Develop Yourself and You Develop the World
“If enough individuals can develop themselves, even partially, into genuine, natural men, able to use the real potentialities that are proper to mankind, each such individual would then be able to convince and win over as many as a hundred other men, who would, each in his turn upon achieving development, be able to influence another hundred, and so on…”
–George Gurdjieff (Armenian-born Adept, Teacher and Writer, c.1873-1949)
The Scientific Delusion
An important comment from a new book that I recommend most highly:
“The delusion that science has already answered the fundamental questions chokes off the spirit of enquiry. The materialist agenda was once liberating but is now depressing. Those who believe in it are alienated from their own experience; they are cut off from all religious traditions; and they are prone to suffer from a sense of disconnection and isolation.”
–Rupert Sheldrake (English Biologist, Researcher and Author, 1942-)
{The Scientific Delusion a.k.a. Science Set Free}
“Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery” (Rupert Sheldrake)
Unseen Connections
“We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people’s lives.”
–Robert M. Pirsig (American Novelist, 1928- )
“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values” (Robert M. Pirsig)
Reaching Universal Consciousness
“There is individual consciousness and from there, group consciousness and then we reach universal consciousness. The aim of man is to reach universal consciousness.”
—Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji (a.k.a. Yogi Harbhajan, a.k.a. Yogi Bhajan, Indian-born American Master of Kundalini Yoga and Head of the Sikh Dharma in the Western Hemisphere, 1929-2004)
The Dangers of Dysconnection
For more than thirty years my work has been driven by an understanding that many – if not most – of the physical, psychological, social, spiritual, ecological, financial and energetic problems facing us have been caused by a profound dislocation: a failure to remember who and what we are, and to keep in touch with our fundamental Essence.
Though many others have had similar insights, the most important issue has always been to understand how to do something to help people to re-establish a healthy balance between each of these inter-linked components of ourselves. Not only so that we feel better but also so that we can unleash our own Innate Freedom.
This is a powerful statement that supports what I’m saying:
“When man loses the heavens, he loses himself. By far the most important elements of man’s being belong to the universe beyond the Earth and if he loses sight of this universe he loses sight of his own true being. He wanders over the Earth without knowing what kind of being he really is. He knows, but even then only from tradition, that the word ‘man’ applies to him, that this name was once given to him as a being who stands upright in contrast to the quadruped animals. But his scientific view of the world and technical culture no longer help him to discover the true content of his name, for that must be sought in the universe beyond the Earth, and this universe is considered to be nothing but a great system of machinery. Man has lost himself; he has no longer any insight into his true nature.”
–Rudolf Steiner (Croatian-born Austrian Mystic, Occultist, Social Philosopher, Architect and Founder of Anthroposophy, 1861-1925)
Connecting Our Light to the World
“This work of connecting our light to the world does not need to be done through a mass movement, or by millions of people. . . .The real work is always done by a small number of individuals. What matters is the level of participation: whether we dare to make a real commitment to the work of the soul.”
–Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (English Sufi Mystic, Lineage Successor in the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya Sufi Order and Author, 1953-)
“Alchemy of Light: Working with the Primal Energies of Life” (Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee)
Solving the World’s Problems
“If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution — then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise.”
–Aldous Huxley (English Novelist and Critic, 1894-1963)
How We All Connect
“All images and experiences of my soul are images and experiences of your soul. This field of psychic reality which is immanent to each transcends the individual differences between us, giving us the common language based on our common patterns of experience. Through our unconscious we all connect.”
–James Hillman (American Psychologist, 1926-2011)
“Insearch: Psychology and Religion (Jungian Classics Series)” (James Hillman)
Good Conversation
I have been reading the works of James Hillman since I first discovered the psychologist Carl Jung when I was a young student. Hillman has just passed away at the age of 85, after a remarkably productive life that touched the hearts and minds of countless people around the globe.He is someone who truly enriched the lives of many of us. And even some people who may never have heard his name.
“Not just any talk is conversation; not any talk raises consciousness. Good conversation has an edge: it opens your eyes to something, quickens your ears. And good conversation reverberates: it keeps on talking in your mind later in the day; the next day, you find yourself still conversing with what was said. That reverberation afterward is the very raising of consciousness; your mind’s been moved. You are at another level with your reflections.”
–James Hillman (American Psychologist, 1926-2011)
Losing Connection
“When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world we lose connection with one another and ourselves.”
–Jack Kornfield (American Meditation Teacher in the Theravadan Buddhist Tradition, 1945-)
