Ephemeral Beings
Words and photos by Sean Michael Kriletich
I love balancing rocks into ephemeral beings.
Letting the stones communicate where they want to stand is a simple way to practice patience, find balance and enter the meditative state. It also feels inherently good to work with these ancient stone beings, ennobling their position into interlocking artistic patterns. Learning each stone’s balanced placement is really about finding its center and in so doing I find myself stabilizing my own center.
I haven’t always chosen the easiest time finding the balanced path of a stable center. For much of this incarnation, I allowed societally programmed logic to authorize my life. This meant I would scoff at “spending” the time necessary to create “silly” stacks of rocks. After all, aren’t there more important things to do with my time, like food production?
The 2015 Butte Fire eroded my trust in a logical path and soon after, the abrupt passing of my healthy, relatively young Papa shocked me into recognizing the value of what the Buddhists call the middle path. The middle path of the stones is their axis of equilibrium and I am no different. In addition, whether you ask a chemist, a Taoist or a physicist, rocks have the most stable resonance of any known body. In gathering time with the stones, I find a rock-solid way to stabilize my own balanced resonance.
By striking a more balanced path, I am no longer floundering in the logical dark.
I have come through the healing and activation to reach the stabilization and application of what I actually came here to do. In fact, I have discovered that the hermetic path of Rosicrucianism resonates strongly with me. Judiciously steering this inclusive path instead of learning exclusively through the hard knocks of my own experiences is a huge asset in becoming the healthy, stable and loving person I want to be.
Just as the rocks do not wish to stay forever in the destination that geomorphology set for them, I choose to continue harmoniously evolving. If I cannot summon the patience to find my own center, how can I expect the whole to find our balance point?
The increasing chaos infecting our planet makes it clear that railing against the establishment as a revolutionary only feeds the flames of disharmony. In contrast I consciously delete the “us versus them” programming. This disharmonious programing is easier to delete by replacing it with harmonious programing.
In this fleshy body, I will never be as stable as a stone, but I can be a rock-solid example of what I want the cosmos to be. The creation of ephemeral beings, better known as balanced rocks, helps me stabilize harmonious balance across all Life’s journeys.
The journey is the destination and it is never too late to choose a previously unknown trail. In every moment, the choice is up to each and every one of us. Gathering time on harmony’s path is building the future we deserve. A future of health, cooperation, joy, abundance and love. The future starts now.
MEET SEAN
Sean Michael Kriletich has been walking with Balanced Rock for two decades. He gathers much of his time stewarding water, land and spirit. He works as teacher, regenerative agriculture consultant, freelance journalist & quality food producer.
You can find more of his writing online here.
Sean’s first published book, The Eternal River of Metamorphosis, is available here.