Merced River Meditations

The Merced River is one medium of solitude in Yosemite Valley, a place where one’s thoughts and feelings can be pondered and explored.  I return to the river after my hike -- after the walking meditation with the mountains, the listening conferences at the waterfalls, and the conversations with the forests along the trails.  Coming back to the river, I deepen the meditations begun, and connect them with the ongoing meditation of life.

In front of where I’m sitting, a line of dark boulders cuts across the light-colored sandy bottom of the river, looking like an underwater Zen rock garden with only one boulder showing above the water.  It's a contemplative scene.  In this situation one could ask any question that comes to mind and hear a response.  Perhaps:  "How is this scene before me like life?"  Then listen for the answers that come and think about the response that startles you the most.  Follow that train of thought until you see how it applies to your life.

Opportunities for meditation are all around us.  That one boulder sticking up in the middle of a perfectly still stream gives a true reflection of itself.  It shows what it is because the peacefulness of the river allows it.  But when the river rages around the rock during a storm, the wholeness of the self is lost, with only the part above the surface of the river visible.  Little of what is engaging the water beneath is seen, even to the rock.

One can meditate on any scene, such as the one to my right of a calm river running by with colored patches of leaves on the river bottom, white granite rocks on the opposite shore with long tufts of green grass growing out in bunches, and bushes behind that.  Sound good?  This spot is next to a busy road.  But one meditates because one is ready and with what is there.  Something will call us deeper into meditation.  Every scene has a secret that is waiting to be discovered by someone.  Everything can teach us something about eternity.