Luna Arjuna's Blog (86)

Image by Alex Saberi

"When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego,

 and when we escape like squirrels turning in the

 cages of our personality

 and get into the forests again,

 we shall shiver with cold and fright

 but things will happen to us

 so that we…

For 10 days during an Introduction to Buddhism course, we recited the words of the Dalai Lama.

There were 100 students, and each morning, before our first meditation session, we said these words out loud together. For many of us, reciting anything in the morning wasn’t part of our usual routine.

We might peek through our…

“I don’t think anybody can fall in love unless they feel lonely.” ~ Trungpa Rinpoche

Forget those “love yourself” mantras.

Forget those affirmations, self-help guides, stacks of chocolate, and wine.

Forget anything

that…

Photo: The village women of the Chipko movement in the early 70's in the Garhwal Hills of India, protecting the trees from being cut down.

The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being…

Art : Lorenzo Grazioli

"There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures.



There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding.



And there are times of fruition, when…

Art by Catrin Welz-Stein, "Velvet Sky"

"Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth,

It is living. When you can see this fact, that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque, or church, which no religion, no teacher, no…

(Painting: Alla Tsank)

When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot…

Chagall 1954: Abraham and the Three Angels

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of…

Photo : Philipp Borges,Vicentina, Perù, Enduring Spirit

"The relationship between mother and child is the foremost analogy used in developing compassion. According to the medieval Indian and Tibetan traditions, the traditional way of cultivating relative bodhicitta is to choose your mother as the first…

Once in a while
I just let time wear on
leaning against a
solitary pine
standing speechless,
as does the whole universe!
Ah, who can share
this solitude with me?

- Ryokan

There is a tribe in Africa called the Himba tribe, where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they were born, nor from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother’s mind. And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can…

Art : Elena Ray

‘Live in joy,

In love,

Even among those who hate.

Live in joy,

In health,

Even among the afflicted.

Live in joy,

In peace,

Even among the troubled.

Look within.

Be still.

Free from fear and…

May all beings be filled with joy and peace.

May all beings everywhere,

The strong and the weak,

The great and the small,

The mean and the powerful,

The short and the long,

the subtle and the gross:

May all beings everywhere,

Seen and unseen,

Dwelling far off or nearby,

Being or waiting to…

Art : Joel Robison, Between two worlds.

"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.

That is why you must read, that is why…

Image: Yukon, Tushti Lake mirrors the cloudy and blue sky.

"You know when you see something like a marvelous mountain against the blue sky, the vivid, bright, clear, unpolluted snow, the majesty of it drives all your thoughts, your concerns, your problems away. Have you noticed that? You say,…

"Opening to the full play of human experience allows for the possibility of a sudden dawning of wakefulness, known in Tibet’s Mahamudra tradition as ‘coemergent wisdom’ or 'wisdom born within.’ This is a sudden dropping away of dualistic fixation, allowing a direct and often abrupt entry into nondual presence. It arises right on the razor’s edge where…

THE LOTUS

"...you can hear a sound like a sigh or 'aah' -- an audible indication of awakening..."

~~~

"Buried in the rank, dark muck of stagnant mosquito-infested swamp water, a brown seed the size of a bean lies waiting; it is destined to give birth to an exquisite bloom that has inspired lovers of flowers and seekers of truth for…

Illustration of the Sufi Saint Khidr (the Green One) Wearing A Green Robe and Standing on a Fish that carries him over Water, circa 1700's.

"The place where the two seas meet is the locus of the mystical journey, "where the dead fish becomes alive," where spiritual teachings become a…

Woman Spends 14 Years Photographing World's Oldest Trees

Beth Moon, a photographer based in San Francisco, has been searching for the world’s oldest trees for the past 14 years. She has traveled all around the globe to capture the most magnificent trees that grow in remote locations and look as old as the world itself.

"Standing as the earth’s largest and oldest living monuments, I believe these symbolic trees will take on a greater…

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,

even the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may…