Welcome! I am a contemplative thinker and photographer from Colorado. In this blog, you'll discover photographs that I've taken on my hiking and backpacking trips, mostly in the American West. I've paired these with my favorite inspirational and philosophical quotes - literary passages that emphasize the innate spirituality of the natural world. I hope you enjoy them!

If you'd like to purchase photo-quote greeting cards, please go to www.NaturePhoto-QuoteCards.com .


In the Spirit of Wildness,

Stephen Hatch
Fort Collins, Colorado

P.S. There's a label index at the bottom of the blog.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Nondual awareness lies BETWEEN the states of changelessness on the one hand, and growth-and-process on the other.


Eastern mysticism focuses on the stable, unchanging aspect of the Divine Life: the vast expanse of awareness that underlies and undergirds all things. It therefore tends to view change as illusory. On the other hand, Western Mysticism generally focuses on the growth-and-process aspect of the Divine Life which flows toward ever higher - or deeper - states of consciousness. Western culture tends therefore to drift away from an awareness of the underlying changelessness, a state that is accessed - par excellence - through sitting meditation. For me, BOTH of these understandings are necessary to give a complete picture of spiritual Reality. Accordingly, nondual awareness does not involve either of these states collapsing into the other, but resides instead in the place IN BETWEEN the two. In my view, THAT is the highest state of consciousness :)



Photos: (Top) Wild Rose and cascades on the North St. Vrain River; (Middle) Yellow Pondlily growing on a pond near Ouzel Lake (July 13, 2015); (Bottom) Snow Buttercups arising out of a snowbank filled with watermelon snow. The first two photos are from Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. The third was taken in Grand Teton National Park, WY on July 5, 2015



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