During my visit to Kentucky, I drove out to the cabin I used to live in during my early-mid twenties. Back then, it was landlocked in 300 acres belonging to a Zen monastery. We purchased 30 from them, plus the cabin. Some of my most fond memories are from that time period, with Vietnamese monks, Amish people, and Wendell Berry for neighbors, where I learned so much and moved through levels of consciousness, where I discovered philosophy and connected to higher ways of living, and I just wanted to go see what it felt like to me now. I was so happy to see that the person who owns it now is doing everything I dreamed of: they have a big vegetable garden, have dug out a lovely spring-fed pond, added on to the cabin, and otherwise just maintained everything and protected it as a nature preserve. Certain things broke my heart wide open, and I shed some tears on the drive in- that strange sensation of having lived many lives, most of which are put away to memory, then to have them intersect again in real life. A place from back then, which held the person you were then, you go meander over that same landscape now, with yourself now, but the place can never be revisited even when you go stand on that very ground, because so much has changed...
It is surreal, bizarre, heartbreaking, but beautiful too.
Hue Nang Trail (pronounced 'way-nong')
Just behind this sign (which is new to me, though the tree I knew) is the lotus pond and it was all in bloom. Across the gravel road and down a small slope is our old cabin...
And there's the old cabin.
The new pond down to the left of the house. This used to be only forest.
Here is what little the web archive held onto from the blog I kept during my time at Zen Forest.
"In a revolutionary epoch, sometimes men taste every novelty, sicken of them all, and return to ancient principles so long disused that they seem refreshingly hearty when they are rediscovered."
We all generally want to feel "happy". But when you reflect on your life, when did your big spiritual growth spurts happen? Usually deep growth comes from hardship and strife, from those dark nights of the soul. I think many humans rob themselves of a rich life experience by succumbing to the assembly line of quick distractions and comforts- TV, gossip, scrolling social media, overeating, partying, alcohol, drugs, pornography... the multitude of balms we rub on ourselves, and they are plentiful. Left unaware, we become slaves to sense gratification.
I think it's crucial that we make ourselves present for life, all of it, rather than distract. We must understand why we're here in this human form, which is for spiritual realization, not just a happenstance universe explosion as Materialists would have you believe (and had me believe for a good portion of my life). In this way, you can reinterpret suffering and not be a captive to the finite material world, the body you're in, and what it's currently enduring.
Hone your mind. Connect to the Divine through daily devotion. Build up a sanctuary in yourself. Fortify what is eternal in you.
Sitting in my camper in the mountains, drinking coffee all day, listening to bigfoot stories as I work... really beginning to feel like one of those Northwesterners. A good [season 1-2] Twin Peaks cast member. Which I'm fine with. Just need to replace my wardrobe with corduroy, flannel, and hats only. And invest in a HAM radio setup. But seriously, have you listened to the Sierra Camp footage at the end of Missing 411: The Hunted?! * opens eyes really big * Have you!?
I could watch the interplay of sun and cloud dancing across the Okanogan Highlands for hours.
A yellow-headed blackbird sounding his distinct song.
A yellow-headed blackbird at Molson Lake.
Pflug Mansion - John Pflug had a dream of building a lovely German style home for his growing family. He began building in the summer of 1908. Money was scarce for all early homesteaders, so he hired no help and did all the work himself. He hauled all the materials from a sawmill about ten miles away with only a team and wagon. He never finished his dream house, but the family lived for several years in a part of the house that was finished. The house has been vacant since 1921.
An old homesteader's cabin from long ago.
A serene road through the Okanogan Highlands.
Another old homestead, from a whole 'nother time, still standing.
These three should we mind ourselves closely over if we wish to draw closer to God:
attachment
fear
anger.
I guess it all boils down to attachment, really. At the foundation, it is attachment that provokes fear and anger.
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4, verse 10: Being freed from attachment, fear, and anger, becoming fully absorbed in Me, and taking refuge in Me, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me, and thus they attained My divine love.
On average, about 4 people per day go missing in America's national parks. But did you know that if a person goes missing on federal land, it's not counted? There's no complete federal database of people who have disappeared within these national parks, which makes it hard to spot any trends or commonalities from case to case. Some are reported, because some families push harder, but nowhere near all. [further reading]
This is where David Paulides' work comes in. I came across him last year and was immediately enthralled. But my fascination took me a little too deep and ended up messing with my wilderness adventures that I've cherished my whole life. Instead of enjoying being outdoors in wild nature, I was feeling a little hesitant and frankly scared. So- I backed off for a while.
"But how many of those disappear in the wild is unclear. Neither the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, or the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service keeps track."National parks like Yosemite operate almost as sovereign states. When somebody goes missing in their territory, they’re not inclined to seek help from outside government agencies." [source]
In this strange case, Kara Moore wandered home weeks after her disappearance, but remembered very little of the experience. "A search-and-rescue effort doesn’t always make a difference. In 2017, a middle-aged woman named Kara Moore disappeared in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Almost immediately, dozens of searchers with canines covered 73,000 acres and found nothing, only to have Moore wander home a week later on her own."
Then recently, David's work came back into my field of awareness and I watched the documentary Missing 411: The Hunted one night with my husband. You can watch it free on YouTube, by the way. And I recommend you do.
This film didn't focus as much on the national park relationship, instead it highlighted hunters who had gone missing, many of them in very strange ways, and often not a trace was ever found of them despite hundreds of search and rescue teams scouring the area for days, even weeks, and canine teams being employed. Nothing- not even their rifles or bows- were ever found in some cases.
This really intrigued me because hunters know the woods. They know the wildlife. They're equipped, armed, and attentive.
But it was toward the end of the documentary when I really got fascinated. The Sierra Camp story. In a nutshell, a large group of men sojourn high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains once every year. They've been doing this since the 70's. Because they stay for a couple of weeks, in order to get all of their supplies up and out to this very remote location, they take a mule train. These men are professionals. Successful men. They aren't looking to get famous. In fact, they've kept their experiences quiet for a very long time, and David Paulides is the first to bring what they heard to public awareness. The recordings they made were analyzed by linguistic and electrical professionals and found to be non-human vocalizations.
For more in-depth details on this, you'll have to watch the documentary for yourself.
Throughout the Vedic literature, the oldest written history that humanity has, there is mention not only of the history of Earth and other planets and realms, but also of other beings, some of which coexist here with us. Some are benevolent, and others malevolent. Let's also not forget that late last year, the former Israeli space security chief publicly stated that we have been in contact with "aliens" for some time now, and have asked the government agencies not to publish that they are here, as humanity is not ready yet. You can read more on that in this article. So I have my theories as to what could be going on.
And, sigh, of course I begin revisiting this a couple of weeks before we move back out to the rugged and remote mountains of the Inland Northwest, an area David coincidentally mentioned in a video I watched this morning.
