...our true self..."

“Everyone of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves. Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation, and the superficial, external self which we commonly identify with the first person singular. Our reality, our true self, is hidden in what appears to us to be nothingness....We can rise above this unreality and recover our hidden reality....God Himself begins to live in me not only as my Creator but as my other and true self.”

~Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

photo source: pixabay

 

This post brought to you by the human being 

(designer, maker, sewist) 

behind ZafuChi, an etsy store that offers buckwheat hull filled zafus, 

unfilled zafu covers, and filled and unfilled bolster pillows.

Wishing you a wonder-filled day!

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
 

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

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 

 

finding our center again...

~)(~
"Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. 

We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. 

So we lost our center 

and have to find it again."
~ Anaïs Nin

~)(~

"Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, 

 deepening, and of an ever greater surrender

 to the creative action of love 

and grace in our hearts."
~ Thomas Merton

~)(~

Sit, be still and know...

available at ZafuChi on etsy

~)(~
 Blog owned and maintained by Sarah Nolt

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZafuChi
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https://www.tumblr.com/blog/zafuchi 
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it was a lucky wind...

“Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.”

Thomas Merton

 

~)(~

 

"Just for a moment let's be still..."

The Head and the Heart, Lyric Art, Hipster Art, Typography Print,

artwork by AwakeYourSoul on etsy 

 

seeds of contemplation...

New Seeds of Contemplation

"There is an irreducible opposition 

between the deep transcendent self 

that awakens only in contemplation, 

and the superficial, external self 

which we commonly identify with the first person singular. 

Our reality, our true self, 

is hidden in what appears to us to be nothingness....

We can rise above this unreality 

and recover our hidden reality.... 

God Himself begins to live in me 

not only as my Creator 

but as my other and true self.”
 

 ~Thomas Merton

~)(~

Contemplation 

original watercolor painting - 

fairytale fantasy whimsical surreal art - illustration

available by SusanSorrellHill on etsy 

divinity is shining through - but only all the time...

"We are living in a world 

that is absolutely transparent 

and the divine is shining through it 

all the time. 

This is not just a nice story 

or a fable, 

it is true.” 

~ Thomas Merton

~)(~

"Light and Day"

artwork by DoodlePaintings - available on etsy 

 

I am myself my own unique door...

"The way to find the real ‘world’ is not merely 

to measure and observe what is outside us, 

but to discover our own inner ground. 

For that is where the world is, first of all: in my deepest self. 

This ‘ground,’ this ‘world’ where I am mysteriously present at once to my own self 

and to the freedoms of all other men,

 is not a visible objective and determined structure with fixed laws and demands.

 It is a living and self-creating mystery 

of which I am myself a part, 

to which I am myself my own unique door."

~Thomas Merton,

Contemplation in a World of Action 

~0~

 

purple sky waterfall over a doorway

 by DMParnellArt on etsy

deliberately irrelevant...

"Are monastics and hippies and poets relevant? 

No, we’re deliberately irrelevant.

 We live with an ingrained irrelevance 

which is proper to every human being. 

The marginal person accepts the basic irrelevance 

of the human condition, 

an irrelevance 

which is manifested above all by the fact of death."

~Thomas Merton

One Definition of Success

“To live well, to laugh often, to love much, to gain the respect of intelligent people, to win the love of little children. To fill one’s niche and accomplish one’s task, to leave the world better than one finds it whether by an improved flower, a perfect poem or another life ennobled. to never lack appreciation of earth’s beauty or fail to express it, to always look for the best in others, to give the best one has. To make one’s life an inspiration and one’s memory a benediction. This is success.” 
(variation of the original)




"A door opens in the center of our being and we seem to fall through it into the immense depths which, although they are infinite, are all accessible to us; all eternity seems to have become ours in this one placid and breathless contact. Where already, supernatural instinct teaches us that the function of this abyss of freedom, which has been open within our midsts, is to draw us utterly out of our own selfhood and into its own immensity of liberation." ~Thomas Merton