I spent my last days of my 2021 holiday allowance not far from the Teutoburger Wald in Germany. On top of the ridge of this middle mountain range lies the 156 kilometre long walking path Hermannsweg. It would take a full three days to walk the whole length. I only walked a small part. In the past I have walked many other parts of the path. The geology of this mountain range is very interesting.

It was formed around 70 million years ago when the African tectonic plate pushed against the Eurasian tectonic plate. At least it was assumed by geologists for a long time that the Alps were also formed by a proces of the southern tectonic plate bulldozing against the northern plate. But geophysicist Edi Kissling and sediment specialist Fritz Schlunegger have proposed a different theory. It is called the lift theory. If true the forces creating the Teutoburger Wald were more complicated than a simple push of a tectonic plate.

Osning-Sandstein

The first landmark you will pass, if you walk from west to east, are the Dörenther Klippen near Ibbenbüren. The jagged rocks are made of sandstone, 120 million year old (Early Cretaceous) sediment from the shallow sea around the Rheinische Masse (modern Sauerland, Eifel and Belgium Ardennes). The sandstone is called Osning-Sandstein. It was this sandstone which was pushed upwards 70 million years ago and formed the current landscape.

The fruit museum in Brochterbeck consists of a large piece of land with over a hundred different types of fruit trees with historic apple, pear, cherry and prune cultivars.

Looking for the Self

No matter how satisfied I should have been, being able to drive a very comfortable car to a beautiful spot in nature, it is hard to enjoy these moments alone. Every step I take in nature I still have to think about my last girlfriend, even though it has been many, many years since we walked together. I have to force myself to snap out of my gloomy thoughts. The last few years - even pre-pandemic - have been exceptionally lonely. But I kept myself busy so I wouldn’t notice. I took a 26-minute mindfulness meditation, led by Sam Harris on YouTube. Previously I have used his meditation Wake Up-app but I don’t like the subscription model. This is basically Vipassanā meditation. There is a path from Vipassanā to Chan Buddhism, which shares the notion of ‘sudden insight’. Sam Harris’ meditation deals with the problem of consciousness. What is consciousness? Is there a Self? Below a small excerpt from the 26-minute meditation. If felt much better afterwards.

[ eyes closed] 

“Everything that you notice is arising in the same space of consciousness. 

The sensations of your body, the sounds, feelings of fatigue or restlessness, whatever you sense or perceive is arising in consciousness in this moment.

Simply rest as that condition in which sounds and sensations and emotions arise and change and pass away. 

Take a moment to feel the sensations of your face and head. Perhaps it feels like your awareness is behind your face or in your head. But the feelings of your face and your head are in awareness in this moment. They are appearing in the same condition.

They are appearing in the same place where you are thinking. Your thoughts are not in your head, your awareness or conscious is not in your head. As a matter of experience everything is appearing moment by moment in consciousness. 

And this includes the feeling of having a head, of being behind your face, looking out at a world that is other than what you are.

In fact what you are calling the world is appearing in the same space.

Take a moment to open your eyes. And notice the apparent change in your experience. Now there is a sphere of light and color that you see. But what has changed?

What you see is appearing in the same space where thoughts and emotions and sensations and sounds are arising in each moment.”