I myself take a walk outside every morning.
Is there a loftier, more uplifting cathedral than a redwood forest or massive mountains, or any shrine or sanctuary more soulful than silently watching a vast, shimmering desert or sunset over the ocean? We can learn to transcend ourselves and be transported into a more splendidly divine reality through the dharma-gate (or spiritual access) offered by the naturally moving beauty and grandness of nature as well as through prayer, bows, or contemplation in any great cathedral, temple, or mosque. Tibetan Lamas teach us that each of the five basic elements (earth, water, fire air and space) are goddesses. Just cultivate the higher “view,” recognizing “this land as the Pure Land, paradise this body as the Body of Buddha,” as Japanese Zen Master Hakuin once sang. This is a daily meditation practice you can do at home, at work, alone or with others, with or without sitting down. Just try to look a little more deeply, and recognize the light shining in everyone and in everything. This Vajra-yana (Diamond Path) Buddhist approach helps us transcend our ordinary, limited, dualistic perceptions and egocentric judgments and enter directly into the magic of reality, wherever we are. This sacred outlook or spiritual sight helps us re-enchant our everyday human lives.Īs spiritual seekers, travelers on this sacred journey, we can practice awakening to this immanent reality, or the “beyondness” in the most ordinary thing- seeing the infinite in the finite- through the spiritual practice of “pure perceptions” or sacred outlook. According to the tantric or all-inclusive dualistic view of Tibetan Buddhism, everything is sacred, all is holy, all are equal- human and animal, all creatures and living things seen and unseen are manifestations embodying pure and untrammeled Buddha-Nature. We can hardly escape from it, although we do often tend to overlook it. – Tibetan Yogi Milarepa (11th Century AD) from A Song of Enlightenment.
“Nature is the only book I need to read.” His words extend our natural awareness into the realm of the Buddha, the Vajra-yana….
Surya offered to write a page for our newsletter and I took him up on it. In our first discussions, Surya and I quickly discovered that the “natural mindfulness / awareness” desired in the field of hard ground tracking is very similar to the Buddhist concept of mindfulness. (In January of 1999, we met Lama Surya Das through the Omega Institute¹s programs in the Virgin Islands.
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