Here is an amazement – once I was twenty years old and in every motion of my body there was a delicious ease, and in every motion of the green earth there was a hint of paradise, and now I am sixty years old, and it is the same.
Mary Oliver, The West Wind
Just like the trees growing in the mountains, sacredness is always there. It is part of existence. The consequence of losing our connection with this truth can sometimes by quite dangerous. And when we lose this understanding, we develop a mechanical relationship with the world, within as well as without. We develop a mechanical relationship with ourselves and also with the outer world, the world of nature, and with humanity as a whole.
Anam Thubten, Embracing Each Moment
High winds do not last all morning
Heavy rain does not last all day
Why is this? Such is Heaven and Earth!
If heaven and earth cannot make things eternal
Why do we think it happens for us?
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Without meditation, where do we even begin to find a place to stand and speak the whole truth? The four noble truths teach that there is suffering, that it’s caused by human ignorance and selfishness, that it stops when these attitudes stop, and that we have to live in accordance with that. Maybe the truths of suffering and its origin don’t lead to the ceasing of suffering on the sociocultural level right now. But through meditation, through directly accessing the heart, one can at least see and speak the truth of how suffering feels in this moment, where you experience it in your heart and body. A way of action can evolve from that, but the first step is to speak truth, feel truth, live truth.
Ajahn Sucitto, Heart light in Dark Times
This world, after all our science – is still a miracle;
wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more.
Thomas Carlyle, 1795 – 1881, British historian, essayist, philosopher, mathematician, and teacher.
Many indigenous cultures and spiritual traditions recognize four natural sanctuaries where we can remember and come home to who we are: the desert, the mountains, the waters, and the woods. Nature comes from the Latin ‘natus,’ ‘to be born.’ Native peoples look to these places for remembrance, soul retrieval work, and to be reborn or renewed. Because we are made from the natural elements- fire (our energy), air (our breath), water (our blood), and earth (our bones),- we are always drawn to come into harmony with the beauty of nature around us. It nourishes the soul and opens us to be born into the mysterious presence and promptings of our own vast inner world.
Angeles Arrien
Mindfulbalance 