The Pattern of Life
“It was curious how life seemed to weave a pattern that was not in the least haphazard, as it so often seemed to be.”
–R. F. Delderfield (English Novelist and Dramatist, 1912-1972)
An Illusion About Life
“Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.”
–Henri Nouwen (Dutch Catholic Priest and Writer, 1932-1996)
Reflecting the Source
“All life down to its smallest element, can, if rightly approached, be seen as a reflection of the infinite source of holiness, which is God.”
–Huston Smith (Chinese-born American Religious Studies Scholar and Emeritus Professor at Syracuse University, 1919-)
The Living Earth
“The earth is not a dead body, but is inhabited by a spirit that is its life and soul. All created things, minerals included, draw their strength from the earth spirit. This spirit is life.”
–Basilius Valentinus (a.k.a. Basil Valentine, German 15th Century Alchemist and Canon of the Benedictine Priory of Sankt Peter in Erfurt, Germany)
“The Way of the Earth: Encounters With Nature in Ancient and Contemporary Thought” (T. C. McLuhan)
Self-Realization and God-Realization
“The Infinite alone justifies the existence of the finite and the finite by itself has no entirely separate value or independent existence.
Life, if it is not an illusion, is a divine Play, a manifestation of the glory of the Infinite.
Or it is a means by which the soul growing in Nature through countless forms and many lives can approach, touch, feel and unite itself through love and knowledge and faith and adoration and a Godward will in works with this transcendent Being and this infinite Existence.
This Self or this self-existent Being is the one supreme reality, and all things else are either only appearances or only true by dependence upon it. It follows that self-realization and God-realization are the great business of the living and thinking human being.
All life and thought are in the end a means of progress towards self-realization and God-realization.”
–Sri Aurobindo (a.k.a. Aurobindo Ghose, Indian Nationalist Leader, Mystic, Philosopher and Creator of Purna (Integral) Yoga, 1872-1950)
The Breath of Life
“God blesses equally every beast of the field and every living creature, in the water as in the air, and He endows them all with life, which is a breath of His own Spirit.”
–Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian Author, Translator and Founder of the Theosophical Society, 1831-1891)
“Isis Unveiled (Volumes 1 and 2)” (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky)
Sensing the Fabric of Life
“The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings.”
–Rachel Carson (American Biologist and Writer, 1907-1964)
Life Is God’s Novel
“Life is God’s novel so let him write it.”
–Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish-born American Writer and, in 1978, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1904-1991)
Cooperation and Creativity
“Life is a triumph of cooperation and creativity. Indeed, since the creation of the first nucleated cells, evolution has proceeded through ever more intricate arrangements of cooperation and coevolution.”
–Fritjof Capra (Austrian-born American Physicist, Futurist and Writer, 1939-)
“The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems” (Fritjof Capra)
Life Is Progress
“Life is progress, and ceasing to progress is death.”
–Hazrat Inayat Khan (Indian Founder of Universal Sufism and the Sufi Order International, 1882-1927)
