Portrait by hatter & hare studios.
✿•*¨`*• Post by Gill xx •´*¨`*•✿
The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep.
–Rumi
At this time of year it’s hard to keep my intention to rise for dawn. Lately I have had to allow myself to sleep through it because my body needs the rest. But some mornings I am able to rise before dawn, and this morning was such a morning (sunrise– 4:43). I was wakened by a cool, gentle breeze caressing me from the open window. I was able to rise and do the dawn prayers on the front porch. For some time now I have felt that the breezes are the touch of God; I feel blessed by the breeze through the window. I am sheltered and cozy, but God finds a way to reach me through nature. The touch of the breeze pulls me inward, to the inner sanctuary of loving attention, to the place of comfort, solace, and complete security.
All happiness you desire is within you. It is there in its entirety, in its full manifestation.
—Bhagavan Nityananda
Image Shared by: ‘Zen Buddhismus’
Members of the Paris Opera Ballet: Marie-Agnès Gillot and Stéphane Bullion in “Orpheus and Eurydice.”
When the sun rises, we say it is daytime. The light makes everything glisten. The world becomes apparent because of its radiance. Then when the sun sets, we say it is nighttime. However, the divine light doesn’t come and go; the light that exists in the sun is also present in the moon and the stars. It also exists in trees and plants and the wind. The divine light is unceasingly alive in every particle of Consciousness. It is in tune with the universal soul. The deathless immortal light that pulsates with knowledge exists in everything.
— Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Courage and Contentment
Fireworks light up the sky against the backdrop of a full moon during a Fourth of July celebration in Kansas City, Kan., Tuesday, July 3, 2012.
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120705/news/707059876/photos/
And when I live in senses’ heights,
There flames up deep within my soul
Out of the spirit’s fiery worlds
The gods’ own word of truth:
In spirit sources seek expectantly
To find your spirit kinship.
— Rudolf Steiner
This morning as I was looking out on the circle garden in the front yard, I thought it wasn’t right; the plants seemed scrawny. Then it dawned on me that rather than expecting the garden to be perfect, it is up to me to bestow my own delight upon the garden.
Perfectionism is rooted in this tendency to have expectations, to want things to be “just so,” and to be disappointed when they aren’t. It is a problem I have had all of my life. Re: the drawing process– when I learn that I can bestow my blessings upon that which I behold, I won’t need to always be looking for the perfect thing to draw. I can choose a subject with more ease and just get on with it.
There is a quote from Bob Dylan that I can’t find any more that he would rather hear the ash cans clanging… and he went on listing ordinary sights and sounds. It made a deep impression on me. It relates to this need I have to be able to extract perfection from each moment.
It is your sadhana to extract the perfection from each moment, from each particle of the universe… This is perfect, that is perfect.
— Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Enthusiasm
As the days and weeks go by, I find myself becoming more attuned to the qualities emanated by the time of day and the season. The manifestations of nature in accordance with time are becoming more and more important to me. I am “tuning into” increasing levels of subtlety. Being attuned to the relationship between time and nature is growing a carpet beneath me. It is a true foundation for Self* knowledge.
*I understand the Self to be unity awareness, the knowledge of the Whole within which all of the parts are contained.
Follow the course of nature day by day.
— Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Enthusiasm