Oftentimes, winter hiking involves dealing with lots of cold and wind. Yesterday's hike in Rocky Mountain National Park was no exception. However, I love to focus on the beauty of simple things that other winter hikers often bypass in their quest to stay warm by moving continually onward. In this case, I found the snow patterns formed by the strong and frigid wind to be intoxicatingly beautiful. I couldn't stop admiring and taking pictures of the various patterns formed by wind in the snow. How amazing they are!
Many of the mystics throughout the history of Christian spirituality
have held that there are actually TWO Christian scriptures: the Bible
and the Natural World. However, some people find little solace in Nature
because of all of the violence, competition, sickness and death that
appear so consistently on the surface of natural processes.
Spirituality teaches us to take all things in life and look THROUGH them to the underlying divinity contained there. Accordingly, the "scriptural" aspect of Nature manifests itself when we look UNDER THE SURFACE at the deeper meaning contained within the natural world. After all, that is precisely what we do with biblical passages, many of which can seem distasteful if we remain solely on the surface of the text. It is also true of the people we know (including ourselves) whose surface traits can often seem difficult to deal with unless we learn to look instead into the CORE of their being.
It is for this reason that mystical spirituality is panentheistic rather than pantheistic. Accordingly, it finds the Divine WITHIN all things rather than AS all things, at least as they appear on the surface. This means that underneath the suffering, death and competition of Nature lies a hidden peace, love and harmony, just as wisdom can be found underneath the literalistic meaning of scripture, and as nobility lies like a sweet fruit hidden within the rind of human faults and foibles. As Allah says in the Quran: "I was a HIDDEN treasure, and I longed to be known, so I created the world." This verse, I'm convinced, is a supreme expression of the very core of the spiritual life: to seek continually for the HIDDEN wisdom lying within all things.
May all of us find the grace this day to look under and within the surface of life's challenges in order to find the Divine Beauty lying hidden there.
Photo: Snow patterns, with Long's Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 27, 2014
Spirituality teaches us to take all things in life and look THROUGH them to the underlying divinity contained there. Accordingly, the "scriptural" aspect of Nature manifests itself when we look UNDER THE SURFACE at the deeper meaning contained within the natural world. After all, that is precisely what we do with biblical passages, many of which can seem distasteful if we remain solely on the surface of the text. It is also true of the people we know (including ourselves) whose surface traits can often seem difficult to deal with unless we learn to look instead into the CORE of their being.
It is for this reason that mystical spirituality is panentheistic rather than pantheistic. Accordingly, it finds the Divine WITHIN all things rather than AS all things, at least as they appear on the surface. This means that underneath the suffering, death and competition of Nature lies a hidden peace, love and harmony, just as wisdom can be found underneath the literalistic meaning of scripture, and as nobility lies like a sweet fruit hidden within the rind of human faults and foibles. As Allah says in the Quran: "I was a HIDDEN treasure, and I longed to be known, so I created the world." This verse, I'm convinced, is a supreme expression of the very core of the spiritual life: to seek continually for the HIDDEN wisdom lying within all things.
May all of us find the grace this day to look under and within the surface of life's challenges in order to find the Divine Beauty lying hidden there.
Photo: Snow patterns, with Long's Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 27, 2014
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