Tag Archives: experience

May 16, 2018 · 1:37 pm

The Thin Place

via Daily Prompt: Thin

IMG_1386 2.jpg

Photo: My thin places are the bush: A walk trail near Bridgetown.

The ancient Celts believed that there were places one could go where people and the spirit world could touch. The Celtic influence on Christianity was such that this belief carried over, that the veil between heaven and earth was thin or transparent. The barrier between human and the divine were almost non-existent. For the ancient Celts these places were mostly forrest groves, but in other cultures they are rivers, billabongs, monoliths, mountain-tops, caves and more.

Not the same, but related in some aspects, the Australian Indigenous peoples created songlines, which trace the creation of the land, the fauna and lore, by ancestral spirits. Indigenous Australians used the songlines as navigation paths, for social connection, cultural knowledge – especially coming to know the flora and fauna, the availability of water, the types of seasons, and how it all came to be. Songlines are places to touch the past and the present.

My thin places are in the bush, these are liminal, threshold places, where the mind transcends the ordinary, where the soul is restored, where the heart is lifted, and the eyes are filled.

Thin places might be Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Uluru, Chartres Cathedral, the Pyramids, the Himalayas, the stars, meditation, music, art, and more, places or experiences of place that awaken the soul to something more, something outside the self, something veiled but near. Whether or not this is a spiritual experience or a transcendence of some other kind, thin places are restorative, they are places of contemplation, places of beauty, awe, play, rest, and renewal. We all need thin places, we will know them differently, but we will know them. They are treasures to fill the soul.

John O’Donohue wrote: “When you begin to sense that your imagination is the place where you are most divine, you feel called to clean out of your mind all the worn and shabby furniture of thought. You wish to refurbish yourself with living thought so that you can begin to see.”

Paul,

pvcann.com

12 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, history, life, mindfulness, nature, religion

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 9, 2018 · 2:00 pm

Rush

via Daily Prompt: Rush

IMG_0087.jpg

I took this photo when Jon and I went to Bluff Knoll a couple of years ago. It was raining towards the top, and given the the sides of the mount were almost vertical in long sections, the rain rushed, hurtled down in streams. I love the sound of rushing water, it is something I’ve liked since I was a child, and this day was no different, it was a real treat. The other experience, inevitable really, was that we got soaked, and I didn’t mind that either. When I was a kid I’d run around without my raincoat on and rejoice in the rain. To play on the word rush, I got a rush out of the rain, and out of the rushing water.

Over the years I’ve experienced a rush in different ways, the usual suspects, drugs, alcohol, sugars, speed, abseiling, sport, travelling, bush walking, and the list goes on. It took time to learn to simply enjoy the moment, to attend to the experience as it was without seeking after it. It took time too, to emmerse in the experience without just consuming it. Of course it was partly learning and maturing, but it was also learning to let go and to deepen in the experience. There is something about experiencing a rush, a peak moment, to reach the pinnacle, but to do so without rushing it because the quality is richer and lasting. Not everything has to be immediate.

Who could forget the clasic Aesop fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hare” where the hare presumes to beat the slow moving tortiose, and yet through over-confidence and arrogance loses. Aesop simply making an observation about life, it’s how we are when we don’t immerse and attend.

I love this quote from Tolstoy: “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” and Rousseau: “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” The reverse is also true.

Paul,

pvcann.com

15 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, life, mindfulness, nature, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

October 22, 2017 · 1:57 pm

Enlighten

via Daily Prompt: Enlighten

2013-06-14 03.22.06.jpg

When I was a child I had very limited interaction with indigenous people. As I have aged I have spent considerable time meeting with and reading about indigenous people and their culture. For me it’s the relational side that really helps enlighten, but I never discount reading, or watching documentaries.

The story board in the photo is part of an indigenous story trail above Windy Harbour. This board shows the six Noongar seasons. They are quite different to the four Euro seasons I have grown up with. The six Noongar seasons are: Beruc, Meertillook, Pourner, Meerningal, and Maunbernan.

Beruc is Decemebr – January; Meertillook is February – March; Pourner is April – May; Mancur is June – July; Meerningal is August – September; Maunbernan is October – November. When you live here for a time this understanding of seasons makes perfect sense. The Euro four seasons is not clear here, but, and it goes without saying, the indigenous seasonal calendar fits my experience. The six seasons also relate to different wind cycles, which is also my experience. The pictures on the story board tell the story of the seasons well.

I’d love to have these as our official seasonal guide, but they are specific to Western Australia, and only in the south, so it would only relate to people in our southern districts. Even so, it would be a positive step, because it would enlighten us to the great variety in the seasons, and would also explain our weather patterns.

Paul,

pvcann.com

4 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, nature, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

October 9, 2017 · 1:01 pm

Believe

via Daily Prompt: Believe

Socrates comes to mind, naturally, when he says: “I am wiser than anyone else because I know I don’t know.” Belief is a strong, determined word. In the hilarious movie ‘Dogma’ (1999) the character Rufus, the thirteenth apostle (played by Chris Rock), asks “Do you believe, or do you have an idea?” The film was a criticism of the institution of the Church, which tends to foster sound doctrine, black and white beliefs, and in some corners of the Church, fanaticism (albeit, fundamentalism).

The issue of religious belief is always objectivity trying to defeat and ridicule subjectivity.

It might be that faith is a better word, but even that is a loaded word. But as author Ann Lamott says: “Faith begins with experience, and our faith is our reaction to that experience. Science begins with intuition and not logic.” And she also adds: “You have to experience something before you can know something.” And, “The opposite of faith is certainty.” and so, back to Socrates.

I prefer to speak carefully of the experience of soul work, the contemplative life, and my experiences of Other. Do I believe? Well, I don’t disbelieve, but I prefer to say, I have an experience, which is something more than an idea.

 

4 Comments

Filed under Alt-Religion, life, Philosophy/Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 4, 2017 · 3:34 pm

Educate the World

via Daily Prompt: Educate

IMG_0131

I really like the sentiment of the poster (which I found on the net some time back, but which had no credit), it doesn’t matter your race or beliefs, we are one human race. Sadly the poster alone won’t educate the world. When I engage with learning I prefer hands on, to be shown then to have a go. It works well through group work where we learn from each other, through relationships, and through experience. The way to educate the world towards positive and mutual acceptance of difference yet oneness is the same, to engage in relationships that break down suspicion, difference, or any false binary that intrudes on relationships. If we learn from each other, if we build relationships with each other, if we experience the other, then we can make it.

Paul

pvcann.com

Leave a comment

Filed under life, Philosophy/Theology

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 3, 2017 · 2:23 pm

Priceless

Priceless

I don’t want to delve into it too deeply, but you may remember the catchy adds a few years ago that promoted a credit card where a moment or experience that was so unique that it transcended normal concepts of value. Of course, the reality is that no credit card can transcend the reality of your income, and credit cards are not priceless, they cost in real time. It begs the question, what really is priceless? Family, friends, love, achievements, and so on, they are priceless.

For me nature is priceless, though we’ve managed to comodify it anyway and thereby devalue it rather than make it priceless. But when I look at nature I see what I have not made, what I cannot make, what I do not own, nor cannot own, but rather, that which sustains me body , mind and spirit, and holds together a myriad of seen and unseen relationships.

IMG_2966 (1)

This photo was taken at Redbank Gorge in early August, to me its priceless.

Paul

pvcann.com

4 Comments

Filed under life, nature

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,