On Wednesday, July 5, Robert Coyote wrote:
"Yes enrapture and awe of the esthetic environment, as you say, can
induce
what some would call "spiritual experience", consider the scent of
fresh
baked bread =]
But in distinction I belive, for lack of better words... a metaphysical
or
extra-dimensional reality, some kind of hyperspace, that is somehow
strangely effectual in this 3D world, I however do not buy into any
canned
prefabricated explanations, as it could be literally incomprehensible,
as
much as a fish in a fishbowl trying to understand a television.
I experience "phenomena", sometimes with witnesses and corroborative
evidence, I seek understanding."
I thought of not responding to this, because the last time I brought up the
S word on this list I got some pretty bad responses. But I shall try again,
because I sense in Robert Coyote a kindred spirit and you should know, Mr.
Coyote, that your namesake is a mentor of mine, not in his trickster guise
but because of his wisdom and flexibility. Actually, since we were recently
talking about human/animal connections, let me tell one of my favorite
real-life stories.
Several years ago, before I moved out here to the land I now live on, I used
to come and stay for a day or two at a time just to learn the changing of
the seasons and so forth. One day as I was driving up the lane I found a
coyote who'd gotten one of her hind feet caught in the fence as she tried to
climb through it. I'd heard stories of animals chewing off their legs to
get out of traps. This coyote had not yet gone to such lengths, but she had
struggled and pulled the ball of her leg out of its socket. I pulled the
truck several yards up ahead and took out a pair of tin ships so that I
could try to cut the coyote loose.
As I approached on foot, the coyote began struggling terribly, so I talked
to her very softly and slowly, telling her that I was going to help her and
that I would never think of hurting her. SHE UNDERSTOOD ME. She had to
have understood. She suddenly stopped struggling, even when I stood within
a foot of her. She let me manipulate her leg so that I could cut the wire
that had trapped her, and not once did she make a move to bite me, although
it must have been painful to have her leg moved. She just stared at me with
her deep, golden eyes, as though there were some sort of current passing
between us. The moment her leg fell free, she dashed away into the
woods--the dragging leg didn't seem to slow her much. As she reached the
edge of the clearing, about 15 feet away from where I stood watching, she
turned back and looked at me with those golden eyes again, and I got the
definite impression that she was thanking me and--I know this is stretching
it, but I swear, it seemed to be so--inviting me to go with her if I wanted
to.
And with this story I have to temporarily end, because I've run out of the
time I allotted myself for playing on the internet. However, I'll be back
to say more about spirituality.
Bonnie
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:13 MDT