Source: Stand Back

Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers. – Rabindranath Tagore

We can easily be in awe of something that is much larger than we are. Our sense of being smaller, much smaller, generates respect for what we are seeing. For just a moment, from the perspective of the ego, we realize that maybe our sense of being the center of the universe is unfounded, challenged in some way.

Many years ago, I experienced the majesty of the redwood trees of Sequoia National Park in California. Besides being in awe of them, I was curious about how they came to be so large and began wondering about their ancient roots. After my initial feeling of smallness, I lost the focus on myself and felt gratitude for the privilege of being alive in that space.  But, no matter how many times I tried to take in the full height of the trees, I could not. As their heights disappeared into the clouds, my neck strained as I leaned back further and further, trying to get a full view. It was a futile effort. I was too close to them.

As a result of my failed effort, I had to rely on photographs from an aerial view or from photos taken from a distance. They had to be made small in order for me to see them in their fullness.

I needed to have both a humbling close up view of the trees and then a view from the distance. Both vantage points helped me to find my place in the entire picture. But without the distant view, I would remain simply awed without a sense of connection.

There are times when we must stand back and other times when we must move closer to the truth. When we are willing to give up a fixed stance and move with grace inward and outward, toward an object of our attention and away from it, we can finally begin to understand our relative “place” in the universe.

The aerial view of the Earth from the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990 is an example of this spatial elasticity. From the view of the spacecraft, the Earth is in Sagan’s words, ” a pale blue dot.” Yet, back on Earth, we walk among giant redwoods, commanding mountains, swelling oceans, and powerful bears, lions, and elephants. Negotiating those two vantage points provides the fullness of life. With a relative view of life, we are more likely to be humble in our perspectives, respectful of differences because we see all life as interconnected elements of a powerful universe. We may temper our desire for control because we are aware of both our smallness and our universal influence. Even a “pale blue dot” moves in its solar system and contributes to the evolution of species in the universe.

So when we are on the brink of a judgment of others, we can stand back, pausing to allow a different perspective. Then when we move closer to others we were tempted to judge, we have a full, less narrow view of their worthiness. When we are trying to make a decision among multiple, viable choices, we can stand back, pausing to allow the choice to come to us in all its facets. Then when we begin moving along a chosen path, we are aware of how we can incorporate the best of all choices into our plans. And when we are trying to allow faith to guide us and awareness to enlighten our experiences of life, we can stand back from the enlarged ego that encourages us to be “right,” pausing to notice the false stories about who we are, and move inward for an even greater expanse of being. Then we see life in its fullness, without biases and opinions, but instead with the peacefulness of impartiality, equanimity, and joy.