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.
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
Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.
~An old Native American Elder story rendered into modern English by David Wagoner
“Everything the Power of the World does is done in circle.
The sky is round, and I have heard that the
earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle.
The moon does the same, and both are round.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing,
and always come back again to where they were.
The life of a [person] is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves.”
Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
As you walk upon the sacred earth,
treat each step as a prayer…..
…… Black Elk