Interdependence
“Each thing depends on all other things to be. That is interdependence. Nothing can be by itself alone. It has to inter-be with all other things.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, 1926-)
“Living Buddha, Living Christ 10th Anniversary Edition” (Thich Nhat Hanh)
The Web As a Metaphor For Love
“We have a magnificent metaphor for the presence of love in our midst. Our fabulous technological ingenuity has created a world that is now linked by a pulsating electronic web, a global nervous system which demonstrates in a very concrete way that as a body of humanity we are all beautifully linked together, that we are all incredibly connected… the real challenge now is for us to see that it is love that is truly the web of our connection, that we are all of a piece as human beings and spirits, that we share the same joys and woes, that we partake of the same eternal spiritual destiny.”
–Daphne Rose Kingma (American Author, Speaker and Expert on Relationships)
‘A Profound Infusion of Love’ in:
Are You An Integral Aspect of a Unified Energetic Field?
That question sounds like a mouthful but it actually reflects an important strand in contemporary thinking. And one that will likely have profound effects on all our lives.
“What we encounter in everyday life are not discrete individuals and solid objects, but integral aspects of a unified energetic field.”
–Stanislav Grof (Czech-born American Physician, Psychiatrist, Writer and a Founder of Transpersonal Psychology, 1931-)
“Cosmic Game, The: Explorations of the Frontiers of Human Consciousness” (Stanislav Grof)
What Interconnection Really Means
“In the holographic domain, each organism represents in some manner the universe, and each portion of the universe represents in some manner the organism within it.”
–Karl Pribram (Austrian-born American Neuroscientist, 1919-)
In: “What the Fuss is All About” The Holographic Paradigm p 34
Feeling Part of Everything
“One day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it came to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all….I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed.”
–Alice Walker (African-American Writer, 1944-)
“The Color Purple: In Spiritual Literacy, Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life
Like the Spokes On A Bicycle
“Look at the spokes of a bicycle wheel. At the rim, each spoke is separated from all the others. At the hub, each spoke is one with all the others. Each of us is like one of those spokes, connected with all the others at the center, at our spiritual hub.”
–Marianne Williamson (American Author, Unity Church Minister and Lecturer on Spirituality, 1952-)
“The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life” (Marianne Williamson)
Fractals in Nature
Here is a remarkable video that I first saw on Stuart Wilde’s highly recommended website. It’s from Nova, and well worth a few minutes of your time.
Mystical Consciousness Gives Us A Way Out
“Without a belief in, and the radical cultivation of, mystical consciousness and the insights into the interconnectedness of all reality in sacred joy and sacred love that it alone can bring, we will not be able to develop the necessary awareness to help us solve the terrible problems that threaten our lives and the very life of the planet.”
–Andrew Harvey (Indian-born English Philosopher, 1952-)
The Mystic View
To anyone trained in conventional science, the mystic view of the world usually seems to be nothing more than flowery poetry. But to anyone who has actually experienced it, it is more “Real” than anything that you can learn from a textbook. It is simply a different way of knowing, and it can be as useful and practical as the objective methods of inquiry. And far more meaningful to the individual!
“Every tree and plant and mole beneath the earth may hear the Voice of God and, hearing it, obey. Every sound you hear on earth is an echo of His Voice, and every light in every color comes from the dazzling radiance of His Eyes.”
–Geoffrey Hodson (English-born New Zealand Theosophist, Mystic, Teacher and Author, 1886-1983)
Mirrors of the Self
“The point of archetypal images, like the point of myths, is not problem solving but imagining, questioning, going deeper.
Archetypal images free us from identifying ourselves with our literal failures and successes or from seeing our lives as banal, or trivial.
The aim in attending to these images is to awaken us to a sense of our yet unrealized latent possibilities, to save us from our sense of isolation and meaninglessness. It is to open up our lives to renewal and reshaping.
Attending to the images creates a new bond between our personal lives and the collective experience of humankind.”
–Christine Downing (American Scholar of religion, mythology, depth psychology and feminist studies, Professor of Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and, in 1974, the first woman President of the American Academy of Religion, 1931-)
“Mirrors of the Self: Archetypal Images Shape Your Life” (Tarcher)
