Spiritual Walking

When alone in Nature, I can sometimes get into an altered state of mind, where there is a gentle ecstasy, without any drugs or alcohol.  Recently, I have been trying to explore how to enter into these spiritual states of mind when other people are around and how to, collectively, experience that together. 

Mindful Walking

When I co-taught a course with Matt on mindfulness at Brandeis, Matt taught everyone how to do mindful walking.  The core idea is that as you walk, you stay in the present moment.  To do this, whenever a thought arises that tries to distract you, you nonjudgmentally acknowledge it (without getting irritated or angry with yourself) and then go back into the flow of the present moment.  Some people find it helpful to have an anchor, like focusing on your breathing or repeating a mantra. 

If you go into the spiritual origins of mindfulness and meditation, the additional concepts include generating a feeling of love and a feeling of oneness with nature, the world and everyone around you.  

Science as a way to Spirituality

In the mindfulness course that I co-taught with Matt, I was exploring how to use science to get into a deeper state of mindfulness.  For me, when I am in nature, knowing the different species of plants and animals and knowing how everything is connected, makes me feel deeply connected.  For example, instead of just seeing a tree, I recognize that it is an oak tree which then will remind me (without words) that epic mushrooms like Hen of the Woods symbiotically grow on them and that an entire universe of wasps and galls grow on the leaves. Once I can recognize many of the plants and creatures, it is like seeing an old friend and it generates happiness within me. As I understand the nuances of the ecosystem better, I feel more and more connected and more capable of listening to Nature’s heartbeat.  For the walk, I may recommend having an app like iNaturalist, so that you can learn about what you are seeing. 

Treasuring Hunting and Photography as a way to focus the mind

For me, photography allows me to singularly focus my mind, like an eagle searching for its prey.  I intently and deeply look around me. No matter what, I know I can find something of beauty anywhere! It is just a matter of seeing the right angle or looking very closely at something small that I have never seen before. Then I take a picture of it and it feels good. Often I don’t even look at my pictures afterwards…it is just the act of finding something beautiful that makes the walk focused.  

Even without photography, treasure hunting is phenomenally fun and can get a person into a deeper state of concentration, for example, when searching for shells on the beach.  Often, I like spending 10-20 minutes in a small patch of land and searching for treasures. I will search underneath rocks and on the bark of trees and I'll finger the soil to find something very small.  I believe that an infinite universe of beauty exists everywhere. Science can often unlock that because you can go super deep. For example, you could spend an entire beautiful lifetime studying soil microbes in just one square inch of soil! 

Breathing and Dance

Recently I have been taking a small twig or grass and putting it between my lips and then taking very deep inhales, as if smoking marijuana.  As I do this, and the fresh focused air rushes in, it pulls me deeper into the spiritual world.  I get a feeling of high without any drugs or alcohol.  

When completely alone, away from all the noises of humans, I will often strip to my underwear and do a dance without any music…simply within the flow of the wind.  At first, I was usually distracted and did not know what to do but recently it brings me into a deeper zone. 

Humans

Usually, in the past, I have never been able to share nature with humans because they distract me.  However, I have found with the right people, we can create a bubble of spirituality around us.  Usually this means that we share in the collective idea that the walk is a spiritual event and that talking to one another is a devotional act.  So, talking softly helps and talking about what you find beautiful in nature becomes a wonderful way to pull people back into the present moment.  When walking with people who are experts in nature, they are often able to point things out that I would have missed. So, it becomes a sacred way to share beautiful moments and use conversation about the Nature around us as a way to pull one another into the present moment. 

A spiritual hike through Williad's Woods in Lexington (Oct 2023) where we also foraged for black walnuts