Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Holyscapes

Home
Contemplative
Spiritual Ecology on Vancouver Island

Spiritual Ecology on Vancouver Island

Last updated on: September 2, 2016 at 12:16 pm by Jason M. Brown

Spiritual Ecology on Vancouver Island 2016-09-02T12:16:20-08:00 Jason M. Brown

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sunset on Oyster Bay

This weekend I had the privilege of interviewing Charles Brandt, a hermit-priest in the Roman Catholic tradition, living on Vancouver Island. I headed over the night before and camped near Oyster Bay, where a local group had worked to restore the estuary. As the sun set I sat in silence on the east coast of Vancouver Island looking at the rugged west coast of mainland British Columbia. Killdeer were singing and as the sun steadily sunk into the western horizon the sky transformed from yellow to orange to blue. As night grew darker, I took out my star app and looked around. Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, the top of Scorpius peaking over the southern horizon with Mars and Saturn rising through it. Above me I saw Cygnus, the swan flying through the Milky Way galaxy. As the night grew darker, I could even see the Milky Way; it became brighter and brighter as the night grew darker, something I have not seen in months. It was so beautiful.

In the morning, I woke early, stiff from sleeping in my truck, and watched the sunrise from the eastern mountains. Blue herons fished in stony stillness among the morning surf.

Sitting down with Father Charles on his 30 acre hermitage, I noticed how neat, tidy, simple and unpretentious his home was, with the strong peace that lingers in the air of places of prayer. We sat on his freshly painted porch and discussed his vocation as a hermit, his ecological restoration work, and his views on Pope Francis’s encyclical ‘Laudato Si.’ In his 90s, Father Brandt has been featured in several newspaper articles and an ecology blog. He is a disciple of Thomas Berry, and sees the future as one where humanity and ecology evolve together as a “single sacred community.” It was a privilege to sit with him.

Before I departed, I asked for his prayers on my project and left him to his solitary life. The Hermit tradition, which is rarer than the monastic vocation, seeks solitude as a form of prayer. It is not so much about hating people, but a mode of loving God.

Tibetan Shrine

On my way back to Nanaimo to catch the ferry, I decided to follow the signs for a Buddhist monastery. As I entered the small rural property through the front gate I was greeted by long colorful prayer flags that lined the driveway. As I entered a small shrine I was greeted by a volunteer who told me about the lineage. The temple is part of the Tibetan tradition through the lineage of Lingtrul Rinpoche. The golden shrine contains a statue not of Gotama Buddha, but to Padmasambhāva, one of the first Buddhist missionaries in Tibet. It was large, beautiful and impressive. The volunteer was friendly and we got on the topic of Christianity. She said that she was turned off by her protestant upbringing and did not connect with the idea that Jesus needed to die for her sins. And yet, in her own tradition, Buddha begins with suffering. The First Noble Principle is that life is suffering. For her Buddhism was just a more appealing and in her words “rational” path, but she had never connected the cross with the Buddha’s first axiom.

As I waited for the ferry, I thought about my encounters with the forest, the sea, Father Charles and the Buddhist woman. I am always fascinated by westerners who join eastern traditions like Buddhism and Hinduism. And I am always a little disappointed that my own tradition has been such a failure at teaching the mystical, contemplative, meditative side of Jesus. It is amazing that in the middle of a British Columbian island, there is a gaudy, gold, beautiful Tibetan style temple. Land that was sacred to First People’s, brutally wrested from their hands by Christian civilization, only to be re-dedicated to a different foreign tradition. While I am grateful for the freedom of movement and conscience to be able to travel so far both physically and religiously in such a small amount of time, I wondered at the cost of such freedom. Western civilization has perhaps learned to read the forest as a beautiful backdrop that can populate the contemplative atmosphere of Catholic Hermits and Tibetan Buddhists, and yet it remains integral to the worlds First Peoples, who have been pushed to the margins.

I do not have an answer to this question, I am not even sure it is a question. But I want to dig deeper into the assumptions I make about the beauty, romance and spirituality of forests, even ones as beautiful as found on Vancouver Island.

Sunset from the Ferry back to Vancouver

Religion and Spirituality

Previous Post

August 22, 2016

The Morning Commute as Pilgrimage

Next Post

September 4, 2016 The Christ of the Celts

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anthropocene Camino de Santiago Catholicism Film Holyscapes Homily Liturgy Monk Nature New Monasticism New Story Pilgrimage Poetry Politics Prayer Religion and Spirituality Silence Spiritual Ecology Spring Spriritual Ecology Theology Uncategorized Walking Writing

Select a Month June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was the oldest person recorded in Genesis?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Methuselah Adam Noah Jared