Monday, August 31, 2015

music is love in search of a word...

~)(~

At the core of the world
 and at the core of the soul 
is silence that ripples 
with the music of beauty 
 and the whisperings 
of the eternal.
~ John O'Donohue

~)(~

Music is Love...

Original Watercolor Painting

artwork available by worDSMITHstudios on etsy 

Sunday, August 30, 2015

what makes our souls soar...

~)(~

"In the midst of our lives..
we must find the magic that makes our souls soar."

~ Anonymous

 ~)(~

 Magic Lamp

Aladdin Illustrated Watercolor Quote

artwork available by MaggieBodle on etsy 

 







Saturday, August 29, 2015

In Between Somewhere and Nowhere is You and I...


~)(~ 
"…I stand among you as one who offers a small message of hope, that first, there are always people who dare to seek on the margin of society, who are not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on social routine, and prefer a kind of free-floating existence under a state of risk. And among these people, if they are faithful to their own calling, to their own vocation, and to their own message from God, communication on the deepest level is possible. And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words, and it is beyond speech and beyond concept."
~The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
~)(~

"In Between Somewhere and Nowhere is You and I"    
print available by BrownBearStudio on etsy
 

Friday, August 28, 2015

truth is too simple for words...


~)(~

"truth is too simple for words
before thought gets tangled up 
in nouns and verbs
there is a wordless sound
a deep breathless sigh
of overwhelming relief
to find the end of fiction
in this ordinary
yet extraordinary moment
when words are recognized
as words
and truth is recognized
as everything else."
~Nirmala

~)(~

"Magical Forest"



Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe

~)(~

"Everywhere people are tiptoeing through life, 
just to arrive at death safely. 
But dear children, do not tiptoe. 
Run, hop, skip, or dance, just don't tiptoe." 
~ Shane Claiborne

~)(~

"Mowgli and Baloo Dancing"

available by gingerkidsart on etsy 

 ~)(~

 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

where there is love...

~)(~

"Where there is love and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. 
Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation. 
 Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice. 
Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt."

~ St Francis of Assisi

~)(~

"St. Francis of Assisi & Friends" Print

artwork available by MoonLightCookieArt on etsy 

 

Monday, August 24, 2015

go easy, be filled with Light, and shine...

"... never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."
~Mary Oliver
~)(~

Saturday, August 22, 2015

cast solemnity to the winds...

~)(~
"We are invited to forget ourselves on purpose,
cast our awful solemnity to the winds
and join in the general dance."
~Thomas Merton
~)(~

"Throw caution to the wind"

Boho Dancer Print in watercolor

available on etsy by ArtyMigglet


Friday, August 21, 2015

create some space - inhale exhale...

The fullness of joy is to
behold God in everything.
~ Julian of Norwich
~)(~

 
"Inhale/inspiration, exhale/expiration. 
Give "God" some space to work with."
;-)

Thursday, August 20, 2015

oOo...OM...oOo

“Om is not just a sound or vibration. 
It is not just a symbol.
 It is the entire cosmos, 
whatever we can see, touch, 
hear and feel. Moreover, 
it is all that is within our perception 
and all that is beyond our perception. 
It is the core of our very existence. 
If you think of Om only as a sound, 
a technique or a symbol 
of the Divine, 
you will miss it altogether. 
Om is the mysterious cosmic energy 
that is the substratum of all the things
 and all the beings of the entire universe.
 It is an eternal song of the Divine.
 It is continuously resounding in silence
 on the background 
of everything that exists.”
  ~Amit Ray

oOo...OM...oOo

Driftwood Coral Zafu Meditation Cushion 

oOo...OM...oOo

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

open our eyes so we may see right...

~)(~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The world is full of magic things,
patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."
~ W.B. Yeats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~)(~

Sit, breathe, pay attention...
 (click caption for more information 
about the zafu and ringong pictured above)

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

simply sit and disengage the mind...

"A way to purify oneself 
is through a letting-go process 
of simply sitting, 
and disengaging the mental mind. 
What a wonder!"

~)(~

 Meditation Cushion 
Cream with Lavender Bouquet Zafu
and other cushions available at ZafuChi.etsy.com

Monday, August 17, 2015

the divine shines through all the time...

~)(~
"We are living in a world that is 
absolutely transparent, and 
the divine is shining through 
it all the time." 
~Thomas Merton
~)(~

Meditation Cushion.  

Buckwheat Hulls. Zafu. Pouf. Floor Pillow

this and more unique and consciously made zafus available at ZafuChi 

 

Friday, August 14, 2015

our desires and existential restlessness...

"Can you accept your desires graciously? When you sit on the cushion 
and see one desire after another and feel how consuming each is—
if you remain on your cushion, then you are graciously accepting them.
 It may not feel gracious on the inside. But when the bell rings and the desire 
 suddenly dissipates, we recognize how little it actually means to us. 
Often it was just a temporary distraction from the pain or boredom
 that was coming up. Developing a gracious attitude toward our
 obsessive desires is what Zen practice is about. 
Seeing the nature of desire is the beginning of spiritual liberation."
~Tim Burkett, 
Nothing Holy About It: The Zen of Being Just Who You Are

~)(~

Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from
man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

~)(~

noticing “existential restlessness”
Existential restlessness requires us to confront our yearning
 to fill the void of waiting on God with all manner of stimulation:
 intellectual insight, relationships, companionship,
or even the lower pleasures of delicious food or an afternoon cappuccino.
The problem, however, is that this wandering attention runs the small self,
the egoic operating system. What is needed is to just sit,
and to face the boredom and the “noon-day demons”
of attachment to thoughts and emotions.
Centering Prayer helps a person to gain enough being present to be nothing.
This is liberation.

~)(~

Meditation Cushion - available at ZafuChi on etsy

~)(~

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZafuChi
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/zafuchi 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zafu-Meditation-Cushions/130822403614723

Thursday, August 13, 2015

beyond expectations and disappointments...

Suffering, beyond physical and emotional pain, 
can be caused by our attachment to expectations.  

"When we are disappointed by a pleasure 
which we have been expecting and which comes, 
the disappointment is because we were expecting the future, 
and as soon as it is there it is present. 
We want the future to be there without ceasing to be future. 
This is an absurdity of which eternity alone is the cure."
~Simone Weil (1909-1943)

 ~)(~



~)(~
 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZafuChi
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/zafuchi 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zafu-Meditation-Cushions/130822403614723