Allowing the Divine in Nature to Affirm our Innermost Soul

 

In the redrock canyon country of the American Southwest, a fascinating phenomenon occurs involving sunlight and the two canyon walls facing one another. When the rays of the sun shine directly on one of the walls, the color becomes rather washed-out, a fact that is well-known to anyone trying to photograph the scene. However - and here is the important point - when the light bounces from that wall and reflects off the OPPOSITE cliff, it begins to glow in the most beautiful shades of red or gold.

This past weekend while hiking at Zion, it occurred to me that this phenomenon is a direct embodiment of an important spiritual principle.  Whenever we focus our attention on an externally-perceived object of beauty - present either in the natural or human world - the light of our adoration immediately is reflected back to us and begins to manifest OUR OWN inner beauty;  that is, of our "soul."  In other words, the perception of external beauty makes us feel beautiful WITHIN.  Here, the external object of beauty corresponds to the sunlit canyon wall, and our own inner soul corresponds to the opposite canyon wall indirectly reflecting the light so beautifully. This phenomenon occurs, I believe, because there is a subjectivity inhabiting the externally-perceived beauty (in this case, the canyon rock) that EMPTIES ITSELF in love and ricochets our compliment right back to us.  Here, the more we attempt to praise the beauty of Nature, the more OUR OWN inner beauty begins to glow, in the process activating the power of our imagination and our own divine radiance.

Perhaps this is one way to interpret 13th century Zen master Dogen's famous statement: "That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion.  That the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is enlightenment."  Or, as the medieval Cistercian monk William of St. Thierry once put it: "What you can grasp gives you knowledge.  What grasps you makes you wise."  In the case of the redrock canyon, we begin by trying to grasp the beauty of the rock as though it were some sort of object, and instead end up BEING-GRASPED and affirmed by the divine presence inhabiting that beautiful red or golden hue.  As a consequence, we find ourselves suddenly coming alive to our own natural radiance, and to the inward power of imagination that enables us, for example,  to discover a sacred feminine presence inhabiting the rock and wooing us with her immense beauty.  How amazing!

Photos: (Top)  Joanne hiking in Echo Canyon; (Middle) The trail to Observation Point; (Bottom) The Narrows of the Virgin River; all three photos taken in Zion National Park, UT; August 30 and 31, 2014