Nature and Contemplation

GREAT STILLNESS

Permeates all – penetrates all

as if nothing moves.

Wind brushes through pine branches –

sun shines brilliant white –

sky provides its deepest blue –

it does not matter – stillness prevails over all these.

Nor do the sea gulls’ cries dispel

the quiet. It is all powerful.

Yet silence gives itself away –

I spot footsteps in it – I sense

the presence of someone.

Breeze brushing my face reminds me

of the prophet Elijah in the cave –

divine was not in the thunder nor lightening

nor earthquake

but in the gentle breeze passing by.

Let me be happy in the same cave –

stillness is not empty –

touch of my Beloved on my shoulder.

It is so nice to meet Him.

Robert Trabold

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NATURE AND CONTEMPLATION

Robert Trabold

You, mountains and hills,

bless the Lord!

You, oceans and rivers,

bless the Lord!

                                                                                Daniel, 3.

            People following the path of contemplative prayer and building the discipline of silence into their lives need motivation to preserver in this endeavor. We are busy people and face the challenge to make room for two periods of meditation daily.  Life also has its concerns and we are involved in many things, such as, family, work, interests, etc. We need motivation to focus ourselves and encounter the presence of God at our center and still point. It behooves us to reflect and see what things can help us in our daily attempts at contemplation. One thing that can aid us in our prayer life and to focus on God’s presence is to use nature to lead us into silence. The natural world is full of beauty and silence, and manifests a sense of transcendence and all of these can be very valuable to us.

            In relation to the beauty of nature, I am lucky that I live in a house with a garden which is fairly big and has many bushes and plants so that I can sit there in privacy. During the warm weather of spring, summer and the fall, I take opportunities to meditate there because the flowers of the different seasons touch me and give me a sense of God’s presence. It is good to remember the words of Jesus: “Not even Solomon in all his glory can add to the beauty of the lilies of the field.”  Tulips, daffodils and lilacs of the springtime, roses, hydrangea and phlox of the summer and the chrysanthemums and black eyed suzies of the autumn, each of these has its own feeling and beauty helping me enter into God’s presence. Also, I do not live far from the Atlantic Ocean and walking along the seashore with the blue sea and dunes capture me and help me enter contemplation. The seashore varies with the seasons of the year giving me a variety of experiences and enhancing the spiritual dimension. I have been backpacking my whole adult life in the high peak region of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. Each year I am drawn back and I find it a contemplative experience because the beauty of the peaks, lakes and forests calm me down and help me focus on God’s presence at my center.  In summary, the beautiful things of the natural world can help us in our contemplative journey toward God.

            The second element of nature that can usher us into the contemplative spirit is its quietness. It is as if the natural world is standing at attention in the silence of God. I find the quiet of the garden in the morning and evening helpful to focus on meditation. It has a way of pushing into the background the noises and cares of my daily life and aiding me enter into the silence of contemplation. Walking along the seashore has the same effect. The dunes and the ocean have a calm and quiet touching me and leading me into meditation. Even the sound of the waves in the distance can accentuate this experience. In my backpacking and hiking experience, the mystic mountains and forest exude a silence which is penetrating. I am far from the noise of New York City and the mountains lead me into God’s silence.

            The third quality of nature, its sense of transcendence, grows out of its beauty and silence. In contemplation, we are cultivating a relationship with God who is other and absolute. Although in contemplative prayer, we cultivate a deep intimacy with God who resides at our center – still point, we also have the experience of our Beloved being completely other and different. God is ineffable and in a certain sense, always slips through our fingers. We cannot grasp the divine. The natural world has also this sense of transcendence. The changing beauty of the spring – summer garden with different flowers, the mystic seashore with the vast ocean and its waves and endless dunes, touch us and point to an abyss within us at our center where the transcendent God is present. High mountains and vast views over the landscape from the peaks give us also this sense of otherness. It is as if God left traces of Himself/Herself in the natural world despite the fact that the divine is ineffable and ultimately nothing can be said about it.

            In sum, in contemplative prayer, we are making an inward journey to the divine at our center – still point.  In our life, we cultivate a discipline of silence so that we can meet God in this encounter. In the struggle to be faithful to our contemplative engagement and help us enter into the silence of God, we should use the natural world as an aid to this goal. In our daily struggle to focus ourselves in prayer, the natural world with its beauty, stillness and sense of transcendence can give us a helping hand.

Let us be happy, my beloved,

and look at your beauty

in the mountains and valleys,

where fresh water runs,

let us enter more deeply into the thicket!

                                                                 ‘Spiritual Canticle,’ John of the Cross

                                                                                   (my translation)