1.12.26

Each artist must decide the scope of his nature study, according to his own needs. However, it would be unwise to neglect the external world, from a superabundance of "inner life." We may take warning from the history of India where, out of preoccupation with exalted spiritual fulfillment, mystics forgot that material life, too, demands cultivation and direction. Today, overpopulation and undernourishment are forcing spiritual leaders to concern themselves with the evolution of the family and the economy. 

Nature in its rhythm of the seasons, turning now outward, now inward, might well serve as a model for our individual lives. In spring and summer, the forces of earth press outward in growth and maturation; in fall and winter they turn inward and renew themselves.

– Johannes Itten, The Art of Color

1.5.26

Rather than letting our negativity get the better of us, we could acknowledge that right now we feel like a piece of shit and not be squeamish about taking a good look. That’s the compassionate thing to do. That’s the brave thing to do. We can look at our negative feelings with curiosity, not as enemies to be destroyed but as friends to be understood. Only then can we begin to let them go.

– Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

12.29.25

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life. The past has no power over the present moment. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. This will miraculously transform your whole life.

– Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

12.22.25

Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true. My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. Suffering is grace. The quieter you become, the more you can hear. The heart surrenders everything to the moment. The mind judges and holds back.

– Ram Dass, Be Here Now

12.15.25

Now, there's a wonderful work of Schopenhauer's. He says when you reach a certain age and look back over your life it seems to have had an order—it seems to have been composed by someone—and those events that when they occurred seemed merely accidental and occasional and just something that happened, turn out to be the main elements in a consistent plot. So, he says, who composed this plot? And, he said, just as your dreams are composed by an aspect of yourself of which your consciousness is unaware, so your whole life has been composed by the will within you. 

Then, he says, just as those people who you met by chance became effective agents in the structuring of your life, so you have been an agent in the structuring of other lives, and the whole thing gears together like one big symphony— everything influencing and structuring everything else. And, he said, it's as though our lives were the dream of a single dreamer in which all the dream characters are dreaming too-and so everything links to everything else moved out of the will in nature. It's a beautiful idea.

— Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

12.8.25

No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.

–Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

12.1.25

Thought

There is no need to put anything in front of us and run after it. We already have everything we are looking for, everything we want to become. … Just being in the moment in this place is the deepest practice of meditation. … Try practicing aimlessness for just five minutes, and you will see how happy you are during those five minutes.

– Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness

Quote

Leonardo Da Vinci on simplicity: 

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention is to balance productivity with moments of rest today.

What’s your intention today? 

11.24.25

Thought

But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes?

― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Quote

Alan Watts on presence: 

“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.”

Intention of the Day 

My intention today is to see the best in others and support them as they are.

What’s your intention today? 

Happy Monday,

Val