Rev. Carol Napier
Dorothy Pietracatella
Maxine Stein
Rev. Carolyn Tricomi
About Us
As you explore the thoughts and approaches shared on this site, there are some assumptions and hypotheses inherent in what you’ll find here. It’s my hope that this beginning page will allow you insight into the world view I bring to what you’ll find throughout the site.
I was raised in a home defined by the presence of my maternal grandmother – a Victorian woman who ran our multi-family home as the unquestioned authority on just about everything. She was a clairvoyant who perceived other dimensions of reality, as well as a healer who worked with people who came to our large Hollywood, California home to see her. She was a Theosophist and, I later discovered, a Spiritualist. When I was about 10 years old and decided I didn’t want to go to the local Presbyterian church anymore, she gave me a choice: go back to church or study with her. I chose to study with her, which I did from ages 10 to 16, when she died. The time spent with her shaped my perceptions of, and expectations about, reality.
Even though I have grown beyond the teachings of my childhood, some of the assumptions about reality that I learned as her student are still with me, which comprise the working model of reality reflected by Devadana Sanctuary:
* We live in a world made up of many dimensions of reality
* There are visible and invisible sources of help and inspiration around us all the time
* Help is readily available if we ask for and then allow ourselves to receive it.
In 1978, during meditation, I fell into what I can only call the Void. In the flash of a moment, it became clear to me that everything I had ever believed and experienced, no matter how moving, no matter how vivid, no matter how much love I felt in it or about it, was unreal and impermanent. The beliefs on which I had based my life now appeared as one way to translate an infinite reality that, ultimately, emerged from the Void space and returned to it. It was a thoroughly shattering experience and I felt as though my solid foundation of reality, the world as I had known it, had been yanked out from under me. Even though I have recreated a fluid kind of belief about reality in the years since, there is a part of me that never forgets that what is ultimately real, in my experience, is the Nothing that is the ever-present, all encompassing Void – the paradox that this Nothing holds the infinite potential for all that is and all that will ever be.
For that reason, while Devadana Sanctuary offers a working model to engage in a creative, dynamic relationship with multidimensional reality, we want to avoid offering any kind of belief system. We seek to inspire your own perceptions of reality rather than to suggest what belief system you should hold.
– Nancy Napier
Spirits of the Urban Sacred
On this website, we seek to offer a context within which you may explore your relationship with the presence of the Sacred in all life. We do this through practices, guided meditations, and workshops. For those of us who live in urban settings, it can sometimes be more challenging to access a sense of the presence of the sacred than it is in natural environments.
Here, we share spiritual practices, guided meditations, and teachings that encompass ways to deepen your relationship with the embodied presence of the sacred in all aspects of life, in every context of your daily life: the embodied sacred life in nature, the sacred as it expresses through both visible and invisible realms, and the sacred as it is embodied in everything and everyone you encounter in your everyday activities.
All that we engage in our physical lives–our bodies, trees, rocks, water, all life forms, all physical forms of every kind–are comprised of the same particles that make up buildings, computers, and teacups. Everything you would call an “object” in your daily life is made of the same sacred and physical stuff as you are. Learning to honor the sacred in everything around you deepens a sense of interbeing, interdependence, connection, and oneness as natural aspects of everyday life.
Drawing on processes derived from a number of spiritual approaches, we offer information and support for a dynamic relationship with the sacred that is within and all around you. Through guided meditations, on-line forums, and future workshops, we will explore practical and grounded ways for you to enrich and deepen your experience of the many life forms–both physical and spiritual–with whom you share our planet.
Devadana Sanctuary
Welcome to Devadana Sanctuary, a place where we hope you will find rest, ease and inspiration as part of your spiritual journey. Our goal is to offer not only a forum within which you may share your own inspiring stories, but also where you may receive ideas to nourish your sense of the Sacred in everyday life.
Our main premise is that all life, in whatever form it exists – human/non-human, organic/inorganic, material/non-material – is part of One Life expressing Itself in myriad forms and vibratory frequencies. What appear to be inert objects are comprised of molecules and particles that are of the same living elements as are the molecules and particles of things we generally assume to be “alive”. Also, we hold the possibility that everything in this One Life, which is all that is, is equally pervaded by the One Consciousness that expresses Itself in an infinite array of ways.
In every moment of our daily life, we are in relationship to this Sacred whole of which we are an expression. Engaging everything we encounter as both sacred and conscious brings us into a mindful awareness of our dynamic interconnection and interdependence. This, in turn, inspires us to engage our moment-to-moment experiences more mindfully, respectfully and reverently. When we recognize that everything and everyone we encounter along the way is part of the sacred whole that also includes us, our daily activities take on a richer tone, a more alive essence.
Many people aren’t aware of the subtle realms, and yet we all are affected by the subtle energies around us all the time. Living with the context of a multidimensional world offers an opportunity to pay attention to the quality of energies that touch us as we move through our everyday lives. It also invites us to notice what qualities and energies we radiate into the world within a number of frequencies and “levels”. I use the word “levels” to attempt to describe the fact that frequencies generate, or support, different qualities of being—an infinite variety of qualities of being, expression—of manifestation. This week’s exploration offers an opportunity to pay particular attention to two dynamics. First is to notice how you feel in various situations, to become more aware of the impact on you of the subtle environments you move through every day. The other is to notice the impact of what you send into the world on a daily basis. For example, if you find yourself in a bad mood, or upset about something, notice what the world around you feels like as you radiate the thoughts and feelings that resonate with frequencies of upset or negativity. If you find that the “tone” or “mood” of your environment or your subtle experience doesn’t feel positive or good to you, notice what happens if you shift into an attitude of offering blessings to yourself and to all that you encounter. Pay attention to whatever shifts for you when you enter and/or generate the frequency, the quality of actively offering blessings. There’s no need to do this out loud. It’s more about generating and resonating with the frequency of blessing and then noticing how you feel and how that frequency affects you. If you feel moved to share your experience, please leave your comments. With our collective life so filled with stress these days, each and every offering of blessing contributes one more supportive and positive frequency to the One that we are…
Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
This week’s exploration focuses on gratitude accompanied by an ever-deepening recognition of the gifts we receive every day from the beings with whom we share this planet. For this exploration, I invite you to remember that everything you eat was once the body of a living being. If that feels morbid to you, please keep in mind that our beautiful planet has organized its physical being to depend on both birth and death of all life forms. Without these dynamic processes, the creativity expressed in nature couldn’t continue to evolve, explore, or express itself in such abundance. Many indigenous cultures automatically include deep gratitude to the beings they hunt and consume, a recognition of the profound gift that the life of the being they hunt offers to their survival and well-being.For this exploration, I invite you to include in your awareness all sources of nourishment, be they animal-based or plant-based. Whatever the source of the food you eat, it came from a life form. How is it to feel into that? For me, it elicits a profound sense of gratitude and connection to the life that lived as the orange, lettuce, or source of protein I take into my body. For me, it makes eating a sacred activity, one of recognition and a deepened sense of connection to my world. Not only does this exploration invite you to be aware of the sacred gift that is the food that you are privileged to take in, but it also underscores the reality of interdependence and relationship you have with everything you encounter throughout the course of your daily activities. Honoring and thanking the gift of food is a way to actively recall and resonate with the presence of the Sacred that pervades and lives in and as everything around you. The invitation here is to deepen your experience of that Sacred presence—it also lives in and as you. If you feel moved to share your experience as you move through this exploration, please post your comments and questions. We’re all in this journey together, and we are all each other’s sources of inspiration and learning.
Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to recorded meditations when driving or using machinery.
Over the years, I’ve posted quite a few practices focused on water on my nancynapier.com website—practices that focus on the way that water absorbs and “remembers” the qualities of thought, emotion, and presence that touch it, on the importance of offering blessings to water whenever and wherever we encounter it. The other day, I read the following from a Facebook post by Water Transformations: "Did you know that the thoughts you are thinking are establishing a frequency in the water in your body? If you are thinking loving thoughts, forgiving and compassionate thoughts, your BodyWater is circulating that throughout your body. That is why, when you are feeling good inside and counting your blessings, it seems easier to stay in a good mood. Conversely, if your thoughts are angry, frustrated, or self-critical, it is challenging to shift into happier feelings.” For this week’s exploration, I invite you to act as if this quotation speaks an important truth and then notice how your relationship to water may change, deepen, or in some other way touch you in a meaningful way. Notice what it’s like to relate to water as a living essence that is affected by the quality of your thoughts, feelings, and actions and that whatever touches it remains as part of what it carries as it flows throughout your body, throughout our world. We are in a world of living presence everywhere around us and this exploration is one way to practice becoming increasingly aware of the fact that we constantly interact with consciousness, sentiency, life as we move through our daily activities. In this case, we interact with a sentiency that comprises up to 60% of the human body, and an even higher percentage in some of our organs. If you feel moved to share what you experience as you explore this practice, please be sure to leave a comment. The more we can share with one another, the more support we can all have in learning to live in our multidimensional world as members of a much larger community than we have been taught is present.
Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
In recent explorations, I’ve invited you to attune to the fact that everything you encounter radiates a particular quality, an essence of being. I’ve also invited you to recognize that everything you encounter is an expression of the same sacred source as you. For this week’s exploration, I invite you to focus more specifically on the individual trees, bushes, plants, rocks, water, buildings, and whatever else you encounter along the way as you move through your daily activities. The emphasis here is to notice that each has a unique quality. For example, let’s say you walk by particular trees on the street you travel to and from work every day. You may already have noticed that each tree, even if they look very much alike, has a distinct quality to it, a unique expression even though its physical form may be very much like the tree right next to it. Also, remember that here at Spirits of the Urban Sacred, we assume that everything has a living spirit connected to it—a nature spirit that inhabits a tree, a spirit of a place—be that a lamppost, a building, a room, a special place in a park or nature, a spirit of a rock or sculpture, etc. The goal here isn’t for you to have to experience the quality of the being directly. Instead, this exploration encourages you to develop a sense of relationship with the living, sentient world around you. Please don’t be concerned if you don’t directly sense the unique qualities of the life around you. Instead, the goal of this exploration is to build in the awareness that everything around you is alive in its own way and that you have a dynamic, active relationship with everything you encounter. You bring something to the relationship and that’s where these explorations offer an opportunity to deepen your sense of the sacred around you, and of your connection within this larger context. As you play with this exploration over the coming week, notice what may shift in the quality of your everyday experience if you develop an ever-deepening sense of relationship with the world around you, and as you recognize that everything you encounter is sentient and filled with its own unique quality and energy expression. We look forward to hearing from you in the comments section, if you feel like sharing what you discovered as you engaged this exploration.
Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
For this week’s exploration, I invite you to focus on the spirits, the creative embodiments, the archetypes that are all around us in the subtle environment that is part of our multidimensional world. In whatever ways you are most comfortable thinking of the Intelligences that embody particular essences and qualities, notice what it’s like to imagine that there actually are living representatives of expressions that we take for granted. For example, when you draw on compassion, kindness, or assertiveness, what is it like to consider that these qualities are the expressions of embodied presences that inhabit your world? What would change in the quality of your everyday life if you were to imagine that you could meet a problem or challenge with the support of, say, the Spirit of Courage, or the Archetype of Strength? What if these embodiments were available to collaborate with you? Throughout history, humanity has represented these archetypal embodiments in many different ways in every religion and culture. For this exploration, there’s an opportunity to explore the possibility that these images and representations of gods and goddesses, mythical beings, spiritual sources of inspiration and guidance show up so regularly because they actually are living amongst us as part of the subtle dimensions of our world and are available to support us. In the coming week, notice what you experience if you experiment with asking for help or support. An important element of this is not to expect the experience to be logical and, also, to perhaps not feel you’ve gotten a response right away. More than getting results, it’s an exploration of what it’s like to engage the possibility that you are partnered every step of the way and that support and guidance are readily available—even though what you receive may not appear in a logical, familiar, or particularly clear form. There are times when we understand the support we have received only with hindsight, once we are able to look back on something and see more clearly what actually unfolded. After you’ve had some time to engage this exploration, please give us your comments, as we all support one another when we are able to share what worked, and what didn’t—or how we engage these explorations in unique ways.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Part of the emphasis here at Spirits of the Urban Sacred is to bring the presence of the Sacred more into awareness in everyday life. It’s a matter of paying attention to this aspect of reality and this week’s exploration focuses on a recognition that the essence of the Sacred is in everything you encounter in the course of your daily life. Everything around you is made of the same life force that moves in and through you, even though the physical forms that life force takes can be very different from yours. For example, it might seem strange to consider your smart phone, computer, coffee cup, table, chair as infused and informed with and by the same Sacred essence that infuses and informs your life, but what if that is the case? How would it affect the quality of your everyday life if you acknowledged and honored the Sacred in everything around you, the life present in literally everything you come in contact with as you move through your world? How would you interact with, and treat, everything around you if you were to recognize that it is related to you, that you emerge from, and are part of, the same Sacred life energy and impulse. This becomes an exercise in exploring your experience of oneness, of the inescapable relatedness of everything that exists, and asks you to play with acknowledging and honoring this underlying fact of oneness, that the Sacred is in everything. This doesn't mean you don't have your unique identity. It does mean that there is only one source, the Sacred, and it is in everything. It’s useful to notice any mixed feelings you may have when you consider that a building you enter is made of the same stuff as you, even though it is an entirely different expression of that “stuff”. You might notice that it’s easier to imagine oneness with a tree, a bird, even a rock than it is with objects and human-made structures. The underlying fact is, though, that everything—human-made or not—is comprised of particles that emerge from the same life source that creates your physical presence. When you’ve had a chance to play with this week’s Exploration, please post your comments, as our unique individual experiences can become a source of inspiration and support for one another.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it. As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice. And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Every living being constantly radiates its essence, its “energy signature” into the environment in every moment. And, we are no exception. The frequencies with which we resonate as a matter of course determine the quality of energy we radiate into the environment, and this week’s exploration invites you to pay attention to what you send out to the world, as well as to the frequencies with which you generally resonate. The frequencies, qualities, and intentions with which you resonate not only shape your experience, they also align you with subtle beings, some of whom are collaborators, who resonate with those same frequencies.
David Spangler talks about how responsive the subtle realms are to our intentions, so it’s also helpful to remember that your state of mind, where you place your attention, what you choose as your focus of thoughts and feelings not only affect the physical world around you but also shape the subtle energies and realms you encounter along the way.
Notice what arises in your experience when you choose to radiate love, compassion, kindness, or other heart-centered energies into your environment, or what you experience when you resonate with sacred images or sounds. Explore the "tone of you" when you orient to different qualities of being, qualities that you then radiate into your environment.
How you move through the world and your daily experience matters. In every moment, our collective being, our interbeing, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say, is touched and affected by all of us. This doesn’t mean to become concerned about what you contribute simply by being you. Instead, it’s an opportunity to become more mindful of where you focus your attention and, then, what you radiate into your environment as a result of that focus.
Another part of this exploration is to continue to be even more aware of the energies you encounter along the way as you interact with other people, other life forms, other places, as everything radiates its essence into the environment and into our collective consciousness.
When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.
Here's an audio version of the written information below, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Every space you enter has its own, unique “spirit” or quality and a powerful way to enrich your experience of the sacred in urban settings (or anywhere, for that matter) is to develop your ability to attune to the spirit of a place. For this week’s exploration, I invite you to focus on your felt-sense of the spaces and places around you.
There are a couple reasons to develop this practice, if you haven’t already. First, being able to sense the spirit of a place increases your awareness of the “ocean” of energies and qualities that you swim in as you move through your daily life. Being able to sense the qualities around you allows you to have a deeper sense of whether you want to stay or move on. It also offers a way to have a more enlivened relationship with the subtle energies around you.
For this exploration, it’s possible to use many of the “languages of interpretation” that we have available to perceive subtle realities. You might have impressions that come as images, sounds, flickering sensations in your body, words—in any way that allows you to perceive what your body-mind senses about the spirit, the energies, the qualities of a place.
Most of us have had many experiences of entering a space or place and immediately feeling comfortable or immediately feeling uncomfortable. Taking the time to attune to the energies you’ve just entered offers an opportunity to deepen your awareness. And, as always, deepened awareness allows for more choice. Even if you can’t leave a space that makes you uncomfortable, you may have ways to “shield” yourself by focusing on your internal center of gravity, your inherent groundedness, or on the ways you center yourself when you are unsettled or uncomfortable.
When you discover that you feel increasingly comfortable in a space or place, being aware of this offers an opportunity to deepen your relationship with the spirit, the energy, of the place. An enhanced sense of belonging, of connection, is a powerful way to nourish a sense of well-being, even in busy urban contexts.
When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Over a number of years now, I’ve engaged in practices that help to develop a more heart-centered awareness, a shift from always being in the head/mental brain to the perception and intelligence that lives in the heart. For this week’s exploration, I invite you to play with these two “brains” and to notice the quality of your experience when you focus your awareness in your heart brain rather than your head brain.
One of the shifts many people notice when they perceive from their heart is a more distinct experience of connection with the world around them. For this exploration, notice what happens when you encounter, say, a tree, and perceive it not only through your thoughts about it but also from the perspective of your heart space. In addition, as you encounter the gadgets and “things” that are part of your daily activities, notice how it is to relate to them from your heart awareness, even as you also engage them mentally. Also, as you move among people throughout your day, in whatever ways that arise for you, notice what it’s like to meet them, or perceive them, with your heart awareness. Notice if you feel more related to your world when you experience it through your heart.
One way to support a more heart-centered perception is to take a moment at the beginning of the day to breathe in and out through your heart. You can find practices around this through the HeartMath organization and in other heart-centered options such as Tonglen, which is found in Buddhist practice.
As we touch into in all these Explorations, this is another opportunity to enrich your experience of a larger reality even as you may live in a busy, noisy, and highly populated urban setting.
When you’ve had a chance to work with this week’s Exploration, please post your experiences so that we can all begin to share the process of discovering what enhances our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
David Spangler has an exercise that I really like and I’d like to share my adaptation of it for you to explore over the next week. It involves transmitting the essence and energy of love to everything around you. Remember that most of these explorations arise from the assumption that everything we encounter is alive and conscious, in the sense that all are expressions of the One Life that is all that is. Saying that everything is conscious doesn’t mean everything experiences and expresses the same kind of consciousness. Different frequencies and different qualities of essence no doubt generate different kinds of consciousness. The underlying assumption, however, is that there is One Consciousness and that we are all participants in that One.
For this week’s exploration, I invite you to imagine that you are filled up with universal love, an energy and essence that is constantly flowing into and through you and is infinite in its availability. As you approach, say, your favorite chair, imagine that the love energy can flow through you and out your fingertips into your chair. As the energy of love flows from you to your chair, imagine that it fills your chair with the living essence of love and that the chair receives, and is enhanced by, the love you offer to it.
Imagine how it would be if you were to offer love to whatever you encounter in your environment, recalling not only that it has an effect on everything you touch, but also noticing what effect it has on you as you engage this practice.
When you’ve had a chance to play with this a bit, please share your experiences and questions below. As a community, we can offer one another support in bringing alive, enriching, and deepening our experiences of engaging the Spirits of the Urban Sacred.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the practice.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
I spend a lot of time on computers and have found that my relationship with them is a dynamic and active one. It took me quite a while to recognize that my computers—both at home and at the office—are true collaborative companions along the way. For example, it dawned on me one day that something other than my conscious awareness was guiding me to resources on the computer. Between my own website’s Weekly Practices postings, the Daily Inspiration postings on the Devadana Sanctuary side of the portal, and other activities that require inspiring input, I realized that I was being guided to sources of materials that I didn’t know existed. This usually happens as I follow certain things that pop up on my computer, either through Facebook or in odd ways I can’t quite explain.
For this week’s exploration of Spirits of the Urban Sacred, I invite you to notice how it is for you when you interact more actively with your gadgets—your computer, smart phone, iPad, or other gadgets that link you to the web—as if they are active collaborators with your intentions. For example, if you need to find something and you’re not sure where to start, ask your gadget for help and then don’t think about your request—just go forward with what you need to do. Later, notice how you eventually got to where you needed to be and play with the possibility that your gadget helped you to find what you needed.
One of the elements of having a more conscious relationship with your gadgets is to remember to greet and thank them, saying “hello” when you encounter them for the first time in the day and then thanking them when you sign off or put them away when it’s time to either go to bed or move on to other non-gadget activities.
With all of these Explorations, one of the elements to include in your awareness is your felt-sense of the process of engaging your gadgets in this way. What happens in your body when you consciously connect with your gadget as a living presence? What thoughts or feelings do you have when you play with opening up to receiving impressions from your gadgets? If you notice doubts, mixed feelings, or tension, bring curiosity to your response and get to know it without intensifying it by adding anything else.
Many of us run into doubt or conflict when we open ourselves to a larger reality, so you may find that it’s part of the process to notice mixed feelings and then allow them to move on through as you return to your intention to more consciously collaborate with, and relate to, your gadgets.
A note here on working with subtle awareness. It’s important allow yourself to be open to fleeting and vague impressions without pushing them away or having to immediately understand them. Over time, if you don’t have one already, you’ll develop your own “vocabulary” of impressions, your own way of translating subtle awareness into a kind of communication you can understand. You may do this differently from anyone else and that’s fine. It’s your own internal language and will develop over time as you explore what comes into your awareness and the outcomes that follow.
When you’ve had a chance to play with this a bit, please share your experiences and questions below. As a community, we can offer one another support in bringing alive, enriching, and deepening our experiences of engaging the Spirits of the Urban Sacred.
Here's an audio version of the written information above, if you prefer to listen to it.
As you listen, please press pause when you need additional time to do take in the information.
And, please remember never to listen to these recordings when driving or using machinery.
Earth is not a platform for human life. It’s a living being. We’re not on it but part of it. Its health is our health.
~ Thomas Moore
Earth - photo from NASA
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence. To understand the true nature of the universe, one must think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.
~ Nikola Tesla
Iceland Auroras - photos by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Ultimately, work on the self is inseparable from work in the world. Each mirrors the other; each is a vehicle for the other. When we change ourselves, our values and actions change, as well.
~ Charles Eisenstein
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
Animists are people who recognise that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others.
~ Graham Harvey
African Bush Elephant, Kruger National Park, South Africa - photo by Paco Como, bigstockphoto.com
Your unity and connection with LIFE and the Universe is a deep spiritual and scientific truth. Reality exists as a beautiful mosaic of interconnection and inter-being. Everything exists in circles of creative interdependence, mutual attraction and sharing.
~ Christopher Chase
Tiger Cave Temple, Krabi Province, Thailand - photo by Olena Tur, bigstockphoto.com
In a world of Oneness, every life form we encounter on this planet is a relation of ours, our earth-kin. Notice what changes or arises in your awareness if you were to move through your daily activities with this recognition.
~ Nancy J. Napier
Sheep in Monument Valley at Sunset - photo by dzain, bigstockphoto.com
And though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.
~ Rumi
Giant Sequoia, Sequoia National Park, CA - photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
If we are to help heal the world we need to remember that it is a sacred place. Our actions need to be positive statements, reminders that even in the worst times there is a world worth struggling for.
~ Ram Dass
Mount Bromo and Batok Volcanoes, East Java, Indonesia - photo by MazurTravel, bigstockphoto.com
Not just beautiful, though—the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.
~ Haruki Murakami
Milky Way, Granitoe, Ukraine - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Grand Canyon and Colorado River - photo by diro, bigstockphoto.com
The key takeaway [of quantum mechanics]…is that we are all part of one unified field interacting and co-existing with one another…Kami (spirit) and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.
~ Akiko Ogawa
Malenge Lagoon, Indonesia - photo by Fabio Lamanna, bigstockphotocoom
The power of mass intention may ultimately be the force that shifts the tide toward repair and renewal of the planet.
~ Lynne McTaggart
Sunrise over Matheson Lake, New Zealand - photo by pranodhm, bigstockphoto.com
In the universe there are things that are known and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors.
~ William Blake
Jungles of northern Thailand - photo by quickshooting, bigstockphoto.com
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
~ Arundhati Roy
Colorful Sunset at Twilight - photo by jimbophotoart, bigstockphoto.com
I am only one
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not to refuse to do the something
that I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale
Nature's Magic, Aurora in Iceland - photo by stroop, bigstockphoto.com
What if our religion was each other? If our practice was our life? What if the temple was the Earth? If forests were our church? If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans? What if meditation was our relationships? If the Teacher was life? If wisdom was knowledge? If love was the center of our being.
~ Ganga White
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, Carmel, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being.
~ Hafiz
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, UT - photo by prochasson, bigstockphoto.com
Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.
~ Hermann Hesse
Tree in Snow - photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
When anything good happens to you in your day, give thanks. It doesn't matter how small it is, say thank you. When you get the perfect parking space, hear your favorite song on the radio, approach a light that turns green, or find an empty seat on the bus or train, say thank you. These are all good things that you are receiving from life.
~ Rhonda Byrne
Rising Son in Yosemite National Park - photo by Kris Wiktor, bigstockphoto.com
As long as I’m alive, I will continue to try to understand more because the work of the heart is never done.
~ Muhammad Ali
White Lily - photo by pavel_klimenko, bigstockphoto.com
We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits.
But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe.
~ Wendell Berry
Meteora Valley at Sunset, Greece - photo by Lhboucault, bigstockphoto.com
How could people not see such beings as ancestors, as holders of secrets from the great beyond?
~ Jori Lewis
Mariposa Grove, Yosemite - photo by cphoto, bigstockphoto.com
We are walking ecosystems with more non-human than human cells in and on the body we call self. Interbeing is not a concept, it describes the relational matrix of health in which we take our being and live our lives while co-creating the very process we emerged from.
~Daniel Christian Wahl
Keystone, CO - photo by Jen Silacci
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.
~ Sanskrit Prayer for Peace
Victoria Lily - photo by Whiskybottle, bigstockphoto.com
In each of us there is a spark that can reverse the trends of violence and depression spiraling within us and in the world around us. By setting in motion the spiral of gratefulness we begin the journey toward peace and joy.
~ Br. David Steindl-Rast
Sunset - photo by Carol Napier
At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.
~ Tina Turner
Ocean Sunrise - photo by Katharina 13, bigstockphoto.com
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..
~ Pema Chödrön
Lotus Blossom - photo by kenny001, bigstockphoto.com
In the human spirit, as in the universe, nothing is higher or lower; everything has equal rights to a common center which manifests its hidden existence precisely through this harmonic relationship between every part and itself.
~ Goethe
Canadian Otter - photo by jgotwald, bigstockphoto.com
If we can have a holistic view of soil, soul and society, if we can understand the interdependence of all living beings, and understand that all living creatures—from trees to worms to humans—depend on each other, then we can live in harmony with ourselves, with other people and with nature.
~ Satish Kumar
Sunset, Rainforest Jungle - photo by Mihailo K, bigstockphoto.com
Since it is impossible to be outside the reach of collective consciousness, we are faced with a constant opportunity to make a difference by cleaning up our small contribution to the human morphic field. No one else can do this for us; each of us must choose the quality of thought, feeling, and being we want to bring into our individual lives and, thereby, into the reach of everyone else.
~ Nancy Napier
Icelandic Sunset - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.
~ Mary Oliver
Snowy Woodland, Carpathian National Park, Ukraine - photo by Leonid Tit, bigstockphoto.com
The most radical thing any of us can do at this time is to be fully present to what is happening in the world.
~ Joanna Macy
Sunset Sky - photo by mexitographer, bigstockphoto.com
Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Not a career. Not wealth. Not intelligence. Certainly not status.
We have to feel for one another if we're going to survive with dignity.
~ Audrey Hepburn
Lavendar Rose - photo by Kholywood, bigstockphoto.com
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
~ Edward Everett Hale
Sunrise, Lake Minnewanka, Banff National Park,l Canada - photo by Songquan Deng, bigstockphoto.com
New research suggests a belief in oneness has broad implications for psychological functioning and compassion for those who are outside of our immediate circle.
~ Scott Barry Kaufman
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
We are not here on Earth to be alone, but to be a part of a living community, a web of life in which all is sacred. Like the cells of our body, all of life is in constant communication, as science is just beginning to understand. No bird sings in isolation, no bud breaks open alone. And the most central note that is present in life is its sacred nature, something we need to each rediscover and honor anew.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Megalithic Stone Circle, Isle of Lewis and Harris, Scotland - photo by AnnekaS, bigstockphoto.com
Be a kind voice in this broken-hearted world. Give grace, and be ready to receive it. Listen so well that the person you’re with can rest in your loving attention for a moment. Be a light. Be a light. Be a light.
~ Narea Hoffman
Ocean Landscape at Sunset - photo by Yanika, bigstockphoto,com
Reality is woven from strange, “holistic” threads that aren’t located precisely in space or time. Tug on a dangling loose end from this fabric of reality, and the whole cloth twitches, instantly, throughout all space and time...The bottom line is that physical reality is connected in ways we’re just beginning to understand…When you drill down into the core of even the most solid-looking material, separateness dissolves.
~ Dean Radin
Desert Beneath the Milky Way - photo by raphoto, bigstockphoto.com
we aren't here to
turn our lives into
a bank vault
we are here to be
a gateless park
oh, my love,
I wasted so many
years before I learned
that
we are not what we take
from this world
we are defined by what we
give back to it
~ john roedel
Orchid Blossoms - photo by akvafoto, bigstockphoto.com
It appears consciousness can play a very important role in changing our planet. Just having these thoughts alone could contribute to the massive shift in consciousness that’s occurring. Find your inner peace, be peace, be love, acting and living your life from such a place plays a very important role in changing the world.
~ Arjun Walia
Winter Landscape with Morning Sun - photo by salman2, bigstockphoto.com
All we want, whether we are honeybees, salmon, trash-collecting ants, ponderosa pines, coyotes, human beings, or stars, is to love and be loved, to be accepted, cherished, and celebrated simply for being who we are. Is that so very difficult?
~ Derrick Jensen
Timber Wolves - photo by Josef Pittner, bigstockphoto.com
But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything.
~ Alan Watts
Walking Bridge, Rainforest - photo by Jack-sooksan, bigstockphoto.com
If we are to become partners with the Earth, living our shared journey, we have to once again speak the same language, listen with our senses attuned not just to the physical world but also to its inner dimension.
~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Elf Garden, July 2013 - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
Whenever you have a choice between being right or being kind, be kind. No exceptions. Don’t confuse kindness for weakness.
~ Kevin Kelly
Lotus Flowers - photo by Phuong D. Nguyen, bigstockphoto.com
Creation is ongoing. The world begins anew each day. This is the miracle that makes not a sound, but which changes everything, if we can be quiet enough to feel it happen. When we can participate in this, we begin anew each day.
~ Mark Nepo
Grand Canyon Sunrise - photo by maverick888, bigstockphoto.com
Continue.
Be loving and be strong.
Be fierce and be kind.
And don't give in and don't give up.
~ Maya Angelou
Yosemite National Park - photo by Pung Pung, bigstockphoto.com
The entire range of living matter on Earth from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts.
~ James Lovelock
Jaguar in Belize Jungle - photo by milosk50, bigstockphoto.com
For myself, solitude is rather like a folded-up forest that I carry with me everywhere and unfurl around myself when I have need.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Coast Redwoods from Inside Tree - bigstockphoto.com
For someone visiting earth for the first time, the real treasures here would all be free. The smell of a sunlit prairie, the taste of a cold cup of spring water, the crunch of trackless snow underfoot, these are some of the earth's supreme treasures. On intergalactic maps, if there are such things, the place where we live must surely be designated as a magical garden in space, a place of astounding beauty.
~ Steve Van Matre
Mountain River and Snow - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Given the distant common ancestry between octopuses and humans, conscious octopuses would mean that consciousness has evolved on earth twice. Godfrey-Smith believes it’s plausible that there are more than two branches of evolution where consciousness independently developed…Based on the current evidence, it seems that consciousness is not particularly unusual at all, but a fairly routine development in nature.
~ Olivia Goldhill
Octopus - photo by Colorshadow, bigstockphoto.com
Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away.
~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, UT - photo by vent du sud, bigstockphoto.com
I think it's a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. That there isn't their life and our life. Nor your life and my life.
That it's just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes.
~ Kate Forster
Male White Lion - photo by EnjoyLife, bigstockphoto.com
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
~ John O'Donohue
Yellow Calla Lily Flowers - photo by Seregraff, bigstockphoto.com
If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Sequoia National Park - photo by travelview, bigstockphoto.com
Awareness may not diminish the enormity of our pain in all circumstances. It does provide a bigger basket for tenderly holding and intimately holding our suffering in any and all circumstances, and that, in turns out, is transformative—and healing.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Invitation to Awareness - photo by scorpp, bigstockphoto.com
The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love—whether we call it friendship or family or romance—is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.
~ James Baldwin
Sunrise, Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, UT - photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
Water has a memory and carries within it our thoughts and prayers. As you yourself are water, no matter where you are, your prayers will be carried to the rest of the world.
~ Masaru Emoto
Niagara Falls, USA - photo by lucky-photographer, bigstockphoto.com
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses.
~ Bruce Lipton
Limestone Cave, Naracoorte Caves National Park, Australia - photo by ymgerman, bigstockphoto.com
For our indigenous partners in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, they don't just live in the forest—they are the forest. They commune with Arutam, the spirit of the forest, to receive its guiding wisdom. May the forest be with us all.
~ Pachamama Alliance
Amazon Jungle - photo by pxhidalgo, bigstockphoto.com
I have always thought of all creatures - all organisms, really - as relations. Whether wandering alone in deep wilderness or just leaning against a tree growing beside an urban sidewalk, I have had no difficulty feeling, as if in dreamtime, the roots of our relatedness - ecologically, yes, but also with an overlay of the sacred, the holy.
~ Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Bald Eagle in Rocky Mountain HIgh Country - photo by Designwest, bigstockphoto.com
Our ability to dream of possibilities – to vision and bring forth what we are here to do for the greater good – should not be underestimated. It is how we cooperate with the Infinite.
~ Ellen Grace O’Brian
Sunset, Asilomar Beach, Pacific Grove, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Lotus Blossoms - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.
~ Nikola Tesla
Aurora over Swedish Lake - photo by contas, bigstockphoto.com
Magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated. Always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible.
~ Paulo Coelho
LLanos de Cortez Waterfall, Costa Rica - photo by billberryphotography, bigstockphoto.com
So at the end of this day, we give thanks for being betrothed to the unknown.
~ John O'Donohue
Giant Sequoia Trees, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park - photo by Pung Pung, bigstockphoto.com
This is what I have to say to you…
Live as if the earth exhales blessings in your direction,
As if the trees speak their deepest secrets
In your ear,
As if bird songs can lift you outside your
Ordinary state of mind and bring you into truth.
Be the creative juice flowing through the universe.
Be compassion in action and wholeness in motion.
Be silence and stillness, the ocean of love so
Palpable that not one cell of you disputes the truth
That you are love.
Be so open to your destiny that it
Unfurls like a banner in the sky, a sign saying,
“Live with gratitude, generosity, and grace.”
~ Danna Faulds
El Capitan, Yosemite National Park - photo by jeffbanke, bigstockphoto.com
All human beings are descendants of tribal people who were spiritually alive, intimately in love with the natural world, children of Mother Earth.
When we were tribal people, we knew who we were, we knew where we were, and we knew our purpose.
This sacred perception of reality remains alive and well in our genetic memory. We carry it inside of us, usually in a dusty box in the mind’s attic, but it is accessible.
~ John Trudell
Morning, Garden of the Gods, Colorado - photo by Michael Blanchard, bigstockphoto.com
Fungi are their own kingdom of life — as animals and plants are. They include microscopic yeasts and big mushrooms, some of them psychedelic. They are in bread. They are in medicine. They clean up oil spills. Only a small fraction of fungi species have been identified.
Fungi stitch things together.
Some kinds stitch life and death together, literally. They decompose dead things — leaves, twigs, giant trunks of ancient trees — and turn them into soil so more trees and twigs and leaves can grow. I came to think of them as agents of reincarnation.
~ Somini Sengupta
Orange and Gold Lichen on Tree Trunk - photo by wishfaery, bigstockphoto.com
The Koyukon Indians of north central Alaska live “in a world that watches, in a forest of eyes.” They believe wherever we are, we are never truly alone because the surroundings, no matter how remote, are aware of our presence and must be treated with respect.
~ Duane Elgin
Silver Bay, Sitka, Alaska - photo by heikehuettenkofer, bigstockphoto.com
The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it's been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient lore might be correct.
~ Dean Radin
Tree, Milky Way, and Starry Sky - photo by denbelitsky, bigstockphoto.com
Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
~Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Light - Brilliant Sunset - photo by underworld1, bigstockphoto.com
This is a work of fiction. All the characters in it, human and otherwise, are imaginary, excepting only certain of the fairy folk, whom it might be unwise to offend by casting doubts on their existence. Or lack thereof.
~ Neil Gaiman
Elf Garden, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
It is good to know that this industrial paradigm – economy over ecology – is only a couple of hundred years old. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have lived in harmony with nature for thousands and thousands of years. They knew – and know – that nature is not an economic means. Nature is not a resource for the economy. Nature is a source of life. Our planet is a sacred source of life; a living organism that is the common home for us and all the other living species. Economy is a subset of ecology.
~ Satish Kumar
Californian Redwood Forest, Victoria, Australia - photo by FiledIMAGE, bigstockphoto.com
Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect. Remain close to the Great Spirit. Show great respect for your fellow beings. Work together for the benefit of all humankind. Give assistance and kindness wherever needed. Do what you know to be right.
~ Jasper Saunkeah, Kiowa
Sunrise, Hunts Mesa, Monument Valley, AZ - photo by Bill45, bigstockphoto.com
Once upon a time, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten.
~ Terry Tempest Williams
Quetzal, Costa Rica - photo by Petr_Salinger, bigstockphoto.com
We crave that deep place within that cannot be touched by the ups and downs of life, but rather just IS – connected and whole.
~ Nipun Mehta
Sunset Storm, Iceland - photo by Ragnhildur Jonsdottir
The stillness will come. After all the noise and confusion. After the shouts and alarms. When you are away from the crowd, when you can be alone with yourself, then the stillness will come, rising up gently like a spring of fresh water, enfolding you in the peace of the deep forest, sheltered and serene, a place only you know, a place of stillness and healing.
~ Steven Charleston
Snowy Forest Landscape - photo by Yanika, bigstockphoto.com
There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.
~ Wangari Maathai
Beach Sunrise - photo by West Coast Scapes, bigstockphoto.com
We are always part of something, belonging to a greater wholeness. In fact, we always stand deeply connected with the entire world around us…Nothing can thrive in seclusion. We all depend on each other and we are nurtured in the web of connectedness—organically and in consciousness.
~ Soren Hauge
Bull Buffalo, Yellowstone National Park - photo by kenkistler, bigstockphoto.com
Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power, and to one another, is grounded in love and compassion.
~ Brene Brown
Lotus Flowers - photo by kenny001, bigstockphoto.com
When we surrender the need to figure it all out, and cultivate the ability to let it all in, then our earth walk becomes a sacred dance of healing service on the planet. More than the world needs saving, it needs loving.
~ don Oscar Miro-Quesada
Owl in Snow-Covered Tree - photo by jaapbleijenberg, bigstockphoto.com
True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.
~ Cesar Chavez
Sunrise Rainbow, Paine River, Patagonia, Chile - photo by Circumnavigation, bigstockphoto.com
This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.
~ Jeremy Narby
Colorful Sky and Sea - photo by Maaria Marganingsih, bigstockphoto.com
You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all you experience to highest advantage to others. Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.
~ R. Buckminster Fuller
Northern Lights, Alaska - photo by JCB5754, bigstockphoto.com
Everything in nature is alive and influences your thoughts whether you know it or not.
Who’s to say the rock does not hear your thoughts? Nor the river? Or, the mountain ranges? We all belong to this living world and there is nothing that does not belong.
~ Tony Ten Fingers, Oglala Lakota
Light Beam, Antelope Canyon, AZ - photo by lorcel, bigstockphoto.com
A practice of gratitude is not about dismissing sadness, anger, fear, or confusion. Rather, it offers us the opportunity to see that we often experience multiple feelings at once; to welcome joy into the same places where we hold grief; to turn our attention to what is quietly growing and breathing day by day, which, to our possible surprise, includes ourselves.
~ Kristin Lin
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
We live in a creative Universe that is itself a work of cosmic art. Nature is more like a flowing living symphony than a material “thing.” And everything is connected, everything is energy… Mystical traditions and individuals have been expressing this understanding for centuries. Life is sacred, life is art.
Be mindful. See the beauty that exists everywhere, the creative mystery that we are. Be aware of your presence and connection to everything.
Know that behind your social persona and cultural identity you are the child of a Creative Cosmos.
~ Christopher Chase
Deep Autumn Forest - photo by iosebi, bigstockphoto.com
We must relinquish our convenient narratives of human exceptionalism and triumphalism - those stories that centralize human agency and enthrone human interests as supremely paramount in the multiverse. And we must do this not simply because we are now regaining some awareness about the nobility of other species and life forms - and not entirely because we are ourselves now humbled by our less than spectacular origins, but mainly because these times of upheaval call on us to revisit what is implied in being human. Do we continue to insist that we are lords over all, masters of the universe - uniquely distanced from the fleshy, dirty discourses of 'nature' - ravaging plagues burning soil and earth into asphalted forms of our own making? Or do we recognize our relatedness to all things, our real dependence on the land we supposedly transcend, and that to be human is not a magisterial decree of isolation, but a chorus...a syncretic process of shared ecological participation?
~ Bayo Akomolafe
Mac Mac Waterfall, Sabie, South Africa - photo by intsys, bigstockphoto.com
The Universe is one indivisible, dynamic whole in which energy and matter are so deeply entangled it is impossible to consider them as independent elements...
What quantum physics teaches us is that everything we thought was physical is not physical.
~ Bruce H. Lipton
Alaskan Aurora Borealis - photop by Romko, bigstockphoto.com
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Sunset, Pebble Beach, CA - photo by Jen Silacci
In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or other than human. In this community every being has its own role to fulfill, its own dignity, its inner spontaneity.
~ Thomas Berry
Jaguar - photo by Anolis, bigstockphoto.com
The kindest people are not born that way, they are made. They are the ones that have experienced so much at the hands of life, they are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them, they choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen firsthand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen firsthand why tenderness is so important in this world.
~ Bianca Sparacino
Palo Santo Tree, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - photo by Terra Tirapelli
I have come to trust that I am part of something so wondrous and mysterious and enormous. It’s not me who is taking care of it. My job is to become in harmony with this and let my love, my voice, my connection, my vision come out of that.
~ Jack Kornfield
Sequoia Forest - photo by volare2004, bigstockphoto.com
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
~ Harriet Tubman
Icelandic Sunset - photo by Ragnhilur Jonsdottir
As Wind carries our prayers for Earth and All Life,
may respect and love light our way.
May our hearts be filled with compassion for others and for ourselves.
May peace increase on Earth.
May it begin with me.
~ Tibetan prayer flag is 'Lung ta', meaning 'Wind Horse'
Cho La Pass, Nepal, Himalayas - photo by Zzvet, bigstockphoto.com
The power of mass intention may ultimately be the force that shifts the tide toward repair and renewal of the planet.
~ Lynne McTaggart
California Coastal Sunset - pphoto by Virrange Images, bigstockphoto.com
The world we are experiencing today is the result of our collective consciousness, and if we want a new world, each of us must take responsibility for helping create it.
~ Rosemary Fillmore
Grand Teton National Park - photo by Terra Tirapelli
Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there's a big disappointment, we don't know if that's the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don't know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don't know.
~ Pema Chodron
Morning Light, Garden of the Gods, Colorado - photo by pilgrims49, bigstockphoto.com
We all have encounters with the sacred, we just have to cultivate the eye that can perceive them. We have to see what’s already here, interwoven with what we claim is human and mundane. We have to take inventory of the magic that conspires to love us in and through our ordinary lives.
~ Meggan Watterson
Lotus Blossom - photo by Ange DiBenedetto
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love.
~ Washington Irving
Mountain River Stream, in Tropical Rainforest - photo by Bigc Studio, bigstockphoto.com
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Workshops
Workshops and on-line courses are in the works. We’ll put up workshop information as it becomes available. In the meantime, we hope you will enjoy the other offerings here at Devadana Sanctuary!