You have arrived, you are home.
- Thich Nhat Hahn
Harmony Lake Ranch is situated on 300 acres of high desert in the small town of Christmas Valley, 80 miles southeast of Bend, Oregon. On an informal basis, the ranch is a fun place to gather - to spend time with friends and family, to take a hike, a kayak or canoe ride, to play, to swim, to waterski, or simply to just be. There is an 80 acre private lake on the property, along with sandy paths on which to wander and amazing places nearby to explore including Table Rock, the Black Hills, and Fort Rock.
On a more formal basis, activities and retreats are offered at the ranch and in Bend to awaken within people the experience of their own wholeness. Do you wish to know yourself as, and live from “…the peace that is beyond understanding”? (Phillipians 4:7)? This invitation to peace and freedom has been extended by spiritual teachers throughout the ages. Harmony Lake Ranch exists so that people can have fun, and experience themselves as and live from the undivided, unconditional Love that We Are, a reality that exists beyond all concepts. Welcome to Harmony Lake Ranch. |
Photos on this page courtesy of Hilloah Rohr; Sunset photo also appears on Scheduled Events at HLR page.
Silence is Always in Harmony
Have you noticed that Silence seems to be in harmony with everything? It neither judges nor agrees with life, neither rejects nor clings to experience, has no “I” to tell it what it should or should not allow, and does not seem to pay much attention to anyone’s inner narrative--the “virtual” reality of thought. It seems to hold no preference for classical music or rap music, for birds singing or jackhammers pounding. It seems to equally embrace all creatures, those having eight legs, four legs, two legs, or no legs. In its inability to separate from any condition, experience, or form, it has no fear. No wonder it is so peaceful!
Silence is in harmony with moments that seem peaceful and moments that appear otherwise to our conditioned mind. Silence is in harmony with all religions, all peoples, all moments, all experiences. It is equally present in experiences of terror as experiences of bliss, sorrow as well as joy. It presides serenely at every birth and every death. Despite some beliefs to the contrary, it does not have a favorite football team! The Western mind, that seems to be conditioned to imagine life should only be one half of the play of opposites—the good, the beautiful, the true—does not like its idea of divine Light to be whole, non-judgmental, and shining equally on the saint and the sinner.
Yet, even in the Bible, the blameless Job does not receive an answer to “why” a righteous man should suffer. When he was stripped of all he had held dear—his possessions, his children, his crops, his animals, his health, his reputation, and when even his closest friends judged that he must have done something to incur the wrath of God—he demanded and pleaded to come before God with the question of why. Finally, his pleas were heard, but instead of answering the mind’s “why?” question, God replies, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you understand. . . .”
Where were you, indeed? Here is a question that goes right to the heart of a deeper question, “Who are you?” Are you the one identified with suffering, or are you That which is present before there is a self, a world, an “other,” yet utterly present to such expressions? And is there a difference? Are you the Silence that is always in harmony with life, or the thought that refuses life, judges life, and condemns life to justify a separate “self”?
© Dorothy Hunt, 2011
Silence is in harmony with moments that seem peaceful and moments that appear otherwise to our conditioned mind. Silence is in harmony with all religions, all peoples, all moments, all experiences. It is equally present in experiences of terror as experiences of bliss, sorrow as well as joy. It presides serenely at every birth and every death. Despite some beliefs to the contrary, it does not have a favorite football team! The Western mind, that seems to be conditioned to imagine life should only be one half of the play of opposites—the good, the beautiful, the true—does not like its idea of divine Light to be whole, non-judgmental, and shining equally on the saint and the sinner.
Yet, even in the Bible, the blameless Job does not receive an answer to “why” a righteous man should suffer. When he was stripped of all he had held dear—his possessions, his children, his crops, his animals, his health, his reputation, and when even his closest friends judged that he must have done something to incur the wrath of God—he demanded and pleaded to come before God with the question of why. Finally, his pleas were heard, but instead of answering the mind’s “why?” question, God replies, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you understand. . . .”
Where were you, indeed? Here is a question that goes right to the heart of a deeper question, “Who are you?” Are you the one identified with suffering, or are you That which is present before there is a self, a world, an “other,” yet utterly present to such expressions? And is there a difference? Are you the Silence that is always in harmony with life, or the thought that refuses life, judges life, and condemns life to justify a separate “self”?
© Dorothy Hunt, 2011
