This morning during meditation I tapped into the well of contentment. That reminded me of my intention to work on mindfulness. I set myself to stop before each new activity and allow myself to become present through breath awareness coupled with listening (listening with breath awareness came up when I was doing my morning sunrise meditation outside.) I am putting this in the blog to help me to remember to:
PAUSE before each task to reignite PRESENCE so that I can do that task with mindfulness.
This place where you are right now, God circled on a map for you. ~ Hafiz
I feel my own force, bearing fruit
And gaining strength to give me to the world.
My inmost being I feel charged with power
To turn with clearer insight
Toward the weaving of life’s destiny.
— Rudolf Steiner
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.
— Albert Camus
When you meditate deeply enough on compassion, there will arise in you a strong determination to alleviate the suffering of all beings, and an acute sense of responsibility toward that noble aim. There are two ways, then, of mentally directing this compassion and making it active.
The second and universal way is to direct whatever compassion you have to all beings, by dedicating all your positive actions and spiritual practice to their welfare and especially toward their enlightenment. For when you meditate deeply on compassion, a realization dawns in you that the only way for you to be of complete help to other beings is for you to gain enlightenment. From that a strong sense of determination and universal responsibility is born, and the compassionate wish arises in you at that moment to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all others.”
–The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying page 204
She is the Hag, the Wild Woman, the Wise Woman. She is Baba Yaga, La Loba, Hecate.
Embedded in her name is the weight of history, religious persecution, torture, death, and the stigma of what remains – “evil doer”, “stick rider”, “night monster”.
But before that, she was the Knowing One, the Diviner, the One with Inner Wisdom. Because of her tumultuous history, few of us are willing to know her intimately. But she lives on.
We love her and we fear her. She is the part of us we cannot forget and yearn to bring back to life.
~Kristen
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.
And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open.
The light from spirit depths
Strives to ray outwards, sun-imbued;
Transformed to forceful will of life
It shines into the senses’ dullness
To bring forth the powers
Whereby creative forces, soul-impelled,
Shall ripen into human deeds.
— Rudolf Steiner
Earth may become on an instant all faery . . . and earth and air resound with the music of its invisible people… You may see the palace chambers of nature where the wise ones dwell in secret . . . and know an eternal love is within and around you, pressing upon you and sustaining with infinite tenderness your body, soul and spirit. – A.E.