What Remains When Your Ego Dissolves Away?
“Think of a vast ocean filled with water on all sides. A jar is immersed in it. There is water both inside and outside the jar; but the water does not become one unless the jar is broken. What is the jar? It is I-consciousness – the ego. When the I disappears, what is, remains.”
–Sri Ramakrishna (a.k.a. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Indian Hindu Mystic and Promoter of Universal Religion, 1836-1886)
The Emerging Spirit of the Age
“Every age has, so to speak, its own idea of Zeitgeist. Now it is a commonplace that ideas rule the world. But it is not generally known that they derive their potency from the spiritual force that lies behind them, and prepares the world for their reception.”
–Charles George Harrison (English Theosophist, Anglican Christian, Lecturer and Writer, 1855-1936)
Serving Two Masters
Most of us spend our lives serving not just two, but multiple masters. If we really want to step out on the spiritual path we have to start to change that, otherwise the path will likely remain an intellectual interest, and it’s hard to make much progress. Nobody’s going to deny that it can be difficult to make changes when we are being pulled in multiple directions at once, but ultimately it is well worth doing!
“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.”
–Thomas Merton (French-born American Trappist Monk and Writer, 1915-1968)
“Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form” (Basil Pennington)
Real Values
“Man is lost and is wandering in a jungle where real values have no meaning. Real values can have meaning to man only when he steps on to the spiritual path, a path where negative emotions have no use.”
–Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher, c.1926-2011)
Like Living Water
“Spiritual life is like living water that springs up from the very depths of our own spiritual experience. In spiritual life everyone has to drink from his or her own well.”
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (French Cistercian Monk, Mystic, Theologian, Monastic Reformer and Political Figure, 1090-1153)
God Hiding Within You
“You yourself are the lodging wherein God dwells, and the closet and hiding-place wherein He is hidden.”
–Saint John of The Cross (Spanish Christian Mystic and Poet, 1542-1591)
Opening the Door
“Anyone of any tribe or nation or language who in any sincere way turns to a Great Spirit, calling Him God or Allah or Life of whatever else he will, opens a door that God may enter his conscious mind and answer his prayers according to his faith.”
–Agnes Sanford (American Charismatic Christian Healer, teacher and Writer, 1897-1982)
Dream of A World
“Dream of a world in which the God and Goddess in you is never denied, and in which you never again deny the God and the Goddess in another. Let your greeting, both now and forevermore, be Namaste.”
–Neale Donald Walsch (American Writer, 1943-)
An Optmistic Philosophy
As far back as I can remember, I have had a close affinity with the work of the Swedish sage Emanuel Swedenborg. There are many reasons why his work may be of real value to you. Here, in a few succinct words, Colin Wilson says something most important:
“The real importance of Swedenborg lies in the doctrines he taught, which are the reverse of the gloom and hell-fire of other breakaway sects. He rejects the notion that Jesus died on the cross to atone for the sin of Adam, declaring that God is neither vindictive nor petty-minded, and that since he is God, he doesn’t need atonement. It is remarkable that this commonsense view had never struck earlier theologians. God is Divine Goodness, and Jesus is Divine Wisdom, and Goodness has to be approached through Wisdom. Whatever one thinks about the extraordinary claims of its founder, it must be acknowledged that there is something very beautiful and healthy about the Swedenborgian religion. Its founder may have not been a great occultist, but he was a great man.”
–Colin Wilson (English Novelist and Writer on Philosophy, Sociology and the Occult, 1931-)
Loosening the Hold of Duality
“The method for abandoning the hold which duality has on consciousness is not simple. The more comfort and pleasure available to man, the less his chance for a strong enough push to force him to give up even the temporary happiness of his achievements. And yet he must eventually do this ( internally ) to bring the full focus of consciousness to bear on the experience of the eternally inherent self or soul, with all its blissful freedom of real existence. This is why God loves most the so-called destitute and helpless.
The greater the helplessness, the greater can and should be the dependence upon God for His help, which is ever more ready than are the sincere and earnest wishes for it. The greater the bindings, the greater the chances for quick, permanent relief, through fully conscious experience of man’s own original and everlasting freedom.
The unlimited and everlasting spiritual freedom of the self or soul exists eternally and infinitely in one and all, and is equally available to every man and woman irrespective of class, creed or nationality. Spiritual freedom can and does transcend all the illusory phenomena of duality, because divine Oneness is always divine Oneness, before the beginningless beginning and beyond the endless end. Contrarily, the illusion of all material binding from first to last is always illusion, and even its illusory existence depends upon the play of the eternal spiritual freedom of the soul. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can have enduring happiness and unhampered self-knowledge. It is only in spiritual freedom that one finds the supreme certainty of truth-realization. It is only in spiritual freedom that there is a final end to sorrow and limitation. It is only in spiritual freedom that one can live for all, and yet remain detached in the midst of all activity.”
–Meher Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher who, from July 1925 maintained Silence, 1894-1969)
