23 posts tagged “nature”

413. Mysterium Tremens et Fascinas (A tremendous and fascinating mystery)

Sep 24, 2009
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'We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the people, events, and things of the day - to which we as sophisticated children, have long since become oblivious. What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.'

- Annie Dillard

'The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not, and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead. We all had this priceless talent when we were young. But as time goes by, many of us lose it. The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being.'

- Hans Selye

'Even with the understandable goal of avoiding unnecessary surprises, if you pattern your life too carefully, slowly you lose your sense of awe. I am not speaking here of the supernatural; I am speaking of the super in the natural.'

- Forrest Church

'All things cover up the same mystery; all things are veils that cover God.'

- Pascal

All of the above from Forrest Church's Lifecraft, The Art of Meaning In the Everyday

'What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get into the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.'

- Haruki Murakami via WhiskeyRiver

409. 'We have to start fishing...'

Aug 19, 2009
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LIT-UP

'One reason for fascination with Miyazaki may be his contradictions. The director whose films typically end with an uplifting affirmation of humanity suitable for children is the same director who told his Berkeley audience, "It would be wonderful if I could see the end of civilization during my lifetime." The man who is able to entrance children, and adults, with his animation is the same one who complains about children spending too much time with virtual reality instead of being outdoors in nature.

UC Berkeley honored Miyazaki with the Japan Prize, first given last year to writer Haruki Murakami, for contributions to the understanding of Japan. Miuazaki provided further fodder for academics in his brief acceptance remarks, which consisted of an extended metaphor about those in the entertainment field needing to insert a pipe down through the sheets of paper full of data and figures that fill our daily lives. "We have to start fishing from way down below where there is no paper," he said through an interpreter. "And the only way that we can really justify our presence and our work is to continue to make this effort to make this hole and go deeper and deeper."'

- from the LA Times article on Miyazaki, 08-09-09

400. 'The real marks of wildness...'

Jun 17, 2009
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Nature2

'Nature is never interrupted, never takes a vacation, never stops ruminating over its systems and tinkering with them. It works beneath a nano-level with the intelligence of entropy aimed at infinity. That's a lot of hard drive, a lot of gigabytes, a vast span, a wide plane of action, and all of it at a speed far greater than that of light because it effectively combines the velocity of all its operations at once.'

- Richard Grossinger

'There is a great insight which our culture is deliberately designed to suppress, distort, and ignore: that Nature is a minded entity; that Nature is not simply the random flight of atoms through electromagnetic fields; that Nature is not the empty, despiritualized lumpen matter that we inherit from modern physics. But it is instead a kind of intelligence, a kind of mind.'

- Terence McKenna

'The real marks of wildness are a love of nature, a delight in silence, a voice free to say spontaneous things, and an exuberant curiosity in the face of the unknown.'

- Robert Bly

391. 'Thrilled to the very edges...'

May 3, 2009
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Sky-Hands

'And notwithstanding the scene is so impressively spiritual, and you seem dissolved in it yet everything about you is beating with warm, terrestrial human love delightfully substantial and familiar.'

- John Muir

'If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.'

- Audra Foveo

'Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.'

- Rainer Maria Rilke

All this via Whiskey River - http://whiskeyriver.blogspot.com/

366. Keep your wits about you...

Feb 24, 2009
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Spheres

'I once has a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.'
- Henry David Thoreau

'The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.'
- Eden Phillpotts

'Using words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef'
- Tom Robbins

351. You are gifted.

Jan 29, 2009
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Sight

'Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

347. How to keep it interesting.

Jan 25, 2009
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Stream

'What is important now is to recover our senses.'
- Susan Sontag

330. What to do.

Jan 2, 2009
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Utah

'God calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet...'
- Frederick Buechner.

329. Who loves you?

Jan 1, 2009
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Poppies

'I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.'
- Frank Lloyd Wright

323. Be brave.

Jul 23, 2008
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Ready-Animal

Lately we've been invited to wander into some dark forests and down some dark hallways. In our effort to remain fearless, we meditate, we read and we create. It helps, it really does. And so does learning about things like this:

"Bat - Rebirth
Steeped in the mystery of Mesoamerican tribal ritual is the legend of Bat. Akin to the ancient Buddhist belief in reincarnation, in Central America, Bat is the symbol of rebirth. The Bat has for centuries been a treasured medicine of the Aztec, Toltec, Tolucan, and Mayan peoples.
Bat embraces the idea of shamanistic death. The ritual death of the healer is steeped in secrets and highly involved initiation rites. Shaman death is the symbolic death of the initiate to the old ways of life and personal identity. The initiation that brings the right to heal and to be called shaman is necessarily preceded by ritual death. Most of these rituals are brutally hard on the body, mind and spirit. In light of today's standards, it can be very difficult to find a person who can take the abuse and come through it with their balance intact.
The basic idea of ancient initiations was to break down all the former notions of 'self' that were held by the shaman-to-be. This could entail brutal tests of physical strength and psychic ability, and having every emotional 'button' pushed hard. Taunting and spitting on the initiate was common, and taught him or her to endure the duress with humility and fortitude. The final initiation step was to be buried in the earth for one day and to be reborn without the former ego in the morning."

From Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson.