Author Topic: I need your thoughts on landscape and experience  (Read 2414 times)

tonyk

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Re: I need your thoughts on landscape and experience
« Reply #15 on: 18:44:49, 15/01/19 »
ublack,you are desribing a state non-dual awareness.In answer to your question,of course such a state is possible,especially in a natural environment,providing that you let go rather than trying to will it to happen.Is there a "you" to feel or do "you" and the environment become one with no separation between subject and object? Many walkers have experienced such a state where everything seems perfect,just right and could not be any different.Such a state of mind will be carried over into everday life.

ron6632

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Re: I need your thoughts on landscape and experience
« Reply #16 on: 23:15:39, 16/01/19 »
It’s an interesting topic for me.  Having walked a number of long distance paths each one has given a different experience.


Firstly the difference between a road and a path, and there is a very clear difference. For road also read bridleway and byway as many are just that, roads that have fallen out of use.


Walking on a “road” (also railway) I feel detached from the landscape.  It’s almost as if you, the walker, are passing through a landscape without being part of it.  There’s almost always a sense of segregation, that it’s a means to an end, and often on these roads the experience is a little disappointing.  Think looking out the window of a car.


On a path, however, everything seems to change. You become part of the landscape, you pass through barriers and meander through the landscape.  You’re in the field, woodland or moor and part of it, rather than viewing it from afar.


The landscape can have a profound affect.  Certainly I’ll admit to sitting and having a very emotional moment on Offa’s Dyke.  It’s difficult to put my finger on why, a mixture of the landscape and weather (a light atmospheric mist hanging over the hills)   It’s healing to walk in these places. There’s a reason why so many Victorian hospitals were surrounded by green.  Sadly modern ones are surrounded by concrete - mental well-being is payed lip service over physical healing.


There’s also the difference between, say a walk from the house and a multi-day backpack. The latter tunes the body to the earths rhythm, especially in the tent.  You experience the environment, good and bad.  There’s something comforting about gentle rain on the fly sheet while you are warm in a sleeping bag.


 Rain in the morning?  It’s part of the environment and you deal with it as best you can.  The heat and cold make a difference also, and they all have their attractions and problems. 


There is also a sense of history and wonder.  To walk through a doorway of a turret on Hadrians Wall.  2000 years ago who were the men that walked through that same door way, sat on the floor round a fire and shared a meal, right in the very spot you are standing.  They touched the same stone.


Our landscapes are all industrial and man made formed throughout history.  It’s incredible. 




 

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