Thoughts During Meditation Near a Rock Art Site Seem to Arise - Dreamlike - from an Ancient Distance

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.
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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 . . .
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Photos: Rio Grande Gorge and Rock Art, Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, NM, April 4, 2016

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