Reverence for Life
Yesterday I made a comment about reverence. It is such an important aspect of life that I thought that you might like another today:
“Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm, or to hinder life is evil.”
–Albert Schweitzer (Alsatian-born Theologian, Philosopher, Mission Doctor and, in 1952, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1875-1965)
Practice Reverence For Life
“Practice reverence for life. The sacred is in, with, and under all things of the world. Respond with appropriate respect and awe.”
–Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (American Writers and Teachers: Frederic is a United Church of Christ Clergyman, and Mary Ann is an Interfaith Minister, ordained by the One Spirit Interfaith Seminary)
“Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life” (Frederic Brussat, Mary Ann Brussat)
Exposing A Faulty Premise
“Our civilization rests on a faulty premise, that the world is physical and mechanical, energy and matter only. We do not pay for it in our bridges, we pay for it in the quality of our lives.”
–Richard Grossinger (a.k.a. Richard Towers, American Writer, Anthropologist and Publisher of North Atlantic Books, 1944-)
“Planet Medicine, Revised Edition: Origins” (Richard Grossinger)
When We All First Became Part of a Giant Brain
“Then there is electricity, the demon, the angel, the mighty physical power, the all-pervading intelligence!” …
“Is it a fact — or have I dreamt it — that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time? Rather, the round globe is a vast head, a brain, instinct with intelligence! Or, shall we say, it is itself a thought, nothing but a thought, and no longer the substance which we deemed it!”
–Nathaniel Hawthorne (American Writer, 1804-1864)
“The House of the Seven Gables (Dover Thrift Editions)” (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
The Play of Energy and Consciousness
“Energy and consciousness are in a continual state of interaction: energy is shaped and directed by consciousness which is itself driven by energy.”
–John Pierrakos (Greek-born American Psychiatrist and Founder of Core Energetics, 1921-2001)
“Eros, Love & Sexuality : The Forces That Unify Man & Woman” (John C. Pierrakos)
Everything In Nature Is Attached to Everything Else
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
–John Muir (Scottish-born American Naturalist, Writer, Founder of the Sierra Club, and “The Father of the National Park System,” 1838-1914)
Myth and Your Body
“Our creation myth is also the myth of our biological evolution. For me, there is another aspect to the creation and evolution myth – that is, the coming into existence of the body’s subjectivity.
Myth is about the birth and evolution of the body’s inner subjective experience.
Embryogenesis is cosmogenesis; the birth of the body is the birth of the inner emotional cosmos. And the experience of this is still ongoing, is present now.
From the moment of our conception, the organizing of past somatic images is available to us as a guide for being in the world of the present.
The different bodies of our history – personal and impersonal – are in our dreams. Myth presents us also with the body images of various ages and eons. The complex of somatic images gives our present somatic image an organization and dimension, a structure that has duration.
Mostly we are in touch with the surface body, because perception is mostly a surface phenomenon. That doesn’t mean that the other bodies aren’t there.”
–Stanley Keleman (American Chiropractor, Psychotherapist and Director of the Center for Energetic Studies in Berkeley, California, 1931-)
Myth and the Body p29:
“Myth & the Body – A colloquy with Joseph Campbell” (Stanley Keleman)
Riding the Whirlwind
“In emotional turmoil, the upward influences of subcortical emotional circuits on the higher reaches of the brain are stronger than topdown controls. Although humans can strengthen and empower the downward controls through emotional education and self-mastery, few can ride the whirlwind of unbridled emotions with great skill.”
–Jaak Panksepp (Estonian-born American Psychologist, Neuroscientist and Baily Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science for the Department of Veterinary and Comparative Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Physiology at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, 1943-)
Understanding Who You Are. And Doing Something About It
“We look at some people as if they were special, gifted, divine. Nobody is special and gifted and divine. No more than you are, no more than I am. The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to understand what they really are and have begun to practice it.”
–Richard Bach (American Writer, 1936-)
The Essence of Openness is Heart
These are profoundly important words from one of my own teachers. And someone who REALLY understands and doesn’t just talk about it!
“The essence of destiny is yielding.
The essence of yielding is softness.
The essence of softness is entering.
The essence of entering is welcoming openness.
The essence of openness is heart.”
–John Kells (Irish-born British Grand Master of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, 1940-)
