Fifteen - Sacred Mountains, the Environment, and Everyday Life

Summary

For most of us sacred mountains are remote from the experience of everyday life. They lie far off in space and time, revered by distant cultures, many of which vanished long ago. Even the peaks that we manage to climb and visit rise on the borders of our lives, removed from the cities and plains where most of us live. What is the value, then, of thinking about them? It is simply this: the contemplation of sacred mountains, with their special power to awaken another, deeper way of experiencing reality, opens us to a sense of the sacred in our own homes and communities – a sense that we need to cultivate in order to live in harmony with our environment and with each other. In looking up to the heights and reflecting on the world around them, we discover within ourselves something that enables us to lead deeper and more meaningful lives.