On Christmas Day: An Expanded View
“The story of Christ is not only an account of a historical man but also a figurative representation of the path that each of us must follow to attain liberation.”
–Richard Smoley (American Philosopher, Editor and Writer, 1956- )
“Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition” (Richard Smoley)
What the World Mother Might Say…
“A living planet is a much more complex metaphor for deity than just a bigger father with a bigger fist.
If an omniscient, all-powerful Dad ignores your prayers, it’s taken personally. Hear only silence long enough, and you start wondering about his power. His fairness. His very existence.
But if a world mother doesn’t reply, Her excuse is simple. She never claimed conceited omnipotence. She has countless others clinging to her apron strings, including myriad species unable to speak for themselves.
To Her elder offspring She says – “Go raid the fridge.” “Go play outside.” “Go get a job.” “Or, better yet, lend me a hand. I have no time for idle whining.”
–David Brin (American Writer and Former Physics Professor and NASA Consultant, 1950- )
The Net of the Universe
“The universe (is) a great spread-out net with at every joint a gem, and each gem not only reflecting all the others but itself reflected in all.”
–Joseph Campbell (American Writer, Editor and Mythologist, 1904-1987)
Sticking Your Neck Out
I started reading Arthur Koestler’s works before I hit my teens, and I’m sure that some of the things that he said left an indelible mark on me.
Like this, for example:
“If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.”
–Arthur Koestler (Hungarian-born British Writer and Philosopher, 1905-1983)
Inhaling the Sky
“Each time you inhale you are drawing into yourself an average of about one atom from each of the breaths contained in the whole sky.”
–Guy Murchie (American Artist, Photographer, Member of the Bahá’í Faith and Author, 1907-1997)
Loosening the Hold of Duality
“The method for abandoning the hold which duality has on consciousness is not simple. The more comfort and pleasure available to man, the less his chance for a strong enough push to force him to give up even the temporary happiness of his achievements. And yet he must eventually do this ( internally ) to bring the full focus of consciousness to bear on the experience of the eternally inherent self or soul, with all its blissful freedom of real existence. This is why God loves most the so-called destitute and helpless.
The greater the helplessness, the greater can and should be the dependence upon God for His help, which is ever more ready than are the sincere and earnest wishes for it. The greater the bindings, the greater the chances for quick, permanent relief, through fully conscious experience of man’s own original and everlasting freedom.
The unlimited and everlasting spiritual freedom of the self or soul exists eternally and infinitely in one and all, and is equally available to every man and woman irrespective of class, creed or nationality. Spiritual freedom can and does transcend all the illusory phenomena of duality, because divine Oneness is always divine Oneness, before the beginningless beginning and beyond the endless end. Contrarily, the illusion of all material binding from first to last is always illusion, and even its illusory existence depends upon the play of the eternal spiritual freedom of the soul. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can have enduring happiness and unhampered self-knowledge. It is only in spiritual freedom that one finds the supreme certainty of truth-realization. It is only in spiritual freedom that there is a final end to sorrow and limitation. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can live for all, and yet remain detached in the midst of all activity.”
–Meher Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher who, from July 1925 maintained Silence, 1894-1969)
Knowing Woman
“A woman today lives in perpetual conflict. She cannot slay the dragon of the unconscious without severing her own essential contact with it; without in fact destroying her feminine strength and becoming a mere pseudo-man. Her task is a peculiarly difficult one. She needs the focused consciousness her animus alone can give her, yet she must not forsake her woman?s role of mediator to man. Through a woman, man finds his soul. She must never forget this. Through a woman, not through a pseudo-man. Through man, woman finds the animus who can express the soul she has never lost. Her burning need is to trust her own diffuse awareness, to know what she knows and to learn to speak of it, for until it is expressed she does not wholly know it.”
–Irene Claremont de Castillejo English-born Jungian Analyst who Specialized in “Feminine Psychology,” and Worked with Emma Jung and Toni Wolff, 1885-1967)
“Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology” (Irene de Castillejo)
Wholeness
“Relativity and quantum theory agree in that both imply the need to look upon the world as an undivided whole in which all the parts of the universe merge and unite in one totality.”
–David Bohm (American-born Theoretical Physicist and Philosopher, 1917-1992)
“RC Series Bundle: Wholeness and the Implicate Order” (David Bohm)
Purity and Truth
“Purity is the soul of my strength. Truth is the source of my power. God is my life, and I have no existence apart from Him. His Consciousness is my Light. His all-sustaining and all-creative Beauty constitutes my joy. Prayer is my breath and meditation forms the bread of my Life. All humanity is my family. The Forces of Nature are my Friends. The Godhead in all of you is the object of my adoration.”
—Swami Omkarananda (Indian Mystic and Spiritual Teacher, 1929-)
Wisdom and Humility
“I have seen unlearned men who were truly humble, and they became wiser than the wise. Another unlearned man, upon hearing them praised, instead of imitating their humility, prided himself on being unlearned and so fell into arrogance.”
–St. Mark the Ascetic (a.k.a. Marcus Eremita, Athenian-born Monk and Desert Father, Fifth Century)
{On the Spiritual Law: Philokalia Vol. 1″, p. 115, text 79-80}
“The Philokalia Vol 1: 001” (G.E.H. Palmer, Kallistos Timothy Ware, Philip Sherrard)
