Cultivating awareness

Since we just had a full moon on Friday, we talked about what we can learn by observing the cycles of nature and surrendering to our own cycles. The moon is one of the easiest and quickest cycles to observe since a full cycle is about a month and all we have to do is look up into the sky. A full moon is a great time to set the intention of letting go as the moon begins to wane over the next couple weeks until it disappears for a moment before the new moon returns and waxes again to a full moon. This cycle can remind us of the constant need to let go of things that no longer serve us and attract new things. To let go of things we first need to know what is holding us back and this comes from self awareness- we read a little excerpt about this that I attached (the prison one). Then we also talked about how a great way to ground yourself into your own body and its relation to the earth and your own part and connection to life as a whole is to make an effort to focus on a simple part of nature each day and to really take in its miracle. To think about every aspect that goes into its existence. (This is what the second quote is about from Brassai who was a surrealist photographer). When you continue to practice everyday you start to notice how perfectly orchestrated everything in nature is and how full of wisdom it is for your own life. Sooooo yeah...today was all about awareness and letting go!

“‘Are you familiar with Gurdjieff?’ asked a friend. ‘He was a spiritual teacher around the turn of the turn of the century, and one day, he posed a question to his students- ‘If a prisoner wants to escape from prison, what’s the first thing he needs to know?’

‘You need to know the guard,’ one student said. ‘You need to find the key,’ said another.

‘No,’ Gurdjieff said, ‘The first thing that you need to know if you want to escape from prison is that you are in prison. Until you know that, no escape is possible.”

“The surrealism of my images was nothing other than the real being rendered fantastic by vision. I only sought to express reality, because nothing is more surreal. If something no longer amazes us, it is only because habit has made it bland. My ambition was always to see an aspect of everyday life as if discovering it for the first time.” -Brassai