mountains

silent consciousness

In this series, Received Wisdom, I've talked about some of my teachers, some of the people who have helped me on my way, sharing their wisdom with me, guiding me at times. And perhaps you can see that really everyone we meet can be a teacher. We can learn from every encounter. And it's not just with people. And that's why in the last two episodes of the series, I'm going to talk about a couple of other parts of existence who have very much been my teachers. And in this episode, I'm going to talk about mountains.

I've always been drawn to mountains. Even as a teenager, I would feel excited as I drew closer to some mountains. I wanted to walk on them. I wanted to be with the mountains, amongst them. And that energy, that longing, is still in me. As I speak, I'm in a mountainous area of New Zealand, in the Southern Alps. Magnificent peaks are all around me. And just being here among them brings an extra life to me.

I've climbed many mountains in my day. And there's something very particular, very special about the energy in the mountains. For me, the mountains feel timeless. Their lifespan is so much longer than ours. The rate at which they grow and change is so much slower.

And so when I'm in the mountains, I begin to feel that in myself. It helps me get in touch with my buddha nature, which is also timeless, changeless.

And there's something very grounding about the solidity of the mountains. It's as if they are not to be messed with. It's as if they're making a massive indisputable statement: I am!  And that in a way is also part of our spiritual journey: to be able to reach that point where we, too too, are emitting, broadcasting, embodying this sense, I am. But not as a small individual. Our existence, when we really probe deep enough, is the existence of the whole universe, all of life, including the mountains.

And there's another aspect of the mountain energy that I learned from. And that is, for me, a mountain has a particular consciousness. It's an empty consciousness, profoundly vast and still, unperturbed, a silent consciousness. And this, too, is the consciousness of a buddha.

So for me, the mountains have been one of the clearest manifestations of buddha nature. They have been great teachers, energetically more than in words, and I thank them for it.