June 20, 2017 guest blog post from Sedona Philosophy Experience
Sedona’s breathtaking vistas and introspective atmosphere invite personal reflection. On a guided hike led by Sedona locals, Sedona Philosophy Experience provides an avenue for finding meaning while you get an insider perspective on some of Sedona’s most iconic trails and red rock formations.
The famous naturalist John Muir noted, “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” Just like Muir went out for a walk but spent an entire day in contemplation, Sedona holds open possibilities that can take you beyond your original plans. When you go for a guided hike with SPEX, or Sedona Philosophy Experience, contemplation can create possibility in your life.
Do human beings have special significance?
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For Muir and for many people, “going in” is spending time in contemplation or reflection. One of the most puzzling questions people wrestle with is: Do human beings have special significance or are they just evolutionary accidents? Is each person a site of godlike consciousness, or are we just another piece of carbon in a mechanical world of matter and motion? Essentially, people want to know whether their lives are fundamentally insignificant or uniquely important. Both things seem plausible, but not simultaneously possible.
Perhaps people are both significant and small. The 18th century German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, helps make sense of these seemingly contradictory intuitions. “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe…the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” The starry skies explain why we feel small. But our internal conscience reminds us that the way we live our lives, and how we treat other people, makes a real difference in this world. We are both small and significant, at the very same time.
“What is the meaning in my life?” is the sort of question people ask—and start to answer—on a SPEX guided hike.
Sedona’s Red Rock State Park is the perfect place to rediscover our smallness and our significance—our inner life and the outer world. Going out, we look within and discover new meaning. Go on a SPEX guided hike to explore the meaning in your life amidst one of the most beautiful places in the world. Unite the mind, body and spirit, and explore your inner life outside.
