Thursday, September 29, 2016

Take A Hike!

Greetings and welcome to the Church of the Pine Forest.

I am your pastor, Guy Thomas.

I encourage you, dear congregation, to take a hike. Yes, you heard me, take a hike — vamoose, am-scray, hit the road Jack, and find a nice trail to get yourself closer to nature.

Many times have I hiked on a trail leading into a forest of red pines. That is my church. Fallen logs are pews. Feathered friends sing in the choir, reciting the twenty-bird psalm. A copse is an apse where trees stand and preach in silence. Breezes whispering through the pines deliver hushed sermons.

From an old Zen saying:

"The song of birds, the voices of insects, are all means of conveying truth to the mind; in flowers and grasses we see messages of the Way. The scholar, pure and clear of mind, serene and open of heart, should find in everything what nourishes him."

And this excerpt from Aldous Huxley's wonderful novel Island, talking about St. Francis of Assisi:

"Just imagine," he went on, "preaching sermons to perfectly good thrushes and goldfinches and chiff-chaffs! What presumption! Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut and let the birds preach to him?”

Why waste your time sitting in a stuffy structure on a hard wooden bench listening to some dubious spiritual authority recite words from some ancient text? Communion with nature will serve you much better. 

So take a hike, earnest seeker. Your mind, body, and spirit will thank you for it.