 "Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and the setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox! That is what is the matter with us. We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars. Love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming on our civilized vase on the table." D.H. Lawrence Quoted by Lorraine Anderson A trip on Saturday to the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver ended a long drought in published books on the relationship between landscape and erotic energy. There I found a new book entitled "Earth and Eros: A Celebration in Words and Photographs," compiled by Lorraine Anderson with beautiful sensuous photographs by Bruce Hodge. This wonderful book continues the American Nature Writing tradition of situating human sexuality within a much large context, one not limited to other human beings or any kind of genital activity. In the footsteps of writers like Greg Gordon ("Landscapes of Desire"), Terry Tempest Williams (who coined the term "An Erotics of Place"), Ellen Meloy ("The Last Cheater's Waltz"), Katie Lee ("Sandstone Seduction"), Edward Abbey and others, Anderson blesses us with a beautiful anthology of passages that reveal the profound interconnection between the two realms. In her preface, she reminds us of the fact that : "Eros in our world is most often narrowly understood as romantic and sexual love and lust between humans. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the earth is so often bent [by us] to our own uses rather than seen as an intimate partner to be loved, savored, and revered. Perhaps there is a relationship between our limited concept of eros and our narrow valuing of nature solely for the 'resources' it provides. We have forgotten the intimate, erotic relationship between our bodies and the earth, and the consequences are all around us." After mentioning our corporate-industrial abuses of the land, Anderson goes on to tell us that "Eros is the only force strong enough to move us to imagine and create the new world that is crying to be born. This is my conviction. And so I have gathered voices that explore the erotic dimension of the human relationship to the earth." Ever since junior high - when I first saw the Colorado Mountains in June with strips of snow lying across sensuously-rounded tundra slopes colored in soft greens and lavenders like lacy lingerie - I have felt an energy in the presence of Nature's beauty that can only be described as "erotic." If you really think about it, there is nothing at all "kinky" or "twisted" (attitudes which one Facebook reader once accused me of promoting) about seeing human sexuality rooted in our experience of landscape. After all, that is where it - and we - all came from! Over the past decade, I have found less and less people willing to consider situating their own sexual nature within a broader, more cosmic context, one that doesn't necessitate having a human partner or acting out one's desires in hurtful or untransformed ways. I have in the past been accused of "spreading sex everywhere," while my true intent has been to take the intensity of our already present lust and desire and show how it is actually situated within a LARGER love affair with the beauty and grandeur of the Earth. Even though our culture is completely saturated with erotic images, for some reason people are reluctant to take a good look at the cosmic origin of sexual energy and LIBERATE it into a much larger context - one that involves having a profound love affair with this beautiful Earth. Why, I wonder? Why are people so afraid, unimaginative, prudish and fundamentalist when it comes to exploring the link between eros and Nature? It simply doesn't make any sense to me. One thing is for sure: I am going to continue expressing my own thoughts and experiences on the matter even if no one else understands! After all, the future of Earth's landscapes as we currently know them is dependent upon our falling in love in a much wider sense than we ever have before! Photo: Lichen-covered rock, Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/
0 Comments
 "The human heart is never still. There is a divine restlessness in each of us which creates a continual state of longing. The mind and heart are wanderers who are always tempted by new horizons. Your inner life is nomadic. Hegel says, "[It is] just this unrest that is the Self. Longing is the deepest and most ancient voice in the human soul. It is the secret source of all presence, and the driving force of all creativity and imagination. Longing keeps the door open and calls toward us the gifts and blessings which our lives dream." John O'Donohue Photo: Snow patterns on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 25, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  For as long as I can remember, people have either hinted or told me outright that I have "too much" of one quality or another. Early on, my mother told me that I was "too sensitive." To my grandmother, I wanted too much to KNOW EVERYTHING." People all throughout my life have told me that I am "too intense." Almost everyone says I am "too intellectual" and that I "think too much." To hyper-intellectuals on the other hand, I am "too sentimental." To some, I offer "too many compliments," or compliments that are "too intimate." Because I try to be on my guard against being too intense with people, I regularly back off, making me seem "too detached." To my daughters, I am sometimes "too silly," and I ask their friends "too many questions." Most people think I spend too much time pondering the meaning of life. "Why can't you just LIVE?" they inevitably end up asking. During one period in my life, I worked hard to uncover the sacredness hiding within the intense energy of male desire. I discovered, however, that men were simply NOT interested in this endeavor, while others saw my work as "too erotic." Up until recently, I myself joined in on the "too much" mantra and castigated myself for having inner boundaries that were "too porous," a situation which caused me to make friends with virtually everyone in my life, thereby precluding the possibility of being able to receive payment for my counseling skills. Because of all of these "too much" traits, I embarked early in life on a spiritual journey to find a greater Presence who would accept me just as I am. What I found was a God who is "too hidden" in the depths of the heart and a Goddess of Nature who is simply "too beautiful" ever to satiate my desire. Because they could more than match my intensity, I fell in love with these manifestations of the Divine, especially as they reveal themselves daily in meditation and within the natural world. Today it occurred to me that this "too much" quality is actually OK, even if other people don't understand. For my intensity becomes the spiritual "fuel" that is necessary to ferret out the mysteries of the Great Beyond. I discovered, in fact, that the famous 19th century Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson understood me perfectly: "Nature sends no creature, no man into the world, without adding a small excess of his proper quality. Given the planet, it is still necessary to add the impulse; so, to every creature nature added a little violence of direction in its proper path, a shove to put it on its way; in every instance, a slight generosity, a drop too much. Without electricity the air would rot, and without this violence of direction, which men and women have, without a spice of bigot and fanatic, no excitement, no efficiency. We aim above the mark, to hit the mark. Every act hath some falsehood of exaggeration in it." For those of us who are called to be visionaries, we NEED a well-developed intensity to push through all of the obstacles, all of the naysayers, and all of the mediocrity and passivity of a society that would work to drag us away from our creative spirit. As a result, I now accept and embrace my "too muchness," realizing that it has an important and necessary part to play in the overall scheme of things :) Photo: Ice patterns on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  I don't generally like to say much - publicly, anyway - about politics. This most likely arises from the fact that people on both sides have a tendency to become extreme about their position, precluding any kind of dialogue. And, as you might imagine, real dialogue is something that is very important to me. But I want to say a few words here about one phenomenon in current American politics that has left me utterly perplexed: the popularity of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Until recently, I was unable to take his brash, seemingly racist, almost surely sexist, statements seriously. I've thought until this point that he is simply putting on an "entertainer act" in order to garner support for his campaign. It's been difficult for me to imagine a "President Trump" knowing how to engage in dialogue with other world leaders, or participate in any kind of negotiation where some degree of compromise is a necessary skill. However, yesterday I read an article in our local paper, originally published in USA Today, that shed some light on Trump's current popularity, especially among quite a few members of the Millennial Generation. Here is what journalist Paul Singer says in his article entitled: "An Unfiltered Trump Remains on Top": " 'The enduring lesson from this (campaign) season is that authenticity matters,' said Alex Smith of the College Republicans. 'Young voters were decisive in the 2012 general election, and will be so again in 2016, comprising 20% of the electorate. What is the one trait that matters to them? Being who you say you are. For #nofilter Millennials, a contest between two candidates who are fearless in what they say and how they say it is likely to yield very interesting results.' " So I guess the "raw and unfiltered" factor is increasingly significant in our culture. For me it parallels the popularity of "reality shows" and "reality documentaries" that portray people and relationships as they REALLY ARE, at least on the surface level of emotions. In fact, I've seen in my own recent ventures into iPhone videography that viewers apparently LIKE to see a bit of camera-shake, or listen to a few verbal stumbles or excess wind gusts blowing on the microphone. It makes them feel as though they are RIGHT THERE, rather than watching an overly-slick, overly-professional movie made by an unrealisticly-perfect narrator. I enjoy producing "raw and unfiltered" landscape photos, with a minimum of special effects, and with very little photoshop processing, except to produce an image that is as close as possible to what my eye actually saw. I don't use a tripod much because I'm often shooting from awkward angles - lying belly-down on a lake, standing in a stream, or setting my camera in a trough below ground-level. The result is a series of photos that professionals may scoff at, but which the general public seem to enjoy. However, I'm not sure I'm ready to apply the same aesthetic to a political candidate who aspires to become a world leader. Do we really need more raw-and-unfiltered brashness, extreme statements, and unapologetically polarized thinking in the world? I don't believe so. Photo: Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 25, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  "Your longing for the invisible is never stilled. There is always some magnet that draws your eyes to the horizon or invites you to explore behind things and seek out the concealed depths. You know that the real nature of things is hidden deep within them. When you enter the world, you come to live on the threshold between the visible and the invisible. This tension infuses your life with longing. Now you belong fully neither to the visible nor to the invisible. This is precisely what kindles and rekindles all your longing and your hunger to belong." John O'Donohue Photo: Ruddy hogback at sunset, near Bellvue, CO Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ The Purpose of Meditation is Not Its Health Benefits, But Falling in Love with This Amazing Earth1/30/2016  I find it curious that modern seekers often view meditation as simply a means to increase the health benefits of a calm mind and body, release from stress, and lower blood pressure. These kinds of results may indeed occur, but from a spiritual perspective, they are not the major reason for practicing meditation. In fact, there may be times - during a psychological dark night of the soul - when the exact opposite effects occur, at least for a time. In a Wilderness Mysticism, the purpose of calming the mind is not primarily for health benefits, but to nurture awe and wonder at the amazing process through which form arises out of formless awareness. In Wilderness Insight Meditation, we use attention to each exhalation or to images of spacious landscapes as a means to access the tranquil inner lake of awareness out of which all thoughts, emotions and perceptions continually emerge, like magical echoes arising out of nowhere. Here, we watch in spellbound amazement at the continual appearance of all earthly phenomena - together with their associated thoughts, emotions and perceptions - out of the seamless expanse of interior silence! In other words, we focus not so much on ourselves and our own health, but on the beauty and wonder of the world around us. In this way, meditation practice offers us fresh motivation to care for our beautiful planet! Photo: Paintbrush, St. Louis Lake, Fraser Experimental Forest, CO, August 9, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  Contrary to what images from our pop culture constantly tell us - luring us from glossy magazine covers at health food stores like Whole Foods, or from 15-second videos produced by Law of Attraction gurus on Instagram - you don't have to be young, healthy, beautiful and financially successful to embark on a meaningful spiritual journey. All you have to do is LOSE yourself in the beauty of the world around you, practice some form of silence or meditative letting-go, and allow art, music, poetry, philosophy and the glory of the natural world to serve as a mirror in which you can FINALLY see your true self. At the same time, you will find your true purpose in life by realizing that YOU - in all of your quirky uniqueness - are needed to awaken the Cosmos to its beauty and goodness through the practice of contemplative wonder and amazement. And THAT, I am convinced, is the ultimate definition of a healthy lifestyle. Photo: Ice artistry on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  "The true vision of God consists in this, that the soul that looks up to God never ceases to desire Him." Gregory of Nyssa Pop spirituality tends to demonize longing and yearning, informing us that any sense of lack we may feel is in reality a painful illusion that should be quickly filled with a belief in the power of ever-present "abundance." However, in the mystical traditions of Christianity and Islam, this yearning - when oriented toward the search for Truth - IS the experience of the Divine and should therefore be valued as an endlessly precious jewel. Today in my Naropa class we talked about a 4th century mystic named Gregory of Nyssa, who grew up in Asia Minor (in modern-day Turkey) where my grandfather was born. Gregory was in love with and endlessly fascinated by Divine transcendence. He loved mystery! For him, the mysterious Divine Source dwells on the endless horizon of Being, beckoning to us like a series of mountain peaks shrouded in mist. The decisive factor for Gregory is the LONGING that our quest for this infinite Horizon elicits in us. He realized in fact that our longing to experience ever closer glimpses of God will continue for all eternity, and that every insight we receive paves the way for a desire to experience EVEN MORE of the divine mystery. It is for this reason that our longing is actually endless and eternal! In fact, Gregory consistently sees desire as ITS OWN fulfillment! Gregory understood that the limitless quality of our yearning or lack actually corresponds to and participates in the limitless quality of divine infinity! Or, as Anne Carson says in "Eros the Bittersweet," our seemingly infinite sense of lack comes from the fact that our Source - The Beloved - has "taken a bite out of us," and "consumed a part of us" - so ravenous is He and She for our love! This is, of course, the flip side of the fact that some part of each of us - both men and women - wants to be TAKEN and consumed by Beauty, and longs to surrender endlessly to that Beauty! Thus, it begins to dawn on us that our endless desire is actually a direct experience of UNION with a Beloved who ravenously absorbs us into Itself so that we might live the Divine Life FROM WITHIN ! Photo: Misty spires just up above Emerald Lake, with a Limber Pine stump in the foreground; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 25, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  “The nous (mind) will see its own state at the moment of prayer, like the color of sapphire or of the sky, what scripture calls the dwelling place of God.” Evagrius Ponticus 4th century Desert Father Photo: Ice detail on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 25, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/  "Scenery, like music, is thought-compelling and gives one a rare combination of practical and poetical inspiration. Along with mountain-climbing, scenery shakes us free from ourselves and from the world." Enos Mills Father of Rocky Mountain National Park Photo: Engelmann Spruce, Hallett Peak, and spires looming above Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, January 25, 2016 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ |
AuthorStephen Hatch, M.A. is a spiritual teacher and photographer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His approach is contemplative, inter-spiritual, and Earth-based. Archives
June 2016
Categories |
RSS Feed
