What is the fruit of study? To perceive the eternal Word of God reflected in every plant and insect, every bird and animal, and every man and woman." From St. Ninian's Catechism, 5th century Ireland Photos: Pasqueflower and iridescent pollinator (Hewlett Gulch, CO); Sagebrush Buttercups (Vedauwoo, WY); Bluebells (Lory State Park, CO). April 7, 11 and 12, 2016. For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/
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Thoughts During Meditation Near a Rock Art Site Seem to Arise - Dreamlike - from an Ancient Distance4/12/2016 On my way home from a retreat in the Great Sand Dunes, I dipped south a bit into New Mexico to visit Wild Rivers Recreation Area. As soon as I reached the turnoff, I realized that the name had been changed to Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. I soon discovered that President Obama recently established this new Monument - in 2013. I am grateful he did, for I've noticed over the past several decades that adjacent to the lower part of what is now the Monument is a section of homes that never used to be there before. The new designation will hopefully prevent such development from spreading. Upon arriving, I took the Big Arsenic Trail, descending 700 feet to the Rio Grande River. There I visited an ancient Native American rock art site, which may be up to 12,000 years old. Then I sat next to the river and meditated for twenty minutes. Almost immediately, I discovered that the sound of the rushing river gave my meditation session a uniquely ethereal quality. Accordingly, many of the thoughts arising and subsiding within spacious awareness seemed quite dreamlike, containing fantastical images like those that often arise during sleep. It was almost as though my thoughts were coming from another realm, perhaps one shared with the ancient peoples who once lived here and who carved the rock art just several hundred yards from the spot where I was meditating . . . Photos: Rio Grande Gorge and Rock Art, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, NM, April 4, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "I was only leaving one University for another, the Wisconsin University for the University of the Wilderness." John Muir 1864 The semester will soon be over! And then time to focus full-steam on my beloved Wilderness Mysticism. The Pasqueflowers and Buttercups yesterday, backed by the otherworldly rock formations of Vedauwoo, were as amazing as always. There is something about the Wyoming country - just 30 miles from my doorstep - that never fails to make ME more wild :) Photos: Pasqueflowers and Sagebrush Buttercups, Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY, April 11, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Lately I've been finding quite a bit of humor in pondering the cosmic situation in which we all find ourselves. Accordingly, one sacred story tells us that the Divine Presence, being the ALL, had no way of knowing Itself, Herself or Himself, for nothing can ever be known without something to CONTRAST it with, just as the shadows present early and late in the day are needed to make the best photographs. Since this is the case, the Source "decided" to play a game, whereby It incarnated Itself in billions of different bodies, minds and personalities, and in millions of different species. From a mystical point of view, each of us is, at root, a different view on the ALL, a unique lens through which It sees, knows and celebrates Itself. Here, we are each like a different mountain peak composing an endless range, a unique dune making up the vast desert of the cosmos. Interestingly, the Divine took enormous risk in becoming embodied in such a diversity of ways, for this meant that all of those various ways of seeing would somehow have to figure out how to reconcile their differing views and learn - through trial and error - how to find the ALL hidden deep within each of them. In fact, we as a species - after millennia of war and bloodshed - are just now getting the hint and learning - one baby step at a time - how to do this. Hopefully, under the attractive power and grace of our Source, we'll learn how to accomplish this important task before we destroy ourselves as a species or make our natural homes unlivable. Here we need all the help we can get from the plants, animals and landscapes who each - when consulted - are more than able to contribute a unique and necessary flavor of wisdom to the process of reconciliation. As just one example of the conflicting lenses we humans use, we might consider two completely differing views on the virtue of humility. According to a traditional or conservative view, humility involves submitting one's own mind and will to an already-established tradition, often codified in a sacred book. Any deviation from this standard is then viewed as the epitome of arrogance. On the other hand, a more adventurous or liberal view of humility holds that we as human beings are meant continually to take in new information, to evolve our own view endlessly, and to move beyond all that has gone before. Adherence to our own established tradition at the cost of adventuring into unknown territory and embracing the best parts of the views of others is here seen as the height of arrogance! Ha! It's no wonder that many indigenous societies see a TRICKSTER-figure at the Source of creation! It helps immensely, in fact, to remember that none of us CHOSE this crazy situation in which we find ourselves. There is instead a jokester - a "heyoka" as our Lakota brothers and sisters would remind us - present at the heart of it all! It's best, therefore, to laugh at ourselves and get on with the task of seeing how we all might fit together into a single, multi-faceted WHOLE. For ultimately - WE DO! :) Photos: The Great Sand Dunes and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, San Luis Valley, CO, April 2-3, 2016. A trickster-raven calls from a cliff near Moab, UT For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "For us . . . , the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech." Aldo Leopold Photos: Pasqueflowers at Greyrock, Roosevelt National Forest, and at Lumpy RIdge (with the Twin Owls in the background) in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, April 4 (Twin Owls) and April 9 (Greyrock), 2016. "Inalienable" means "impossible to take away or give up." Birds, insects and flowers - all in their own way tell a deep summer joy." John Muir Photo: A bee-fly grooms its antenna from within a Pasqueflower, Lory State Park, CO, April 7, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "The life of adventure is the only life that makes sense. Adventure interpreted broadly, of course - to include not only physical action, exploration, but also human love, ideas and ideals, the arts, and the common and daily motion and conflict and trouble of everyday people doing the world's hard work, making everything else possible . . . Without this electric charge in the spirit, the world would not be the arena of infinite possibility and adventure it seems to me to be . . . 'Life is a bitch.' And then you DIE? No: Life is a joyous adventure. And THEN you die." Edward Abbey Photo: Rabbitbrush and sand dunes, Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, April 3, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ Warm, Sunny Days in the Vastness of the Wilds Melt Our Awareness into a Naturally Meditative Mindset4/10/2016 The warm, sunny days I spent at Great Sand Dunes last weekend put me into a naturally meditative state of mind. There's something about both the heat and the quality of light present there that cause my awareness to melt and expand, taking on the spaciousness, lightness and freedom of the landscape in such a way that my thoughts begin to seem echo-like and surreal, as though they are coming from an ancient time and from a very great distance. Add to this the fact that some of the views make me feel like I'm at the seashore - where the roar of silence permeates my entire being - and the meditation experience at The Dunes becomes downright intoxicating! Photos: Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, April 2-3, 2016 "I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings." Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego Near Mexico City, December 9, 1531 Photos: Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Church, Cerro, NM, April 4, 2016. I passed this church on my way to Wild Rivers Recreation Area last Monday :) "The inner light speaks clearly in everyone, . . . even in unreasoning beasts, even in leaves and grass, stone and wood, heaven and earth, and all that is in them, that they may hear and do God's will. In man alone . . . is there resistance to it." Hans Denck 16th Century German Mennonite Mystic Photo: Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, April 3, 2016 For Spiritual Direction or Workshops, 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
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