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.

Friday, September 11, 2015

The Tibetan Sky-Gazing Practice Helps Us Remain Inwardly Spacious in Mind and Heart


Making a regular practice of gazing on far horizons is a major component in my own spiritual journey. Because external Nature-based and internal mind-based realities seem to mirror each other so seamlessly, this practice helps me stay in touch with the inner spaciousness of pure and loving awareness. It is no wonder, then, that both the Indigenous Bon and Buddhist Dzogchen traditions of Tibet maintain a formal spiritual practice called "Sky Gazing." Hence, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche can say: 

"It can be said that when we experience the fruition of the sky gazing practice we are seeing primordial awareness itself through our physical eyes, experiencing and realizing it while the moving-mind awareness is continuously and undistractedly present through the eye-sense consciousness. In this way we develop the trekcho contemplation practice of remaining in union with space."

Today, may each of us find a bit of sky to help us remain inwardly spacious and free!

Photo: Stephen gazing out across the wide-open expanses of Jackson Lake, with the Tetons looming in the distance; Grand Teton National Park, WY, September 7, 2015

No comments:

Post a Comment