The environment is no longer one of many 'single issues': it is the context of everything else - of our lives, our businesses, our politics. The great challenge of our time is to build and nurture sustainable communities - social, cultural, and physical environments in which we can satisfy our needs and aspirations without diminishing the chances of future generations.

From "Visionaries" - Fritjof Capra (Author of "Tao of Physics")

The possibility is there. If you make the effort you will catch the one ray that exists in you, and once you catch the one ray, the sun is not very far; then through the ray you can reach the sun - the ray becomes the path.
So remember: find attention, let it become a continuity in you twenty-four hours a day, whatsoever you do. Eat, but try to be attentive: eat with awareness. Walk, but walk with awareness. Love, but love fully aware. Try!more ...

In the Amazon Forest I found an elevated expression of the divine, a virtuous manifestation of the creative power of God. The Forest presents itself as a spiritual entity, the guardian of many mysteries, and a dedicated teacher.

Living within her, I feel grateful with a special sense of well-being, for in her all of my suffering transmutes into hope, and I feel calm and trust in a very profound connection with the Creator. In this maternal fortress, I am receiving a healing in the sense of wholeness, for it is she that teaches me harmony and continues to guide me in my encounter with myself, and to overcome all the obstacles which are in my body and spirit.

In the midst of this great population of trees, and vines, I kept discovering individuals full of wisdom, and gathering many friends. As the years passed, they revealed to me their hearts. When I started to get to know the intimate nature of flowers, I went to find the flowers and I found my heart. Sweet mystery.

It has been 15 years that I have been involved in healing illness, in public health and personal health, attending to those who are ill in the body, in the mind, and in the heart. I always found a lot of healing in plants, for in them the body and soul are in harmony. God gave them the freedom to exist in abundance, and not to act against their existence. The plants always seek the best for themselves, residing in this aspect the most profound and conclusive capacity of healing us.

Maria Alice of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
Living in Ceu do Mapia, Amazonas

Founder of Centro Medicina do Floresta (Forest Medicine Center), where, since 1989, she develops research and healings with the plants of the Amazon, as well as education of children and youngsters for the preservation of Nature and sustainable development. A member of the Alliance of Peoples of the Rainforest, she is an activist in the defense of their traditions and patrimony.

see: http://www.grandmotherscouncil.com/
for more informationmore ...

There is a beautiful story about a caterpillar that lived much of its life believing that it had come into being only to eat and sleep and do what the rest of the caterpillars did. However it was unhappy. Somehow it sensed that its life had another dimension not yet experienced. One day, driven by a strange longing, it decided to become still and silent. It hung from the branch of a tree, weaving a cocoon around itself. Inside the cocoon, although constrained and uncomfortable, it waited, sensing and aware. Its patience bore fruit, for when the cocoon burst open, it was no longer the lowly worm that went in, but a beautiful, resplendent, winged butterfly which dazzled the sky. It soared and flew, no longer limited to its worm-like existence, but free and unbounded. The caterpillar had been transformed into a thing of air and lightness, magic and beauty. Once the transformation had taken place, it was impossible for the butterfly to return to being a worm. In the cocoon, the caterpillar had become one with its inner being and in this union it reached its ultimate nature. What happened in the cocoon can be described as yoga. Yoga is the path towards being boundless. Yoga transforms and liberates human beings so that they can reach this unbounded state. Humans, unlike animals, are not merely existing. They are becoming. To evolve as a human being is to become aware of one's limitations; to strive, with intense passion, towards the transcendence for which we all have the potential. ISHA FOUNDATION http://www.ishafoundation.org/InnerTransformation

You have a song in your heart to be sung and you have a dance to be danced, but the dance is invisible, and the song - even you have not heard it yet. It is deep down hidden in the innermost core of your being; it has to be brought to the surface, it has to be expressed. That is what is meant by "self-actualization".
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Whenever you are creating, you will have the taste of life - and it will depend on your intensity, on your totality. Life is not a philosophical problem, it is a religious mystery. Then anything can become the door - even cleaning the floor. If you can do it creatively, lovingly, totally, you will have some taste of life.
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Become a child again and you will be creative. All children are creative. Creativity needs freedom - freedom from the mind, freedom from knowledge, freedom from prejudices. A creative person is one who can try the new. A creative person is not a robot.

Osho

The coming fusion of science and religion, so deeply related to the sacred purpose of the human species, can also be understood in terms of the spirit of the gift. For if science is to seek the fulfillment of our role within a greater whole, then how are we to understand that fulfillment except according to the question, "What have we to give to the world?" Ecology is itself a gift network, in which each organism and each species contributes far more to the environment than the limited Darwinian calculus of "fitness" would permit.more ...

Until our own day, science and religion struggled with their difference. Each had a tendency to see matters only according to its own particular point of view, and each rejected the other. Clearly, something more was needed - something that would allow these two realms of knowledge to close the gap between them. The missing link is contained in the knowledge of the laws that govern the nonphysical (spiritual) realm and its interactions with the world of matter - laws, it should be pointed out, as constant as the ones that govern the movement of the stars and the existence of living beings.more ...

Both light and shadow are the dance of Love. Love has no cause; it is the astrolabe of God

No matter what part of the world we come from, we are all basically the same human beings. We all seek happiness and try to avoid suffering. We have the same basic human needs and concerns. All of us human beings want freedom and the right to determine our own destiny as individuals and as peoples. That is human nature. The great changes that are taking place everywhere in the world, from Eastern Europe to Africa are a clear indication of this. more ...

Life and religion are one. All that you do to maintain your life, your
everyday work and play, all your attempts to earn a living, should be
done with sincerity, love and devotion, with a firm conviction that
true living means virtually perfecting one's spiritual existence in
tune with the universe. To bring about this synthesis, religious
culture should be made as natural and easy as taking our food and
drink when we are hungry and thirsty. With earnestness, love and
goodwill carry out life's everyday duties and try to elevate yourself
step by step. In all human activities let there be a live contact with
the Divine and you will not have to leave off anything. Your work will
then be done well and you will be on the right track to find the
Master. Just as a mother nourishes her child with all possible care
and affection and makes him grow up into a healthy boy and a handsome
youth, so you will find the subtle touches of the Divine Mother
shaping your inner life and making you reach your full height and
stature. Whatever work you have to do, do it with a singleness of
purpose, with all the simplicity, contentment and joy you are capable
of. Thus only will you be able to reap the best fruit of work. In
fullness of time, the dry leaves of life will naturally drop off and
new ones shoot forth.

Message from Anandamayi Ma (Spiritual teacher and Guru from Bengal)