Wilderness Insight Meditation

In Wilderness Insight Meditation, we let go of every thought, emotion and perception in order to melt into and identify ourselves with the vastness of divine awareness. As many spiritual teachers both East and West have realized, this awareness can be envisioned as a wide-open sky. As non-conceptual and image-free, we might say that it appears like a nighttime or storm-blackened sky - or as a dark, unlit backdrop of mountains. However, as crisp and sharply aware, it seems alternately like a daytime autumn or early-winter sky.

In any case, experience has taught me that this emptiness - even though it is brim-full with the vastness of Divine Love - is never meant to be considered as an end in itself. Detachment from the particularities of life as expressed in thoughts, feelings and perceptions is simply a stepping-stone into a magical world in which open awareness - filled with the blissful, self-emptied presence of the Beloved - gradually manifests itself as the humble BACKDROP out of which those same thoughts, emotions and perceptions can then arise and shine in all of their magnificent glory! Thus, detachment and union with open, empty awareness become the vehicle for watching IN UTTER AMAZEMENT as all of the particularities of life arise and shine - highlighted by divine love - as though out of NOWHERE!

Photos: (Top) Ruddy Alpine Avens leaves, with Long's Peak in the background; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, September 11, 2015; (Middle and Bottom) Aspen trees against a backdrop of an overcast sky or storm-darkened mountains, September 14, 2015

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I am available for spiritual direction / mentoring sessions via cell phone or Skype. The fee for each hour-long session is $65. If you are interested in inquiring about this, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .