Spirituality Means Awakening
“Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up.
They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know all mystics… are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. ‘Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.”
–Anthony de Mello (Indian-born Jesuit Priest, Psychotherapist and Writer and Former Director of the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India, 1931-1987)
Have You Heard the Call?
“Each of us is called from within to stabilize ourselves as co-creative humans, humans capable of accessing the eternal aspect of God and simultaneously awakening to the evolving aspect – humans expressing our God-given creative essence as Spirit-in-action in the world.”
–Barbara Marx Hubbard (American Futurist, Public Speaker and Writer, 1929-)
Meditate on a Flower
“We are in the habit of thinking of clothing as something we use to cover ourselves, but in fact there is much more to the matter.
It can be said that the physical body is the clothing of the soul and spirit, that words are the clothing of thought, and so on. Feelings, thoughts and forces have clothes, as do all creatures visible and invisible.
A flower, for example, is a garment in which an entity hides. This is why you must meditate on flowers, on their form, color and fragrance, so that you understand the nature of the beings who wear such clothing.
And it is not only on flowers that you must meditate, but on everything that exists in the different kingdoms of nature: mineral, vegetable, animal and human. A crystal, a diamond, a precious stone – each is a form of clothing, a body in which a spiritual entity has incarnated in order to reveal itself.”
–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
Nothing But Awareness
“Experience shows that the spirit is nothing but awareness. Whoever has greater awareness has greater spirit… When the spirit becomes greater and passes beyond all bounds, the spirits of all things become obedient to it.”
–Rumi (a.k.a. Jalal al-Din Rumi, a.k.a. Mevlana Jelaluddin Rúmí, Afghan Sufi Poet, 1207-1273)
The Influence of Saints
“Even saints who engage in no outward work bestow, through their thoughts and holy vibrations, more precious benefits on the world than can be given by the most strenuous humanitarian activities of unenlightened men.”
–Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
Using the 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)
The Human Spirit Lives On In Secret
“The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret…. It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.”
–Albert Schweitzer (Alsatian-born Theologian, Philosopher, Mission Doctor and, in 1952, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1875-1965)
Evolution of the Human Soul
“Everything on earth is subject to the laws of evolution. And this is particularly true for the human soul.”
–Rudolf Steiner (Croatian-born Austrian Mystic, Occultist, Social Philosopher, Architect and Founder of Anthroposophy, 1861-1925)
Intelligent Atoms
“The more advanced the evolution of a certain form [of life] is, the more intelligent the atoms comprising it. In order to reach a higher stage of development, the atom has to pass through the four Kingdoms – the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and the kingdom of human beings. …The more stable the atoms of given elements in the human organism are, the better characteristics they convey to human character.”
–Peter Konstantinov Deunov (a.k.a. Master Beinsa Douno, Bulgarian Spiritual Master and Founder of a School of Esoteric Christianity, 1864-1944)
Staying in the Light
“Quite unexpectedly, it can happen that you suddenly feel flooded with light, that all of a sudden you are being projected upward, all the way to your higher self. You are dazzled by this beauty and immensity, and it feels as though from this moment on nothing could bring you down from these heights.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t last. You have to pick up the threads of your everyday life, with its same worries, its same temptations, its same weaknesses. You feel cut off from your higher self, like a fragment cast aside, rejected. Some time later, you again feel enlightened, illumined, but once again it doesn’t last long, and you begin to feel discouraged. No, you must not allow yourself to be discouraged by the fluctuations in your consciousness.
If you persevere in your spiritual work, one day, after all the highs and lows, the light that comes to visit you will no longer leave you. You will have crossed to the other shore, and you will be saved forever.”
–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
