Member-only story
The Stillness
Focus on the breath… Be aware of your spinal cord as the axis that unites the physical and spiritual worlds. Focus all your attention on the energy that manifests and sustains your body. Do not let the mind distract you by attaching judgments or identifying with what you see, hear, or feel. Feel this vital energy as a sphere that is expanding about you from your center. Feel it flowing into every part of your body, and connecting you to all that is perceived as external.
Now, become aware of the space that surrounds the energy — within and about you; be aware of the silence containing all sound, and the ever-present stillness out of which all movement occurs. At your very core, is the center of consciousness connecting you to the whole of life; continually manifesting in the Earth, the Solar system, the galaxy and the Cosmos.
— Stephen Pope
*
In Siberia…I met Moolynaut, a shaman of the Koryak people. Through her teachings, my own adventures, and the patient conversations of many men and women, I have begun to see the world as our ancestors saw it, sustainable and full of wonder. Slowly, I am realizing that the lessons and experiences we learn from the people who live in wilderness — and ultimately from Wilderness itself — can guide us through our passages in this oil-soaked, internet-crazed, mad-cap world.
