The Church Welcomes Ram Dass

I recently saw this post on a friend's Facebook feed. I think it fits in well with the theme of this blog so I've decided to share it.

Enter Empty

If you’ve not heard of it, Forest Bathing is the practice of taking a stroll in the woods for health and spiritual benefits. Clinical studies have documented those benefits.

  

I don’t think anyone would be too surprised to learn that a walk in the forest can supply such gifts. However, one should not expect much if one’s mind is filled with distraction or negative thoughts. In his book A New Earth — which I highly recommend — the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle states,

“When we go into a forest that has not been interfered with by man, our thinking mind will see only disorder and chaos all around us. It won’t even be able to differentiate between life (good) and death (bad) anymore since everywhere new life grows out of rotting and decaying matter. Only if we are still enough inside and the noise of thinking subsides can we become aware that there is a hidden harmony here, a sacredness, a higher order in which everything has its perfect place and could not be other than what it is and the way it is...

... In the forest, there is an incomprehensible order that to the mind looks like chaos. It is beyond the mental categories of good and bad. You cannot understand it through thought, but you can sense it when you let go of thought, become still and alert, and don’t try to understand or explain. Only then can you be aware of the sacredness of the forest. As soon as you sense that hidden harmony, that sacredness, you realize you are not separate from it, and when you realize that, you become a conscious participant in it. In this way, nature can help you become realigned with the wholeness of life.”

This also corresponds to an old Zen story:
The master Nan-in had a visitor who came to inquire about Zen. But instead of listening he kept talking about his own ideas. After a while, Nan-in served tea. He poured tea into the visitor’s cup until it was full, then he kept on pouring. Finally the visitor could not restrain himself. “Don’t you see that it is full?” he said. “You can’t get any more in!” “Just so,” replied Nan-in, stopping at last. “And like this cup, you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen unless you offer me an empty cup?

The Zenrin-Kushu

Nothing whatever is hidden;
From of old, all is clear as daylight.

The old pine tree speaks divine wisdom;
The secret bird manifests eternal truth.

There is no place to seek the mind;
It is like the footprints of the birds in the sky.

Above, not a piece of tile to cover the head;
Beneath, not an inch of earth to put one’s foot on.

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

The water before, and the water after,
Now and forever flowing, follow each other.

If you do not get it from yourself,
Where will you go for it?

If you wish to know the road up the mountain,
You must ask the man who goes back and forth on it.

Falling mist flies together with the wild ducks;
The waters of autumn are of one color with the sky.

If you don’t believe, just look at September, look at October!
The yellow leaves falling, falling, to fill both mountain and river.

The wild geese do not intend to cast their reflection;
The water has no mind to receive their image.

Scoop up the water and the moon is in your hands;
Hold the flowers and your clothes are scented with them.

Mountains and rivers, the whole earth,
All manifest forth the essence of being.

The voice of the mountain torrent is from one great tongue;
The lines of the hills, are they not the Pure Body of Buddha?

In the vast inane there is no back or front;
The path of the bird annihilates East and West.

From of old there were not two paths;
"Those who have arrived“ all walked the same road.

Day after day the sun rises in the east;
Day after day it sets in the west.

Ever onwards to where the waters have an end;
Waiting motionless for when the white clouds shall arise.

Wind subsiding, the flowers still fall;
Bird crying, the mountain silence deepens.

To save life it must be destroyed.
When utterly destroyed, one dwells for the first time in peace.

Take up one blade of grass,
Use it as a sixteen-foot golden Buddha.

Heat does not wait for the sun, to be hot.
Nor wind the moon, to be cool.

To be conscious of the original mind, the original nature —
Just this is the great disease of Zen!

Like a sword that cuts, but cannot cut itself;

Like an eye that sees, but cannot see itself.

Perceiving the sun in the midst of the rain;

Ladling out clear water from the depths of the fire.

Ride your horse along the edge of a sword;
Hide yourself in the middle of the flames.

You cannot get it by taking thought;
You cannot seek it by not taking thought.

It is like a tiger, but with many horns;
Like a cow, but it has no tail.

Draw water, and you think the mountains are moving;
Raise the sail, and you think the cliffs are on the run.

The blue hills are of themselves blue hills;
The white clouds are of themselves white clouds.

In the landscape of spring there is neither high nor low;
The flowering branches grow naturally, some long, some short.

Alive I will not receive the Heavenly Halls;
Dead, I fear no Hell.

He holds the handle of the hoe, but his hands are empty;
He rides astride the water-buffalo, but he is walking.

Entering the forest he moves not the grass;
Entering the water he makes not a ripple.

If you meet an enlightened man in the street,
Do not greet him with words, nor with silence.

Meeting, they laugh and laugh —
The forest grove, the many fallen leaves!

We sleep with both legs outstretched,
Free of the true, free of the false.

For long years a bird in a cage,
Today, flying along with the clouds.

Soothe Your Soul

Here are a few excerpts from The Gospel According To Zen. Read them and see if they don't have a soothing effect:

"If your heart is without stormy waves, everywhere are blue mountains and green trees. If our real nature is creative like nature itself, wherever we may be, we see that all things are free like sporting fishes and circling kites"

“When in the mood, I take off my shoes and walk barefooted through the sweet-smelling grasses of the fields, wild birds without fear accompanying me. My heart at one with nature, I loosen my shirt as I sit absorbed beneath falling petals, while the clouds silently enfold me as if wishing to keep me there.”

"Just as a whirlwind roaring down a valley leaves nothing behind it, so the ear is to have nothing to do with right and wrong. Just as the moon only reflects its light in a pool, so the mind, empty and unattached, does not know itself and the outside world as two things."

"A solitary cloud comes out of a mountain cave; it stays or departs without reference to anything else. The bright mirror of the moon hangs in the sky; it is aloof from both quietness and clamor."

Take A Hike!

Greetings and welcome to the Church of the Red Pines.

I am your pastor, Guy Thomas.

I encourage you, dear congregation, to take a hike. Yes, you heard me, take a hike — vamoose, am-scray, hit the road Jack, and find a nice trail to get yourself closer to nature.

Many times have I hiked on a trail leading into a forest of red pines. That is my church. Fallen logs are pews. Feathered friends sing in the choir, reciting the twenty-bird psalm. A copse is an apse where trees stand and preach in silence. Breezes whispering through the pines deliver hushed sermons.

From an old Zen saying:

"The song of birds, the voices of insects, are all means of conveying truth to the mind; in flowers and grasses we see messages of the Way. The scholar, pure and clear of mind, serene and open of heart, should find in everything what nourishes him."

And this excerpt from Aldous Huxley's wonderful novel Island, talking about St. Francis of Assisi:

"Just imagine," he went on, "preaching sermons to perfectly good thrushes and goldfinches and chiff-chaffs! What presumption! Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut and let the birds preach to him?”

Why waste your time sitting in a stuffy structure on a hard wooden bench listening to some dubious spiritual authority recite words from some ancient text? Communion with nature will serve you much better. 

So take a hike, earnest seeker. Your mind, body, and spirit will thank you for it.