Gifts From The Source
“Whatever the Source is, however it is named or imagined, the truth is the same: Our gifts are donated from that originating point. Each interpretive system of spiritual and mystical culture understands this. The crucial point in life is to use these gifts wisely: not to squander them, but to commit them to the benefit of the whole community of life.”
–Wayne Teasdale (American Catholic Monk and Proponent of Interfaith Dialogue, 1945-2004)
“The Mystic Hours: A Daybook of Inspirational Wisdom and Devotion” (Wayne Teasdale)
Transcending and Including the Ego
Some years ago I caused something of a scandal when I pointed out that the original Sanskrit root of the word “Yoga,” meant “Union,” and that the objective of the spiritual path was not to get rid of the ego and of our imperfections, but instead to embrace and transform them.
Much later I discovered that I was not alone in my understanding:
“Transcending the ego” thus actually means to transcend but include the ego in a deeper and higher embrace, first in the soul or deeper psychic, then with the Witness or primordial Self, then with each previous stage taken up, enfolded, included, and embraced in the radiance of One Taste. And that means we do not “get rid” of the small ego, but rather, we inhabit it fully, live it with verve, use it as the necessary vehicle through which higher truths are communicated. Soul and Spirit include body, emotions, and mind; they do not erase them.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
“The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader.” (Ken Wilber)
Waking a Tremendous Slumbering Spiritual Power
“Humanity was sleeping – it is still sleeping – imprisoned in the narrow joys of its little closed loves. A tremendous spiritual power is slumbering in the depths of our multitude, which will manifest itself when we have learnt to break down the barriers of our egoisms and, by a fundamental recasting of our outlook, raise ourselves up to the habitual and practical vision of universal realities.”
–Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (French Jesuit Priest, Mystic, Paleontologist and Author, 1881-1955)
“The Divine Milieu (Perennial Classics)” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Masters of the Human Spirit
“The poets, prophets, and visionaries of untold millenniums – Dante, Aquinas, and Augustine, al-Ghazali and Mohammed, Zarathustra, Shankaracharya, Nagarjuna, and T’ai Tsung, were not bad scientists making misstatements about the weather, or neurotics reading dreams into the stars, but masters of the human spirit teaching a wisdom of death and life. And the thesaurus of the myth-motifs was their vocabulary. They brooded on the state and way of man, and through their broodings came to wisdom; then teaching with the aid of the picture-language of myth, they worked changes on the patterns of their inherited iconographies.”
–Joseph Campbell (American Writer, Editor and Mythologist, 1904-1987)
A Geography of Spirit
“There is a geography of the human spirit, common to all peoples.”
–Linda Hogan (Native American Poet and Writer, 1947-)
“The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir” (Linda Hogan)
Spiritual Power
“Spiritual power is a force which history clearly teaches has been the greatest force in the development of men. Ye, we have been merely playing with it and never have really studied it as we have the physical forces. Some day people will learn that material things do not bring happiness, and are of little use in making people creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories over to the study of spiritual forces which have hardly been scratched.”
–Charles Proteus Steinmetz (a.k.a. Carl August Rudolph Steinmetz, German-born American Mathematician, Electrical Engineer and Inventor, 1865-1923)
Science and Spirituality
“The deepest intelligence of philosophy and science are inseparable from a religious view of the world.”
–Rudjer Boskovic (Dubrovnik-born Jesuit Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer and Philosopher, 1711-1787)
Your Inner Light
“On this point of the Light phenomenon, the Russian Orthodox Church writer Bishop Brianchaninov explains that it is a spiritual light which is seen inwardly but that it may also be seen physically at times. He considers it identical with the Holy Spirit, and that it reveals the reality of that Spirit while sanctifying the person.”
–Paul Brunton (a.k.a. Raphael Hurst, English Philosopher, Traveler, Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)
Bringing Forth Your Potential
“Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
Quoting The Gospel of Thomas, verse 70 in:
“Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Steps Toward Self-Knowledge
“Man must know something of God’s nature and of metaphysical processes if he is to understand himself and thereby achieve gnosis of the Divine.”
–Carl G. Jung (Swiss Psychologist and Psychiatrist, 1875-1961)
(Paragraph #747 in Volume 11 of the Collected Works)
