I found this work by Lama Govinda this morning and wanted to share it. Lama was born in 1898 in Germany and founded the Pali Tibetan Buddhist order. He spent his life teaching and lecturing in India, and in the 1960’s he began traveling around the world teaching Buddhism.
In his work about mountains I am reminded of the beauty of mountains; not only that but I can begin to understand myself a little better. Just like the mountain I am creating my world with my thoughts. Just like the mountain, I am a whole part of a vast system that supplies energy in the form of love to my world and everything in it. The mountain is filled with consciousness and continues to grow and expand just like I do. We are connected in the web of All There Is and the mountain is expressing itself to me in order for me to become aware of unlimited energy I have within me. People in all countries flock to mountains for the peace and serenity they offer; some people climb mountains in order to stand on top and look down; looking down from the top certainly brings another reality into focus. Some people wander through mountains searching for something and find it. Some people are afraid of mountains and avoid them, just like I avoid feeling the love I have within me.
It doesn’t matter how I perceive mountains and what metaphor if any they seem to represent, Govinda’s work makes me think and relate to mountains in a unique and gratuitous way. I am able to focus on the beauty of nature and find peace within myself knowing I am what the mountain is, an expression of my source growing and expanding into a grander version of myself.
“To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one’s distance.
To understand its form, one must move around it.
To experience its moods, one must see it at sunrise and sunset,
At noon and at midnight, in sun and in rain,
In snow and in storm, in summer and in winter,
And in all other seasons.
He who can see the mountain like this comes near to the life of the mountain.
Mountains grow and decay, they breathe and pulsate with life.
They attract and collect invisible energies from their surroundings.
The forces of the air, of the water, of electricity and magnetism.
They create winds, clouds, thunderstorms, rains, waterfalls and rivers.
They fill their surroundings with active life and give shelter and food to innumerable beings.
Such is the greatness of the mighty mountains.”