Reflections on the Spiritual and Nature | Crossing the Threshold | David W Johnson

Images

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:09:25 -0700

In this section I'll be including photographs of projects I have been involved with and places I have visited that have inspired me. Where appropriate I have expanded the photographs into photo essays in order to give more information on what is being shown.

Call back from time to time to see what has been added. Projects will be accessible from the Images menu above.

Blog

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:11:06 -0700

Pause

A blog that I stumbled across a few years back was Zen Habits, written by Leo Babauta. My visit to the site back then …

Continue reading Pause

Feb 19, 2012 12:39 PM

Resistance …and Ideas

A creative passion of mine is writing. An omnipresent enemy of mine with which I have many battles, is Resistance. Resistance …

Continue reading Resistance …and Ideas

Feb 15, 2012 3:08 PM

Reflective Monday

I was sent this poem by a good friend who had been sent it by a friend who had just lost his son in an accident. It is …

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Feb 6, 2012 1:41 PM

Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis is something that I would very much like to see. I am guessing that pictures and videos probably do …

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Jan 25, 2012 1:34 PM

Attitudes of Gratitude #3

For the third in this series, my object of Gratitude is "Life". You might feel that this is rather grand even pretentious, …

Continue reading Attitudes of Gratitude #3

Jan 21, 2012 4:46 PM

Thresholds

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:48:51 -0700

Our lives consist of many transitions; transitions which take us across thresholds to new beginnings. Examples of transitions are:

- birth
- starting our first school
- coming of age
- graduation
- getting married
- losing a job
- death of a family member
- moving to old age

Marking these transitions can be a helpful and powerful experience, but sadly our modern society gives us little opportunity to recognise them.

As we travel through life we adopt identities that serve us well, helping us to traverse the varied terrain that is presented to us. Then we find a change arising in our lives, a time comes to make a transition. We might sense a need to discard an identity that has served us well and to grow deeper as we tackle the next phase of our life. A fear arises, or maybe an uncertainty. Can we make this transition? Do we have the strength to let go of that which is familiar and move on into the new and unknown? To cross the threshold.....

Follow the links below the Threshold menu, and the external links to the left for more...

About Me

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:48:35 -0700

Hello. My name is David Johnson. Below is a brief biography about myself, so that you can perhaps get to know better who is behind the writings on this site.

After studying for an undergraduate degree in Computer Science I set off for a few years of travel. It was during this time that I came into contact with Tibetan Buddhism, as well as developing an interest in environmental concerns.

On my return to the UK I became involved with a Tibetan Buddhist sangha and moved to their Retreat Centre in South Wales where I lived and worked for six years. Towards the end of my time there I bought a piece of land in the same village, next door to the Retreat Community. There I built an award winning ecological house.

Wishing to explore the overlap of spirituality, psychology and our connection with the natural world, I enrolled in a graduate program at Naropa University, Boulder, CO in Transpersonal Psychology with a concentration in Ecopsychology. I graduated with Masters Degree from Naropa in 2006.

Contact

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:17:51 -0700

The Transition Movement

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:20:58 -0700

The Transition Town movement is a community led response to the challenges of Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Instability. It has grown out of the work of Rob Hopkins, a permaculture teacher, writer and lecturer who lives in Totnes, England. With people hearing about the work taking place in Transition Town Totes, the Transition movement spread virally around Britain and subsequesntly started to spread around the world, now having a presence in Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and America.

Rob Hopkins

The Transition Initiative, as it is is also known, looks to encourage and tap into the collective genius of those who live in a community in order to build resiliency in that community. Resiliency is an ecological principle meaning the ability to withstand whatever shocks might challenge a given ecosystem. Transition looks to bring that concept into our built human environments.

The Trasition Movement looks not to fight against what is in existence in order to bring about change, but for any given community, town, or neighbourhood to vision what they would like a resilient community to look like in their locale and to work towards bringing that about. It is an asset based model, looking to tap into the skills and resources that are already sitting within a community

Nature & Spirit

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:41:18 -0700

The natural world courses through our body every day; the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, what we drink. Through our senses we see touch, feel and smell the world around us at every moment. These experiences are so routine in our lives that we can easily take them for granted - indeed, more often than not, do. We live our lives deeply interconnected with the world around us, interacting and sharing with it. Through the immediacy of these experiences, there is a sense of intimacy about them.

However, at this time in our history we find ourselves alienated from the world that we live on. Some people growing up in inner-city environments have no contact with the open spaces outside of the city boundaries. How does this alienation effect our being? How, as well, does this alienation effect the world?

These pages will explore the relation between nature, spirit and psyche. Follow the menu items below "Nature & Spirit" above, and check out the externals links in the side bar to the left.