Walk As Much As You Can If You Can
“Walking inspires and promotes conversation that is grounded in the body, and so it gives the soul a place where it can thrive. I think I could write an interesting memoir of significant walks I have taken with others, in which intimacy was not only experienced but set fondly into the landscape of memory. When I was a child, I used to walk with my Uncle Tom on his farm, across fields and up and down hills. We talked of many thing, some informative and some completely outrageous, and quite a few very tall stories emerged on those bucolic walks. Whatever the content of the talking, those conversations remain important memories for me of my attachment to my family, to a remarkable personality, and to nature.”
–Thomas Moore (American Psychotherapist and Writer, 1940-)
“Soul Mates: Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship” (Thomas Moore)
We Should Go Forth
“We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return – sending back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms.”
–Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist and Philosopher, 1817-1862)
We Really Do Need Wild Places
“People need wild places. Whether or not we think we do, we do. We need to be able to taste grace and know again that we desire it. We need to experience a landscape that is timeless, whose agenda moves at the pace of speciation and glaciers.
To be surrounded by a singing, mating, howling commotion of other species, all of which love their lives as much as we do ours, and none of which could possibly care less about us in our place. It reminds us that our plans are small and somewhat absurd. It reminds us why, in those cases in which our plans might influence many future generations, we ought to choose carefully. Looking out on a clean plank of planet earth, we can get shaken right down to the bone by the bronze-eyed possibility of lives that are not our own.”
–Barbara Klingsolver (American Writer and Political Activist, 1955-)
Nature Has a Vote!
“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”
–Wendell Berry (American Poet, Novelist and Essayist, 1934-)
Nature’s Expression of Thoughts and Ideas
“In fact, every organic form which we see around us is Nature’s expression of various thoughts and ideas. These thoughts and ideas are representative of Spiritual qualities.”
–“Zolar” (a.k.a. Bruce King American Astrologer, 1897-1976)
“Zolar’s Encyclopedia of Ancient and Forbidden Knowledge.” (Zolar)
The Vast Presence
“The silence of landscape conceals vast presence. Place is not simply location. A place is a profound individuality. With complete attention, landscape celebrates the liturgy of the seasons, giving itself unreservedly to the passion of the goddess. The shape of a landscape is an ancient and silent form of consciousness. Mountains are huge contemplatives. Rivers and streams offer voice; they are the tears of the earth’s joy and despair. The earth is full of soul ….. Civilization has tamed place. Left to itself, the curvature of the landscape invites presence and the loyalty of stillness.”
–John O’Donohue (Irish Poet, Author, Catholic Priest and Hegelian Philosopher, 1956-2008)
Mystical Consciousness Gives Us A Way Out
“Without a belief in, and the radical cultivation of, mystical consciousness and the insights into the interconnectedness of all reality in sacred joy and sacred love that it alone can bring, we will not be able to develop the necessary awareness to help us solve the terrible problems that threaten our lives and the very life of the planet.”
–Andrew Harvey (Indian-born English Philosopher, 1952-)
The Mystic View
To anyone trained in conventional science, the mystic view of the world usually seems to be nothing more than flowery poetry. But to anyone who has actually experienced it, it is more “Real” than anything that you can learn from a textbook. It is simply a different way of knowing, and it can be as useful and practical as the objective methods of inquiry. And far more meaningful to the individual!
“Every tree and plant and mole beneath the earth may hear the Voice of God and, hearing it, obey. Every sound you hear on earth is an echo of His Voice, and every light in every color comes from the dazzling radiance of His Eyes.”
–Geoffrey Hodson (English-born New Zealand Theosophist, Mystic, Teacher and Author, 1886-1983)
What the World Mother Might Say…
“A living planet is a much more complex metaphor for deity than just a bigger father with a bigger fist.
If an omniscient, all-powerful Dad ignores your prayers, it’s taken personally. Hear only silence long enough, and you start wondering about his power. His fairness. His very existence.
But if a world mother doesn’t reply, Her excuse is simple. She never claimed conceited omnipotence. She has countless others clinging to her apron strings, including myriad species unable to speak for themselves.
To Her elder offspring She says – “Go raid the fridge.” “Go play outside.” “Go get a job.” “Or, better yet, lend me a hand. I have no time for idle whining.”
–David Brin (American Writer and Former Physics Professor and NASA Consultant, 1950- )
Wisdom From The Woods
After decades studying with teachers all over the world and consuming countless books and research papers, I finally realized the obvious: everything you need to know is outside your window and inside you heart. And here was a great being saying the same thing a thousand years ago.
So I am a bit slow….
“Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.”
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (French Cistercian Monk, Mystic, Theologian, Monastic Reformer and Political Figure, 1090-1153)
Essential Writings of Saint Bernard Dennis E. Tamburello, O.F.M.
