our responsibility is to find and be our Self...

"Don’t take the world upon your shoulders.

You don’t have such a responsibility.

Your responsibility is to find and be your Self.

Nobody can save this world. Leave all to God.
Also it is good to know and have this attitude
 that nothing in this world belongs to you—not even ‘you’.
Everything is Him [IT] alone.
When you know this, all suffering and sorrows will go.
The space that remains is your true Self—who is He."
~ Mooji
~)(~

 

nonresistance and non-forcing...

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

the deep spring that is inside us...

"…. Dadirri. It is inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri recognizes the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us … When I experience dadirri, I am made whole again. I can sit on the riverbank or walk through the trees; even if someone close to me has passed away, I can find my peace in this silent awareness.

My people today recognize and experience in this quietness the great Life-Giving spirit...... It is easy for me to experience God’s presence. When I am out hunting, when I am in the bush, among the trees, on a hill or by a billabong; these are the times when I can simply be in God’s presence. My people have been so aware of Nature. It is natural that we will feel close to the Creator."

~Miriam Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann

Coolangatta sunrise

HandmadeMerchbyLerch on etsy 

the homecoming of your unfolding life...

 ~)(~

"Beauty is about an emerging fullness, 

a greater sense of grace and elegance, 

a deeper sense of depth, and a homecoming 

for the enriched memory of your unfolding life."

~ John O'Donahue

~)(~

~)(~

For this starfish zafu, and other zafu meditation cushions 

(both unfilled covers and buckwheat hull filled), home decor pillows and bolster pillows see: 

zafuChi on etsy Handmade in the USA, by a sole-owner home-based business - hoping to make it big. 

Not really, but sort of. ;)

 ~)(~

boketta meditation...

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meditation, developing awareness of the Observer self, and establishing self-authorship...

"We create ourselves by what we choose to notice.

Once this work of self-authorship has begun, we inhabit the world we've
created. We self-seal. We don't notice anything except those things that
confirm what we already think about who we already are.

"Meditative traditions refer to the observer self. When we succeed in
moving outside our normal processes of self-reference and can look upon
ourselves with self-awareness, then we have a chance at changing. We
break the seal. We notice something new."

~ Margaret Wheatley 

~)(~

click here to see this and other available zafu meditations cushions

Handmade by me (Sarah) a lifelong sewist. Among other things, I run

 a one-owner, small home-based business in southwest Florida, U.S.A.

life is a field of possibilities...

"Your life is a field of possibilities. 

With each of your actions, 

every thought, word, and deed, 

you plant new seeds in the fertile ground of your life. 

Starting today, 

choose to plant seeds that will grow into your truest dreams. 

Choose every action wisely, 

for the harvest you reap will 

without fail match the seeds you plant."
~ Obaa-san (Living Wabi Sabi)

let it go, let it go...live and let live

"Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.”

excerpt: "We have all betrayed and hurt others, just as we have knowingly or unknowingly been harmed by them.  It is inevitable in this human realm. Sometimes our betrayals are small, sometimes terrible.  Extending and receiving forgiveness is essential for redemption from our past.  To forgive does not mean we condone the misdeeds of another. We can dedicate ourselves to make sure they never happen again. But without forgiveness the world can never be released from the sorrows of the past.  Someone quipped, “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” Forgiveness is a way to move on."

for the entire article click here: The Practice of Forgiveness by Jack Kornfield

"Sunny" - basking in Bliss - cats are natural Zen-ists

Sunny is a friend's new adopted kitty. 

He, and his sibling Moon, have taken over her zafu cushion.

"Moon"

 

the primary addiction...

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an innerspring of grace...

by etsyseller AshaleeSouleDesigns

~)(~

"Grace is always present.
You imagine it something 

somewhere high in the sky

 that descends. But 

it is really inside you, 

as your heart.
The moment you merge

 the mind into its source, 

Grace rushes forth,

as a spring
from within you."

~ Ramana Maharshi

being in the Presence...

Touching Enlightenment

"In meditating with the body as our guide, 

we come to feel that, 

perhaps for the first time in our lives,

 we are in the presence of a being, 

our own body, 

that is wise, loving, flawlessly reliable, 

and, strange to say, 

worthy of our deepest devotion."

~Reggie Ray

( photo of myself - from 2007)

Recently a friend gave me this photo of myself taken at a folk music event almost a decade ago. No one knows where it was, or who took the photo, nor was I aware of the photo being taken. I usually don't care to see myself in photos but this one reminds me of my peaceful "self". I'm a very private person, but am OK with presenting this particular image to the public eye. Peace to all who come across my little (blog) oasis, in a world that is way too distracting and busy. ~Sarah

clearing out identification is freedom...

"Freedom is the realization that this deep, deep peace and this unknown are what you are. Everything else is just an extension of that unknown. Bodies are just an extension of that unknown. The trees outside are just an extension of the unknown in time, in form. Thought and feeling are also extensions of the unknown in time. The whole visible universe, in fact, is just an extension in time of this unknown, this mountain of quiet.

So it's really important to get to the point of maturity where you are willing to look at what is fundamental. There is a difference between pulling the weeds of confusion out and getting to the root of Truth. Did you ever pull weeds from a lawn, grabbing only their tops, and discover they were back again so quickly that it was as if the lawn was never weeded at all?
Clearing out identification is like this."
~ Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing

the heart is huge vast and limitless...

"When you begin to touch your heart 

or let your heart be touched, 

you begin to discover that it's bottomless, 

that it doesn't have any resolution, 

that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. 

You begin to discover how much warmth 

and gentleness is there,

 as well as how much space."

~Pema Chodron

manifesto for a simple life...

What would you add to this list?

anything you cannot control, is teaching you to let go...

 "Anything that annoys you, is teaching you patience. 

Anyone who abandons you, is teaching you to stand on your own two feet.

 Anything that angers you, is teaching you forgiveness and compassion. 

Anything that has power over you, is teaching you how to take your power back. 

Anything you hate, is teaching you unconditional Love. 

Anything you fear, is teaching you courage to overcome your fear.

 Anything you cannot control, is teaching you to let go."

~J Kiddard

humanly speaking...