Keeping vigil: it’s like mindfulness and it’s like meditation. But when keeping a vigil, we wait for something. Our attention has a different kind of focus than in mindfulness and meditation. Today, I’m sharing my experience of keeping vigil during a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park. Each day was marked by waiting and watching. It was a vigil. It’s like throughout our lives: we wait and watch for goodness to appear around us. Enjoy the video!
The following is a text version of this blog.
For about six years, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. My home was a few blocks from a Benedictine Monastery. Each morning, I would visit the monastery to join in morning prayer: chanting, silence, and a reading for reflection. It helped to ground me each day.
Morning prayer wasn’t the first time of the day the monastic community would meet for prayer. An hour before morning prayer, they would meet for what was simply called, “vigil.” It was a half-hour of silence, waiting in vigil, for the day to begin. I went a few times. Each time I went, I sat in silence and fell asleep. It was just too early for me. But I knew that this was something important.
During my spring break trip this year to Yellowstone National Park, what I did most was keep vigil. Over the week we were in Yellowstone, we’d get up around 7:00. It wasn’t quite daylight when we’d drive into the park. Of course, there was always wildlife at the entrance: deer, pronghorns, and rabbits. As we’d drive further, we’d encounter bison (as I talked about in a previous video) or spot mountain goats on the heights. While I appreciated seeing all the wildlife, what I was looking forward to watching were both the bears and the wolves.
In the summer months, bears are easier to see in parks like Yellowstone. But in spring, as they are coming out of hibernation, they typically are not in areas where tourists visit. Luckily, we had the rare opportunity of watching three Black bears – a mother and two yearling cubs – begin their emergence from their den. It’s a slow process. It takes a few weeks for the bears to wake up enough to get on the move. One turnout along the road looked out beyond to a small cave on the mountainside across the way. With a scope or binoculars, it was possible to see the entrance to the cave and look in a bit. This was the bears’ den. The mother bear, the sow, would sun her face in the entrance. If she turned at just the right angle, you could see an ear or a paw. But mostly, what was visible was her snout. The cubs would try to push out on top or around her. One day, it was both cubs sunning themselves. People would line up to watch: keeping vigil, waiting for any sign of movement. Those gathered wondered if it would be the day the bears emerged.
Similarly, at the pullout above Blacktail Pond, we’d keep vigil from 3 or 4 in the afternoon until dark. We’d sit and wait. There, we’d hope to see a Grizzly bear whose territory included the pond. We also waited to see wolves. Each day, we would sit and wait for hours: in the sunshine, in rain, in snow…. we waited.
To keep vigil is to wait with expectation. In a vigil, we stay alert, anticipating that in the next moment, something would occur. Keeping vigil is contrary to how we typically live. We occupy each moment, we multi-task. Even when we’re doing something, whether it’s work or some leisure activity like watching TV, we also keep checking our devices. A vigil requires that we be awake, alert, and singularly focused.
The great wisdom traditions of the world have emphasized the importance of being alert in this way. In Buddhism, the enlightened person is one who is awake, focused, and aware. Those are characteristics of a vigil. Jesus taught his followers: Stay awake. Keep watch. It’s a similar admonition.
One day, while we kept vigil at Blacktail Pond, I became distracted. To be honest, I went for a walk down the road to water my favorite tree. As I strolled back, people were yelling to me. I was missing it. A wolf pack had moved into the valley below, while another pack who claimed this particular territory as theirs, was preparing to chase the marauding pack away. We had been keeping vigil for hours then in a flash, something happened.
Keeping vigil is an important spiritual practice. It keeps us focused on the present moment, the here and now. But it also keeps us aware that in the next moment, something significant may occur for us. It may be a moment of healing, or kindness, or insight. Whatever it is, it’s important that we be alert, awake, and keeping watch. It is that attitude of attention and awareness that is key to a mature spiritual life.
I got to see many amazing things and wild, beautiful animals in Yellowstone. But the most important thing I did was keep vigil. It reminded me of the importance of living in a focused and aware manner.