A Hike in Breckenridge Colorado:Part 1

A Hike in Breckenridge Colorado:

Part 1

Yesterday we ( Minal, Abhay, Teddy and me) were out for a hike in the nearby mountains. Minal had searched for a relatively easy hike and found this Sallie Barber trail. Breckenridge was once upon a time one of the major gold mining sites in the country. There are vestiges of the old mines to be found around this area. We found a parking and set out to walk on the trail. Except for sporadic people walking, either solo, as couples or in bigger groups and a few bikers we were mostly by ourselves. The trail went along a small stream on one side and views of the valley and mountains on the other. A few different birds flew over and across the trail as we walked. Wildflowers weren’t plentiful but did highlight the wilderness here and there. There was a small waterfall on our way. Clouds and sunshine alternated from time to time. But we weren’t exposed to the scorching heat at any point because the shadows of the trees along the trail provided relief. It was over a 2 mile uphill climb to the summit of this trail. A sweet treat awaited us at the top in the form of remains of an old mine. These props and the view of the valley from there were more than plenty visible rewards for the efforts to get to the top. A few pictures there and we began our hike back to the car. 

My mind was attempting to staying aligned with consciousness without thoughts to the extent it could. Just feeling each moment without thoughts. And it did manage pretty well. Later I mused about it with Minal. Our philosophy says everything that we see, all creation is an illusion. Whatever is part of this illusion, even the tiniest thing, a rock, soil, water, air, bees, ants, birds, animals, humans, sun, moon, stars, whatever we choose to study can make us eligible for a job and means of living. One studying pure consciousness sans visible or describable reality cannot find a job. Such a crazy person must live an isolated life in the Himalayas or wilderness. 

Every need, every desire, every relationship dissolves in that consciousness. I was sitting for a moment at one place and saw a lovely grass next to me. Almost felt the urge to raise my hand and extend it to caress this grass. Then stopped. There was oneness without the necessity to touch it. There was a connection between us without a relationship. That feeling hardly ever comes in ordinary thinking mode. 

I realized why the saints have said on multiple occasions that the body is sinful. It has needs and those needs create desires and more needs for its sustenance. It feels need for relationships and needs and desires multiply from those relationships. Misunderstandings arise from language relied upon in the context of relationships. It’s a messy business. 

Simplification of existence in its absolute sense has no other way than to look at the physical body as sinful. Keep its maintenance at bare minimum. And internally dissolve relationships as previously understood. Let the world go on with or without you as it always has.

Saree is a designer cotton gamcha weave from West Bengal.