Sometimes I Create...

Sometimes I create intentionally extra time 

when I am waiting to start work. 

I stay in my car to create a space for the soul. 

It feels like extra sacred time. 

Even my machine likes this quiet place. 

A preparation for the day 

and finding Stillness before work.

~S

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Old Patterns ...

Old patterns 

need not have so much weight for my machine. 

I break recurrence 

by first walking through the Divine Doorway 

that is the ever-unfolding Present Moment. 

That place where my Soul is King.

~E

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Although We Are Given ...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau 

Although we are given 

the possibility of educating ourselves, 

we must not forget that the aim of the work 

is not just to become civilized, 

but to awaken.  

Because beauty develops higher centers, 

it is a necessity; and yet, 

it is a means, not an end in itself.

 

We must attempt to form habits 

that correspond to our aim to awaken 

and abandon those that add to our sleep. 

~C

academyofeuropeanarts.com

I Have Decided...

"I have decided to stick with Love.

Hate is too great a burden too bare."

~Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

academyofeuropeanarts.com

My Desire ...

My desire is to recognize/eliminate attachments. 

In that process of elimination 

is to fully appreciate 

the gift of being alive as a human. 

As such a human being, 

it is incumbent upon me 

to stop squandering this existence and to transform.

~G

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Like Billowing Clouds...

Ben Hills Jones

“Like billowing clouds, 
Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.” 

~Hildegard von Bingen

academyofeuropeanarts.com

I Can And Must...

Meg Benedicte

I can and must grab the gift of consciousness 

that defines us as a precious being. 

My goal is to build this presence/awareness/

consciousness/

one step at a time, 

like a body builder builds muscle and shed the fat, 

the attachments.

~G

academyofeuropeanarts.com

All The Beauty...

All the beauty and all the deep inner mysteries 

are here right NOW with us, 

always, 

if only we develop our being 

so that we see more clearly.

~J

academyofeuropeanarts.com

My Machine Often Wants...

My machine often wants people 

or circumstances to be different than they are. 

When this happens I start imagining things, 

or go into self-pity, 

so I become under more laws. 

So I remember Epictetus's quote 

not to wish for things to be different than they are, 

but to wish for things to be as they are. 

Then it becomes possible for me to be present.

~J

academyofeuropeanarts.com

God Speaks To Each Of Us ...

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us,

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like a flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand."

 

 ~Rainer Maria Rilke - Book of Hours, I 59

academyofeuropeanarts.com

Oh Me! Oh Life!...

Ford Madox Brown

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, 

(for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

  Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

~Walt Whitman

academyofeuropeanarts.com