When you are able to accept divine will, you are also able to give yourself completely to every tiny action in your life. Each one becomes a fragrant blossom, it becomes worthy of respect…

— Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

… time is not a linear flow, as we think it is, into past, present, and future. Time is an indivisible whole, a great pool in which all events are eternally embodied and still have their meaningful being. Into it we may dip by chance, or by a meaningful flash of supernormal or extrasensory perception, and glimpse something that happened long ago in linear time.

— Frank Waters, Mountain Dialogues, p.28

The perfect pulsation between giving and receiving leads to effortless abundance.

This insight came to me after chanting today as I chanted with a cd. I chanted with the call and consciously received the response, taking in the energy of the response.  It is this way with the breath: when the breath becomes even the mind becomes still, struggle ends, and we become open to infinite possibility.

If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees.

–Rainer Maria Rilke

New Mexico served as his first provocative ‘equivalent’ for creating a modern art built on eternal values. It reconciled the self and the world by its dramatic yoking of earth and sky, body and spirit…

— Lois Palken Rudnick, Utopian Vistas

New research indicates that mindfulness practice affects genetic structure:

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/12/05/researchers-finally-show-mindfulness-thoughts-can-induce-specific-molecular-changes-genes/

Within my being’s depths there speaks,

Intent on revelation,

The cosmic Word mysteriously:

Imbue your labor’s aims

With my bright spirit light

To sacrifice yourself through me.

— Rudolf Steiner

Hurrying isn’t moving fast, although it often is coupled with it; we can move quickly and be present. To me, hurrying is moving and attending to things in a blurry manner, often underlain with the feeling that there is not enough time. We must get things done!  The worst results can be accident and injury, or some other type of loss. Even without this, it is certainly true that we aren’t present to ourselves, our actions, and to the world around us. It is a leaving of awareness.

Sometimes I need to move quickly. But I do not want to give up awareness in that process. When I remember to pause and return to presence, to watch the breath, to sense my body as I move, I am returning to the present moment; I can move fast or slow, depending on what is required. And I can be observant.

The tendency to hurry can be seen as a gift– because when I notice I am hurrying, this very noticing offers a choice to return to the present moment.

~ Peace Begins with You ~ “The last time Martin Luther King and I met was in Geneva during the peace conference called Paix sur Terre — “Peace on Earth.” I was able to tell him that the people in Vietnam were very grateful for him because he had come out against the violence in Vietnam. They considered him to be a great bodhisattva, working for his own people and supporting us. Unfortunately, three months later he was assassinated. People were very compassionate and willing to support us in ending the war in Vietnam during the sixties. But the peace movement in America did not have enough patience. People became angry very quickly because what they were doing wasn’t bringing about what they wanted. So there was a lot of anger and violence in the peace movement. Nonviolence and compassion are the foundations of a peace movement. If you don’t have enough peace and understanding and loving-kindness within yourself, your actions will not truly be for peace. Everyone knows that peace has to begin with oneself, but not many people know how to do it. Engaged Buddhism is just Buddhism. When bombs begin to fall on people, you cannot stay in the meditation hall all of the time. Meditation is about the awareness of what is going on- not only in your body and in your feelings, but all around you. When I was a novice in Vietnam, we young monks witnessed the suffering caused by the war. So we were very eager to practice Buddhism in such a way that we could bring it into society. That was not easy because the tradition does not directly offer Engaged Buddhism. So we had to do it by ourselves. That was the birth of Engaged Buddhism. Buddhism has to do with your daily life, with your suffering and with the suffering of the people around you. You have to learn how to help a wounded child while still practicing mindful breathing. You should not allow yourself to get lost in action. Action should be meditation at the same time.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~ Shambhala Sun, 2008 Interview

Can I know life’s reality

So that it’s found again

Within my soul’s creative urge?

I feel that I am granted power

To make my self, as humble part,

At home within the cosmic self.

— Rudolf Steiner