Give us a heart for simple things:
Love and laughter
Bread and wine
Tales and dreams
Fill our lives with
Green and growing hope
Make us a people of justice
Whose song is Allelujah
And whose name
Breathes Love.
Amen.
... a Prayer by Walter Wink
In this latter part of life, my prayer of the heart is most often without words. My tongue is stilled. My mind is stilled. The prayer of the heart becomes the heart's own respiration. I breathe in and I breathe out. It is God's breath. God breathing in, God breathing out. It is God's breath breathing me.
There are two graces in breathing:
drawing in air and discharging it.
The former constrains, the latter refreshes:
so marvelously is life mixed.
Breathing properly and consciously assumes an attitude of openness and attentiveness. Our breath has a connection with the deeper emotional layers of consciousness. This is evident when we are emotional, angry, or anxious. At the same time, however, our breath remains open to those dimensions of our consciousness where we unfold and become receptive to God.... We need to discipline ourselves to attain an inner stillness and receptive attention toward God, who is our beginning.
When we understand how precious each moment is, we can treat each breath, each moment, as a newborn baby. Awareness can become that tender.
Take the breath of the new dawn,
make it a part of you,
it will give you strength.
Breathing is the connection between the mind and the body. When the mind concentrates on the breath, it focuses attention on the present moment. Breathing is the first step on the path to discover your spiritual nature. As you get the body to breathe correctly, the mind settles down, and that creates fertile ground to develop whatever spiritual nature exists within you.
Something inside of me has reached to the place
where the world is breathing.
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me . . .
To me the realization of God first came in the Atlas Mountains and then in the beauty of nature which stirred my whole inner being. The flowers growing everywhere were absolutely breathtaking, and I saw in them such beauty and wonder that could not have been put there by humankind. When I picked the frangi-pangi flower and thought much about it, I saw Spirit Creator. Who else could have made such beauty?Once natural beauty had turned my heart to God, I found myself continually raising my heart to God, without words but in thought. That is prayer in itself.
I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree.
There is a wild and untamable beauty in us when we are in harmony with nature.
Don’t fill up your life with petty knowing.Leave space for something more mysterious, more beautiful, more profound than you can presently even imagine.The Great Creator has more beauty in store for you than you can even dream is possible at this point in your life... Leave space for the Great Mystery to offer something new and wonderful!Everything is unfolding in beauty; we need only stop holding on to the familiar.
Teachings can only bring us back to who we truly are. Our lives and deaths can be of the Beauty Way. But we must start now; we must become refined—the grinding away process to become truly who we are ... beautiful.
Liken yourself to a beautiful original part of creation—a true work of art. Then each day ask yourself how you are living: either in ways that show gratitude for this beauty or in ways that indicate how you are defacing it.
If only you could see your face through my eyes,you would realize how beautiful you are
There is a way to smile through your eyes: to see the beauty behind the appearance of things.Imagine looking at a person who is forlorn and broken and has a bad self-image, and seeing the hidden beauty in that person.When you smile, that person sees their beauty through your eyes.Imagine the gift you are offering that person... A silent, gentle gift of love.
She is from God’s world -- a direct disciple, I think, sent down to brighten our lives and teach us of higher things.To me she is beauty itself—the word came after her presence.Each time she smiles, I can only cry, and I think of something I read about the sadness of beauty: just to find it is not hard, but to bear it, that is impossible.If she were totally aware of the beauty she was creating, she would stop in awe of herself.She somehow makes life so much more than it is.
The most wholesome beauty is virtue-beauty, the beauty of the soul-emergence into the whole of life, producing a whole person. Virtue-beauty is centered in mortal and immortal goodness shining forth upon the countenance, the movements of the body, and the expression of the individual. The deep, sweet memories of a beloved face, of a beloved deed, passed on from a pure soul, leave the underlying mark of good which all yearn and hope for.
Precious memories, unseen angels,
sent from somewhere to my soul;
how they linger, ever near me,
and the sacred past unfold.
Precious memories, how they linger,
how they ever flood my soul,
in the stillness of the midnight,
precious, sacred scenes unfold.
Marla says cruel things that she doesn’t mean. That’s how she deals with her painful life. Most of us do not understand that we might see each other only for a brief few times in a single lifetime and yet be eternal friends. Marla is drawn to your soul, Alexander. Your people have the most dazzling and vivid souls. Since Marla has always been so very close to that other world, where only soul exists, she is able to see and love your soul.
Spirituality is, in its essence, an awakening to the inner reality of our being, to a spirit, self, soul which is other than our mind, life, and body; an inner aspiration to know, to feel, to be that, to enter into contact with the greater Reality beyond and pervading the universe which inhabits also our own being.
The soul’s natural inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the Breath from on high.
If we are in intimate union with God in the center,
then the soul’s desire is Love’s desire.
The soul’s love for God is God’s love for the soul.
Lonely valleys are quiet, pleasant, cool, shady, and flowing with fresh waters; in the variety of their groves and in the sweet song of the birds, they afford abundant recreation and delight to the senses, and in their solitude and silence they refresh the soul and give rest. These valleys are what my Beloved is to me.
The soul is the totality of your love, awareness, experience, ability, memory, emotions, and potential which compromise your immortality. Your mind is the recorder and administrator. In this capacity the mind is a useful and important asset to your existence. But it was never built to be the commander. At the center of your soul is the Sacred Heart. This is the point at which you are one with God... Your heart is centered in a viewpoint of infinity established by your Creator. Thus, the heart honors your individuality, the oneness of God, and the integrated unity of all that is
Just as each soul spark of every living cell in our bodies makes up that which we call our soul, so too do all living souls in the world cumulatively make up part of a universal soul. Indeed, mysticism teaches us that the soul giving us vitality is connected to, and draws sustenance from, a universal soul.
The gold that was my hair has turned
silently to gray. Don’t pity me!
Everything’s been realized,
in my breast all’s blended and attuned.
The soul is not in the body;
the body is in the soul.
Everyone has a soul . . . a gift from God. We are born with it, and we cannot destroy it. We can, however, create barriers that limit contact with our own souls. Some people are more in touch with their soul because they take time to nourish it. Those who nourish the soul, who experience themselves as pure soul, often have a spiritual radiance . . . and they are happy: a good reason to meditate in the silence.
Confusion still exists concerning the nature and functions of the soul and also of the spirit of humankind. Once spirit comes down to dwell in the flesh it starts to create what is called a soul, for soul is that part of our being which is built up through experiences undergone by our tender inner self during incarnation. Soul can further be described as the feminine aspect of our life, the mother principle. The soul of the world is made up of the feeling of the world; the soul of a nation is created by the feeling of the people of that nation.
Snow crystals on a trembling leaf,
along the river where we talked at
the tip of Spring; fresh air, moist
lavender sky--the silence following
a blessed rain that came, bringing
us to beauty; a tiny wild flower
under the shadows of a moss-covered
log; as if to say, I am the first smile,
the new beginning of heaven.
I dream of a world where all beings are honored, where earth, air, fire and water are held to be sacred. For me, living more simply is an important step toward helping to create this world... Voluntary simplicity is a tiny thread in the cosmic process. It is said that one cell’s action affects the whole universe. This means that whatever we do as individuals does make a difference.
There is nothing in me that is not of the earth, no split second of separateness, no particle that disunites me from the surroundings. The river runs through my veins, the winds glow in and out with my breath, the soil makes my flesh, the sun’s heat smolders inside me. A sickness or injury that befalls the earth befalls me. A fouled molecule that runs through the earth runs through me. Where the earth is cleansed and nourished, its purity infuses me. The life of the earth is my life. My eyes are the earth gazing at itself.
The Divine Feminine encourages interdependence, interconnectedness, and mutuality: instead of dominating and controlling nature, the Divine Feminine represents reverence for nature’s web of life. Instead of dismissing feelings and emotions, the Divine Feminine interprets them as a source of wisdom.
God did not grant me the gift of art. I had to express myself in my own life, in my thoughts, in my feelings, in my dreams and ideas, and in my love for all humanity and the Earth. I feel human, totally ecstatically human. I will help this planet, with all my abilities and love, to become what it was always meant to be: the planet of Love, a true miracle in the universe, inhabited by a happy, fulfilled, peaceful, loving humanity, thankful for the miraculous gift of life.
We cannot discover ourselves without first discovering the universe, the earth, and the imperatives of our own being.
When the lessons of equality are learned on earth, the electro-magnetic field of the planet will change and earth will give birth to a new, more glorious curriculum. The seeds of this transformation have already been sown. Our job is to water and nurture them.
Come into the light of things.
Let nature be your teacher.
Our first home was in the womb of our earthly mother, but the womb of God is our "forever" home. It is a place in which we can live both now and forever--an "at home" place of rest. In the womb of God we can both be and be born, over and over again--constantly birthed into new being: new hope, renewed faith, and forgiving love.
Even as the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nesting place,
where its young are raised within
your majestic creation,
You invite us to dwell withinyour Heart.
Blessed are they whose hearts are filledwith love...
They go from strength to strength
and live with integrity.