Wisdom From The Woods
After decades studying with teachers all over the world and consuming countless books and research papers, I finally realized the obvious: everything you need to know is outside your window and inside you heart. And here was a great being saying the same thing a thousand years ago.
So I am a bit slow….
“Believe me, for I know, you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.”
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (French Cistercian Monk, Mystic, Theologian, Monastic Reformer and Political Figure, 1090-1153)
Essential Writings of Saint Bernard Dennis E. Tamburello, O.F.M.
“Epidemics of the Soul”
“Materialism has cast man into such depths that a mighty concentration of forces is necessary to raise him again. He is subject to illnesses of the nervous system which are veritable epidemics of the life of the soul.”
–Rudolf Steiner (Croatian-born Austrian Mystic, Occultist, Social Philosopher, Architect and Founder of Anthroposophy, 1861-1925)
Mind and Intelligence
“Mind and intelligence are woven into the fabric of our universe in a way that altogether surpasses our understanding.”
–Freeman Dyson ( English-born American Physicist and Mathematician, 1923-)
There Is No Separation
“There is no separation between you and me, between you and any other person…we all ‘inter-are.’ As my friend Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, ‘All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
Some Profound Thoughts on Happiness
“Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness and the Self are not different.
There is no happiness in any object of the world. We imagine through our ignorance that we derive happiness from objects.
When the mind goes out, it experiences misery. In truth, when its desires are fulfilled, it returns to its own place and enjoys the happiness that is the Self. Similarly, in the states of sleep, Samadhi and fainting, and when the object desired is obtained or the object disliked is removed, the mind becomes inward-turned, and enjoys pure Self-Happiness.
Thus the mind moves without rest alternately going out of the Self and returning to it.
Under the tree the shade is pleasant; out in the open the heat is scorching. A person who has been going about in the sun feels cool when he reaches the shade. Someone who keeps on going from the shade into the sun and then back into the shade is a fool. A wise man stays permanently in the shade. Similarly, the mind of the one who knows the truth does not leave Brahman. The mind of the ignorant, on the contrary, revolves in the world, feeling miserable, and for a little time returns to Brahman to experience happiness. In fact, what is called the world is only thought. When the world disappears, i.e. when there is no thought, the mind experiences happiness; and when the world appears, it goes through misery.”
–Ramana Maharshi (Indian Hindu Mystic and Spiritual Teacher, 1879-1950)
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)
Another Piece of Inspiration
This is one of the truest things that I know, from the father of one of my own teachers:
“The whole world’s treasure is too small a price to pay for one word that kindles the soul.”
–Hazrat Inayat Khan (Indian Founder of Universal Sufism and the Sufi Order International, 1882-1927)
Awareness and Simplicity
“And if you would know God, be not therefore a solver of riddles.
Rather, look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.
You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.”
–Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese Poet and Philosopher, 1883-1931)
Symbols
“Symbols, images, and archetypes…are the key regulators and main ‘switches’ of human consciousness and of one’s inner life.
It is through them that all alterations, focusing, and expansion of human consciousness take place, for they are the regulators, accumulators, and transformers of human consciousness.
They enable a person to connect himself (and his field of consciousness) temporarily and to identify with something greater and larger than he is and, thus, slowly to transcend himself and actualize his latent energies, faculties, and potentialities.”
–Peter Roche de Coppens (American Writer and Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Psychotherapy at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania)
Divine Light and Fire, Experiencing Esoteric Christianity
The Silent Pulse
“At the heart of each of us, whatever our imperfections, there exists a silent pulse of perfect rhythm, a complex of wave forms and resonances, which is absolutely individual and unique, and yet connects us to everything in the universe. The act of getting in touch with this pulse can transform our personal experience and in some way alter the world around us.”
–George Leonard (American Aikidoist, President Emeritus of the Esalen Institute and Writer, 1923-2010)
