Christmas, compassion and camping

The last few weeks for myself, leading up to this festive season, has been pretty interesting: an infection in a tooth spread into my jaw, and the thought stopping pain became a challenge. But all the way through I just thought of two things: that it'd improve and that some people live with severe pain for years in their lives! It all gets quite humbling in fact especially when I ponder that not long ago folk died of this sort of thing.

I found an effective way to deal with the pain was to keep busy so I've again been mindlessly scanning my old library of colour slides. This was essentially revisiting the past so it became a game to think of some of the nice places I've been privileged to camp at around the Christmas period.

A Christmas mountainerring bivy - Cook River in South Westland...


Getting to this amazing camping spot was not easy and I was so exhausted at one stage I discovered this was a nice way to relax...


While the rocks provided shelter for our puny 4 person tent, the rain was so bad it pooled almost into the tent [that's an early version of yours truly btw]...


So we did some excavations...


We were camping high for an attempt on the long, but technically easy west ridge of La Perouse - the route made famous by the incredible rescue and carry of Ruth Adams in 1948. [see Bob McKerrow's blog for history of La Perouse]. But opposite our campsite this was the astounding view of the Balfour Face of Mt Tasman...


When the weather cleared we then had just enough food left for one attempt on La Perouse, but for various reasons we ran out of puff. I don't recall exactly why apart from myself having a sore back - something that had developed in similar circumstances once before and debilitated me on a much easier climb. I think the others who left me picnicking, for a hour or three on a nice airy rock were also worried at the degree of our remoteness and how our resources were wearing thin.

So knowing the mountains will still be there we retreated mindful of hungry tums. That's La Perouse hidden in romantic clouds...

I mentioned it was a four person tent, but from memory we were five young souls, and so Michael closest in friendship to myself, elected to sleep alone up the hill further in a dry spot under a rock.

When "departure" morning dawned and it was obvious it was "now or never" to leave, someone went up to his dry little spot and advised him we thought it wise to head home. But he did not want to come! It fell on myself to convince him otherwise - on climbing up the hill I found him in a severe state of depression, and lacking finesse, eventually and lovingly literally emptied him out of his sleeping bag. Of course going out in the most demanding terrain on offer in New Zealand, we had many thoughts as to how easy it'd be for him to fall into the river, or down the side of the gorge. However we now know exercise is antidote for depression [up to a point]!

On our return to our homes we made sure he sought help, but very sadly within an autumn and a winter he'd passed on after a days' powder skiing. This was maybe my first encounter with, 1] depression, 2] compassion; for the ensuing experiences, which of course included his family, tested all of us with many a journey of our feelings and emotions. For myself though this was just the first insight into compassion and I found it not easy to grasp on the first encounter

That journey for me has never ended though, and it's been an "inner" one for a long time and included many teachers, and I'd not have it any other way! Especially over the last several years I've seen perspective altering examples of it. So the understanding of the importance to all of us grows on me!

I ponder often that there maybe a progression for some like myself: we [hopefully] grow up with love, then realise that it's got a flavour of "unconditional", especially from our parents [hopefully again!]. And that maybe the understanding of what is needed to help us all on our journeys is an understanding of compassion built on these solid foundations.

So while I've been tied down a bit resisting feeling sorry for myself [having to chew chocolate on one side only!], Christmas once more found me in a dry safe place with good company and food...

But I cannot escape an experience of my youth that revisits every Christmas day: Occasionally my father used to take me to midnight Mass, and on one such occasion I recall sitting behind a family I knew to be recent refugees from Hungray. Quietly and with dignity they sobbed and cried their way through the ceremony, and today the experience still haunts me every Christmas Day! The memory makes me tearful, still what is the point of this - crying will not help us develop compassion!

My son had his birthday a few days before Christmas, and that was one thing, but his present to me on Christmas day was one I found to be rather profound - one I'll treasure and never forget [it's message too], especially from a 17 yr. old...


The Dalai Lama grew up in big and wild mountains also, and maybe we need to value in different ways the fact that our country New Zealand is chock-a-block comprised of big mountains, very remote wilderness, and wonderful people, and that using these resources we can make the next year looming better in all regards...


Wishing you, by this shot symbolising warmth, a happy end to 2009 too!

A celebration of our wild New Zealand landscape and National Parks - and a "heads up"

Quentin Smith of Wanaka has recently formed a FaceBook group: Hands off Mt Aspiring NP and a few days ago membership stood at 5000, and it's now well over 6000!

... which relates to the noises our new, seemingly unenlightened and uninspired, New Zealand Government are making to initiate mining investigations in our National Parks. Not only my local Mt Aspiring National Park I might add!

While they say it's only a stock-take even that is a transgression and impossible to do without major disturbances and destruction of our heritage put aside for all coming generations.

Having got this off my chest [link below] I'm here sharing some of my favourite landscape photos I've made of our wild New Zealand landscape.

This is Mt Brewster - somewhat in the middle of the area of Mt Aspiring National Park our National Government has it's beady eyes on [and in bed with which multi national corporation that historically is always in the background taking profits when it comes to mining resources in any country?]...


Marks Flat under Mt Hooker - a huge tract of land designated at Conservation Estate in South Westland. Should it be part of the World Heritage Site in this area [Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand]?


You can "mine" great powder on the slopes of Mt Cook in Mount Cook National Park...


Alma hut in Westland National Park, with Franz Josef neve behind...


Mt Aspiring from Cascade Saddle


Lake Hankinson in Fiordland National Park [not far from the Milford Track]...


Looking down one of the significant glaciers in Westland National Park


There is a FaceBook generated link here, to view, or I suggest join the group: Hands off Mt Aspiring NP.

Or failing above then click on Groups in your FaceBook account and type in "Hands off Mt Aspiring NP"

And on a related matter this week I found out that New Zealand has 56,000 Kms of public roads that are not public, and our current New Zealand Government, and the preceding one it seems, have apparently been doing their best to sweep these "paper roads" under the carpet by use of cunning legal moves to give the land to those [many of whom have already fenced them off], in exchange for easements. The former offer us, the recreational users and owners unfettered access, the latter, easements, do absolutely nothing for us - only for self serving interests of those who've squatted on our rights.

The theme of past follies continues

For my last two posts I've visited the past - first a family internment and then about the local celebration of the first ascent of Mt Aspiring last weekend. Well the trend continues: this week gone by I attended our annual Wanaka Search and Rescue helicopter training. While it's tempted me to write about adventures around helicopters and rescues that went well or not-so-well, a friend has recently lent me his new colour slide scanner so I've gone intensely for scanning hundreds of my landscape photography collection which goes back 40 years or more. It can do about 40 an hour, which is a lot better than my one at 8/hr. So dear readers, I've been so delighted with the results I've decided to share some of my favourite images from what seems like a past life:

Bluffs and rainbow on Mt Hooker taken from Marks Flat in South Westland. In fact I spent a week looking at this hillside while living under a nice rock riding out a nor wester once. Rocks are very peaceful things to live under as soon as I get over thinking about earthquakes, but none-the-less it was really nice to see this little reminder of sunshine...


Market gardens in North Otago...


Mt Hooker - waterfall...


Bush with light-shafts in seaward Kaikouras...


Sunset on an Otago beach...


And to finish on something not 30 years old, the new Squirrel coming in carefully for our recent Search and Rescue practice...


Not a good situation in which to contemplate walking uphill away from the helicopter!

In the zone

In the last few weeks I've perceived I'm entering a phase concerning decisions to be pondered, and I know lightness will help - sometimes known as being "in the zone". So as writing often helps me [self affirmation!] I thought I'd go over some of the factors - the theories and what I know that works:

There is more than one zone involved here. OK I've changed and so has the universe, but other factors still rule such as gravity and altitude, and neither seem a burden when you're there "in the zone" [Franz Josef Glacier in South Westland]...


Although I've done it often in good conditions, when I'm challenged in the mountains I find I don't talk much as I "go there". Why? Because intuitively I know that focusing on breathing and that alone, will put me in a state of very high awareness, and matching the breath with my movements.

There are other techniques too, and here I draw as well on ideas written by others:

Take your mind to one of the most beautiful places, or times you've experienced, on the "in" breath, by imagining your own personal energy field goes there and further.

On the "out" breathe bring all your energy centers into consciousness and feel them opening.

Be an observer knowing that whatever is happening has a purpose in life

Imagine yourself surrounded by a halo of pure light

Monitor yourself to see if love is a background emotion

Look for beauty everywhere - with vibrant colours glowing

Feel lightness and energy

Recall how it was when you experienced this in the past

If you "loose it" make stopping and regaining it a priority

The goal is to feel alive as in "existence", and jump straight away on any negativity or anxieties as they occur. For myself waking between 2 and 5 am can be a challenging time, but rewarding time also should I succeed, to work on what has to become a lifetime's habit!

I've often found the writings of the DalaI Lama very useful as he's written much about meditation and it's importance. More recently I've subscribed to the RSS feed on his web site, and note, in the throes of an amazing visit to Europe he's just made a very valid point about our moral responsibilities towards China:

World Must Bring China Into Democratic Fold: Dalai Lama

Warsaw, Poland, 11 December 2008 (AFP) - Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama called on the world community to bring China into the democratic mainstream, in a speech to Polish deputies Thursday.

"The free world has moral responsibility to bring China into the mainstream of world democracy. That is very essential, very important," the Dalai Lama told members of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.... more>>

And to finish on a lighter note: Dougal my son turns 16 in a few days. We all say "where has the time gone - it all happens so fast?", and I'm no exception!

I'm reminded that kids live "in the zone", so we must learn from them! Here is Dougal on the right attending to the barbecuing of a snow chicken with our friend Riley who also has his birthday at this time. They're age 12 in this photo, and yes, that barbe is on and hot - it was a cold night, so "cooking " took awhile...

Basing peace, calmness and perception on the energy of the landscape

For 2-3 years now a favourite tome I reference often, seeking clarification for my journey, has been a paper back written by the Dalai Lama called "The Way to a Meaningful Life"

...lent to me by a dear friend I'll have to give it back when the opportunity presents! So just before my recent holiday traveling to Nelson, I ordered another of his books, and then the serendipity began again...

While visiting an artist's gallery in Upper Moutere, an aspect of Nelson's environs I'd never checked out before, I asked her if there were any good private/remote places to camp the night in my 4wd camper. "Yes", she replied, "a cleared forestry area over in that direction, oh, and up Sunrise Road that goes to the Buddhist center that the Dali Lama stayed at, you might find something"

The forestry area won the day near this school and the Toss Woolaston gallery, and the curiosity that is the landscape photographer in me was piqued by the light and the energy I felt about me...




So... having identified a lovely spot overlooking Nelson City for the night, exploration of Sunrise Road was called for by my intuition.

With a growing sense of peace I was led to this amazing... Supta, a concept quite new to me. It's overlooked by the Chandrakirti Centre Tibetan Buddhist Study and Meditation Centre , but above all else it was the setting that impacted on me, with it's inherent peace and tranquillity, no doubt extended by the Centre ...


The brief stay, and walk around the Supta taking photos [apparently there are benefits from circumambulating Stupas], made a profound mark on me: I knew in my heart great peace - one I've known many times before often in people's homes or gardens, my own even, and our mountains and high country. The experience was so heightened this time though, that I believe it's a message to explore the concept further, and share it, raising awareness to aid all in a "Way to a Meaningful Life"!

The head of the Fox Glacier in South Westland - despite numerous alpine hazards such as crevasses, avalanche terrain, high altitude and the potential of nasty weather to arrive almost instantaneously from the Southern Ocean, this place is recognized by many to be conducive to human well being and growth...


However before I diverge into wrapping this post up, there was a funny side to the visit: at the end of Sunrise Road there is a nudist camp. I'm sure the Dali Lama with his renown sense of humour, and others will join me in a grin if we ponder how we could become totally at one with ourselves at the Center, then finish the break with a sojourn down the road being "only" ourselves!

Attributes of energetic and non energetic places:

Some people refer to the energy on the earth's surface as Geopathic Stress lines or areas.

I believe there is nothing mystical about high or and low energy locations - one day science will learn to measure same [radon gas emissions from the earth are already implicated as are overhead power lines]

A peaceful energy in a place lends itself to healing, creativity and growth.

Sensitive people should avoid spending time in places they feel are low energy, and especially should not sleep in same.

Plants don't seem to flourish in low energy locations

People with an open heart will gravitate subconsciously to healthy locations, those who are closed off will actively promote less than ideal locations

Low energy locations can be detected with techniques similar to water dowsing

In-sensitive people may not, in the short term, be affected unduly by low energy locations, but maybe in the medium to long term. Manifestation examples being relationship problems, tenseness, divorce, conflict, and less than perfect health mentally and physically

Feng shui must surely be just another name for what I'm on about!

Another high energy mountain location in South Westland I've spent aprox. 80 days of my life in: from the slopes of Mt Hooker looking down into the Clarke valley, and The Solution Range, beyond which is the The Landsborough River, and further away yet my home town of Wanaka...


Wrapping it up: The two posts below talk about perception. Raise sensitivity and awareness and perception changes, then the identification of healthy areas to live in simply follows! This is one [rather odd I'll admit], technique that works for myself:

I imagine an aspect of myself being anywhere from 10 metres to hundreds of meters away from myself looking in my direction observing myself.

Then, and this is where for me it gets rather multi dimensional: I then observe this observer observing myself.

When I get it right I then notice my vision and other senses, but especially my vision, notices multiple instances of acute attention to details, in rapid succession - the end result being I simply see objects and patterns of light and shade I'd normally miss. Thus I look at my New Zealand landscape photography literally through new eyes, but the real implication is the way to a means of a "Meaningful Life". Of course astute composition can draw the attention of others to seeing things differently, and hopefully with compassion we'll all get there sooner rather than later!

Links:

The Way to a Meaningful Life... more>>

Stupa ..more>>

The Chandrakirti Centre Tibetan Buddhist Study and Meditation Centre ..more >>

Feng shui.. more >>

Geopathic Stress.. more >>

Landsborough River... more >>

NZ Photographer Tony Bridge has a wide range of beautiful work and textually diverse material on photography and perception ... more >>

My good friend Roger Wandless has a great New Zealand landscape photography site with shots that demonstrate what is possible in terms of how the eye can be taken on a journey [perception over time!]... more >>

PS just after posting Tony [as above] sent me this link to a couple of interesting posts... more >>

Acknowledgments:
Rika Couwenbergh ex Wanaka
His Holiness the Dali Lama
Roger Wandless
Sam [Pepper] White

Reality and impermanence

As a keen landscape photographer I've long been aware of how light in all it's various forms and flavours can shape the way we perceive reality. Now with Photoshop we have another dimension apart from how the photographer can present a scene in ways to draw attention to a particular point, or feel.

Without saying much I'll leave you to ponder what stories could be attached to this image...


... yet if I offer information such as "those rocks in the stream are among the oldest in New Zealand" then depending on your background that may, or may not change the relationship with the image.

And these rocks in Fiordland maybe nearly as old...


... yet although being the easiest example I can offer you of something that appears permanent [because of their mass and age], they are not permanent. By this I mean they're comprised of minerals, and even space between atoms, electrons or whatever. On analysis they are not what they appear to be!

Unless heat is applied rocks can be weathered to sand grains by our ancient sea...


... if we apply such thoughts to our lives, literally ourselves and the phenomena about us, we have to accept that our perception of reality is not quite what it seems, and that not one thing we perceive is permanent! It's tempting to draw the conclusion that we live in an illusion, but that's not quite the answer either.

What I see about me is a lot of suffering in the world and a lot of fear, and I can't help but believe that a lot of it comes about because we think we're permanent! Well we may or may not make grains of sand if you subscribe to a cyclic existence, but we'll make "dust" for sure at some point [which may or may not be the end point - this too depends on perspective!]. If we keep that thought in our minds, we'll find we handle day-to-day life in quite a different way and relate to others with more compassion and love, as we become more aware that an ethos of permanence is an illusion that enhances feelings of suffering [and ego]. Possessions will become less important, greed will diminish as we can't take these things with us.

Do we know the lives these people led, long ago in remote Fiordland? Yet, they probably thought their perception of "I" was important once. Apart from their names, about all we can assume is they endured a lot of moisture, and suffered the loss of a child...


When I was a young man I tended to see people and objects in life as permanent, and even got pretty immortal feeling while climbing, but my reality slowly changed, like just after this unprotected traverse near Mt Cook a spring snow avalanche swept this rock clean, just after the photo was taken, and before our very eyes...


... back then I saw the process of life as sort of permanent - this reached a peak during marriage and parenting. But the former showed it's impermanence to me in the form of divorce. Through this epiphany, and the wonder of child birth now I see literally everything in life as dynamic and shifting. Actually when I consider the fact that nothing is established in it's own right, but dependent on what cannot be identified [what is beyond particles in particle physics, will probably elude us forever, and the space between!], I'm then left with the conclusion that a lot of our reality is based on our thoughts.

If we're attached to someone or something we build up feelings that enhance them both and overlook faults. Conversely what we dislike or hate, does not seem so bad if we ask ourselves what our feelings are based on, then examine what this hate or dislike is dependent on! If we're honest with our studies we have to accept all is not as it seems, and much depends on what our attention is drawn too, in the quest to satisfying self!

The answer seems to be to detach, by taking the focus away from self, and reposition it towards helping others with love and compassion, thus letting the beauty and magic of our existence shine through in a more enlightened way...


...to be continued, and with thanks to the Dalai Lama for the inspiration above