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...

let the sunrise break your heart open...

Do not seek the light.
See it.
Do not look for beauty.
Be it.
Do not search for Self.
Know it.
Let the birdsong teach you.
Let the sunrise break your heart open.
Let every breath remind you of sudden miracles.
~ Jeff Foster

Siesta Key Beach, sunrise

everything already is infinite...

Sometimes I lie outside on the grass with my two beloved furkids in the daytime. If I allow my vision to soften while gazing at my cat's hair I begin to see tiny, rainbow colored orbs on one strand of hair. And softening my gaze even more I can see there are many many of those orbs. And, clearly, there's movement. Each orb is an entire universe unto itself. I imagine what, if any, kind of beings live there? ~Sarah

identification in Belovedness...

“While the impostor draws his identity from past achievements and the adulation of others, the true self claims identity in its belovedness. We encounter God in the ordinariness of life: not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life.”
~ Brennan Manning

my daily affairs are quite ordi­nary...

"My daily affairs are quite ordi­nary;
but I’m in total har­mony with them.
I don’t hold on to any­thing, don’t reject any­thing;
nowhere an obsta­cle or con­flict.
Who cares about wealth and honor?
Even the poor­est thing shines.
My mirac­u­lous power and spir­i­tual activ­ity:
draw­ing water and car­ry­ing wood."

 ~Layman P’ang

lemongrass plant and Smoky

in harmony...

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healing power of three things...

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

practically speaking...

the choice for laughter seems like a no-brainer anyway

Wendell Berry's 9 Rules for Consumption:
1. Be happy with what you’ve got. Don’t be always looking for something better.
2. Don’t buy anything you don’t need.

3. Don’t buy what you ought to save. Don’t buy what you ought to make.
4. Unless you absolutely have got to do it, don’t buy anything new.
5. If somebody tries to sell you something to “save labor,” look out. If you can work, then work.
6. If other people want to buy a lot of new stuff and fill up the country with junk, use the junk.
7. Some good things are cheap, even free. Use them first.
8. Keep watch for what nobody wants. Sort through the leavings.
9. You might know, or find out, what it is to need help. So help people.

spirituality is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being...

“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion

Brother David Steindl-Rast

that spirituality is a separate department of life,
 the penthouse of our existence. But
rightly understood, it is a vital awareness
 that pervades all realms of our being." 
~Brother David Steindl-Rast

 

 Brother David had a 

90th birthday on July 12th