It’s late morning, a typically hot summer morning inland in California. But a fine breeze blows through the brown hills, and it takes the edge off the heat, making the hike enjoyable.
Under a spotless sky, desiccated winter grasses shimmer a golden brown in the breeze. A careless match, or even a spark from an engine, could ignite a fire. I passed a charred area on the way in, which had been quickly extinguished.
A coyote left its scat on the trail in four places. The turds are as dry as the dirt around them. The message is clear: this is my home, not yours, human.
Walking slowly, I climb up to within a hundred meters of the dark volcanic rock along the rim of the canyon. Descending into the canyon along a trail that parallels the gravel road below, I clamber down a steep and narrow section between huge granite boulders. Below, a trickle of water flows by, keeping a small patch of grass green during the rainless months. In the silence of the canyon, one can hear, in that single trickling note of water, the music of the Earth.
A line from Henry David Thoreau comes to mind: “There is naked Nature, inhumanly sincere, wasting no thought on man.”
Sweating, I end the walk at the stream. I quickly strip down and slide into the cool water, floating down on the gentle current, swimming back upstream a number of times in the waist deep water. Light reflects and refracts off the multi-colored rocks on the streambed, and there’s joy beyond pleasure.
True meditation is the most important thing, since without unwilled negation in meditation, the increasing darkness of human consciousness suffocates even the strongest spirit. Quieting and emptying the mind is the source of peace and insight, as well as the fountainhead of our uniqueness as individuals.
Whether humankind changers course in my lifetime or not, awakening intelligence to the highest degree within one is essential. A true individual is as the word literally means—not divided. A drop of water contains an ocean in microcosm.
Passive, self-knowing observation is the foundation of method-less meditation, in which the chattering movement of thought spontaneously stops as attention gathers unseen within the brain.
When the inner foundation within the individual is poured through self-knowing and attention, only then can the outer, social and political dimension be adequately addressed.
For tens of thousands of years, the human mind has been based conditioning, first through innumerable generations of tradition, and now resigned to as unavoidable political and consumeristic “reality.”
A human being, on the other hand, grows in direct proportion to the degree she or he unconditions themselves through self-knowing, attention and insight.
Children absorb conditioning as easily they absorb language. However if parents and teachers are attentively self-knowing, the child is raised in completely different way, in a completely different atmosphere, and perhaps need not be conditioned at all.
Education is not merely the transmission of knowledge and the preparation for a career. The word education has the Latin root “educere,”which means, “to draw forth from within.”.
Knowledge and skill are essential aspects of education, but they are secondary to non-accumulative learning. Self-knowing (not self knowledge) is true “lifelong learning,” not continual accumulation of knowledge and skills.
Don’t try to teach children to meditate. It cannot be taught, just as listening cannot be taught, only conveyed and absorbed through example. Be attentive and self-knowing, and you’ll create an atmosphere of awareness and mindfulness. The space within for listening and attending cannot be forced. Intentionally conditioning children is to fill their minds and hearts with darkness.
As the parent is responsible for creating an atmosphere of awareness and attention in the home, the teacher is responsible for creating an atmosphere of awareness and attention in the classroom.
Parents and teachers, begin the day by listening to the sounds around you with children. If you live in a big city, ask if they hear a bird. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a natural setting, ask them to notice what they feel when they deeply listen to sounds in nature.
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