The essence of a healthy person is that there is a unity, an integration of all the layers.

"The essence of a healthy person is that there is a unity, an integration of all the layers; he or she does not live merely in one level. By integrating all layers we become truly ourselves, which means, we can discover the other, the world."

Fritz Perls
Father of Gestalt Psychology

Photo: Sunset at Bryce Canyon National Park, UT; August 31, 2012

We live in an ascending scale when we live happily.

"We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series."

Robert Louis Stevenson

Photo: Wild Geranium and Quaking Aspen, Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

"Look at the glory! Look at the glory!"

"Look at the glory!  Look at the glory!"

The Contemplative John Muir, p. 198

Photo: Alpenglow radiates from Clark Peak, Medicine Bow Range, CO; September 14, 2012

Forms are the magical shimmering - in rainbow colors - of God's spacious awareness.

One of the chief insights of Tibetan Buddhism is the realization that even through spacious, transparent, sky-like awareness - "emptiness," "shunyata" - is the fundamental reality of the cosmos, that spaciousness magically begins to shimmer as form.  Here, each form that we encounter in life is like a different color of the rainbow appearing and shimmering in the midst of spacious awareness.  Unlike a physical rainbow, however, there is no "Sun" to produce the light.  How, we might ask, can rainbow colors appear within empty space without any sun?  That, of course, is the great mystery and magic of life.

A theistic perspective can add intrigue and personality to this kind of vision.  For it says that there is indeed a Sun - God, the Great Beyond - whose boundless Love is the source of the rainbow colors shimmering as form.  But because of God's self-emptying bliss, the manifestation of that Sun - surprise! - has disappeared for all eternity.  And yet - and here is the intrigue of it all - the rainbow colors of divine love manifesting themselves as innumerable forms somehow appear ANYWAY!

Photo: Bryce Canyon National Park, UT; August 31, 2012

A lake is earth's eye, looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature.  It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Cub Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 9, 2012

Politics Can't Compare to God's Natural Beauty

“" 'Republicans and Democrats' – what names to write after considering the lilies!"

John Muir, 1890

Photo: Avalanche Lilies, Mount Rainier National Park, WA, August 5, 2011. The reference here is to Jesus’ statement about “considering the lilies” in Matthew 6:28.

When you plant a seed, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the seed.

"When you plant a seed, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the seed. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the seed.Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the seed. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese Zen master

Photo:  Limber Pine Cone, Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012.  I have altered this quote slightly; Nhat Hanh speaks of lettuce seeds.

God is more a humble "Ground of Being" or "Sky" than a "thing" who needs defending.

In today's world, we endure frequent headlines about innocent people killed by those who believe they are defending the honor of God, or the honor of God's messengers. Of course, this sort of thing has been going on for centuries in a variety of different religions.  I think all of us would agree that the amount of blood historically spilled over religion is horrific and almost unbelievable.  It certainly would seem to justify the atheist's belief that religion represents humanity at its worst.

These kinds of attacks are based upon the mistaken notion that God is a definable thing - an anthropomorphized person, perhaps - that is vulnerable to human insults and whose honor needs to be defended.  However, the contemplative traditions of all of the world's major religions teach us otherwise.  The practice of meditation helps us see that God is more like an indescribable Ground of Being out of which all creatures miraculously emerge at every millisecond.  Or like an  infinite "Sky" out of which the "clouds" of phenomena are magically given birth.  Rather than existing as some sort of thing who needs defending, this God is more a "No-Thing" - a personal PRESENCE rather than a definable person - who gives himself or herself to be the humble "ground" or "space' out of which all things spontaneously emerge.

Rather than being a reality that can be FOUND in a tangible way, this is a Love that LOSES  itself eternally in blissful abandon in order to become the ground out of which all things mysteriously arise.  Here, God is like a Word of Love that never had a chance to be spoken on account of the bliss of divine ecstasy, yet which somehow results in the echoes of individual creatures arising on Earth as though out of nowhere!  Or like a series of mirror-images appearing in a sky-mirror, yet with no Original ever to be found!  Such is the mysterious and humble self-emptying of God.

This kind of God is so humble, that he (to use the traditional term) wants more than anything for us to focus  on the amazing creatures who emerge out of his humble, nameless ground, rather than on the ground itself.  Instead of asking for our defense, the humility of this God asks that we defend ALL OF THE CREATURES who emerge from It, regardless of their religion, culture, gender or status in society.  The question is this: are we human beings - as mediators of this humble God - "up to" such a task? May we all wake up to the grandeur of such a humble, self-emptying vision, and may religion become more a beautiful thing in this world than a terrible scourge.

Photo: Mountain Gentian and Medicine Bow Peak, Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012

The Fruit of the Spirit

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."

Galatians 5:22

Photo:  Red Elderberry, Crater Lake and Lone Eagle Peak, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012

Nature is wont to hide herself.

"Nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't affair . . . They say of nature that it conceals with a grand non-chalance, and they say of vision that it is a deliberate gift, the revelation of a dancer who for my eyes only flings away her seven veils.  For nature does reveal as well as conceal: now-you-don't-see-it, now-you-do . . . 'Nature,' said Heraclitus, 'is wont to hide herself.' . . . Nature flashes the old mighty glance - the come-hither look - drops the handkerchief, turns tail, and is gone.  The nature I know is old touch-and-go."

Annie Dillard

Photo:  A block of quartzite reveals just a corner of itself in the early morning sunlight; Snowy Range, WY; August 19, 2012

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while.

"It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while."

Helen Keller

Photo: Fire-roasted Douglas-fir cone; High Park Fire, Poudre Canyon, CO; September 7, 2012

The most energizing part of our lives is found in the overlap between the things we generally consider opposites.

The most energizing part of our lives is found in the overlap between the things we generally consider opposites: between spirituality and earthiness, pride and humility, attachment and detachment, fear and courage, lust and self-giving, feminine and masculine.  Oh, and let's not forget conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat, Christian and Muslim, Anglo and Hispanic, and a multitude of other seeming opposites.  Electricity only flows between opposite poles.  It's the same with everything else in life.

Photo: Changing aspen leaves, near Pingree Park, CO; September 10, 2012

In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock.

"In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock."

Edward Abbey

Photo: Cedar Breaks Amphitheather with Brianhead overlooking all; Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT; September 1, 2012

When we dam up the habitual dependence on luxuries, our waters gather to a head and produce insight.

"I must have done with luxuries and devote myself to my muse.  So I dam up my stream, and my waters gather to a head.  I am freighted with thought."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Water Lily-Pads on Cub Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO; September 9, 2012.  I waded out into the lake to get this shot.  The moss on the bottom was about  six inches deep - quite soothing on tired feet.

In the mountains, all of life and society get illuminated and transparent.

"Mountains are great poets, and one glance at this fine cliff . . . reinstates us wronged humans in our rights.  All life, all society begins to get illuminated and transparent . . . Space is felt as a great thing."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: Bog Birch leaves are illuminated by evening sunlight at Emmaline Lake, Comanche Peak Wilderness, CO; September 10, 2012