Insights of a Mystic
“Remember that the Spirit of God permeates His glorious system, that His Life is in the leaves of the trees as well as in the hearts of human beings.”
–Flower A. Newhouse (American Christian Mystic and Spiritual Teacher, 1909-1994)
“Rediscovering the Angels and Natives of Eternity” (Flower A. Newhouse)
The Ultimate Realm
“If you touch the phenomenal realm deeply, you touch the ultimate realm which is the realm of no birth and no death. The ultimate is nirvana, it is God, and it is available to us twenty-four hours a day.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
“Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Everyone Has a Role to Play
“In the construction of houses, choice of woods is made. Straight un-knotted timber of good appearance is used for the revealed pillars, straight timber with small defects is used for the inner pillars. Timbers of the finest appearance, even if a little weak, is used for the thresholds, lintels, doors, and sliding doors, and so on. Good strong timber, though it be gnarled and knotted, can always be used discreetly in construction.”
–Miyamoto Musashi (a.k.a. Shinmen Takezō, a.k.a. Miyamoto Bennosuke, a.k.a Niten Dōraku, Japanese Samurai, Swordsman and Founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of Swordsmanship and Author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪書 Go Rin No Sho), on Strategy, Tactics, and Philosophy, c.1584-1645)
Habits Have Their Place, But…
“Habit is the denial of creativity and the negation of freedom; a self-imposed straitjacket of which the wearer is unaware.”
–Arthur Koestler (Hungarian-born British Writer and Philosopher, 1905-1983)
Clarity and Consistency
“If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for. For example: A man came to me asking me to speak the word that a certain debt would be wiped out. I found he spent his time planning what he would say to the man when he did not pay his bill, thereby neutralizing my words. He should have seen himself paying the debt.”
–Florence Scovel Shinn (American Artist, Metaphysics Teacher and Author, 1871-1940)
Moving Toward Mastery
“The inactive man does not do his duty to his Creator or to the society that maintains him. The recluse who devotes his entire life to sincere effort in meditation fulfills part of his duty by trying to find and love God, and thus spiritualize his own life. To improve oneself is to help society by the example of virtue and by making at least one of its members good! But the yogi (monastic or householder) who does his duty to God, and also to the world through some form of uplifting service, is the most highly evolved type of being. He becomes a master (asiddha) when by such dutiful action he attains the supreme inactive state (nirvikalpa God-union), which is free from karmic effects of actions and is filled with the bliss of Spirit.”
–Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
“God Talks with Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita” (Paramahansa Yogananda)
Finding Tranquility Within Ourselves
“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.”
–François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (French Writer and Moralist, 1613-1680)
Signals of the Truth
“When intuition points to something unwelcome to the ego, the intellect looks for and usually finds an excuse to reject it. A man who really and sincerely wants to find the Truth should be on the lookout for hints, clues, and signs which would be useful to his Quest, for they constitute the response from the Overself to his aspiration. The Overself can furnish him with the Truth and puts these signals in his way.”
–Paul Brunton (a.k.a. Raphael Hurst, English Philosopher, Traveler, Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)
Working On Yourself. And Your Legacy
“Even if no one appreciates the efforts you make to perfect yourself, don’t let that discourage you; you are making these efforts for yourself, not for other people. You will keep all the spiritual riches you are now amassing when you come back to earth. In what form? In the form of more favorable conditions, which heaven will give you for your spiritual development. If you see you are still not able to acquire a particular quality, or conquer a particular fault, or overcome a bad habit, tell yourself frankly, ‘It’s because I didn’t make the efforts I should have in the past, and now everything is difficult.’ That’s what you must tell yourself, and then you must get to work at once. Yes, even if you only have a year to live, a single year, you should make a start, for in that short time considerable changes would take place.”
–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
Infinite Spirit and Total Enlightenment
“If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can’t be a place where Spirit is not, or it wouldn’t be infinite.
Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don’t know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No, according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness.
There is nowhere Spirit is not. Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.
Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now… We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don’t recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
“Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber” (Ken Wilber)
