Intelligence
If I were exiled to a desert island and only allowed to take a dozen books with me, one of them would be the Vivekachudamani or “Crest Jewel of Wisdom” by Adi Shankara.
“The Intelligence, together with the powers of intelligence, makes the intelligence-formed vesture, whose distinguishing character is actorship; it is the cause of man’s circle of birth and death.The power which is a reflected beam of pure Consciousness, called the understanding, is a mode of abstract Nature; it possesses wisdom and creative power; it thereby focuses the idea of “I” in the body and its powers.”
–Shankara (a.k.a. Adi Shankaracharya, Indian Sage, Spiritual Teacher and Author of the Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Dates Uncertain, but c.A.D. 686-718 or 788-821)
Various translations are available online, and I particularly like this book version. (Yes, I know, it’s made of paper, but sometimes I prefer that to bouncing photons):
“Shankara’s Crest Jewel of Discrimination” (Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood)
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-)
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)
Spiritual Experiences
“All spiritual experiences are sensations in the body. They are simply a graded series of sensations, beginning with the solidity of earth and passing gradually, in full consciousness, through liquidness and the emanation of heat to that of a total vibration before reaching the Void.”
–Sri Anirvan (a.k.a. Narendra Chandra Dhar, Bengali Monk, Vedic Scholar, Philosopher and Writer, 1896-1978)
Alive With Godhead
“Jesus saw and knew that the entire creation was alive with Godhead; he saw and knew that at the core of human consciousness lay a spark of divine consciousness in which the glory of the Godhead is always reflected and which is one with the Godhead.”
–Andrew Harvey (Indian-born English Philosopher, 1952-)
Movement of Energy in Consciousness
“Vasistha’s Yoga” (Venkatesananda)
“Action is nothing but the movement of energy in consciousness, and it inevitably bears its own fruit.”
–Yoga Vasistha (Hindu Advaita Sacred Book, c.A.D.9th-11th Century)
Alive, Conscious Awareness
“God is an energy field of alive, conscious awareness, pulsating and singing with life force through your Wholeness – and your body is part of that Wholeness.”
–Mary-Margaret Moore (American Writer, Counselor and Channel of “Bartholomew”)
Your Real Self
“I shall now state clearly the profound secret. Understand that when the ego dies and the real Self is realized as the One Reality, then there remains only that real Self, which is pure consciousness.”
–Ramana Maharshi (Indian Hindu Mystic and Spiritual Teacher, 1879-1950)
Recognizing the Spark
“In recognizing the Divine Spark in another human being, we also awaken it and activate it in ourselves; and the wheel turns as well the other way, knowing it in ourselves, we recognize it in others.”
–Peter Roche de Coppens (American Writer and Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Psychotherapy at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania)
Innate Freedom and Consciousness
“Each field of awareness in its boundaries constitutes a prison, and…the objective of all work of liberation, is to release the consciousness, and expand its field of contacts. Where there are boundaries of any kind, where a field of influence is circumscribed, and where the radius of contact is limited, there you have a prison. Ponder on this statement for it holds much truth.”
–Alice A. Bailey (English Writer, Spiritual Teacher and Founder of the Arcane School, 1880-1949)
