Man hiking in mountains

3 CONSCIOUS REFLECTIONS: A Faithful Silence, Pay It Forward and more

Last updated: September 1st, 2020

A faithful silence


It’s a beautiful day outside and you decide to hike to the top of a glorious mountain. When you arrive at the trailhead, your mind is anxious and your thoughts wander in every direction away from the present—the here and now.

For the first 20 minutes of your hike, you’re totally consumed by reflections upon the past and possibilities for the future. In your restless mind of untamed thoughts, emotions and impressions, you replay your countless dramas from yesterday and make big plans for what you’ll accomplish tomorrow.

Such worries over relationship troubles, workplace dramas and recent personal failures coalesce with wild imaginings of your hopes and dreams that are yet to be fulfilled. At this phase of your journey, you’re feeling anxious and alienated from your inner self.

You continue walking along the trail in this uncomfortable and distracted state, until the miraculous happens. Your mind begins to quiet and your heart tunes in to the glory of your natural surroundings. You then start to notice those wondrous happenings that you took for granted only moments ago.

On your way up to the rarefied peak, you’re swept away by the harmonious songs of the Earth. Through a new pair of eyes, the first thing you realize is how the warm, life-giving rays of the sun stir all living creatures into action. As a child of the sun, you begin to feel an indescribable kinship with all beings of the forest.

You then quiet down even more, and tune in to the heavenly sounds of the swaying treetops and the whispering wind. You smell the sweet aroma of spring’s blooming flowers, and hear the faint sound of flowing water off in the distance. It’s at this point that you’ve entered into a natural and sacred space that has been called Zen, Oneness and Sat-Chit-Ananda by mystics across various faiths.

As you bask in the wonder of this heightened state of awareness, your body feels as light as air and your vital energies come into balance. As the mountaintop draws near, you hardly recognize the being that you’ve become, but yet, have always been.

Arriving at the mountaintop, you feel an overwhelming sense of love and appreciation for the unitive perspective of the Eagle. Standing at the summit of a rocky abyss, you recognize the soft grooves etched into the great blue hills. You feel wildly comforted by the vast jungle forests that rest upon the surrounding mountaintops and stretch as far as your eyes can see.

Looking out at the vast expanse of glorious Earth, you begin to understand just how inconsequential you are in the grand scheme of things. However, somewhere inside, you know that in being nothing, you’re indeed everything. You then walk back down the mountain in a faithful silence.

Pay it forward (A lesson from the cannabis shop)


Homeless man on bench

It was the start of a typical evening along the Colorado Front Range. Rush-hour traffic was unbearable, due to multiple car accidents caused by impatient drivers.

Understandably, I felt a bit antsy from this hair-raising commute. So I did the only sensible thing any 420-inclined person might do in a legal state: I stopped at my favorite ganja shop for some much-needed herbal relief!

As I made my way into the shop, I was greeted by my favorite bud-tender with a hug and smiles (this was pre-COVID-19). Who wouldn’t be all smiles in a cannabis shop?! After a few minutes of friendly banter with my grateful host, I motioned towards the pre-rolled joints in the back of the room, and inquired about their cost.

My beloved bud-tender smiled and said it was $11.50 after tax, but I reached into my wallet and pulled out only $7.50. I was clearly short!

You know the look that children give when they’re denied candy by their parents? Well, that’s how my face must’ve appeared to everyone around me. I didn’t have enough cash to buy my favourite green candy!

Since I was a well-liked regular, my bud-tender succeeded in cutting a dollar off the cost. However, I was still $3 short of making the purchase. Then, suddenly, at the very moment that I was prepared to walk out the door, a young man emerged from the back of the shop and handed me $3.

I turned to the man and introduced myself. We exchanged a high-five, and I turned to my bud-tender friend and said, “See, that man is a shining example of how world peace will one day be achieved. It won’t come through the brokered ‘peace’ of nation-states, but rather, through the daily generous acts of individuals.” For several moments, the two of us talked excitedly about the beautiful concept of “pay it forward.”

Three days later, with the interaction from the cannabis shop still fresh in my mind, I spotted a homeless man on the side of the road. I introduced myself to him, and we started talking as two brother souls.

As I came to find out, this person was an inspiring being who’d fallen on rough times in the wake of a recent breakup. He’d dedicated much of his previous adult life to protecting the Earth from corporate predators, and he had a deep faith in the Universe.

I handed him $7, and promised that the next time I saw him, I’d bring him a copy of The Upanishads, a sacred Hindu text that was also dear to his heart. We then hugged and said goodbye.

While driving home, I thought of the power of “pay it forward.” I smiled real wide as I acknowledged the fitting setting of my training in this practice!

Don’t fear the falling tree


Man hiking in mountains

When I go hiking in the mountains during a storm, I’m sometimes asked this question: “Aren’t you afraid a tree might fall on your head?” Usually, I only answer with an ambiguous shrug.

I’m happy to report that I now have a sure reply! No. I’m not afraid of a tree falling on my head. Nor, for that matter, do I fear getting struck by lightning, being attacked by mountain lions or getting lost in the woods.

In very recent times, I expressed these fears … but not anymore.  I’m just beginning to truly understand the meaning behind a most popular truth: you can only control what you can control. At some point in life, we must all find our faith within and surrender to the Universe. 

Indeed, if all occurring phenomena are really manifestations of the Ultimate Reality, the One, the Infinite, then everything in the cosmos is perfect just the way it is. All our suffering. All our pain. All our hopes. All our dreams. All our feelings of loss and gain.

Everything unfolds with great intention and purpose. We’re always cared for, even if we can’t fully tune in to the subtle but inspiring guidance of the Universe.

In the end, that which we perceive as our unbearable suffering may well turn out to be our greatest blessing(s) later in this life, through death and beyond. Why? Because God is love, and IT’s driving motivation is for us all to learn and to grow.

So, if it should be my fate for a tree to fall on my head while walking through the mountains, then let it fall where it may! Perhaps, suffering such an accident would mean that my soul was prepared to experience the oneness that abides in passing from life to death and back again.

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image 1: Pixabay; image 2: Pixabay

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