"In many ways we recognize ourselves as an expression of divine and cosmic identity. “Divine” indicating something beyond our mental constructs, and “cosmic” indicating a vast context. The task of the day is not to rehash that this is what we are about, because somebody else said so, people whom we respect. No, the task is to provide a living, practical demonstration of our deep knowledge of that identity, expressed in whatever is on our plate; hour by hour, day by day."

by Volker Brendel
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Daniil Trifonov – Rachmaninov: Rhapsody On A Theme Of Paganini, Op.43, Variation 18

I hope you’ve had a chance to look at the night sky in recent days particularly. You may have read the news reports about the spectacle of the comet NEOWISE appearing in the northern sky, right below the Great Dipper after sunset. I have been going out every evening trying to get a glimpse of the comet zipping by, with its sparking dust cloud trailing. I figure this is my only chance: the comet comes around every 6,800 years, and I don’t know where I’ll be next time!

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by Bill Isaacs
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What is your awareness of your purpose? How alive is it? There are many ways one could address this topic. It is an ever-expanding subject. It may not be something you spend much time on. However, if you have devoted time and energy towards this, you come to realize that to arrive at ever new levels of understanding takes work. Part of this work includes relinquishing well-rehearsed and perhaps reassuring formulations of your purpose. Our ideas about purpose, and indeed about any subject can easily become stale or obsolete. It takes something to ground one’s experience in something that isn’t merely an outdated mental perception. I have over the last 12 months made a measured effort, each day, to penetrate this question. I found that it was quite productive to spend a deliberate period of time each morning meditating on this. I think I have missed three or four days over the past year. I’ve been somewhat amazed to discover all the ways in which I have held an inherited or limited or conceptual view that didn’t at first occur to be that at all. In fact, in many instances, I found that my view was quite self-inflated, even arrogant, or at times just reactive to the situation around me.

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