1
The beauty we see in a single flower points to a MIND
capable of thinking such beauty. In the end Nature and Art point to God.
2
The most spectacular of all full moons in the western
hemisphere and the one which lingers longest is the harvest moon which ends the
summer and precedes the autumn. This provides a special chance for meditations.
3
Even if we take the Buddhistic view that all is
transient, all is subject to change, and all is doomed to decay, we need not
deny that the beauty and the pleasure to be found in physical life, however
momentarily, still have their value. Is a field of flowers utterly worthless? Is
the loveliness of a sunset to be utterly rejected?
4
Nature produces new or nobler feelings in the more
sensitive wanderers into her domain. The sunset's peace, the dawn's promise of
hope, and the pleasure of beauty's presence are always worthwhile and should
fill us with gratitude.
5
His true father or mother is Nature.
6
Even the huge anthropoid apes - so near to man - have
been observed to bow their heads solemnly and respectfully before the brightness
of the rising moon.
7
It is a mysterious fact that high aspirations and
good resolutions born between Christmas and Easter will be more successful
during the subsequent twelve months than those born later in the year.
8
It is an error to confuse the inert simplicity and
animal naturalness of the peasant with the dynamic simplicity and spiritual
naturalness of the sophisticated philosopher.
9
The wisdom of the Overself is the wisdom of Nature.
When the new spring leaves arrive birds build their nests the better to hide
them.
10
He will accomplish this disciplinary work best if
he retires to the quietude and contemplation of Nature, to a country seclusion
where he can be least distracted and most uplifted. Here is the temple where
aspiration for the Higher Self can find its best outlet; here is the monastery
where discipline of the lower self can be easiest undertaken.
11
The beauty in a bird's song, the peace in a sage's
face, the intelligence in Nature's actions, these offer hints and clues, as well
as topics for meditation, to truth-seeking, ideal-aspiring men.
12
Let him stand at some busy corner, musing quietly
and philosophically upon the unquiet metropolitan scene of great crowds of
people swarming in and out of the subways, like rabbits swarming in and out of
their burrows. Then let him stand on some mountain top and look down upon a
scene of tranquil beauty. As he stands in wonder before the panorama of Nature,
where spring bluebells dot the grey-green valleys while buttercups and cowslips
grow profusely in the wide meadows, something of its serenity may touch his
heart. Lulled by this sweet landscape, he will feel pleased at the thought that
there is so much distance between him and the world.
13
To look steadily at Nature's own artwork for a
while - be it mountain, valley, or moving waves - with growing deep feeling
until the self is forgotten, is also a yoga practice.
14
There is a limiting effect upon the mind in the
rooms of houses that have no view, in the narrow street of an old town, if a man
has to live there. Great ideas do not lodge comfortably in bodies whose outlook
is shut-in, restricted. But by the seashore the mind expands with the
spaciousness and openness.
15
The strong emotional impression of beauty which a
Nature-painted scene can evoke will - if he stays with it and does not too
quickly hurry off to other thoughts - take him away from self-consciousness, its
narrow confines and severely limited interests. He forgets them, and in the
forgetting is released for the time from his ego.
16
When a man is in deep trouble, for which no human
voice can bring consolation, it is then the turn of Nature. In the quiet woods,
the winding riverside, the view from a mountain, he may gather some crumbs, at
least, of that which he cannot find elsewhere.
17
There is not only a poetic or aesthetic value in
appreciating the beauty of a mountain stream, the companionship of a group of
trees. There is also a still higher value which is findable only if a man looks
upward and away from his little personal affairs.
18
Nature is my guru.
19
It is true that God dwells in no particular
Nature-made place, no special kind of man-made buildings, being everywhere yet
nowhere. But it is also true that in certain places and buildings one can retire
more deeply into one's own heart, and thus feel more closely God's ever-presence
there.
20
In Nature's solitary places, in its forests,
mountains, and grasslands, it is easier to cultivate the philosopher's trinity
of goodness, truth, and beauty than in the crowded quarters of towns.
21
We need quiet places where the earth is left in its
natural state and where men can seek in leisure and freedom to recover their
independence of thought and to restore awareness of their inner selves - so hard
to gain and so easy to lose in the modern world.
22
Those who seek inspiration and revelation withdraw
into solitude and Nature, for there they may best achieve their purpose. Jesus
departed into the desert, Buddha into the forest, Zoroaster, Muhammed, and Moses
into the mountains.
23
If the tranquillity of a grove of trees or a grassy
meadow, with all its sweetness and healing virtue, percolates into him, why let
it go after a few moments? Why not stay with it, leave it to itself, and keep
still for a while? Only look at it more closely.
24
Alone with Nature, in places like the lakes and
forests of America's Adirondack Mountains, India's Himalayas, Switzerland's
less-frequented valleys, it is still possible to find remoteness and feel
external peace on this crowded planet.
25
Contact with Nature will, with sensitivity and
appreciation, develop into communion with Nature - a purifying experience.
26
In those long, leisured silences while taking in
the beauty of Nature, feeling its unstirred peace and unhurried whisper, seek to
open up all the sensitivity of your heart to its Presence as a living, friendly,
conscious thing.
27
Thoughtful seekers among the ancients and Orientals
found fitter temples in Nature, in open desert spaces with the sky overhead and
the sand underneath, than in elaborate structures resounding to the chants of
professional men who had exhausted their divine mandate.
28
The mountains stand up all around me but the lakes
give enough wide space to avoid producing any feelings of being hemmed in by
them. They help my meditations, rest my eyes, keep a measure of tranquillity
around me. At the threshold of life I was fascinated by Switzerland: at the end
of travels, I come home.
29
A convoy of swans comes sailing gracefully toward
the Lake Leman shore when they see me arrive with bread for them. But they get
only a half of the bag's contents for I must move on later to the
eighteenth-century building where a tribe of pigeons dwell on the pediment and
eaves.
30
How valuable are those moments when a man finds
time "to stand and stare" at some bit of Nature's floral beauty or arboreal
colour, or to listen in the right way to music. Much beauty that he did not
notice before will now be discovered and severe tensions will vanish.
31
Those who strongly feel the call of rural areas and
hilly dales, shady woods and lakeside shores may be drawn not only by beauty,
tranquillity, colour and freshness but also, in a percentage of cases by
the mystical presence with which Nature invests such places.
32
That time is not wasted which a man spends amid the
silence of a great forest to ponder on his duty and reflect on his destiny.
33
To come to rest on the summit of a hill, content,
alone with Nature and space, is a time to turn thought to God.
34
The sensitive man can freshen his trust in the
ultimate goodness of things from a glowing sunset, can renew his inward peace
with a forest walk. Nature lovingly speaks to him, all wordless though she be.
35
It is a soothing experience to sit in the grass
high on the top of a cliff, to look out at the vast spread of sea, and then to
let the mind empty itself of accumulated problems. As the minutes pass,
equanimity is restored and repose laps one about.
36
What he learns in a wordless way from such contacts
with Nature will not be less precious than what he learns in uttered sentences
or written paragraphs from human teachers.
37
The admiration of Nature is a step toward the
understanding of Nature's secret, but it is still only a step.
38
In the beauty of a rose and the loveliness of a
sunset the man of aesthetic feeling or poetic temperament may unconsciously find
a reminder of the grander beauty of the Overself.
39
To the sensitive person, an unspoiled scenery of
lakeland or woodland, sea or mountain, brings with its silent contemplation a
nostalgic longing for return to his true spiritual home.
40
Those who are responsive to Nature, and more
especially to the beautiful colours released at the sun's rise and fall, to the
silences of woods and forests, or to the ocean's vast spaciousness, may use such
contacts for attempts to get spiritual glimpses.
41
If he is sensitive to refined feelings within and
Nature's beauty without and if he conjoins both to mystical ideas, he may come
into such experiences as Jean Jacques Rousseau once described in his
Promenades of a Solitary Dreamer.
42
There is one quality which re-enters man when the
spring season re-enters the yearly cycle. It is hope.
43
What a striking sight is that of Sirius gleaming in
a tropic sky on a calm mild night!
44
It is a common experience that in shady woodland
walks there is an effluence of peace in the atmosphere. We need not wonder that
in such and kindred places it is easier to find the quietness within. It is true
that men have found their way to the Overself in almost every kind of
environment, but there was more help and less conflict when they were alone with
primeval Nature.
45
As the axis of the earth heaves itself over, we
reach the end of one season and the beginning of another. The calendar points
which mark this change mark also the movement of an inner cycle. Each equinox is
a time when man may profitably try not only to change and cleanse himself but
also to put himself in harmony with Nature, God. It is a time for extra effort
in prayer, meditation, and purification. Physically, it is a time for a
twenty-four hour fast or semi-fast.
46
Autumn is the time for spiritual planting, winter
for spiritual growth, summer for spiritual rest, spring for spiritual harvest.
In short, the seasons of nature have a reverse effect on man spiritually to that
which they have on him physically. The spring equinox falls annually on March
20-21, the autumn equinox on September 23, the winter solstice on December 22nd,
and the summer solstice on June 21.
47
The awakening of dawn, when every little bird
bursts into song or recites a threnody, should bring new hope to a man. But it
can do so only if he lets it. And for this he must put his own person aside,
open his mind, make passive his heart, and slow his breathing.
48
There is a mysteriousness in the atmosphere at dawn
which is paralleled at no other time of the day. It is brief but intense.
49
Just as sunrise and sunset are especially
auspicious moments for prayer and meditation, so there are special times of the
year, special seasons when the aspirant has opportunities for easier communion
and quicker advancement than he has at other times. These seasons were known to
the ancient religions of America, of Europe, of Africa, and of Asia. Hence they
are universal dates and universally kept in the annals of mysticism. It is
because of this knowledge, although somewhat obscure, that the religious
festivals and sacred seasons like Christmas and Easter have been made part of
various religions, both pagan and modern. Jewish and Greek mystics, as well as
those of Egypt and Rome, observed them. These mystically auspicious times were
the new moon days following the opening of each of the seasonal equinoxes or
solstices. That is, the first new moon after March 21st, June 21st, September
21st, and December 21st. At such times the disciple should make a special effort
to purify himself, to fast, pray, worship, and meditate because it is easier
then to achieve the result sought.
50
The mysterious sustenance we get from Nature when
she smiles, the misery she kindles when she frowns, both point to the closeness
of our relation to her.
51
From the hill on whose side I dwell, at the very
edge of Montreux, my window looks across sloping vineyards. It has a long view.
This means much when one has to live closed in a small apartment every day,
every year, with fifty families in the same building. I like the freedom of
solitude, the view through unobstructed space. To let the green scenery take my
thoughts away into a pleasant harmony with Nature for a few minutes at least, is
a daily need, not a luxury. To sit even longer and go far away in consciousness
until an unworldly quiescence is reached, is my evening bread.
52
The Hindus carry this admiration for a mountain
even farther than we Europeans and Americans do - they revere it. Gods live on
or within it in non-physical bodies; yogis find it the proper place for their
meditations; it is indeed holy territory.
53
If while lost in admiration of a beautiful land or
seascape we are stricken into silence, we get a closer inner relationship with
Nature than if we immediately make it into a conversation piece.
54
The gardener who waters his flowers and shrubs with
loving patience receives love from them in return. It is not like the human
kind, but is the exact correspondence to it on the plant level.
55
The flower's beauty is simply a pointer, reminding
us to think, speak, and behave beautifully.
56
Nature herself tries to bring about a correct
attitude, but our ingrained habits thwart her and warp the instinct she plants
in us.
57
They call it artistic appreciation or poetic
feeling, this leisurely taking-in of a rippling brook and its grassy banks, but
it is really close, very close to a mystical moment.
58
The silent empty desert may bore one man utterly,
but bring another man close to infinite peace.
59
It is at such wonderful times that we pass from
admiring Nature's attractive beauty to adoring Nature's divine source.
60
Sit in reverence before the setting or rising sun.
61
Winter marks the opening of that period from just
before Christmas and culminating with Easter when the inner forces of Nature
make it possible for man to make quicker progress than during the rest of the
year. It is a suitable period to intensify aspiration, increase study, and
meditate more.
62
If he falls into a kind of loving admiration of the
landscape stretched out before him, and stays in it as long as he can, dropping
all other thoughts, it will be a meditation as holy as if done in a church.
63
The passage from wonder to worship may be short or
long, depending on the kind of man he is; it may need just a few more
reincarnations or quite a lot: but it is a logical one, for Nature is a body of
God, in time and space.
64
The closer I come to Nature the farther I go from
evil. I move towards her because I feel drawn by her beauty and healed by her
peace, yet I find that virtue follows them not long after.
65
To the extent that human beings have disturbed the
proper equilibrium of Nature, they have brought upon themselves not only the
bodily penalties of polluted environment but also the inner consequences of
mental disturbance and emotional disequilibrium.
66
The dispension of culture and the democratization
of art inevitably lead to lowering standards of taste. The tragedy of vast
forests being depleted or destroyed to feed papermills for newspapers catering
to low tastes, mental vacuity, moral degeneration and hunger for reports on
commercialized pseudo-sport is one sign.
67
The birth of spring was celebrated by most ancient
cults and religions. Its culmination in the Christian year with Easter offers a
fresh chance for each man to awaken spiritually; but it is for him to take
advantage of this inner event and respond to the World-Mind. Those who can
respond only with and in their flesh bodies materialistically benefit, too, but
link themselves with the animals.
68
When a sensitive man is in distress he will often,
if circumstances allow, turn to nature, go to a wood, a forest, a meadow, a
park, or even a small garden, either for a changed scene or to muse upon his
situation. Why? It is an instinctive act. He needs help, hope, comforting,
guidance, or peace. The instinct is a true one, a response to a lead from his
higher self.
69
We take nature's beauty for granted and do not
adequately understand our good fortune.
70
The lake shore is bright and sunlit; moreover it
stretches far away to the other side where steep snow-covered mountains slope
abruptly down into the water. Thus the view is cheerful, beautiful, spacious -
superb. But here, in this small wood where old broad trees alternate with green
turf, the sun does not enter, although the distance to the lake is only about
fifty yards. Here the scene is shadowy, a darker tint, and enclosed. The first
picture is happier, offers more beauty to the aesthetic mind. But this second
one carries a deeper message: one feels a stillness which verges on the
mystical. If the first charms, the second calms. The first lightens the heart,
arouses hopes, gives enjoyment. The second quietens desires, kindles reverence,
lessens anxiety and, above all, bequeaths a more lasting remembrance.
71
Nature, which produces such great beauty in flowers
and birds, on fields and mountains, does not hesitate to destroy it, too.
72
In looking for the beauty in Nature, a man is
looking for his soul. In adoring this Beauty when he finds it, he is recognizing
that he not only owns an animal body, but is himself owned by a higher Power.
73
There are men who may appear to be materialistic
but the admiration for Nature's beauty or the inspiration from noble music is
their way of showing spiritual sensitivity. It is possibly the only way, given
their past history and present character.
74
These truly lovely sights and scenes in Nature
suggest to a sensitive or spiritually aesthetic person the invisible but felt
and thought beauty.
75
The unbelievably intricate and immensely
complicated nature of both microcosm and macrocosm should leave scientific
students of Nature awe-struck at the wonderful Mind behind it all.
76
Is it not the essence of practical wisdom to employ
every means that will most effectively achieve the goal of the Quest? Is it not
being narrow-minded to limit ourselves only to methods that can help Nature yet
keep Nature herself out?
77
There are moments when a man may sit alone with
nature, when no sound intrudes and all is quiet, pleasant, harmonious. If he
will enter into this stillness with nature and enter it deeply enough, he will
find that it is associated with what most religions call God.
78
No animal, insect, fish, or bird has ever produced
a metaphysical work or written a mystical poem or wondered about its own
consciousness. Yet each possesses intelligence within its grade and each, from a
bird like the crane to a creature like the chimpanzee, turns instinctively to
the sun at certain times, showing its reverence, again within its grade. All of
us acknowledge the physical sun as the original source of our physical life. If
we humans are so much more advanced than our animal cohabitants of this planet
that we alone can produce the three aforementioned things, we cannot all
recognize that we owe our spiritual life - what there is of it - to the
spiritual Sun, the ever-glorious Sun behind the sun, to our relationship with
God.
79
Why do the sensitive find the freedom of an open
uninterrupted view across landscape or seascape so appealing? The largeness and
freedom of space echo back from outside the body the same attributes of the
Spirit within.
80
It is a delight to sit on a terrace or belvedere
and stare across a green valley. But it is a spiritual gain to use the moment to
pass from the pleasant sight (as if it were a diving board) into a meditation.
81
Nature is his only neighbour: peace and beauty his
only friends. Man, with his accompanying evil, is absent.
82
In the quiet woods or green meadows, or hearing the
mountain streams bubbling along their downward way, his appreciation of Nature
may rise to actual communion.
83
We may take delight in the beauties of this natural
world while at the same time remembering poignantly their doom - a fragile
brevity that will wither and disintegrate in the end.
84
Some can pass into the inner state through the gate
of mere pleasure at beholding a beautiful scene in Nature.
85
When we are disgusted with the pettiness of mankind
we may turn in appreciation to the grandeur of Nature.
86
Whether in the sight and presence of the giants of
Himalaya or those of the Swiss Alps, massively standing against the sky, the
effect on thought is the same.
87
Dawn fills the sky with beryl signals of hope.
88
When his affairs become insupportable a man may
escape to the sea, if he can, and there, by its shore or on a ship, find a
little respite, that is, peace.
89
There is much difference between a window view
which looks out on the steel, wood, stone, or brick artifacts of man and one
which looks out on the landscapes of Nature or the gardens growing out of man's
cooperation with Nature. We need broad, spacious or beautiful horizons.
90
The artist in me joins with the Nature mystic in
demanding a window with a view looking out on open country. Seated at such a
window, the writer can be content, too, for this helps thought.
91
The effect of sitting by a lake shore or riverside
when the weather is good, the wind absent, the temperature pleasant, for a
sufficient length of time, may show itself in a sensitive person as calmness,
uplift, or appreciation of Nature's beauty.
92
He may go to the silent forest to take wordless
comfort when in distress.
93
Winding rivers, snowy peaks, wooded hills, resting
animals, peaceful pasturage, feathery ferns, and rustic sights - this is New
Zealand outside the few cities.
94
How furtively the dawn comes into being yet how
powerfully it grows into daylight!
95
When the sun slants over the Swiss Alps and
glistens on the surface of the lake, men are given a message by Nature
suggesting that there is a cheerful, positive side to their situation and
experiences however distressing the latter might be at the moment.
96
What man who is troubled in consciousness has not
felt in the peace of a forest the healing uplift of mind which it gives!
97
In the beauty which Nature can offer man, he may
find a catalyst to bring his feelings toward a loftier plane.
98
The invisible rays of the sun can kill bacteria,
give life to plants, heal ailing men under some circumstances or kill them under
others.
99
The beautiful in Nature, the singing of birds, the
coming of Spring's colours recall the beautiful moods in ourself when glimpses
revealed the soul.
100
The Matterhorn is not, as we are usually
informed, the highest Swiss mountain. There are a few others in its vicinity
which are somewhat higher. But it is the central showpiece, the most striking in
appearance, and the most interesting to climbers.
101
I stood on the summit of Mount San Salvatore,
looking by turns, at the enormous and glorious protecting circle of the Alps. It
was one of those clear crystalline evenings when the sinking sun touched ice and
snow with rose or gold, and when the Infinite Spirit touched heart and mind with
peace or beauty. I though of that other superb panorama, the lordly Himalayas,
of the different years when I visited their eastern, central, and western parts
- 2,500 kilometres - from end to end. Salvatore - "SAVIOUR" - the very name
instilled hope and promised help, while the mountain itself seemed to whisper
support.
102
A sensitive person may be gently influenced by
such beauty of Nature to pause and gaze, holding himself still for the while,
admiring and appreciating the scene, until he is so absorbed that he is lost in
it. The ego and its affairs retreat. Unwittingly he comes close to the delicious
peace of the Overself.
103
The travelling Goethe wrote his friends in
Germany about a Princess he met in Naples - she was young, gay, and superficial
- who advised him to go to her large country estate in Sorrento where "the
mountain air and lovely view would soon cure me of all philosophy!" Some of us,
however, would only be more incited by them to philosophy.