Nature, beauty, and religion

Nature takes away the mind, and gives us back our hearts. It makes sensitive souls such as St. Francis of Assisi cry out, "my brother the wind, my sister the rain."

In fact nothing that could be written, and nothing you could read, could equal a single magical moment amongst the grandeur of the earth's beauty; there is more truth in a single blade of grass, than in all the books, by all the wisemen, in all the libraries of the world.

And so we see that it is in the full-scale, abject destruction of the wild places on earth which most obviously exposes the present madness of the collective unfeeling mind overpowering and repressing the living, natural rhythm of the heart.

I quote now from one of Krishnamurti 's observations on this topic:

"Having lost touch with nature we naturally tend to develop intellectual capacities. We read a great many books, go to a great many museums and concerts, watch television and have many other entertainments. We quote endlessly from other people's ideas and think and talk a great deal about art. Why is it that we depend so much upon art. Is it a form of escape, of stimulation? If you are directly in contact with nature; if you watch the movement of a bird on the wing, see the beauty of every movement of the sky, watch the shadows on the hills or the beauty on the face of another, do you think you will want to go to any museum to look at any picture? ...There is a story of a religious teacher who used to talk every morning to his disciples. One morning he got on to the platform and was just about to begin when a little bird came and sat on the window sill and began to sing, and sang away with a full heart. Then it stopped and flew away and the teacher said, 'The sermon for this morning is over.'" (Freedom from the Known, 89)

But enough of this detour. One must simply go to the wilderness and unlearn what it will unteaches.

**

These excerpts on following the heart and aimless wandering are taken from unpublished chapters of THE WAY OF WONDER, by Jack Haas