"I look at this setting in great tranquility, with my soul and spirit quiet. For me landscape seems to be important for contemplation. Benedictine tranquility. Pax. That's what I think about." Thomas Merton Photo: Mirror Lake and Medicine Bow Peak, Snowy Range, WY, November 9, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation and Wilderness Contemplative Prayer, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6
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"My Beloved's skies have sanctified my eyes." Thomas Merton Photo: Ponderosa Pine and sunset at Vedauwoo Recreation Area, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY, November 9, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation and Wilderness Contemplative Prayer, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 "As we mingle with Nature more, the pain caused by the melting of all beauties into one First-God Beauty disappears, because after their first submergence in fountain God, they go again washed and clean into their individualisms, more clearly defined than ever, unified yet separate." The Contemplative John Muir In many of the world's great mystical traditions, the point of the spiritual journey is the merging of all forms, ideas, images, words, distinctions and individuality back into the Formless. In its beyondness and transcendence, this formless reality - or "Absolute" as it is sometimes called - is quite masculine in cast. After all, masculinity - in both men and women - is the quest for solitude, detachment, abstraction and the movement back or beyond the particulars of life, including the emotions that would enmesh us in the grand Drama called life. However, this movement beyond, when made into an end in itself, becomes dangerous insofar as it denigrates the arena of everyday life - often disparagingly called "the Relative" by mystics of this variety - when it treats everyday social and environmental issues as unworthy of attention. In the fundamentalist Christianity in which I grew up, this overemphasis on transcendence took the form of an obsession with "the Rapture," where Christ would return to Earth and snatch away all true believers to heaven, leaving the Earth to a planned divine destruction and re-creation. In fact, I recall a junior high Sunday School teacher criticizing me for being interested in environmental issues. "Why should you focus on THAT," he asked me, "when the present Earth is going to be destroyed, ANYWAY?" In mystical Christianity during the era of the bubonic plague - especially in the 14th century, often called "The Age of Adversity"- this transcendence took the form of a hyper-intensification of the teaching of Meister Eckhart, whereby contemplatives would seek to disappear into formlessness - into "God" - as a means of escaping the intense trials of the time. Eastern Religions, of course, have their own version of this kind of detachment and transcendence. It is for this reason that Buddhist spirituality, for example, has recently begun emphasizing "Engaged Buddhism" as a corrective means of caring for the Earth and issues of the day. Otherwise, life tends to be viewed merely as a suffering-based samsara that must be escaped at all costs. In Wilderness Mysticism, the whole point of transcendence, beyondness, detachment, Silence, or "God" is to discover the vast spaciousness or limitless Love that serves as a sort of "Sky" or "Ground" or "Backdrop" out of which all of the particulars of life are continually emerging. Only by detaching ourselves from particulars can we discover the backdrop out of which they all appear, thereby heightening our appreciation of those very particulars! Here, transcendence is a kind of playful divine "set-up" that enables us - and the Divine present within us - to watch in spellbound amazement as all form, energy, particularity, words, insights, concepts, images, thoughts, emotions, personality types, cultures, religions, species and landscapes come popping out of that seamless Spaciousness or Sky like echoes arising out of nowhere! In theistic terms, "God" empties himself through love and blissful forgetfulness into the sky-like expanses of mind, heart and landscape in order to become the emptiness out of which all of form can then appear and STUN us with its beauty! Thus, formlessness, transcendence, beyondness, spaciousness - "God" - are NOT the ultimate end. Rather, the forms, immanence, this-worldliness, poetic insights, words, distinctions and individuals are the TRUE end - as long as we then allow them all to merge back into the sky-like Backdrop, in order to watch - spellbound - as they emerge yet again, over and over and over! This vertical-oriented mysticism - where form appears out of the formless and words appear out of the Silence, and then merge back into It in order to reappear once more - is, of course, only one side of the story. The other side is the corresponding Reality of the seamless feminine River of Life - a horizontal type of Unity out of which all things - including horizon-like Transcendence -appear and then endlessly mirror and support one another. But this is a story for another day . . . Photos: Snowy Range, WY, November 9, 2015 I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation and Wilderness Contemplative Prayer, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 One of the things this Replacement Camera Campaign has been teaching me is this: these photo-quote posts are capable of speaking to the needs of a variety of different viewers. For some, verbal expressions of spirituality - poetic, theological or insight-based - are simply not their thing. For them, the photos themselves speak volumes and become a sort of non-verbal "spirituality," although they may not call it by that name. As a result, they don't have a need for the quotes. For a second group of people, the photos are a bit beside the point. For them, the quotes - and the insights they contain - are themselves the major nourishment. And for a third group of viewers, BOTH quotes and photos are important. These folks therefore spend time with each. I love the fact that all three of these types of viewers can find their own unique nourishment from just a single post :) Photo: Maroon-colored peak and golden aspen trees, near Crater Lake, Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO, September 27, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation and Wilderness Contemplative Prayer, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 "My friend, botanist Asa Gray, is a most cordial lover of purity and truth, but the angular factiness of his pursuits has kept him at too cold a distance from the spirit world. The man of science, the naturalist, too often loses sight of the essential oneness of all living beings in seeking to classify them, while the eye of the Poet, the Seer, never closes on the kinship of all God's creatures, and his heart ever beats in sympathy with great and small alike." The Contemplative John Muir That said, I appreciate scientists very much and I love the fact that the best of them do not let their own subjective preferences get in the way of their research. They are passionate about finding out what is TRUE. In fact, there are many scientists who are indeed able both to practice impartial analysis AND to keep their inner eye open to the poetry, beauty and Oneness of the world. One such person is my atmospheric scientist friend, Chris Rozoff. Photo: Quartzite boulder and the mountain just south of Medicine Bow Peak, Snowy Range, WY, November 9, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation and Wilderness Contemplative Prayer, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.11/10/2015 "Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say." Thomas Merton Photo: Snowy Range from Mirror Lake, WY, November 9, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 "One of the qualities of a true saint is this: he or she is RADIANT. I was speaking once of the importance of having one's face lighted up, and after the service was over a woman with a very plain face, of which she was duly conscious, came forward and asked me what I would do if I had a face like hers! I told her that I had long been struggling with a similar problem, and had discovered that if you can light it up with inward radiance, any face you've got is good enough! "But there should be a corollary . . . to the effect that saints never KNOW that they are radiant. They are not conscious of the shine on their faces. It is a byproduct of life, not a purposeful aim. The finest inscription in the Harvard Chapel is the one to the memory of Andrew Peabody: 'For thirty-six years he walked among the professors and students of Harvard College and knew not that his face did shine.' " Rufus Jones, Quaker Theologian "The Radiant Life" (1944) Making iPhone videos to expand the reach of my work has come at a cost: I am now much more self-conscious than before about my appearance and the things I wish I could change. I write about this because I know that nearly ALL of us - even the most physically attractive among us - struggle with this same issue. It is especially challenging in our era to realize that it is usually the people who are the most physically beautiful or handsome who get their work recognized. My musician brother-in-law (who is actually quite handsome) playfully noted this trend when he recently posted a quote on Facebook that said: "Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it." One of the things I most appreciate about my Quaker heritage is its profound teaching on the "Inner Light." Although they are generally considered Christians, Friends prefer not to engage in extended speculation about the nature of Jesus, but rather seek to EXPERIENCE the Light of the Christ-life that is present within all things, and then work to facilitate the unveiling and shining of that Divine Light. How wonderful it is to know that ALL of us - regardless of how beautiful or handsome we are (or are not) - can indeed appear beautiful when the Inner Light radiates from within! Photo: Aspen trees and Maroon Lake, Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO, September 27, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 "Monologue is a dialogue with the silence." Max Picard Photo: Limber Pines and Hallett Peak in the snow, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, November 6, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 "Silence looks at us more than we look at the silence." Max Picard "The World of Silence" Photo: An "eye" is all that remains of the unfrozen part of Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, November 6, 2015 - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 Many of the world's great spiritual traditions emphasize what we might call a masculine or vertical view of non-duality. Here, all creatures, forms, images and words are essentially expressions of a transcendent Silence, Spaciousness or Absolute Reality. This kind of masculine union seeks to return all multiplicity to Absolute Oneness by viewing phenomenal or relative reality as transparent, echo-like and at least partly illusory. Some Hindu traditions refer to multiplicity or the realm of the Relative as the lila or "play" of the Absolute. A Wilderness Mysticism adds to this the realization that Silence, Spaciousness or the Absolute continually empty themselves through blissful kenosis back into creature, form, image, and word. Thus we have the Buddhist formula which -paraphrased a bit - states that Form is really Emptiness (or Spaciousness) and Emptiness is really Form. In Christian Mysticism, we have the Silence, or the "Father" continually emptying itself into the Word, or the "Son," and vice versa. The Greek word for this process is "perichoresis," or "the dance around." However, a more feminine view of non-duality is, we might say, profoundly horizontal in nature. It understands that every creature, form or image is also an expression of every other creature, form and image, in a vast and interconnected web of sacredness. Thus, for example, a person is viewed as a human embodiment of a mountain, and a mountain is seen as a non-personal embodiment of humanity. In some Buddhist traditions, this is called the "Net of Indra," where every creature acts like a jewel tied within one of the knots composing a vast Web of Being - an infinite net in which every jewel mirrors every other jewel. In the Christian tradition, this reality is referred to as a vast "Body of Christ" that is composed of an endless number of organs or appendages, each of which serves every other organ and appendage. In our time, this feminine variety of non-dualism is an especially necessary corrective to the solely masculine version. For it is supremely effective in revealing to us the ways in which every species, personality type, gender, culture, religious tradition and spirituality serves as an integral aspect of the others, all of which together compose the vast and seamless River of Divinity. In a world that often seems divided, may each of us discover our own unique way of actualizing this feminine, horizontal variety of non-dual Unity :) Photo: Golden Cottonwood trees, Palisade Mountain and the Big Thompson River, Big Thompson Canyon, CO, November 6, 2015 - - - - - - - - - - I am available for one-on-one sessions giving instruction in Wilderness Insight Meditation, or for spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at canyonechoes@gmail.com if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page. Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available: http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6 |
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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