Twenty-Eight Acre Animal Farm Thermal, California

The chicken on the bottom of the photo is to size--the swan is oversized...

Living in peace on a 28 acre animal farm: turkeys, chickens, ducks, mini-donkeys, goats, horses, pig, alpaca, cow, donkey, dogs, and more. Two miles from work. Work season is coming to an end. July first, I head to Northern California, Montana, and Colorado. Visiting friends and meeting horse people who are interested in supporting the horse through more humane training and a deeper awareness of themselves. Starting to offer Selfseeds again as an awareness/wellness program.

Nador is coming along very nicely. I will send him to Colorado while I am there for 6 weeks and then leave him for an extra month while I go to India.

Capacity building, introspection, mindfulness, stillness, and and an open heart are part of the daily practice. Living an incredibly blessed life.

Venice Beach, CA

Beautiful weather, special visit, and two days to enjoy it all. Thank you Cindy!

Buddhism

Enjoying reading a book on the principles of Buddhism. Wonderful confirmation of the path and how to walk on it. Grace

Fear of Lack

Living in the density of the material world, it continues to challenge my expectations and examination of renunciation. The magnetism to have more, take more, and accumulate more are always pulling exteriorly. The pull can be by others as I am learning. Renunciation from me personally is one step. Renouncing the need to fulfill or create boundaries for what others want to take is yet another step. Finding the path in the interior and external world is often convoluted if I don't return to examine the basic state of Oneness. Separation continues to appear in twisted blindspots. The liberation in letting go and yet another trip with the wheelbarrow to the discard pile. Yes, fear of lack was hiding underneath.

New homework assignment is appearing.  Creating a book and or program/school for teaching the essence of a true horseman. The qualities of a human's interaction with the horse. As a friend said, "A horse cannot be trained by internet speed."  The second book showed the global challenge for the horse as the next generations are substituting gadgets, drugs, and shortcuts for training that requires knowledge, a system, patience, compassion, tenaciousness, and humility.  The modern consumer may benefit from understanding the principles as a template for how to sense, be, and proceed with the horse. Two people are joining me in this endeavor to modernize the communication of classic principles and to find a common unifying thread will all disciplines of riding. The focus is to create an inclusive foundation that joins everyone who interacts with horses (professional or amateur) in understanding the underlying truths of right action, clear objectives from the two legged, and the principles from fourth century BC. We have decide this could take the rest of our lifetimes, but we don't mind working on it. Part of being the messenger for the horse and pleased to have others wanting to join in.

Able to give a riding lesson in Hungary from my laptop! Amazing aspects of the digital world.

Nador is continuing to become whole. I am learning a lot and he continues to be a character.

Moving to a new location for the next two months that has a small farm. It is just down the street from work.

What Fun!

Driving into work.

As I moved again, I was able to touch what I own. Hmmm... more to weed out. Job set up for fall and next season in Thermal. Looks like I might go to Colorado with Nador during the heat and on to India for a month or two.

Examining a state of the ego as a blanket of separation while living in the form. The textures of awareness and the continued state of grace for the awareness of the Oneness.

Getting an opportunity to look at an untaught depth of connection with horses and how to outwardly share it with others while visiting with a kindred spirit on the horse path. Grace. The spiral staircase in all of its' beauty. I met this person in the late eighties and she came to visit me in Portugal, because of a thirst for classical training. In our continued examination of systems, we have both independently found the "Portuguese System" to be the most complete, systematic, and pure in addressing the horse and rider. As I teach and ride, I continue to grow in my understanding of the basics and the value of examining their depth. How amazing to share this with even one other person and to have both found oneness through the portal of the horses. We are examining the mystic side of the relationship with horses, humans, and life. What fun!

I could live in this van. It was really fun to drive! 

Nador got shoes and his body has responded to all of the body work at a level that it would appear we can start to work thoughtfully in a more complete way. Learning a lot from the eyes of such a sensitive, intelligent, raw four-legged. He is really trying to work with the two-leggeds.

Restlessness

One of many golf courses as part of adult Disneyland

Riding under a rainbow

Why restless in paradise? Energetic nature? Habit? Opening to a new direction?

Nador is healing well. Students/horses making progress. Abundance at every level. Horse show over. 

Washing Machines

Found a new favorite trail.

I have been examining the results of different washing machines lately. As I stepped into the quiet, expansiveness of the desert, I realized it was washing me. I was the disturbance in the peaceful aliveness. The outer world was aligned to my inner world, but the sheath of my being was a point of separation. The sheath of me as Sue. Is it finally time to accept me fully and unconditionally as nature continues to and live from this essence of vibration? Yet another blindspot uncovered. Being as One and not just knowing of self as One.

A desert rose

Natural oasis

Nice timing Bowl of Saki...

You cannot be both horse and rider at the same time.

                        Bowl of Saki, March 8, by Hazrat Inayat Khan

Commentary by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan:

The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, 'I'. What is it in us that we call 'I'? We say, 'This is my body, my mind, these are my thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.' We identify our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call 'I'. In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity.

By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that every part that constitutes our being has its own name -- the hand, the foot, every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a separate form -- what is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says 'I' nor is it the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says 'I' and mine and knows itself to be the person who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have called avidya.

How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the secret of mortality and immortality.

What has taken possession of this accommodation? A deluded ego that says, 'I.' It is deluded by this body and mind and it has called itself an individual. When a man has a ragged coat he says, 'I am poor'. In reality his coat is poor, not he. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes his knowledge, his realization, and it is that which limits him. It forms that limitation which is the tragedy of every soul.

Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign there in His unlimited Being.