“A Cultivator aka The Buddhist Rapper is combining the power of Buddhism and the potency of hip hop with lyrics that bring a new perspective via an ancient practice. The native Californian first started rapping as a way to vent the anger he felt from the wars and political problems around the world but when he turned 23 he had a spiritual transformation and shifted his focus to Tibetan Buddhism. Since then he has spent everyday working hard to improve his meditation abilities and rapping skills in order to help reveal the joy that he has found in his spiritual practice.”
Source ~ Sustainable Man
“Dear World. Hold on. We’re waking up. Faster and faster now. ” ~ Ian MacKenzie
“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.” ~ Omar Nelson Bradley
“If we have reached a level of awareness that enables us to see all that is wrong with the world and those around us, the next step is to go inward and start weeding all of those things out of ourselves. Reality is a projection of what is inside us, and it’s time for all of us to start cleaning house.” ~Katherine Bell
“It’s much easier in some ways to just remain asleep. But we’ve been called to be awake. Maybe there is something within ourselves, within the world, that is struggling to come awake. We have to respond to that call, that prompting. It is so painful to recognize what we are doing. But something drives me to bring that consciousness into everyday life, to share it, as if there is some light wanting to wake up. It is not my light or your light, but the light of the whole, of something within life that is struggling for its own survival.” ~ Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee, author/editor Spiritual Ecology
One by one we can turn this around. Don’t give up!
“Some day, if you are lucky, you’ll return from a thunderous journey trailing snake scales, wing fragments and the musk of Earth and moon. Eyes will examine you for signs of damage, or change and you, too, will wonder if your skin shows traces of fur, or leaves, if thrushes have built a nest of your hair, if Andromeda burns from your eyes. Do not be surprised by prickly questions from those who barely inhabit their own fleeting lives, who barely taste their own possibility, who barely dream. If your hands are empty, treasureless, if your toes have not grown claws, if your obedient voice has not become a wild cry, a howl, you will reassure them. We warned you, they might declare, there is nothing else, no point, no meaning, no mystery at all, just this frantic waiting to die. And yet, they tremble, mute, afraid you’ve returned without sweet elixir for unspeakable thirst, without a fluent dance or holy language to teach them, without a compass bearing to a forgotten border where no one crosses without weeping for the terrible beauty of galaxies and granite and bone. They tremble, hoping your lips hold a secret, that the song your body now sings will redeem them, yet they fear your secret is dangerous, shattering, and once it flies from your astonished mouth, they–like you–must disintegrate before unfolding tremulous wings.” ~The Return by Geneen Marie Haugen
Art by Charles Frizzell
Source ~ Shamantube
“Those doing soul work, who want the searing truth more than solace or applause, know each other right away. Those who want something else turn and take a seat in another room. Soul-makers find each other’s company.” ~Rumi
image: Kavan Cardoza
Source ~ Rumi Facebook page
“Spiritual progress is like detoxification. Things have to come up in order to be released. Once we have asked to be healed, then our unhealed places are forced to the surface.” ~Marianne Williamson
Art by Tennessee Dixon
Under The Blue Door 