"In this silent, serene wilderness the weary can gain a heart-bath in perfect peace." The Contemplative John Muir Photo: Engelmann Spruce and spires above Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 25, 2015 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/
0 Comments
"Out of the purity the Father everlastingly bore me, his only-born child, into that same image of his eternal Fatherhood, that I may be Father and give birth to him of whom I am born." Meister Eckhart 14th century German mystic "The Father" means the transcendent, otherworldly, "beyond" aspect of the Divine. "The Mother" is the immanent, this-worldly aspect of the Divine. Photo: Pinnacles above Emerald Lake appearing out of and disappearing into the fog, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "I am no longer your Master, because you have drunk, and become drunken, from the same bubbling spring from which I spring." Jesus "The Gospel of Thomas Photos: Globeflowers and alpine stream, Lion Lakes Basin, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Peace on Earth comes not merely through "tolerating" our various worldviews and spiritual traditions - as the popular bumper sticker would have it - but through actively learning from one another. This isn't a patronizing kind of activity, where I DECIDE I'm going to TRY to learn from you. Rather, it comes from a genuine curiosity and NEED to learn new things from your experience and unique worldview. This, after all, is what all of that SILENCE I experience out in Nature has taught me. In the silence I am immersed in a Divine Source who listens to and learns from me, and this being listened-to and learned-from is what actively "creates" my being! Who of us doesn't want to be learned-from, especially by the Creator? Similarly, each of us finds spiritual fulfillment both in learning from others and in being learned-from. For me, it's like being a kid in a candy store; spiritual "sweetness" is radiating at me from every corner of the world - through YOU! Here, true strength comes not from the macho stereotype of "having it all together," but in being able to open up to wider and wider realms of experience, listening to and learning from ever more diverse sources. That ability to continue opening into wider and wider realms is the TRUE definition of strength! For incredible inner centeredness and spiritual backbone is required to open up endlessly to learn from one another - and to do this for all eternity! If only we can "fast" from the media-driven "herd mentality" that would try to TELL us what we think; if only we can enter the solitude of our own mind and heart in order to hear what the Spirit is speaking uniquely to us - then, and only then, can we truly get in touch with the wisdom that others need so desperately. And then, and only then, will we gain the centeredness that gives us the strength to open up to what others have to teach us. May all of us find the grace to get in touch with our own sacred center, thereby discovering the strength to listen to and learn from one another, and so bring true peace upon the Earth! Photos: Various winter scenes near my home in Larimer County, CO, December, 2015 Mystical Christianity views each external aspect of the biblical Christmas tradition as symbolic of an inner reality. Here's a brief listing of some of those meanings: 1. The baby Jesus: This represents a Divine self-knowledge (happening through US) that is ever fresh and newborn. The baby also points to the fact that God is dependent on LEARNING through our experience, which adds richness to the Divine Life. 2. The Virgin Mary; Each of us is meant to give birth to Divine self-awareness, which only occurs when we are completely one with ourselves (virgin) and aware that the self-centered, self-castigating ego cannot enter our deepest core ("the womb") which is rooted in the Divine. 3. Joseph, standing behind Jesus and Mary: this is the silent and fatherly Ground of Being into which all things sink and out of which they all emerge. 4. The Silent Night: Divine creativity and expression ("The Word") can only emerge out of a wordless silence. In Buddhist terms, "Form" can only arise out of "Emptiness" or "Spaciousness." 5. Nighttime and the "swaddling clothes": This means that we are embraced by the Divine Presence during contemplative prayer. Because God's "arms" are so close to us, we cannot use the usual concepts to "see" this presence. Faith is a kind of night that is the only faculty capable of knowing a Beloved who is so close - "closer to us than we are to ourselves," to use St. Augustine of Hippo's famous phrase. 6. Sleep: During Contemplative Prayer, the busy, concept-laden mind is "put to sleep," enabling us to "rest in God" ; i.e., in the divine embrace. It also points to the fact that the divine life is born in us in an atmosphere of tranquility and peace. 7. "No room at the inn" and the manger: Only when we practice the simplicity or voluntary poverty of interior silence will the "Word" of divine self-expression spring forth within us out of silence. These also mean that the divine Ground of Being is humbly hidden from the busy world of anxious, materialistic society. 8. The barn animals in the stable: The natural world is the perfect place for contemplative prayer and divine self-awareness to occur. 9. The Star: This means that love must BURN in the heart if God's self-awareness is ever to occur. - - - - - - - Photo: Limber Pine on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 21, 2015 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ What greater message does The-Creator-Entering-the-World-as-a-Baby teach us than to realize that the Divine wants - and needs - to listen to and LEARN from US? Indeed, that is our purpose here on Earth: to add richness to the Divine life through our own creativity and insight. Similarly, we are meant to listen to and learn from one another - including the natural world and its creatures - in order to bring all things to birth in fresh ways. What other way is there to elicit TRUE peace on earth than to LEARN FROM one another? For every individual, personality type, gender, race, culture, religion, species and landscape has something unique to teach us, and through us, the Divine! May each of begin this holiday season to listen to and learn from everything and everyone around us, and so bind the cosmos together into One :) Photo: Carved ice on Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 21, 2015 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ With Christmas almost here, the question naturally arises: "In our modern pluralistic world, what does CHRIST mean?" Because I live (as ALL of us Euro-Americans do) in a landscape that still carries the vibrations and presence of the indigenous people whose original home this is, I am painfully aware of the injustices that have been carried out by so-called "Christians" in the devastation of the American Indian cultures which have for generations blessed the land, creatures, water, skies and rocks on which we all depend for sustenance. Added to this suffering is the fact that I teach at a "Buddhist-inspired" university where a sizable number of students carry the wounds caused by the oppressive aspects of Christianity as manifested in their own lives and throughout all of recent world history. After all, many people "go East" because of the rigidity, dualism, bigotry, narrow-mindedness and guilt-ridden aspects of the Christian tradition they grew up with. As one of just several representatives of Christian Mysticism on campus, I feel a responsibility to help heal and counter-balance the suffering caused by so-called "Christians" through sharing instead the liberating aspects of the Christ-experience, especially during this Christmas season. I grew up in an evangelical Christian tradition that taught me to view Christ as an object of adoration and devotion. I am grateful for this upbringing, for it enabled me to value the qualities of humility, warmth, compassion, forgiveness, social justice, a preference for the poor, and an experience of the Ultimate Mystery as "fatherly" in the best sense of the word - all traits I learned from Jesus. However, after practicing the contemplative Christian path for the past thirty years, I have gradually learned to interiorize those very qualities and (when I'm at my best), RADIATE the presence of Christ from the depths of my being. These days, I rarely ever TALK about Christ, not because I don't love him, but because I experience a greater ONENESS with his presence than ever before. And one of the qualities I value most about Jesus (as I also do with other religious figures like Gautama Buddha, Rumi, Mirabai Starr and Frank Fools Crow) is the kenosis or SELF-EMPTYING that is an innate part of his spiritual identity. I sincerely believe that Jesus never meant to found a religion, but rather to illuminate all of reality in a new light. Rather than make Jesus into an object of devotion, I NOW feel called to embody his presence as a sort of invisible light shining on all things, causing them to glow in their own true divinity. Just as each religious figure enables all of life to glow in a unique "hue" or set of spiritual qualities (yet without asking for recognition or devotion in return), so does Christ. Like the alpenglow sun - hidden below the horizon, yet illuminating and highlighting the innately radiant beauty of a landscape's peaks, buttes and mesas - so all of these spiritual masters ask for no devotion or recognition in return for their service to the world. Speaking personally, I experience the humble, self-emptying quality of Buddhist traditions in the highlighting of reality in a cool, let-it-be, "blue" kind of hue. For me, Native American traditions bring out the "greenish," Earth-based coloring of the same reality. Sufism highlights the "reddish," passionate dimension of all things. Similarly, Christ brings out the warm, gently-loving "gold" hue of the same reality. Mirabai Starr, a woman who spearheaded the modern Interspiritual Movement, elicits perhaps the "white-light" dimension (which includes ALL of the colors) of the world. And so on, with each spiritual tradition. Obviously, these color associations are merely my own. Others would probably have a different experience. In any case, each tradition functions like a different-colored sunset sky, illuminating the innate beauty of the resident cloud formations in a multitude of different ways. Just as all of the colors are needed to compose the light spectrum, so each tradition (and each non-tradition, including a-theism and agnosticism) is necessary for completing the Whole. Christ is referred to in scripture as the "light of the world," and my own contemplative experience teaches me that this light NEVER shines on itself, and does not even care to be named or recognized! Rather, it uncovers the already-present sacredness of the world, highlighting all things in calm, warm, "gold" and radiant love. Or, in Thomas Merton's famous phrase, Christ serves as a "Hidden Ground of Love" on which life is able to manifest itself in all of its radiant glory. No matter what our religious tradition (or non-tradition), I pray that all of us this holiday season may find the grace to serve as a unique variation of this hidden light - this humble, self-emptied ground of being - on which all individuals, cultures, religions, species and landscapes may feel empowered to reveal their innate sacredness in all of its radiant splendor. Indeed, in what other way will "peace on earth" truly arrive but by ALL of us working to illuminate the sacredness of one other and of this amazing and beautiful planet? Photo: Alpenglow on Bellvue Dome, Bellvue, CO, December 20, 2015 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ A lot of spirituality these days focuses on the self - especially on self-love, positive self-regard and self-affirmation. This is, of course, necessary as a crucial step along the spiritual journey. But for those of us who are more relationship-oriented, the self functions simply as one of the poles needed in order for the divine Beloved to shapeshift into the human Lover and the human Lover into the divine Beloved. I find myself continually enamoured by the way in which the beauty of Nature reveals itself as a radiant Goddess, wooing me into union with a larger reality, thereby enabling my soul to melt and become the vehicle through which SHE knows and celebrates her own beauty and goodness. After all, awe and wonder are the point of the Universe, and such wonder is impossible without an Other - a shapeshifting Other - with whom we can fall head-over-heels in love. Photo: Lake ice on a blustery day, Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, December 21, 2015 Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.” Thomas Merton Photo: Solitary Engelmann Spruce, with Hallett Peak in the background, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Please visit: http://www.resourcesforspiritualgrowth.com/ "FACE-TO-FACE conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience. When we communicate on our digital devices, we learn different habits. As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers. To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters. It is as though we have all put ourselves on cable news. "As we get used to being shortchanged on conversation and to getting by with less, we seem almost willing to dispense with people altogether. Serious people muse about the future of computer programs as psychiatrists. A high school sophomore confides to me that he wishes he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of his dad about dating; he says the A.I. would have so much more in its database. Indeed, many people tell me they hope that as Siri, the digital assistant on Apple’s iPhone, becomes more advanced, “she” will be more and more like a best friend — one who will listen when others won’t. "In our rush to connect on a superficial level, we flee from solitude, our ability to be separate and gather ourselves. Lacking the capacity for solitude, we turn to other people but don’t experience them as they are. It is as though we use them, need them as spare parts to support our increasingly fragile selves. "Our flight from conversation can mean diminished chances to learn skills of self-reflection. These days, social media continually asks us what’s “on our mind,” but we have little motivation to say something truly self-reflective. Self-reflection in conversation requires trust. It’s hard to do anything with 3,000 Facebook friends except connect. Here's the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html?_r=0 Photos: Rocky Mountain National Park and Watson Lake State Wildlife Refuge, Larimer County, CO |
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 |