Understanding Matter
“The contemporary understanding of material is very different now from the way it used to be. If we consider what matter really is, we now understand it as much more of a mathematical thing… But I think that matter itself is now much more of a mental substance…”
–Roger Penrose (English Mathematician, Theoretical Physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, 1931-)
What We Need to Advance
“The conditions of advance are these: global unity of mankind’s noetic organization or system of awareness, but a high degree of variety within that unity; love, with goodwill and full cooperation; personal integration and internal harmony; and increasing knowledge….
We, mankind, contain the possibilities of the earth’s immense future, and can realize more and more of them on condition that we increase our knowledge and our love.”
–Julian Huxley (English Evolutionary Biologist, 1887-1975)
After Making the Intuitive Leap…
I meet a great many people who tell me that they have had a great intuitive insight into the nature of the universe, and that they just need a bit of help in proving that they are right.
Someone once went so far as to promise me a mention in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, if I’d just do all the work to prove his theories…
True story!
Next time that I get such a request I think that I’ll send back this quote by one of the great scientists of our time:
“…there is no prescribed route to follow to arrive at a new idea. You have to make the intuitive leap. But the difference is that once you’ve made the intuitive leap you have to justify it by filling in the intermediate steps. In my case, it often happens that I have an idea, but then I try to fill in the intermediate steps and find that they don’t work, so I have to give it up.”
–Stephen W. Hawking (English Theoretical Physicist and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, 1942-)
The Emergent Mind
“Indeed, as proclaimed by all great religious convictions, a unity characterizes this emergent mind and the basic order of the universe.”
–Karl Pribram (Austrian-born American Neuroscientist, 1919-)
“Ancient Wisdom – Modern Insight (Quest Books)” (Shirley J. Nicholson)
Watering the Soul
“The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.”
–Saint Teresa of Ávila (a.k.a. St. Teresa de Jesus, Spanish Nun, Mystic and Author, 1515-1582)
Choosing A Life of Magnitude
“A life of magnitude does not just happen; it is consciously chosen. Living is an endlessly creative process in which we work on achieving the life we want through our willingness to be who we would like to be.”
–Marianne Williamson (American Author, Unity Church Minister and Lecturer on Spirituality, 1952-)
Timeless and Spaceless
“Spirit is timeless as well as spaceless. Spirit is whole and resists division in time or space. Spirit is not being, but the purpose and truth of being. Spirit is mind, the whole mind, Spirit is both transcendent and immanent. The transcendental and the immanent become fused in spirit.”
–Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (Russian Theologian and Religious Philosopher, 1874-1948)
Self-Realization and God-Realization
“The Infinite alone justifies the existence of the finite and the finite by itself has no entirely separate value or independent existence.
Life, if it is not an illusion, is a divine Play, a manifestation of the glory of the Infinite.
Or it is a means by which the soul growing in Nature through countless forms and many lives can approach, touch, feel and unite itself through love and knowledge and faith and adoration and a Godward will in works with this transcendent Being and this infinite Existence.
This Self or this self-existent Being is the one supreme reality, and all things else are either only appearances or only true by dependence upon it. It follows that self-realization and God-realization are the great business of the living and thinking human being.
All life and thought are in the end a means of progress towards self-realization and God-realization.”
–Sri Aurobindo (a.k.a. Aurobindo Ghose, Indian Nationalist Leader, Mystic, Philosopher and Creator of Purna (Integral) Yoga, 1872-1950)
The Breath of Life
“God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with life, which is a breath of His own Spirit.”
–Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian Author, Translator and Founder of the Theosophical Society, 1831-1891)
“Isis Unveiled (Volumes 1 and 2)” (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky)
God’s Secret Stairway
“There is a well-known saying which tells us very truly and very beautifully that ‘God has His own secret stairway into every heart.’”
–William Barclay (Scottish Theologian, Religious Writer and Broadcaster, 1907-1978)
“The Letter to the Hebrews (New Daily Study Bible)” (William Barclay)
