Reflections On Milford

Reflections On Milford

Reflecting on the sites concerning the last few posts around the hills of Milford, MA.- there is still much beauty to be seen and energy to be expressed when visiting and experiencing this place(s).  I did not wish to paint any negative picture concerning this area in light of quarrying, interstate highways and power-lines.  It is true some things may be lost and even obscured but what is more important is that in spite of this, the area is still alive with vibrant energy and natural splendor.  

Regarding some of the obscured and partially disturbed (due to quarrying) stone mounds, I have a strong feeling these are the remains of 'monuments' of important people from long ago, selected to be built up around the high ledges of a "grand view place", over-looking the country and domain of said people, obviously great and powerful leaders of their day.  The first white settlers were guided to the country of modern day Milford, MA. by Native guides by canoe, who described the area as Magomiskook, the "grand view place/ great rock place."  Beyond this knowledge, the Milford area has a hidden and lost Native history spanning many thousands of years- this area is also the source of the Charles, Sudbury and Blackstone Rivers.  It is only regrettable that contemporary people have failed to fully grasp this.  For instance, in Mongolia there is restricted access to Ghenghis Kahn's supposed mound which may very well be on top of one of the highest mountains in a "forbidden zone."  In large absence of America's traditional cultures modern people have failed to consider the rich history of the past, with "undeveloped" land considered nothing more than a real estate commodity to be used for infrastructure building- no zone or once sacred area is off-limits or restricted, or even realized as such in the first place.  This is a reflection of a dim consciousness that all sentient beings must one day ascend from.  In the text "The Life of Milarepa: (A New translation from the Tibetan" translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa, it is said in the introduction that,

"the... training is a process of psychological transformation that begins with the conscious cultivation of goodness in thoughts, words, and deeds... in order to discover the non-deceptive identity of man, every individual is encouraged to free himself from the solid and strong influence of his conditioning..... [further more it states:] Samsara, the wheel of birth and death, the eternally recurrent round of suffering and desire, is rooted in delusion and ignorance.  Man perceives the apparent as real, [and] takes lies and fantasy for truth.  From this[,] two effects ensue.  On the one hand, the natural unfolding of conditioned reality is denied; man simply does not see or participate in the life and the world around him which, while not the absolutely real, is not merely a creation of his own subjectivity.  In addition, by attributing the quality of substantiality to the world he "sees" and to himself, the "seer", by taking both his own being and the "object" of his subjective experience to be fixed entities with a persisting structure, he rules out any possibility of self-transformation.  But all of this is precisely what he may study.  To understand delusion means to gain insight into the foundation of nirvana, that is, the character of one's original, primal awareness." 

Last is a picture of a Connecticut Stone Mound, also located on a high place that Tim McSweeney shared on his blog "Waking Up On Turtle Island."  The mound is a monument commemorating a great sachem (leader,) located on a high ledge over-looking his country.  Although the mound may be a different style from those found in the Milford (MA.) hills, they are essentially situated and placed in the same fashion, over-looking their respective countries/ earthly domains.

Stone Mound from Connecticut: