The Power of Nature
“The influence of fine scenery, the presence of mountains, appeases our irritations and elevates our friendships.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Poet and Essayist, 1803-1882)
Integrating the Psyche
“Mastering – or, if you prefer, integrating – the psyche is the work of a lifetime….This mastery is not holding the psyche in rigid subjugation which is impossible in any case, nor is it a matter of having a maniacally religious ego lording it over the emotions and the body. Rather, it is being centered in the still, small voice that is the true ‘I’ of the spirit.”
–Richard Smoley (American Philosopher, Editor and Writer, 1956-)
“Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition” (Richard Smoley)
Walk As Much As You Can If You Can
“Walking inspires and promotes conversation that is grounded in the body, and so it gives the soul a place where it can thrive. I think I could write an interesting memoir of significant walks I have taken with others, in which intimacy was not only experienced but set fondly into the landscape of memory. When I was a child, I used to walk with my Uncle Tom on his farm, across fields and up and down hills. We talked of many thing, some informative and some completely outrageous, and quite a few very tall stories emerged on those bucolic walks. Whatever the content of the talking, those conversations remain important memories for me of my attachment to my family, to a remarkable personality, and to nature.”
–Thomas Moore (American Psychotherapist and Writer, 1940-)
“Soul Mates: Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship” (Thomas Moore)
Genuine Wisdom
“Genuine wisdom involves humility. The wiser we become, the greater the realization that there is so much more to learn and understand.”
–Emanuel Swedenborg (Swedish Scientist, Mystic and Philosopher, 1688-1772)
Splashing in the Shallow End
I was recently hearing two groups of church folk who seemed to be squabbling over who would be occupying the front seats in Heaven. I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about, and it reminded me of a lovely quote from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, comparing the Church to a swimming pool:
“All the splashing goes on at the shallow end.”
–Robert Runcie (English Theologian and, from 1980-1991, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1921-2000)
Becoming An Adept
Whatever your faith or beliefs, there are some words of wisdom that transcend them all.
“1. Adeptship is attainable by the purification of the body in all respects. Purification of the material body can be effected by things generated along with it by Nature; that of the electric body by patience in all circumstances; and that of the magnetic body (chitta, spiritualized Atom, Heart) by regulation of the breath, which is called mantra, the purifier of the mind.
2. The eight bondages or snares are:
Hatred
Shame
Fear
Grief
Condemnation
Race Prejudice
Pride of Family
Smugness
Removal of the eight bondages leads to magnanimity of the Heart.
3. When this love becomes developed in man it makes him able to understand the real position of his own Self as well as of others surrounding him.
4. When this love, the heavenly gift of Nature, appears in the heart, it removes all causes of excitation from the system and cools it down to a perfectly normal state; and, invigorating the vital powers, expels all foreign matters- the germs of diseases-by natural ways (perspiration and so forth). It thereby makes man perfectly healthy in body and mind, and enables him to understand properly the guidance of Nature.
5. Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions. Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change. The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch of pure love.
6. The world illusion, maya, is individually called avidya, literally, “not-knowledge,” ignorance, delusion. Maya or avidya can never be destroyed through intellectual conviction or analysis, but solely through attaining the interior state of nirbikalpa Samadhi.
7. Firmness of moral courage when attained removes all the obstacles in the way of salvation. These obstacles are of eight sorts, viz., hatred, shame, fear, grief, condemnation, race distinction, pride of pedigree, and a narrow sense of respectability, which are the meannesses of the human heart.
8. The Holy Sound Pranava Sabda appears spontaneously through the culture of Sraddha the energetic tendency of heart’s natural love, Veerya the moral courage, Smiriti the true conception and Samadhi the true concentration.
9. It has been clearly demonstrated in the foregoing pages that “Love is God,” not merely as the noblest sentiment of a poet but as an aphorism containing an eternal truth.”
–Sri Yukteswar (a.k.a. Swami Sriyukteswar Giri, a.k.a. Sriyuktesvara, a.k.a. Priyanath Karar, Bengali Educator, Yogi and Guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, 1855-1936)
Ordering Our Chaos
“The human word is neither immortal nor invulnerable; but it is the power that orders our chaos, and the light by which we live.”
–Northrop Frye (Canadian Literary Critic, 1912-1991)
The Most Profuond SPiritual Truth of All
“This 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.”
–Anne Lamott (American Writer, 1954-)
Serving Two Masters
Most of us spend our lives serving not just two, but multiple masters. If we really want to step out on the spiritual path we have to start to change that, otherwise the path will likely remain an intellectual interest, and it’s hard to make much progress. Nobody’s going to deny that it can be difficult to make changes when we are being pulled in multiple directions at once, but ultimately it is well worth doing!
“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”
–Thomas Merton (French-born American Trappist Monk and Writer, 1915-1968)
“Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form” (Basil Pennington)
Real Values
“Man is lost and is wandering in a jungle where real values have no meaning. Real values can have meaning to man only when he steps on to the spiritual path, a path where negative emotions have no use.”
–Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher, c.1926-2011)
