All True Wisdom is Actually a Waking Dream !

"My father often talked to me in a low voice.  This is how our people always talk to their children; so low and quiet, the child thinks he is dreaming.  But he never forgets."

Maria Chona, Papago Tribe

Photo: An early morning dreamscape at Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5, 2011

The Mountain and I Never Tire of Each Other

"We settle down together, never tiring of each other.  Only the two of us, the mountain and I."

Li Po, 8th century Taoist poet

Photo: Western Yellow Paintbrush and Elephanthead, Snowy Range, WY, August 27, 2011

Our Shortcomings are Primarily Perceptual, Not Moral

 

I like to imagine that all of the suffering in the world caused by humanity could be solved if we were able to see things - really see them - from the perspective of another: another individual,  personality type, gender, economic class,  culture, race, or species. And what if this "other" included ourselves - and the planet - in another century or two? Imagine what would happen if we could actually become the other - even for just an hour - and then return once again to ourselves with that transformed awareness?  And every time we forgot that insight, what if the vision would return to us once again - full-force?  Would we ever again be capable of hurting another - or the earth? Envision how such enlightenment would empower us to work for justice and peace in the world!  It seems to me that the root of our problems is not primarily a moral shortcoming, but a perceptual one.  When it comes to this sort of enlightenment, we are all like infants. It should, I believe, be the goal of all true spirituality to work for this kind of perceptual shift.

Photo: Sunset at Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, October 28, 2011

Every Object Unlocks a New Sense Organ

 

"Every object rightly seen unlocks a new faculty of the soul."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo: Yellow Monkeyflower at West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 4, 2011

Every Creature is Moses' Sacred Burning Bush!

 

"How full of God is this hollow! . . . Spiritual fires burning in every tree, in every bush, in every stone.  At such times, every bush is a burning bush – not consumed, but growing bigger."

John Muir

Photo: Red-hued Three-leafed Sumac and yellow Fremont Cottonwood bask in morning light, Lory State Park, CO,  October 25, 2011.  Eighteen hours after this shot was taken, the whole landscape was covered in a foot of snow!

Self-Esteem is Rooted in Our Love for Other Creatures

 

"I know of no redeeming qualities in me but a sincere love for some things, and when I am reproved I have to fall back on to this ground.  This is my argument in reserve for all cases.  My love is invulnerable.  Meet me on that ground, and you will find me strong.  When I am condemned, and condemn myself utterly, I think straightway, 'But I rely on my love for some things.'  Therein I am whole and entire.  Therein I am God-propped."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Wild plum leaves with snow-dressed ponderosa pines, Lory State Park, CO, October 26, 2011

Belonging Completely to Silence

 

"Vocation to Solitude - To deliver oneself up, to hand oneself over, entrust oneself completely to the silence of a wide landscape of woods and hills . . . This is a true and special vocation.  There are few who are willing to belong completely to such silence, to let it soak into their bones, to breathe nothing but silence, to feed on silence, and to turn the very substance of their life into a living and vigilant silence."

Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk

Photo: Three "Snow Monks," (Ponderosa Pines), Lory State Park, CO, October 26, 2011

The Human Mind is Meant to Be a "Temple Open to the Sky"

 

"Not without a slight shudder at the danger, I often perceive how near I come to admitting into my mind the details of some trivial affair, - the news of the street; and I am astonished to observe how willing people are to lumber their minds with such rubbish, - to permit idle rumors and incidents of the most insignificant kind to intrude on ground which should be sacred to thought.  Shall the mind be a public arena, where the affairs of the street and the gossip of the tea-table chiefly are discussed?  Or shall it be a quarter of heaven itself, - a temple open to the sky, consecrated to the service of the gods?  I find it so difficult to process the few facts which to me are significant, that I hesitate to burden my attention with those which are insignificant . . . Such is, for the most part, the news in newspapers and conversation.  It is important to preserve the mind's chastity in this respect.  Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their holy-of-holies for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very bar-room of the mind's inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us, - the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts' shrine!  Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide? . . . We should exclude such trespassers from the only holy ground which can be sacred to us.  It is so hard to forget what it is worse than useless to remember!  If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain-brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town-sewers . . . If we have thus desecrated ourselves, - and who has not? - the remedy will be wariness and devotion to reconsecrate ourselves, and make once more a temple of the mind.  We should treat our minds, that is, ourselves, as innocent and naive children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention.  Read not the Times.  Read the Eternities . . . Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.  Yes, every thought that passes through the mind helps to wear and tear it, and to deepen the ruts . . ."

Henry David Thoreau, "Life Without Principle"

Photo: This pond is located in the midst of an old burn in the Snowy Range, WY, August 26, 2011.  I see the pond as symbolizing what Thoreau calls the "temple open to the sky" - the "hypaethral temple," he calls it.  The dead snags represent the devastation that happens to us when we feed our minds only with "the affairs of the street" instead of with true spiritual nourishment.

Excessive Socializing Prevents Us from Hearing from Ourselves

 

"Just so hollow and ineffectual, for the most part, is our ordinary conversation.  Surface meets surface.  When our life ceases to be inward and private, conversation degenerates into mere gossip.  We rarely meet a person who can tell us any news which he has not read in a newspaper . . . In proportion as our inward life fails,  we go more constantly and desperately to the post-office.  You may depend on it, that the poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself in a long while. I do not know but it is too much [even] to read one newspaper a week.  I have tried it recently, and during the time that I did, it seems to me that I did not dwell in my native region.  The sun, the clouds, the snow, the trees do not try to say so much to me."

Henry David Thoreau

If Thoreau lived in our era, he would be talking about text messages, email and Facebook instead of letters.

Photo: Two crows cawing at one another, Lory State Park, June 2, 2011

Nature Frees Us From the Constriction Caused by Human Institutions

"I love Nature partly because she is not man, but a retreat from him.  None of his institutions control or pervade her . . . In her midst I can be glad with an entire gladness.  If this world were all man, I could not stretch myself; I should lose all hope.  He is constraint, she is freedom to me.  He makes me wish for another world.  She makes me content with this.  None of the joys she supplies is subject to his rules and definitions."

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Long's Peak and changing aspen, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, October 10, 2011

Silence is God's Voice

 

"If you ask us, 'What is silence?' we will answer, 'It is the Great Mystery.  The holy silence is God's voice.'  If you ask, 'What are the fruits of silence?' we will answer, 'They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence.  Silence is the cornerstone of character.' "

Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman); Elder, Dakota Nation

Photo: The Never Summer Mountains at sunset, near Gould, CO, October 21, 2011

Man's Heart Away from Nature Becomes Hard

 

"The old Lakota was wise.  He knew that man's heart away from Nature becomes hard."

Luther Standing Bear

Photo:  View from Ohio Pass, near Crested Butte, CO, October 2, 2011

God Feeds the Mountains with Alpenglow Light

"God tends his mountains and feeds them with light, feeds them like a flock.  Strange we regard them as dead."

John Muir

Photo: Alpenglow on the Nokhu Crags, Never Summer Range, CO, October 21, 2011 

Follow Your Bliss!

 

"My general formula for my students is 'Follow your bliss.'  Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it.  The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you are really happy - not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy!  This requires a little bit of self-analysis.  What is it that makes you happy?  Stay with it, no matter what people tell you.  This is what I call 'following your bliss.'  The adventure is its own reward.  When you follow your bliss, doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else."

Joseph Campbell

Photo: Vibrant autumn aspen trees near Kebler Pass, CO, October 1, 2011

Perhaps Our Society Has Never Really Learned to Love

 

"My white brother does many things well for he is more clever than my people, but I wonder if he knows how to love well.  I wonder if he has ever really learned to love at all.  Perhaps he only loves the things that are his own but never learned to love the things that are outside and beyond him.  And this is, of course, not love at all, for man must love all creation or he will love none of it."

Chief Dan George, Coast Salish Elder

Photo: Sunset suffuses the aspen trees with love-light, Rawah Range, near Gould, CO, September 26, 2011