Three Ways of Knowing the Ultimate

Wilderness Mysticism holds that, with regard to images, there are three ways of knowing the Ultimate. The first way is the kataphatic path. Kataphasis is a Greek word meaning "with image." The second is the apophatic way, meaning "without image." In most Christian mystical schemes, these are the classical - and only - ways. Matthew Fox calls them the "via positiva" and the "via negativa." However, there is also a little-known third way, which I've termed the "supereminent" way. This partially corresponds to the "via creativa" of Matthew Fox. It is a middle way between the other two, one that is both poetic and paradoxical in style.

For example, in the kataphatic way, we might say that the Divine Source "speaks"; that is, communicates an eternal "love-word" to the world, revealed through verbal expressions and images. This is the sort of thing we feel when we have an epiphany or revelation. However, the apophatic way then comes along and says: "Wait a minute; the Divine is a mystery beyond words and images, best accessed through silence. Therefore, we need to realize that ALL words and images are mere approximations created by human language and perception. In actuality, therefore, the Divine does not 'speak.' ! " Here, the Source is more like the vast and empty night sky out of which all words, images and revelations (the "stars") may or may not appear and then die.

Finally, however, the supereminent path comes along with a playful, mythical, trickster-like image which combines and explodes the other two ways. "All revelation and verbal-imagistic expressions are like ECHOES," it says. "Echoes, that is, of a Divine love-word which never had a chance to be spoken because the 'Speaker' - the beloved Beyond - lost 'Himself' in ecstatic bliss and emptied Himself out into the vast spaces of mind and heart! Nevertheless, echoes of that never-spoken word somehow manage - surprise!!! - to resound throughout the vast apophatic night-sky of the cosmos!"

Thus, Wilderness Mysticism uses images, but in a mythical, paradoxical, playful way that leaves us scratching our heads, and forever FILLED with awe and wonder!

Photos: (Top) Ruby-red leaves of Queen's Crown / Rose Crown and a pond; (Middle) Seedheads of Alpine Dryad, backlit in late-day sun. These two photos were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, on September 11, 2015; (Bottom) Changing Aspen trees, Rawah Range, CO, 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 .

The landscape expresses itself through our sacred words.

"The spirit of my native landscape embraces me and permeates my experience of the land and is a constant voice within me that yearns for human speech."

Jeannette Armstrong
Okanagan Nation

"And while stars and waves have something to say, it's through my mouth they'll say it."

Vicente Huidobro
Chilean poet

Photos: (Top) Hot Springs pool at Norris Geyser Basin; (Middle) Sagebrush smudgestick and Geyser cone, Firehole Lake Drive; (Bottom) Bull Elk and Yellowstone Lake at sunrise; All three photos were taken at Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5-7, 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 .

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

Albert Camus 

Photos: Changing Aspen leaves, Rawah Range, Colorado State Forest State Park, CO, 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 .

Myth is an important way of perceiving Ultimate Reality.

"I don't think humans write and rewrite myth, it's an interactive process. Perhaps humans are being rewritten by myth. The dynamic relationship is everywhere."

Joy Harjo
Muscogee Nation

Yellowstone is an absolutely magical, mythical landscape, and when I hiked and camped there this past Labor Day Weekend, I could not help but contemplate the importance a Native American worldview has had on my spiritual journey. One of the things I appreciate about living in the wide-open spaces of the American West is the fact that this landscape STILL contains the magic of the myths and stories of the people who lived - and still live - here before Euro-Americans arrived. For me here in Northern Colorado, it is primarily the Arapaho and Ute peoples whose influence I feel on my psyche in innumerable ways.
Indigenous peoples understand that the paradoxical, poetic language of story contained in myth is the best way to get at the Ultimate Reality in which we are all so intimately embedded. And this myth, they realize, both arises from the landscape - the place from which their languages also have arisen - AND remains in the landscape long after the original storytellers have passed on. It is this respect for the power of myth which prevents me from adopting wholesale the position of some mystical traditions that view language as bankrupt in describing the Ultimate. For I understand that word, image and language - when used poetically, mythically and paradoxically - serve as a sort of "microscope" or "telescope," enabling us to see through to the Ultimate Mystery present both beyond and within them. Even though I may not know most of the Arapaho or Ute stories that were told about the place where I live, I can daily sense - and am profoundly affected by - the indigenous mythical milieu in which I live, breathe and have my being.

Photos: Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5-7, 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 .

Our words are coming from the land . . .

"Language was given to us by the land we live within. Through my language I understand I am being spoken to, I'm not the one speaking. The words are coming from the land."

Jeanett Armstrong
Okanagan Tribe

Photos: Elk and hot springs at sunrise in the West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5, 2015

Fundamentalism is a potential danger for EVERY path!

Here's another passage I underlined during my Wyoming retreat last weekend:

"Nowadays, we thought that if we stopped believing in God we would be free from belief. But instead we believe in everything! Conspiracy theories, medical treatments, fundamentalism from anywhere except Christianity, power in stars, crystals, apparitions, and dogmatism seem to be everywhere."

Richard Rohr

Yes, I've become acutely aware that fundamentalism - the attitude of "my view (with the 'my' or 'I' usually dropped for convenience) is the correct, unfiltered view - is absolutely everywhere. Yet in our own culture, Christian (and perhaps Islamic) fundamentalism has become the "whipping-boy" or scapegoat, enabling all of the other more fashionable forms of fundamentalism to go unrecognized!

Photos: (Top) Mount Moran and Aspen trees; (Middle) Showy Goldeneye and The Cathedral Group; (Bottom) Reddish grasses, Sagebrush, and the Tetons; All four photos were taken in Grand Teton National Park, WY, September 4 and 7, 2015

The false self is skilled at hiding behind the mask of spirituality . . .

"There is no more clever way for the false self to hide itself than behind the mask of spirituality . . . This ego-mask takes a new form in every age. It is easy and even trendy to bash public religious roles, but it is very hard to critique the current movements of 'spirituality': specialized forms of prayer, new up-to-date postures and teachers, and especially any form of meditation or contemplation. They can all be used by the unstable ego to give itself identity, self-image, definition, and power . . . With the Western isolated self in a state of insecurity today, we are flailing about, searching for any solid identity. 'Why not see myself as an enlightened person? Why not read the appropriate authors and attend the appropriate workshops? Why not try on the 'spiritual' persona'? We can thus concoct a quick 'salvation,' without ever really growing up or 'dying' to our false selves at all. A spiritual self-image gives us status, stability, and security. There is no better way to remain unconscious than to baptize and bless mere form instead of surrendering to the deeper substance. I know this because I have done it myself. Spiritual seeking, when it is done by the false self, might be the biggest problem of all. In the name of seeking God, the ego just pads and protects itself, which is almost perfect cover for its inherent narcissism . . ."

Richard Rohr

Photo: Unidentified wildflower and The Cathedral Group, Grand Teton National Park, WY, September 7, 2015

Myth is something SO true that it can't be expressed in any other way.

Here's another passage from Richard Rohr's book "What the Mystics Know" that I read at the campground during my Yellowstone retreat:

"Why does a story have such power? Because most of us don't think abstractly. We live in a world of images and symbols; that's what moves us. Each of us IS a story. We were created by God as a story waiting to be told, and each of us has to find a way to tell our story. In the telling of it we come to recognize and own ourselves. For many people, 'myth' means something that isn't true. Please put aside that understanding. Myth is, in fact, something that is so true that it can be expressed only in story, symbol, ritual. It can't be abstracted and objectified. Its meaning and mystery are so deep and broad that they can be presented only in story form. When you step into a story, you find it is without limits and you can walk around with it and inside it. It is too big and too deep to be merely 'understood' or taught."

Photos: (Top) Hot springs pool at West Thumb Geyser Basin; (Second) Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin; (Third) Water from a hot spring flowing into the Firehole River; (Bottom) Bacteria mats in the Midway Geyser Basin; All four photos were taken in Yellowstone National Park, WY on September 5-7, 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, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

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The Emotional Tone of Autumn

The Aspen leaves are beginning to change color here in the Central Rockies! With the onset of autumn comes a rather complex emotional tone composed of nostalgia and invigoration, restfulness and crisp attention - and a whole host of other unnameable feelings, all rolled up into one!

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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, or would like to host a talk or workshop in your area, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com . 

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Photos: (Top) Aspens on Yellowstone Lake; (Second) Aspens and "The Cathedral Group" of the Tetons; (Third) Aspens, Jackson Lake, and Mount Moran; (Bottom) Aspen and Midway Geyser Basin; These four photos were taken in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, WY, on September 5-7, 2015

Spiritual creativity is faciliated by practices that involve the capacity to say "no" :)

Yellowstone's amazing geysers serve as one of the Park's major attractions. Some - like Old Faithful - shoot water on average 140 feet into the air, and erupt every 60 to 110 minutes. However, these thermal features would not be able to function without a standpipe and cone hole that are narrow and constricted. Without these components, the water present in the reservoir below would be incapable of building up enough pressure to create the eruption.

Similarly, on our own spiritual path, we need some kind of boundary or restriction - some realm in which we limit ourselves and say "no" - if we are ever to build up enough "steam" to fuel an eruption of divine grace and creativity in our lives. Limiting time spent on the internet or watching TV or listening to news or radio is one such discipline. So is keeping to a small number the daily commitments we engage in. A meditation practice that employs spacious awareness in preventing us from indulging in the drama of our usual thoughts and emotions is yet another form. As spiritual practitioners from every tradition and walk of life realize, this kind of limitation aids in effectively preventing our creative energy from dissipating in frivolous activity and mindless cogitation.

"Fasting" such as this is sometimes difficult in a society that encourages us to say "yes" to every passive entertainment, news item, flashy image or technological device available to us, but it is absolutely necessary if we are ever to advance in creativity - and self-esteem - on the spiritual journey.

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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, please contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com .

 
Photos: Various geysers, Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5-6, 2015

We are always just a part of a larger Whole . . .

In Yellowstone's geyser and hot springs basins, there's always a lot of mist and steam. An elk or a tree or a particular thermal pool will come briefly into focus and then disappear into the mist and steam once again. This gives the sense that it is not so much any of the parts of the landscape that matter in an ultimate sense, but the whole of which they are a part. Similarly, our own spiritual path or perspective is meant simply to serve a much larger Whole. It is not meant to BE that Whole. Each of us is just a particular perspective or way of knowing that greater Whole. While having my morning retreat at the campground, I was therefore fascinated to read these words:

"Jesus invites us to become a new community of human beings; he calls us a little flock. I don't believe he ever wanted us to be the whole - only the part. He said we should be the yeast, the leaven, not the whole loaf. He called us to be the salt, but we want to be the whole meal. he urged us to be the light that illumines the mountaintop, but we want to be the whole mountain. The images Jesus uses are very modest and yet very strong. It's very difficult now for us to be merely leaven and salt and light. We hardly know how to do that. We want to lead; we want the way of power. We thought we had to be the whole loaf, whereas he tells us to be just the leaven. That is a much more humble, fragile, and even invisible position. it feels powerless and will appeal only to people who don't need power."

Richard Rohr
"What the Mystics Know"

Photos: West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5 and 7, 2015

Good spirituality fosters a sense of awe and wonder at the utter magic of the world!

The purpose of good spirituality, I am convinced, has very little to do with "saving" the individual self or making sure that it has a secure place in an afterlife. Rather, spirituality is meant to give us a set of practices that enable us to discover the utter magic and wonder of life - in both its human and more-than-human forms - and to lose ourselves in awe and adoration of that magic!

Photo: Hot spring just after sunrise in West Thumb Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 7, 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

Dancing back and forth between words and non-words seems to be a key to the spiritual journey . . .

The thermal basins of Yellowstone seem to inhabit a liminal space between solidity and transparency, reality and dream, form and emptiness, words and silence, concepts and non-concepts. Rock and steam, rooted trees and ephemeral porcelain colors, awestruck visitors on misty boardwalks hovering seemingly between reality and unreality - its ALL there! Yellowstone reveals the playful, trickster-like nature of the Divine, dancing back and forth between opposites, encouraging us continually to inhabit the liminal space between settled positions of this or that. Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi puts it so well:

"What images does He play at, what tricks contrive!
If He is present in form, He will flee by the way of spirit.
Seek Him in the sky, and He shines from the water like the moon;
Enter the water, and He flees up to heaven.
Call Him from the placeless and He point you to place;
Seek Him in place and He flees to the placeless."

If a discussion focuses on the importance of words and ideas in knowing the Sacred, then we suddenly find ourselves drawn to the unsayable. However, if we take a correspondingly firm position beyond words and ideas, then the Divine just as suddenly and inexplicably swings the balance back toward the importance of words and ideas as instruments - like a microscope or telescope of the spirit - that seem to be a necessary component in looking through to the Mystery beyond words. Always and forever, there seems to be this back-and-forth dance between form and emptiness, body and spirit, ideas and non-ideas, words and silence. And WE are called to inhabit - and dance - in the liminal space in between!

Photos: Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5-7, 2015

Experiencing the mysterious still-point essence of each thing . . .

"Be not preoccupied with looking. Go not to the object; let it come to you . . . We cannot look at Nature directly, but only with the side of our eye . . . The important fact is its effect on me."

Henry David Thoreau

"That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things is called delusion. That the ten thousand things advance and confirm the self is enlightenment."

Dogen Zenji

In the very moment when we go to know a thing, it empties itself into our perception, leaving us with a flashing awareness of the "still-point" that is its essence. Meister Eckhart calls this still-point "the silent desert into which no distinction ever peeped," while Zen Buddhists call it "suchness." But ultimately - like the mysterious and magical spirit of Yellowstone - it is utterly unsayable. And yet it transforms our life to the core!

Photos: Yellowstone National Park, WY, September 5-6, 2015