What we often discover there can be fun, historical, enlightening, and at times a real mystery of words and meaning up above those thousands of feet and more. I so enjoy pondering who wrote these things and what experiences may have prompted such musings. At times they have sent me off on other journeys too of looking to find the meanings of these notations. Here is what I've found out about two words written large, upon a single page, within the register of a favorite summit climbed again this past season.
They simply said: "Our Tian".....
Now the oldest 'Tian' literature I discovered were references to certain kinds of 'Elders'. There was also a very interesting 'Treasure of Tian', which was said to be mysteriously hidden, yet somehow still available for us all.
In my search for its possible earliest meanings I found that Tian seemed firstly to represent a 'summit' or 'mountaintop', but also interestingly refers to the top of our head and that which emanates from there.
Depending upon which tome you muse over, Tian further reflects meanings of the weather & climate, sunrise & sunset, all of nature and the elements within, and what seems to be called the 'seven seasons'. Most intriguing for me are the Tians as stories of mystery, of the heavens and sky's, of that which is beyond human will, and of the celestial energy and spirit worlds both out there and within. These two words writ large were beginning to really engage my attention...
Tian is written about to also be an elemental but indescribable thing, the natural character of a being, something that reflects instinct too. It looks to originally be a Taoist or Confucianist reference. It is one of the oldest Chinese symbols that represents the cosmos, the heavens above us, and those hidden within us.
What a most interesting ancient phrase. What an intriguing high place to have found it...
I have returned again to that same silent summit, and hopefully now too, I have come back with more of an understanding of what our fellow climber may have meant by writing "Our Tian". Now as I write this and gaze out across a sea of summits, valleys and rivers, up to a shimmering sky of blue, while feeling the winds ebb and flow at this height - I begin to sense what our shared Tian may be about in this wonderful, peaceful wild place..... DSD
Thank you Friends for sharing your Tian images here.
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