Unless you study Native American traditions in their purest form, you’ll never learn to live on this land with very much real direction, because there’s a spirit that’s already alive here, and you must touch a spirit that’s thousands of year’s stronger and deeper.

— Sister Maria Jose Hobday

Her Beauty

I heard them say, “Her hands are hard as stone,”
And I remembered how she laid for me
The road to heaven. They said, “Her hair is grey.”
Then I remembered how she once had thrown
Long plaited strands, like cables, into the sea
I battled in — the salt sea of dismay.
They say, “Her beauty’s past.” And then I wept,
That these, who should have been in love adept,
Against my font of beauty should blaspheme.
And hearing a new music, miss the theme.

by Max Plowman

The Medicine Woman in all of us draws sustenance, vision and power from the Earth herself, Gaia, and always through a particular place. It may be a Sacred canyon, mountain or grove she pilgrimages to regularly, or the ground beneath the city pavement where she walks.

Source: awarenessmag.com (Author: Kiva Rose)

Dharana to Disengage

 I vividly imagine waves curling and crashing upon the beach.

They pull back into the vastness of the sea.

They take with them all I do not need anymore.

As I look through the “eye” of the curl,

I see a bright, clear, colorful world,

The world that awaits,

The world of my destiny.

Today, right now,

I put my hands upon those things that need to go.

I disengage from them and release them to where they need to go.

I know exactly where they need to go.

Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

— Eckhart Tolle

Q: Instead of meditating with closed eyes, is not meditation better if one looks at the beauty of nature, the sky, trees?

BABA: To look at the world with understanding in your eyes is an excellent form of meditation, for the Self pervades everything. Kabir speaks of  ‘seeing in meditation.’ In fact, sahaja samadhi, or spontaneous samadhi, is the best and highest meditation. Wherever you look, you see not only things but the spirit which animates them. Because we do not always understand this, we close our eyes for a while. To see the Self in stones, trees, and space is the meditation of the high ones. Whatever and wherever you see, you see God. Whatever you eat and drink is an offering to Him. Whatever you speak is His mantra. It is the Self that is eating, drinking, and seeing. The Self is in the self. O supreme conscious Rudra, you are man and woman. I bow to you. Rudra is the sun, Rudra is the light, Rudra is all. You should see the same within and without. If you have seen within, then the same will appear outside also.

— Baba Muktananda, Selected Essays, 84,85

Truly creative people in all fields can temporarily suspend their ego and simply experience what they are seeing, without the need to assert a judgment, for as long as possible. They are more than ready to find their most cherished opinions contradicted by reality. This ability to endure and even embrace mysteries and uncertainties is what (John) Keats called negative capability.

— Robert Greene, Mastery

You yourself are the eternal energy that appears as this universe.

You didn’t come into this world. You came out of it.

Like a wave from the ocean.

–Alan Watts