<\n\n\n\n
God is an intelligible sphere \n\tLord, make me an instrument of Thy peace, \tO Divine Master, \t My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it is through earth's loveliness. \n\tWhatever thou seest that too become thou must \n\tYou may deprive me of my possessions; you may shed my blood and burn my body, but you cannot hurt my spirit or touch my truth. \n\tBetween the people of eternity and people of the earth there is a constant communication, and all comply with the will of that unseen power. Oftentimes an individual will perform an act, believing that it is born of his own free will, accord, and command, but in fact he is being guided and impelled with precision to do it. Many great men attained their glory by surrendering themselves in complete submission to the will of the spirit, employing no reluctance or resistance to its demands, as a violin surrenders itself to the complete will of a fine musician.<\/p>\n \tBetween the spiritual world and the world of substance there is a path upon which we walk in a swoon of slumber. It reaches us and we are unaware of its strength, and when we return to ourselves we find that we are carrying with our real hands the seeds to be planted carefully in the good earth of our daily lives, bringing forth good deeds and words of beauty. Were it not for that path between our lives and the departed lives, no prophet or poet or learned man would have appeared among the people. \tReligion is what you do when the sermon is over. \n\tBe still, my heart, these great trees are prayers. \n\tThe spirit in every being is made manifest in the eyes, the countenance, and in all bodily movements and gestures. Our appearance, our words, our actions are never greater than ourselves. For the soul is our house; our eyes its windows; and our words its messengers. \tTo be closer to God, be closer to people. \n\tEverything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait. \n\tThis is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. \n\tWe think saints are soft, ethereal, pious and meek. But some saints are steamrollers—great organizers, great operators, great combatants in the world. \n\tGod has no religion. \n\tA person asked Buddha: "Are you a God?" Buddha's reply was "No." \n\tTo undertake a genuine spiritual path is not to avoid difficulties but to learn the art of making mistakes wakefully, to bring to them the transformative power of our heart. \tSeek not outside yourself, heaven is within. \n\tFour thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul is. \n\tNever think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on, hold fast, hold out. Patience is genius. \n\tThe wish to pray is a prayer in itself. \n\tThe gift we receive on the inner journey is the insight that the Universe is working together for good. \n\tGod will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars. \n\tYou must have a room, or a certain hour of the day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody . . . where you can simply experience what you are, and what you might be. \n\tBless a thing and it will bless you. Curse it and it will curse you. . . If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you, and even if it is troublesome for a time, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it. \n\tAs the rose blooms amidst the thorns, so great souls shine out through all opposition. \n\tOut beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing \tReligions are many and diverse, but reason and goodness are one. \tA nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. \n\tFor every thing exists, and not one sigh, nor smile, nor tear, one hair, nor particle of dust, not one can pass away. \n\tTo be the messenger of the invisible is an honor. \n\tLet love be enthroned in your heart. Then there will be sunshine and cool breezes and gurgling water of contentment feeding the roots of faith. \n\tInquisition<\/p>\n \tIf faith is believing in something without proof \n\tImpiety, n. Your irreverence toward my deity. \n\tJoy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God. \n\tTo know another language is to have a second soul. \n\tThe need to feel and express love and compassion for everyone, with the understanding that we are all part of a greater reality, is the core of spirituality.<\/p>\n \tWe must remember that everything is sentient, that everything is full of consciousness and life. Everything exists in God.<\/p>\n \tOnly when we pray for the upliftment of the entire society will we also be fully benefited. \n\tHeaven means to be one with God. \n\tThere are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' \n\tAbsolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power. \n\tIn science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. \n\tThe seed of God is in us. \n\tHuman progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of [people] willing to be co-workers with God. \n\tThe only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought. \n\tTrees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. \n\tFaith is nothing but a living, wide-awake consciousness of God within. \n\tGood deeds are the best prayer. \n\tGod builds his temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions. \tMan is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal that has the true religion — several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. \n\tThe greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion. \n\tThere is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham. \t48<\/strong><\/p>\n \t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" < God is an intelligible sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. – Alain de Lille 12th century theologian, borrowing from the Corpus Hermeticum of the 3rd Century Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace, Where … Continue reading
\n\twhose centre is everywhere
\n\tand whose circumference is nowhere.
\n\t – Alain de Lille
\n\t12th century theologian, borrowing from the
\n\tCorpus Hermeticum of the 3rd Century<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tWhere there is hatred, let me sow love;
\n\tWhere there is injury, pardon;
\n\tWhere there is doubt, faith;
\n\tWhere there is despair, hope;
\n\tWhere there is darkness, light;
\n\tWhere there is sadness, joy<\/p>\n
\n\tGrant that I may not so much seek
\n\tTo be consoled as to console;
\n\tTo be understood as to understand;
\n\tTo be loved as to love.
\n\tFor it is in giving that we receive;
\n\tIt is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
\n\tAnd it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
\n\t – St. Francis of Assisi<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Michelangelo <\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tGod if thou seest God and dust if thou seest but dust
\n\t – Attributed to
\n\tBrother Angelus <\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Kahlil Gibran
\n\tmystic, poet and artist
\n\t(1883-1931) <\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Kahlil Gibran<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – unknown<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Rabindranath Tagore<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Kahlil Gibran<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Kahlil Gibran<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – George Harrison<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Anne Lamott<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – unknown<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
\n\t(1869-1948)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t"Are you an Angel?" "No."
\n\t"Then what are you?"
\n\t"I am Awake." <\/p>\n
\n\t – Jack Kornfield
\n\tAmerican Buddhist teacher
\n\t<\/strong> <\/p>\n
\n\t – Mary Lou Cook<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Voltaire
\n\t(1694-1778)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Comte Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Georges Bernanos
\n\tThe Diary of a Country Priest<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Parker Palmer
\n\tteacher, writer, activist<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Elbert Hubbard<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Joseph Campbell
\n\tscholar, author, lecturer
\n\t(1904-1987)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Emmet Fox<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan
\n\tfrom "Bowl of Saki" 12\/10\/02<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tThere is a field –
\n\tI will meet you there.
\n\t – Rumi<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Elbert Hubbard
\n\tThe Roycroft Dictionary
\n\tand Book of Epigrams
\n\t1923<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – William Blake<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – James Levin, M.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tBecause it inspires us to a better life and future,
\n\tWhy do we argue with others, and even kill others,
\n\tTrying to persuade others about whose faith is "right"?
\n\t – Mattie J.T. Stepanek
\n\t(1990-2004) <\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Ambrose Bierce
\n\t writer
\n\t(1842-1914)
\n\t[The Devil's Dictionary, 1906]<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Teilhard de Chardin<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Charlemagne, King of the Franks
\n\t(742-814)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Ammachi
\n\tHer Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Confucius
\n\t(B.C. 551-479)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – C.S. Lewis<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Eric Hoffer
\n\tphilosopher and author
\n\t(1902-1983)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Carl Sagan
\n\tastronomer and writer
\n\t(1934-1996)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\tGiven an intelligent and hard-working farmer,
\n\tit will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is;
\n\tand accordingly its fruits will be God-nature.
\n\tPear seeds grow into pear trees,
\n\tnut seeds into nut trees,
\n\tand God seed into God.
\n\t – Meister Eckhart<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Mahatma Gandhi
\n\t(1869-1948)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Rabindranath Tagore
\n\tpoet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter,
\n\teducator, composer, Nobel laureate
\n\t(1861-1941)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Gandhi<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Serbian proverb<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Ralph Waldo Emerson
\n\twriter and philosopher
\n\t(1803-1882)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Mark Twain, author and humorist
\n\t(1835-1910)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer
\n\t(1917)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n\t – Anna Sewell, writer
\n\t(1820-1878)<\/strong><\/p>\n