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"Reflections" |
© Prajna Zendo 2004-2010
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"Reflections" |
2010 CALENDARS
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2011 CALENDARS
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
I have been wandering the mountains, canyons and badlands of Northern New Mexico since I came here in 1979. When I first arrived, before finding work or a place to live, I headed off into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for a two week backpack trip. Coming back from that journey, I felt as though I had found home. Having lived in many parts of this country, the word “home” always evoked the place where I was raised--until coming to New Mexico and those two weeks in the mountains. My love for and feeling of connection to this place has only deepened over the years.
When I first moved here, I took up downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, and white water rafting, as well as hiking and backpacking. Over the years these other pursuits have fallen away, so that only walking remains, and walking fulfills me. I don’t backpack anymore--too hard on my aging body--but I still take day hikes of 10-15 miles, and each summer I go off into the mountains for a solo retreat. For a week or more I camp on the edge of some wilderness, usually in Southern Colorado, and alternate days of zazen with days of hiking.
Almost always my hikes include some off trail travel, and often the entire hike is off trail. Some of the places I have found to hike simply have no trails. Trails go to places and through places, but if you want to become intimate with a place you must go off the trail. Off the trail I discover the qualities, the textures, and the challenges of the place. Gary Snyder wrote this poem about hiking off trail:
Off The Trail
by Gary Snyder for Carole
We are free to find our own way
Over rocks—through the trees-
Where there are no trails. The ridge and the forest
Present themselves to our eyes and feet
Which decide for themselves
In their old learned wisdom of doing
Where the wild will take us. We have
Been here before. It’s more intimate somehow
Than walking the paths that lay out some route
That you stick to,
All paths are possible, many will work,
Being blocked is its own kind of pleasure,
Getting through is a joy, the side-trips
And detours show down logs and flowers,
The deer paths straight up, the squirrel track
Across, the outcroppings lead us on over.
Resting on tree trunks,
Stepping out on the bedrock, angling and eyeing
Both making choices-now parting our ways-
And later rejoin; I’m right, you’re right,
We come out together. Mattake, “Pine Mushroom,”
Heaves at the base of a stump. The dense matted floor
Of Red Fir needles and twigs. This is wild!
We laugh, wild for sure,
Because no place is more than another,
All places are total, And our ankles, knees, shoulders and Haunches know right where they are.
Recall how the Dao De Jing puts it:
the trail’s not the way. No path will get you there,
we’re off the trail, You and I, and we chose it!
Our trips out of doors Through the years have
been practice For this ramble together,
Deep in the mountains Side by side,
A few years ago I began leading relatively short hikes (4-6 miles) with small groups of Zen students. We would hike off trail in silence for a couple of hours, then I would leave each person alone in some spot of their choice, and hike another hour by myself. After I collected everyone again, we would hold council, in order to share our experiences, have lunch, and return to our vehicles.
I called these hikes Off The Path, On The Way--the path being whatever trails had been established to make hiking easier and safer, and the Way being The Supreme Way. I saw these hikes as metaphor for the practice of Zen, where each of us must leave what we know and forget who we are in order to realize our True Nature.
I haven’t led these hikes for awhile and now the impulse behind them has taken a new form. I wrote this letter on this website to sangha members and friends of Prajna Zendo in November, inviting people to join me.
I have led one of these hikes since then, with four companions. It was a glorious trip through broken country--up canyons, across mesas, and down a 1200’ escarpment. I plan more and the invitation to join me is open to all who are drawn to the “practice of the wild,” as Gary Snyder puts it. . I have included photographs on this page from the first hike.
Dear Hikers,
Saturday, August 21: A splendid hike, up the Rio San Leonardo to San Leonardo Lakes, then a steep climb off trail to the ridge between the San Leonardo and Trampas drainages, up the ridge to Jicarilla Peak, and back down, off trail through the forest, to the trailhead. Lovely weather--sunny, with a cool breeze and cumulus clouds scudding across the sky. Not so long a hike (10-12 miles) but with 3500' elevation gain and more than half the hike off trail, it was strenuous. We started up the trail at 9 AM and didn't get back to the truck until almost 8 PM.
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Click on these images for enlargements of Musai's photographs. We abandoned the fancy slideshow format, as the program did not allow us to add captions. |
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It was a long way and more than 4 hours back to the trailhead from the summit, most of it off trail. Hiking off trail demands surrender to the place. I don't mean passive collapse, for we keep a destination in mind, and we allow the terrain to inform body-mind, telling us where and how to move.
Gassho,
Musai
Dear Hikers,
A magnificent hike up to Lake Peak on Saturday, July 17--the second annual circumnambulation, I decided to dispense with chanting this time, since half of our party weren't Buddhists.
We took a slightly different route from last year--out the Winsor Trail from the Ski Basin to the drainage between Penitente Peak and Lake Peak, then through the forest in that drainage and up to the saddle between the two peaks. From there we continued on up to the summit, then back to our vehicles down the ski runs, instead of down Raven's Ridge.
From the top of Lake Peak: Looking North from the saddle. Santa Fe Baldy, Pecos Baldy, and Truchas Peaks in the distance. When we were up on Truchas Peaks last month the wind was so strong that we decided not to risk the last 500 vertical feet to the summit across an exposed ridge. Saturday it was nearly windless up here.
See more photographs on our slideshow-here
A warm, sunny day, with some buildup of cumulus clouds, that only managed to shed a few drops of rain on us. Wildflowers in abundance, including more Blue Columbine than I remember seeing any other year.
One feature of these hikes that I appreciate is the exhaustion at the end. I am used up and my mind is cleared out. I sit on the tailgate of my truck, rubbing my tired feet, and my life seems simple, my mind is clear, and I am at peace with the world.
I haven't decided yet on the date or location of the August hike. I'll keep you posted.
Gassho,
Musai
© Prajna Zendo 2004-2010
