Scott Stillman > Quotes

“Perhaps meditation is simply anything we do with our full attention, full awareness, full heart. Anywhere we find truth, or love. Something we do, not to be the fastest, or the best, or to win a prize, or to make a lot of money, but simply because we love it. Whatever it may be.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“Beauty is indeed a choice. Day by day, moment by moment, we choose love or hate, life or death, light or darkness. The seeds for both are contained within all things, both living and nonliving. It all depends on what we focus on. We create our own world. Focus on beauty and beauty you find. Focus on darkness and darkness will prevail. Beauty guides through the heart. Darkness through the mind.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“If we slowed our lives down enough to allow for naps, wouldn’t we all have more enjoyable days, more productive days? Why do our work ethics tells us to work more? Work harder? Work longer? Anything less than eight hours—unacceptable. Towards the end of our workday, how productive are we, really? Are we actually working at that point, or just staring at a computer screen, staring at the clock? Passing the time?”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“It’s all too easy to assume that the darkness in this world lies outside of ourselves. That others are to blame. Yet only when we learn to see the darkness inside of ourselves, can we hope to develop compassion for the darkness in others. For even the darkest of places contain the seed of light.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“What if there were a secret back-door portal to enlightenment? A shortcut, so to speak. I believe that the answer lies here, in wilderness. The shortcut is the long walk. However, you must go it alone. Once you get past the jitteriness of day one, the cravings of day two, and the loneliness of day three, meditation comes easily and naturally. Months of tension can be released in just a few days.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“Walking. Rhythmic walking. When I’m backpacking I’m backpacking. There is nothing else. No phone to answer, no email to check, no bills to pay, no errands to run. Nothing but backpacking.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“I know of no better way to live my life than from the perspective of that old man. The ninety-year-old me. Because I always know what he would say. And it’s never, “I should have worked more, saved more, bought a nicer car, a bigger house, been more responsible.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“We’ve become paranoid, worrying about everything except for what’s in front of us. Life happens now—it will never happen yesterday, and as we well know, tomorrow never comes. Until we”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“We come from the Earth. We return to the Earth. It happens over and over and over. You might say, we are the Earth. We’ve only to step away from our world of plastic and concrete to understand.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“Don’t be one way, Wishing for another, Only to arrive at the new way, Wishing for the first.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“Wilderness is our only hope. The one place we can always come back to.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“No matter how bad your life can ever get, how low you can feel, how much society lets you down, you can always come back here. You can always go home. You can lose everything, but no one can take away your Wilderness. She’s always here. Waiting. Ready to welcome you back with open arms. Ready to welcome you home.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“They say that wisdom comes with age. So who could be wiser than the sky, with its eternal sunsets, thunderstorms, stars, galaxies? Who could be wiser than the rocks, these monoliths of stone, witness to all, over the eons of time? There’s an all-knowingness out here. It lies within all this silence and stillness. A wisdom so profound that it transcends words. An understanding so pure it cannot be explained, cannot be taught, nor grasped by the human mind. Only felt. Experienced firsthand. When I tap into this wisdom, a switch is flipped, a reversal happens. My mind, always up front, driving and controlling everything, takes a back seat. And my soul, hiding quietly in the back seat, jumps up to take shotgun.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“For when we disconnect we reconnect—with the truth of who we are.”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“In our cities of concrete and steel, we’ve removed ourselves from these cycles. We’ve forgotten the circle of life and the interconnectedness of all things. A shift in consciousness is all that is required. Life is abundant, with plenty to go around, until things fall out of balance. We will either evolve, or we will die.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“off attackers—stay alive. But when there is no longer a need to hunt, or build our own homes, or fight, our minds begin to wander. The tool has been left unattended. Let it go too long and the brain becomes a monster—attaching itself to every whim, every desire, every problem, anything at all.”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“When you start focusing on the life you want, rather than what you think will get you there, you’re on the right track.”
― Scott Stillman, I Don't Want To Grow Up: Life, Liberty, and Happiness. Without a Career.

“You mean, I shouldn’t believe everything I think? When we start to take our thoughts too seriously—this is when we lose grasp. We fall into disillusion, identifying ourselves with the complexities of the mind. The human brain was intended to be used as a tool, so that we could hunt, fish, gather nuts and berries, build shelters,”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“When you decide to start living the life you want, people call you crazy. They try to talk you out of it. Tell you it’s unrealistic. Even impossible. This is usually your family and close friends. It’s not that they don’t love you or don’t want you to be happy. They’re just protecting you—at least they think they are—and you can’t really blame them for that. But you’ve got to protect yourself from all that negative energy. It will sabotage your dreams in a heartbeat. The best thing you can do is tell as few people as possible about your plan.”
― Scott Stillman, I Don't Want To Grow Up: Life, Liberty, and Happiness. Without a Career.

“Wilderness. My problems are over the moment I step out onto the trail, pack loaded, schedule free.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“So long as we remember the truth of our own identities, that first and foremost we are part of nature, connected to the mountains and deserts, rivers and streams, forests and plains, animals and plants”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“National Park. This I must keep reminding myself. Our parks serve a great purpose, not just for preservation, but also as a funnel. The Designated Route. Mobs of tourists, RVs, buses, and family station wagons out on summer vacation need a place to go. Our national parks serve this purpose, complete with entrance fees, advance reservation campgrounds, snack bars, game rooms, bowling alleys, roped-off viewpoints, paved trails, lodges, and reserved backcountry campsites. Permit required. For a fee.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“We live in the highly sophisticated age of targeted advertising. And this is all very well and fine and part of our culture. What’s important is to recognize that our thoughts and cravings are not entirely our own. We are what surrounds”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“What is it about this place? What is it about this desert? I search for an answer but come up dry, like always. There is something here beyond words. Something unexplainable. A presence. Something living, breathing. Listening.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“I offer my love back: to the Wilderness, the desert, the tinajas, the rocks, the sun, the moon and the stars, and to Mother Earth. After all we’ve taken, her love is still stronger than ever. Beyond all else we must remember who we are, where we come from, and where we will return. There comes a time when we must make our pilgrimage. Leave our houses, our cities of concrete and steel, and make our journey back to Wilderness”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“I know that the best adventures are often off-trail, and blissful solitude will be guaranteed.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“I’m not here to tame or conquer, I’m here to connect. To find the gateway. I know it’s out here. If I’m not careful I could miss it.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“drift back to camp, tiptoeing through manicured gardens of rosy pink, crimson, lavender. Flowers mastering the art of being flowers.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness

“back into nature’s silent message.”
― Scott Stillman, Nature's Silent Message

“Purple rain sways like curtains in the distance. I’ve transcended! Completely alone, yet held tightly in the arms of Wilderness. Mother Nature herself. God.”
― Scott Stillman, Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul: Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness