I came across this work by Lama Govinda this morning and wanted to share it. Lama was born in 1898 in Germany and founded the Pali Tibetan Buddhist order. He spent his life teaching and lecturing in India, and in the 1960s he began to travel the world teaching Buddhism.

In his work on the mountains he reminds me of the beauty of the mountains; not only that but I can begin to understand myself a little better. Like the mountain, I am creating my world with my thoughts. Like the mountain, I am an integral part of a vast system that supplies energy in the form of love to my world and everything in it. The mountain is full of consciousness and continues to grow and expand just like me. We are connected in the network of All that exists and the mountain is expressing itself to me so that I realize the unlimited energy that I have within me. People from all countries flock to mountains for the peace and serenity they offer; some people climb mountains to stand on top and look down; looking down from above certainly brings another reality to light. Some people wander through the mountains looking for something and find it. Some people are afraid of mountains and avoid them, just like I avoid feeling the love that I have inside of me.

No matter how I perceive mountains and what metaphor they seem to represent, if any, Govinda’s work makes me think and relate to mountains in a unique and free way. I am able to focus on the beauty of nature and find peace within myself knowing that I am what the mountain is, an expression of my source that grows and expands into a greater version of myself.

“To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one’s distance.

To understand its shape, one must move around it.

To experience its moods, you have to see it at sunrise and sunset,

At noon and midnight, with sun and with rain,

In the snow and in the storm, in the summer and in the winter,

And in all other seasons.

He who can see the mountain thus approaches the life of the mountain.

Mountains grow and decay, breathe and throb with life.

They attract and collect invisible energies from their surroundings.

The forces of air, water, electricity and magnetism.

They create winds, clouds, electrical storms, rains, waterfalls and rivers.

They fill their environment with active life and provide shelter and food for countless beings.

Such is the greatness of the mighty mountains.”