 60s and the pasqueflower blooms were wide open.  Today it is storming, and the flowers are encased in ice and snow.  Tomorrow everything is supposed to melt. I'm amazed at the persistence of these plants; if the ice freezes the currently-blooming flowers, the plant will simply send up new blooms from the roots, using the freshly-melted ice and snow to nourish the new growth.  How amazing!

Photo: Pasqueflower encased in ice and snow; Lory State Park, CO; April 13, 2014

God's holy light makes all divine.

 

"God's holy light makes all divine."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Pasqueflowers, with the Twin Owls in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 12, 2014

There is no real certainty until you burn!

 

"Don't abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn; if you wish for this, sit down in the fire."

Jalaluddin Rumi  

Photo: Pasqueflowers growing in the Hewlett Burn; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014 

Reading the book of creation.

 

"It may be a bad symptom, but I will confess that I take more delight from reading the power and goodness of God from 'the things that are made' than from the Bible."

The Contemplative John Muir

Photo: Pasqueflowers and Greyrock on a stormy day; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 10, 2014

The forms and individual characters of things constitute their holiness in the sight of God.

 

"The forms and individual characters of living and growing things, of inanimate beings, constitute their holiness in the sight of God."

Thomas Merton  

Photo: Two different colors of Pasqueflowers; Hewlett Gulch, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014

The greater the fire, the greater the light to arise from it . . .

"The greater the fire, the greater the light to arise from it, for the fire of God is a cause of the light.  But in the love the fire dies and transmutes itself into the kingdom of joy."

Jacob Boehme,
16 the century German mystic

Photo: Pasqueflowers and burned woods at sunset; High Park Burn, Greyrock Trail, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 10, 2014

To reveal your gold essence, you need to burn in the fire of love.

 

"The time has come to turn your heart
into a temple of fire.
Your essence is gold hidden in dust.
To reveal its splendour
you need to burn in the fire of love."

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Pasqueflowers, Hewlett Burn, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014

I burn away; laugh, my ashes are alive!

I burn away; laugh, my ashes are alive!
I die a thousand times:
My ashes dance back-
A thousand new faces

Jelaluddin Rumi

Photo: Pasqueflowers blooming at a burn site; Hewlett Burn; Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8,2014

Trust the Inner Scripture of the Heart!

"I wish that you were not so addicted to the letter of Scripture, thus withdrawing your heart from the teaching of the Spirit . . . You should much rather interpret the Scripture as a confirmation of your conscience, so that it testifies to the heart and not against it.  Again, you should not believe and accept something (merely) reported by Scripture – and feel that the God in your heart must yield to Scripture . . . Saint Paul speaks not in vain (2 Cor. 3:6) that the letter killeth.  And yet it is (precisely visible letters) which almost all and especially the learned divines consider to be the sole, pre-eminent word of God – supposing God’s word really could be written – and the sole teacher . . . I . . . hold completely that the intention of the Lord does not reside precisely in the rind of Scripture. We ought always in all matters to notice what God says in us, to pay attention to the witness of our hearts, and never to think, or act, against our conscience. For everything does not hang upon the bare letter of Scripture; everything hangs, rather, on the spirit of Scripture and on a spiritual understanding of the inner meaning of what God has said. 

If we weigh every matter carefully we shall find its true meaning in the depth of our spiritual understanding and by the mind of Christ.  Otherwise, the dead letter of Scripture would make us all heretics and fools, for EVERYTHING can be bedecked and defended with texts; therefore let nobody confound himself and confuse himself with Scripture, but let every one weigh and test Scripture to see how it fits his own heart.  If it is against his conscience and the Word within his own soul, then be sure he has not reached the right meaning, according to the mind of the Spirit, for the Scriptures must give witness to the Spirit, never against it.

 "[T]he letter . . . of Scripture cannot be the testing stone and the final scales for discerning the spirits . . . Thus, because the letter of Scripture is cloven and divided in itself, all sects arise from it.  One pricks the dead letter here, another pricks it there.  This one understands it as it is written here, the other, as it is written there. Only a free, non-sectarian, party-less Christianity which is not bound by any of these things, but stands freely on God’s word, in the Spirit, . . . is of God . . . I do not think much of any splinter group or sect.  Everyone without question can be pious by himself, wherever he is."

Sebastian Franck,
16 century Protestant mystic

Photo: Pasqueflowers appear to be lit from within as they sprout from a burned area; Hewlett Burn, Poudre Canyon, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014

I am a member of the Invisible Church

This week in our Contemplative Christianity course we're studying Protestant Mysticism. We are giving special attention to the "Contemplative Spirituals" of the 16th century who were part of the Anabaptist movement. This is my spiritual tradition, and I really value its best aspects. One of the most inspired theologians in this movement was Sebastian Franck, who viewed himself as part of an "Invisible Church." According to Franck:

"A [new] faith is well on the way to birth, which will dispense with external preaching, ceremonies, sacraments, ban [excommunication] and office as unnecessary, and which seeks solely to gather among all peoples an invisible, spiritual Church in the unity of the Spirit and of faith, to be governed wholly by the eternal, invisible Word of God, without external means.

"Only a free, non-sectarian, party-less Christianity which . . . stands freely on God’s word, in the Spirit . . . is of God. . . . Everyone without question can be pious by himself, wherever he is, yet no one should run hither and yon to look for, start or seek a special sect . . .

"The true Church is not a separate mass of people, not a particular sect to be pointed out with the finger, not confined to one time or one place; it is rather a spiritual and invisible body of all the members of Christ, born of God, of one mind, spirit, and faith, but not gathered in any one external city or place. It is a Fellowship, seen with the spiritual eye and by the inner man. It is the assembly and communion of all truly God-fearing, good-hearted, new-born persons in all the world, bound together by the Holy Spirit in the peace of God and the bonds of love . . . I belong to this Fellowship. I believe in the Communion of saints, and I am in this Church, let me be where I may; and therefore I no longer look for Christ in ‘lo heres or lo theres.’ [outward events]."

Photo: The sun peeks out from behind a cloud next to Hallett Peak; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 7, 2014

 

All will be well!

 

"Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well."

Mother Julian of Norwich,
14th century English mystic

Photo: Pasqueflowers sprouting from barren ground; Gem Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 5, 2014

There are few who are willing to belong completely to the silence . . .

"There are few who are willing to belong completely to the silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, to feed on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence."

Thomas Merton  

Photo: Engelmann Spruce and rock spires above Emerald Lake; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 7, 2014

The deeper layers of the psyche lose their individual uniqueness until they are universalized.

 

"The deeper 'layers' of the psyche lose their individual uniqueness as they retreat farther and farther into darkness. 'Lower down,' . . . they become increasingly collective until they are universalized . . . Hence 'at bottom' the psyche is simply 'world' "

Carl Jung

Photo: Ice coating terraced rock layers; Gem Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 5, 2014

Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout.

 

"Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout."

Morihei Ueshiba,
founder of the Japanese martial art of aikido

Photo: Pasqueflower sprouting on its first day of life; Gem Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; April 5, 2014

The virtuous soul is clearer than mountain air because of its transcendence.

 

"The radiance of the soul clothed in heaven's loveliness, graced with the jewels of consummate virtue, is clearer than mountain air because of its transcendence, more brilliant than the sun."

St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
12th century Cistercian monk  

Photo: Mt. Ypsilon on a windy day, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; March 24, 2014

Godliness is Openness

 

"I come from the One who is Openness . . . When disciples are open, they are filled with light. When they are divided, they are filled with darkness."

Jesus,
The Gospel of Thomas

Photo: Glowing Pasqueflower, Hewlett Gulch, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 1, 2014

To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.

 

"To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light."

Carl Jung 

Photo: Engelmann Spruce and shadow on The Loch; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; March 24, 2014

If you have the power of wonder, you are forever young.

 

"If you lose the power of wonder, you grow old, no matter how old you are. If you have the power of wonder, you are forever young -- the whole world is pristine and new and exciting."

Sigurd F. Olson

Photo: Ladybug and Pasqueflowers, Hewlett Gulch, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 1, 2014

We are God's bliss, because he endlessly delights in us.

"We are God's bliss, because he endlessly delights in us."

Julian of Norwich,
14th century Christian contemplative

Photo: Daffodils, with the Flatirons in the background; Boulder, CO; April 2, 2014