TERMS STARTING WITH
to God. He is pictured in Barrett, The Magus, and
TERMS ANYWHERE
Abravanel, Judah: Or Judah Leon Medigo (1470-1530), son of Don Isaac, settled in Italy after the expulsion from Spain. In his Dialoghi d'Amore, i.e., Dialogues about Love, he conceives, in Platonic fashion, love as the principle permeating the universe. It emanates from God to the beings, and from the beings reverts back to God. It is possible that his conception of universal love exerted some influence upon the concept of Amor Dei of Spinoza. -- M.W.
accountable ::: a. --> Liable to be called on to render an account; answerable; as, every man is accountable to God for his conduct.
Capable of being accounted for; explicable.
adoration ::: n. --> The act of playing honor to a divine being; the worship paid to God; the act of addressing as a god.
Homage paid to one in high esteem; profound veneration; intense regard and love; fervent devotion.
A method of electing a pope by the expression of homage from two thirds of the conclave.
ahura-mazda ::: 'Lord Wisdom', Wise Lord. The supreme God in the ancient Persian monotheistic religious system taught by Zoroaster (Zarathushtra) sometime around 1000 BC. Ahura Mazda is said to be the beginning and the end, the creator of everything which can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth. Also referred to as Ormuzd. (see also ahriman) (the Farsi term yazdān also refers to God)
Alexandrian-Roman Period. Fed by Eastern ideas, later Alexandrian-Roman thought was essentially idealistic. In neo-Pythagorean, Neo-Platonic and Alexandrian Christianity, matter was identified with non-being, and placed at the metaphysical antipodes with respect to God or the Absolute. Early Christianity identified itself with the personalistic theism of Israel, Pauline spiritualism, and the neo-Platonism of Alexandria.
alleluiah ::: n. --> An exclamation signifying Praise ye Jehovah. Hence: A song of praise to God. See Hallelujah, the commoner form.
almighty ::: 1. *Orig. and in the strict sense used as an attribute of the Deity, and joined to God or other title. 2. Absol. The Almighty; a title of God. 3. All-powerful (in a general sense); omnipotent. Almighty"s, Almightiness, almightiness.
Ammon (Greek) Ámmōn Amen (Egyptian) Ȧmen. Also Amun, Amon. In the Egyptian 5th dynasty, Amen and his consort Ament were among the primeval gods, mentioned immediately after the deities connected with primeval matter, Nau and Nen (gods of the cosmic watery abyss). He was envisaged as “All-nature,” the universe itself, especially in its occult and secret aspects. After the 12th dynasty, however, this god additionally became looked upon as having solar attributes, and therefore was called Amen-Ra — the chief deity of the powerful priesthood of Thebes, whose sway encompassed the whole of Egypt. Ammon was identified particularly with the hidden aspect of the sun, for the hymns are addressed: “he who is hidden to gods and men,” “he who is unknown,” “thy name is hidden from thy children in thy name Amen.”
angels in the chanting of hymns to God—-just as
anthropology ::: n. --> The science of the structure and functions of the human body.
The science of man; -- sometimes used in a limited sense to mean the study of man as an object of natural history, or as an animal.
That manner of expression by which the inspired writers attribute human parts and passions to God.
anthropomorphism ::: A form of personification involving the attribution of human characteristics and qualities to non-human beings, objects, or natural phenomena. Animals, forces of nature, and unseen or unknown authors of chance are frequent subjects of anthropomorphosis. Two examples are the attribution of a human body or of human qualities generally to God (or the gods), and creating imaginary persons who are the embodiment of an abstraction such as Death, Lust, War, or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Anthropomorphism is similar to prosopopoeia (adopting the persona of another person).[4]
anthropomorphology ::: n. --> The application to God of terms descriptive of human beings.
anthropopathy ::: n. --> The ascription of human feelings or passions to God, or to a polytheistic deity.
Applied by the ancient Hebrews and Phoenicians not only to gods or divinities, but to kings and priests. See also ADONAI
Arati: Divine service performed to God, generally in the early morning or at dusk, with lamps, incense and must especially ringing of bells.
Arghya (Sanskrit) Arghya [from the verbal root arh to be worthy, deserve] Variant of argha. As an adjective, venerable, deserving; as a noun, an oblation reverently offered to gods or exceptionally worthy human beings and consisting of flowers, water, rice, and durva grass; also the container or vessel in which the libation is made.
arian ::: a. & n. --> See Aryan. ::: a. --> Pertaining to Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria, in the fourth century, or to the doctrines of Arius, who held Christ to be inferior to God the Father in nature and dignity, though the first and noblest of all created beings.
Arianism: A view named after Arius (256-336), energetic presbyter of Alexandria, condemned as a heretic by the ancient Catholic Church. Arius held that Jesus and God were not of the same substance (the orthodox position). He maintained that although the Son was subordinate to the Father he was of a similar nature. The controversy on the relation of Jesus to God involved the question of the divine status of Jesus. If he were not divine how could the church justify him as an object of worship, of trust, and adoration? If he is divine, how could such a belief square with the doctrine of one God (monotheism)? Arianism tended toward the doctrine of the subordination of Jesus to God, involving the extreme Arians who held Jesus to be unlike God and the moderate Arians who held that Jesus was of similar essence with God although not of the same substance. Some eighteen councils were convened to consider this burning question, parties in power condemning and placing each other under the ban. The Council of Nicea in 325 repudiated Arian tendencies but the issue was fought with uncertain outcome until the Council of Constantinople in 381 reaffirmed the orthodox view. -- V.F.
a song of praise or thanksgiving to God or a deity.
asya (dasyam) ::: an intermediate form of dasya, also called secondary / prakritic dasya, in which, unlike simple dasya, "there is no active & constant freedom, but only a general & ultimate freedom which is used little", for "we do not determine what is God"s will and act thereby or order Prakriti to act thereby, but leave everything to God to determine; the whole responsibility is His & a given impulse of Prakriti fulfils itself or not as He chooses without our interference". double sam samadhi
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
A. While Nicholas of Cusa referred to God as "the absolute," the noun form of this term came into common use through the writings of Schelling and Hegel. Its adoption spread in France through Cousin and in Britain through Hamilton. According to Kant the Ideas of Reason seek both the absolute totality of conditions and their absolutely unconditioned Ground. This Ground of the Real Fichte identified with the Absolute Ego (q.v.). For Schelling the Absolute is a primordial World Ground, a spiritual unity behind all logical and ontological oppositions, the self-differentiating source of both Mind and Nature. For Hegel, however, the Absolute is the All conceived as a timeless, perfect, organic whole of self-thinking Thought. In England the Absolute has occasionally been identified with the Real considered as unrelated or "unconditioned" and hence as the "Unknowable" (Mansel, H. Spencer). Until recently, however, it was commonly appropriated by the Absolute Idealists to connote with Hegel the complete, the whole, the perfect, i.e. the Real conceived as an all-embracing unity that complements, fulfills, or transmutes into a higher synthesis the partial, fragmentary, and "self-contradictory" experiences, thoughts, purposes, values, and achievements of finite existence. The specific emphasis given to this all-inclusive perfection varies considerably, i.e. logical wholeness or concreteness (Hegel), metaphysical completeness (Hamilton), mystical feeling (Bradley), aesthetic completeness (Bosanquet), moral perfection (Royce). The Absolute is also variously conceived by this school as an all-inclusive Person, a Society of persons, and as an impersonal whole of Experience.
Bahya, ben Joseph Ibn Padudah: (c. 1050) Philosopher and ethicist. The title of his work, The Duties of the Heart (Heb. Hobot ha-Leba-bot), indicates its purpose, i.e., to teach ethical conduct. First part demonstrates pure conception of God, unity and attributes. His basic principle of ethics is thankfulness to God, for His creating the wonderful world; the goal of religious ethical conduct is love of God. A second work ascribed to him is the Torot ha-Nefesh, i.e., Doctrines of the Soul, which deals primarily with the soul, but also with other subjects and evinces a strong neo-Platonic strain. See Jewish Philosophy -- M.W.
BELLS. ::: Indicate the evening or attempt to open to the enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impa- tient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
Bhakti-marga: Sanskrit for path of devotion. The approach to spiritual perfection through loving devotion to God. (See: Bhakti yoga.)
bhakti yoga. ::: the yoga of devotion chosen primarily by those of an emotional nature; the yoga motivated chiefly by seeing God as the embodiment of love; through prayer, worship and ritual one surrenders to God, channelling and transmuting one's emotions into unconditional love or devotion; one of the four paths of yoga
Bible references to God’s finding his angels (long
bitterness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind.
A state of extreme impiety or enmity to God.
Dangerous error, or schism, tending to draw persons to apostasy.
blasphemy ::: n. --> An indignity offered to God in words, writing, or signs; impiously irreverent words or signs addressed to, or used in reference to, God; speaking evil of God; also, the act of claiming the attributes or prerogatives of deity.
Figuratively, of things held in high honor: Calumny; abuse; vilification.
Bruno, Giordano: (1548-1600) A Dominican monk, eventually burned at the stake because of his opinions, he was converted from Christianity to a naturalistic and mystical pantheism by the Renaissance and particularly by the new Copernican astronomy. For him God and the universe were two names for one and the same Reality considered now as the creative essence of all things, now as the manifold of realized possibilities in which that essence manifests itself. As God, natura naturans, the Real is the whole, the one transcendent and ineffable. As the Real is the infinity of worlds and objects and events into which the whole divides itself and in which the one displays the infinite potentialities latent within it. The world-process is an ever-lasting going forth from itself and return into itself of the divine nature. The culmination of the outgoing creative activity is reached in the human mind, whose rational, philosophic search for the one in the many, simplicity in variety, and the changeless and eternal in the changing and temporal, marks also the reverse movement of the divine nature re-entering itself and regaining its primordial unity, homogeneity, and changelessness. The human soul, being as it were a kind of boomerang partaking of the ingrowing as well as the outgrowing process, may hope at death, not to be dissolved with the body, which is borne wholly upon the outgoing stream, but to return to God whence it came and to be reabsorbed in him. Cf. Rand, Modern Classical Philosophers, selection from Bruno's On Cause, The Principle and the One. G. Bruno: De l'infinito, universo e mundo, 1584; Spaccio della bestia trionfante, 1584; La cena delta ceneri, 1584; Deglieroici furori, 1585; De Monade, 1591. Cf. R. Honigswald, Giordano Bruno; G. Gentile, Bruno nella storia della cultura, 1907. -- B.A.G.F. Brunschvicg, Leon: (1869-) Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole Normale in Paris. Dismissed by the Nazis (1941). His philosophy is an idealistic synthesis of Spinoza, Kant and Schelling with special stress on the creative role of thought in cultural history as well as in sciences. Main works: Les etapes de la philosophie mathematique, 1913; L'experience humaine et la causalite physique, 1921; De la connaissance de soi, 1931. Buddhism: The multifarious forms, philosophic, religious, ethical and sociological, which the teachings of Gautama Buddha (q.v.) have produced. They centre around the main doctrine of the catvari arya-satyani(q.v.), the four noble truths, the last of which enables one in eight stages to reach nirvana (q.v.): Right views, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. In the absence of contemporary records of Buddha and Buddhistic teachings, much value was formerly attached to the palm leaf manuscripts in Pali, a Sanskrit dialect; but recently a good deal of weight has been given also the Buddhist tradition in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. Buddhism split into Mahayanism and Hinayanism (q.v.), each of which, but particularly the former, blossomed into a variety of teachings and practices. The main philosophic schools are the Madhyamaka or Sunyavada, Yogacara, Sautrantika, and Vaibhasika (q.v.). The basic assumptions in philosophy are a causal nexus in nature and man, of which the law of karma (q.v.) is but a specific application; the impermanence of things, and the illusory notion of substance and soul. Man is viewed realistically as a conglomeration of bodily forms (rupa), sensations (vedana), ideas (sanjna), latent karma (sanskaras), and consciousness (vijnana). The basic assumptions in ethics are the universality of suffering and the belief in a remedy. There is no god; each one may become a Buddha, an enlightened one. Also in art and esthetics Buddhism has contributed much throughout the Far East. -- K.F.L.
to God. He is pictured in Barrett, The Magus, and
but direct from man to God.
Cartesianism: The philosophy of the French thinker, Rene Descartes (Cartesius) 1596-1650. After completing his formal education at the Jesuit College at La Fleche, he spent the years 1612-1621 in travel and military service. The reminder of his life was devoted to study and writing. He died in Sweden, where he had gone in 1649 to tutor Queen Christina. His principal works are: Discours de la methode, (preface to his Geometric, Meteores, Dieptrique) Meditationes de prima philosophia, Principia philosophiae, Passions de l'ame, Regulae ad directionem ingenii, Le monde. Descartes is justly regarded as one of the founders of modern epistemology. Dissatisfied with the lack of agreement among philosophers, he decided that philosophy needed a new method, that of mathematics. He began by resolving to doubt everything which could not pass the test of his criterion of truth, viz. the clearness and distinctness of ideas. Anything which could pass this test was to be readmitted as self-evident. From self-evident truths, he deduced other truths which logically follow from them. Three kinds of ideas were distinguished: innate, by which he seems to mean little more than the mental power to think things or thoughts; adventitious, which come to him from without; factitious, produced within his own mind. He found most difficulty with the second type of ideas. The first reality discovered through his method is the thinking self. Though he might doubt nearly all else, Descartes could not reasonably doubt that he, who was thinking, existed as a res cogitans. This is the intuition enunciated in the famous aphorism: I think, therefore I am, Cogito ergo sum. This is not offered by Descartes as a compressed syllogism, but as an immediate intuition of his own thinking mind. Another reality, whose existence was obvious to Descartes, was God, the Supreme Being. Though he offered several proofs of the Divine Existence, he was convinced that he knew this also by an innate idea, and so, clearly and distinctly. But he did not find any clear ideas of an extra-mental, bodily world. He suspected its existence, but logical demonstration was needed to establish this truth. His adventitious ideas carry the vague suggestion that they are caused by bodies in an external world. By arguing that God would be a deceiver, in allowing him to think that bodies exist if they do not, he eventually convinced himself of the reality of bodies, his own and others. There are, then, three kinds of substance according to Descartes: Created spirits, i.e. the finite soul-substance of each man: these are immaterial agencies capable of performing spiritual operations, loosely united with bodies, but not extended since thought is their very essence. Uncreated Spirit, i.e. God, confined neither to space nor time, All-Good and All-Powerful, though his Existence can be known clearly, his Nature cannot be known adequately by men on earth, He is the God of Christianity, Creator, Providence and Final Cause of the universe. Bodies, i.e. created, physical substances existing independently of human thought and having as their chief attribute, extension. Cartesian physics regards bodies as the result of the introduction of "vortices", i.e. whorls of motion, into extension. Divisibility, figurability and mobility, are the notes of extension, which appears to be little more thin what Descartes' Scholastic teachers called geometrical space. God is the First Cause of all motion in the physical universe, which is conceived as a mechanical system operated by its Maker. Even the bodies of animals are automata. Sensation is the critical problem in Cartesian psychology; it is viewed by Descartes as a function of the soul, but he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation of the apparent fact that the soul is moved by the body when sensation occurs. The theory of animal spirits provided Descartes with a sort of bridge between mind and matter, since these spirits are supposed to be very subtle matter, halfway, as it were, between thought and extension in their nature. However, this theory of sensation is the weakest link in the Cartesian explanation of cognition. Intellectual error is accounted for by Descartes in his theory of assent, which makes judgment an act of free will. Where the will over-reaches the intellect, judgment may be false. That the will is absolutely free in man, capable even of choosing what is presented by the intellect as the less desirable of two alternatives, is probably a vestige of Scotism retained from his college course in Scholasticism. Common-sense and moderation are the keynotes of Descartes' famous rules for the regulation of his own conduct during his nine years of methodic doubt, and this ethical attitude continued throughout his life. He believed that man is responsible ultimately to God for the courses of action that he may choose. He admitted that conflicts may occur between human passions and human reason. A virtuous life is made possible by the knowledge of what is right and the consequent control of the lower tendencies of human nature. Six primary passions are described by Descartes wonder, love, hatred, desire, joy and sorrow. These are passive states of consciousness, partly caused by the body, acting through the animal spirits, and partly caused by the soul. Under rational control, they enable the soul to will what is good for the body. Descartes' terminology suggests that there are psychological faculties, but he insists that these powers are not really distinct from the soul itself, which is man's sole psychic agency. Descartes was a practical Catholic all his life and he tried to develop proofs of the existence of God, an explanation of the Eucharist, of the nature of religious faith, and of the operation of Divine Providence, using his philosophy as the basis for a new theology. This attempted theology has not found favor with Catholic theologians in general.
Christology ::: (Gre. christos, anointed) The Christian study of the Christ concept in its various associations and applications (e.g. as historical Jesus, Christ of faith, in his relation to God and to other humans, in his passion and redemptive work, as royal or priestly or prophetic figure, as eschatological agent, etc.).
consecration ::: a sanctification of something by setting it apart as dedicated to God.
contrite ::: a. --> Thoroughly bruised or broken.
Broken down with grief and penitence; deeply sorrowful for sin because it is displeasing to God; humbly and thoroughly penitent. ::: n. --> A contrite person.
contrition ::: n. --> The act of grinding or ribbing to powder; attrition; friction; rubbing.
The state of being contrite; deep sorrow and repentance for sin, because sin is displeasing to God; humble penitence; through repentance.
corban ::: n. --> An offering of any kind, devoted to God and therefore not to be appropriated to any other use; esp., an offering in fulfillment of a vow.
An alms basket; a vessel to receive gifts of charity; a treasury of the church, where offerings are deposited.
deifical ::: a. --> Making divine; producing a likeness to God; god-making.
Demiurge, Demiourgos (Greek) [from demos the people + ergon work] In Gnosticism, the deity as creator or cosmic artificer was a secondary or subordinate god, distinct from the supreme deity of the hierarchy, acting as creator or former of worlds, with which function the supreme is not directly concerned. Because of this seeming duality of rival gods, monotheistic Christian theology classed the demiurge among the powers hostile to God and mankind, as it did with Satan, the Serpent, Lucifer, and so many others. Marcion (2nd century) and his school attempted to reconcile these by equating the Demiourgos with the Jewish Jehovah.
deodand ::: n. --> A personal chattel which had caused the death of a person, and for that reason was given to God, that is, forfeited to the crown, to be applied to pious uses, and distributed in alms by the high almoner. Thus, if a cart ran over a man and killed him, it was forfeited as a deodand.
deodate ::: n. --> A gift or offering to God.
devotion to God. [Rf. Nicholson, “An Early
divine ::: adj. **1. Of or pertaining to God or the Supreme Being. 2. Of, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity. 3. Being in the service or worship of a deity; sacred. 4. Heavenly, celestial. 5. Supremely good or beautiful; magnificent. diviner, divinest, divinely, half-divine. v. 6. To perceive by intuition or insight. divines, divined, divining.**
divine ::: a. --> Of or belonging to God; as, divine perfections; the divine will.
Proceeding from God; as, divine judgments.
Appropriated to God, or celebrating his praise; religious; pious; holy; as, divine service; divine songs; divine worship.
Pertaining to, or proceeding from, a deity; partaking of the nature of a god or the gods.
Godlike; heavenly; excellent in the highest degree;
doxological ::: a. --> Pertaining to doxology; giving praise to God.
doxologize ::: v. i. --> To give glory to God, as in a doxology; to praise God with doxologies.
doxology ::: n. --> In Christian worship: A hymn expressing praise and honor to God; a form of praise to God designed to be sung or chanted by the choir or the congregation.
du'ā' ::: prayer, request, plea; supplication (to God); an invocation of good, a blessing, benediction; wish; congratulation, salutation. (in some texts as do'a)
Elu (Chaldean) A Chaldean god, variant of ’El (deity, divinity), frequently used by the Hebrews as equivalent to God. The original Semitic meaning embraces the idea of surpassing might, immense power, and unlimited strength.
Fall With reference to Christian theology and thought, the fall of the angels; or the fall of man. The former in theosophy refers to the descent of those dhyanis whose mission was intellectually to enlighten nascent mankind, and in a sense also the lower kingdoms of nature. The latter refers to the descent of human beings into matter, when they became clothed in coats of skin, and incidentally began to reproduce by sexual generation. Both of these events in the cycle of evolution have been perverted by ecclesiastical error into calamities. The descent of the manasaputric dhyanis has been transformed in Occidental theology into a rebellion of Satan and his host against God, through which Satan becomes a perpetual foe to God and mankind. The War in Heaven is allegorical and means the natural opposition and resistance of lower nature and its hosts to the progress of unfolding beings which is essential to evolution. The fall of mankind includes the natural human evolutionary passage into physical corporeality, and also the misuse of human intelligence; but does not refer to the natural use of procreative functions or to innate sinfulness.
Fana (A) To go beyond. Fana is the proces of transcending the limited self (ego) so that it can merge into the greater Self, the divine presence. Within Sufism three stages: Fana fi Shaikh (the merging into the master or teacher), Fana fi Rasul (the merging into the messenger, prophet) and Fana fi Allah (the merging into God). The first two stages are preparations for the last stage. See page 33
gloria ::: n. --> A doxology (beginning Gloria Patri, Glory be to the Father), sung or said at the end of the Psalms in the service of the Roman Catholic and other churches.
A portion of the Mass (Gloria in Excelsis Deo, Glory be to God on high), and also of the communion service in some churches. In the Episcopal Church the version in English is used.
The musical setting of a gloria.
godless ::: without God; without regard to God; without acknowledging God.
godly ::: n. --> Pious; reverencing God, and his character and laws; obedient to the commands of God from love for, and reverence of, his character; conformed to God&
Greece. Homeric thought centered in Moira (Fate), an impersonal, immaterial power that distributes to gods and men their respective stations. While the main stream of pre-Socratic thought was naturalistic, it was not materialistic. The primordial Being of things, the Physis, is both extended and spiritual (hylozoism). Soul and Mind are invariably identified with Physis. Empedocles' distinction between inertia and force (Love and Hate) was followed by Anaxagoras' introduction of Mind (Nous) as the first cause of order and the principle of spontaneity or life in things. Socrates emphasized the ideological principle and introduced the category of Value as primary both in Nature and Man. He challenged the completeness of the mechanical explanation of natural events. Plato's theory of Ideas (as traditionally interpreted by historians) is at once a metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology. Ideas, forming a hierarchy and systematically united in the Good, are timeless essences comprising the realm of true Being. They are archetypes and causes of things in the realm of Non-Being (Space). Aristotle, while moving in the direction of common-sense realism, was also idealistic. Forms or species are secondary substances, and collectively form the dynamic and rational structure of the World. Active reason (Nous Poietikos), possessed by all rational creatures, is immaterial and eternal. Mind is the final cause of all motion. God is pure Mind, self-contained, self-centered, and metaphysically remote from the spatial World. The Stoics united idealism and hylozoistic naturalism in their doctrine of dynamic rational cosmic law (Logos), World Soul, Pneuma, and Providence (Pronoia).
hallelujah ::: n. & interj. --> Praise ye Jehovah; praise ye the Lord; -- an exclamation used chiefly in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God, and as an expression of gratitude or adoration.
Hashem ::: (Heb. The Name) Commonly used to refer to God in order to avoid using his name in vain and transgress the third commandment.
holiness ::: n. --> The state or quality of being holy; perfect moral integrity or purity; freedom from sin; sanctity; innocence.
The state of being hallowed, or consecrated to God or to his worship; sacredness.
HOLOCAUST OF THE DIVINE. ::: The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser tnple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nafure-b^y and Nature-force, and they exist because moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was fbere «i the possibilities of The Infinite she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow assimilate it ; avoid self-dispersion and all externalising of the consciousness.
holocaust ::: “The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
holy ::: superl. --> Set apart to the service or worship of God; hallowed; sacred; reserved from profane or common use; holy vessels; a holy priesthood.
Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God.
human was presented to God to the assembled
Huwasi: The Hittite name of upright stones representing gods or consecrated to gods.
II. Metaphysics of History: The metaphysical interpretations of the meaning of history are either supra-mundane or intra-mundane (secular). The oldest extra-mundane, or theological, interpretation has been given by St. Augustine (Civitas Dei), Dante (Divma Commedia) and J. Milton (Paradise Lost and Regained). All historic events are seen as having a bearing upon the redemption of mankind through Christ which will find its completion at the end of this world. Owing to the secularistic tendencies of modern times the Enlightenment Period considered the final end of human history as the achievement of public welfare through the power of reason. Even the ideal of "humanity" of the classic humanists, advocated by Schiller, Goethe, Fichte, Rousseau, Lord Byron, is only a variety of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and in the same line of thought we find A. Comte, H. Spencer ("human moral"), Engels and K. Marx. The German Idealism of Kant and Hegel saw in history the materialization of the "moral reign of freedom" which achieves its perfection in the "objective spirit of the State". As in the earlier systems of historical logic man lost his individuality before the forces of natural laws, so, according to Hegel, he is nothing but an instrument of the "idea" which develops itself through the three dialectic stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. (Example. Absolutism, Democracy, Constitutional Monarchy.) Even the great historian L. v. Ranke could not break the captivating power of the Hegelian mechanism. Ranke places every historical epoch into a relation to God and attributes to it a purpose and end for itself. Lotze and Troeltsch followed in his footsteps. Lately, the evolutionistic interpretation of H. Bergson is much discussed and disputed. His "vital impetus" accounts for the progressiveness of life, but fails to interpret the obvious setbacks and decadent civilizations. According to Kierkegaard and Spranger, merely human ideals prove to be too narrow a basis for the tendencies, accomplishments, norms, and defeats of historic life. It all points to a supra-mundane intelligence which unfolds itself in history. That does not make superfluous a natural interpretation, both views can be combined to understand history as an endless struggle between God's will and human will, or non-willing, for that matter. -- S.V.F.
Immanence ::: In theology, the aspect of God's nearness and intimacy, as opposed to God's transcendence.
in chanting hymns of praise to God at the close of
indulgence ::: n. --> The act of indulging or humoring; the quality of being indulgent; forbearance of restrain or control.
An indulgent act; favor granted; gratification.
Remission of the temporal punishment due to sins, after the guilt of sin has been remitted by sincere repentance; absolution from the censures and public penances of the church. It is a payment of the debt of justice to God by the application of the merits of Christ and his saints to the contrite soul through the church. It is therefore
Inner Light: In the terminology of the Society of Friends (Quakers), the capacity inherent in all men to listen to God speaking to the listening soul, to make satisfying spiritual contact with God, and to understand and share spiritual experience.
In scholasticism: means either faith or opinion. Opinion is a statement lacking evidence. Faith is a supernatural act, due to God's grace, referring to things reason finds beyond its capacity of proof, though not contradicting its principles. Statements capable of experimental proof are not objects of faith. -- R.A.
In scholasticism: The English term translates three Latin terms which, in Scholasticism, have different significations. Ens as a noun is the most general and most simple predicate; as a participle it is an essential predicate only in regard to God in Whom existence and essence are one, or Whose essence implies existence. Esse, though used sometimes in a wider sense, usually means existence which is defined as the actus essendi, or the reality of some essence. Esse quid or essentia designates the specific nature of some being or thing, the "being thus" or the quiddity. Ens is divided into real and mental being (ens rationis). Though the latter also has properties, it is said to have essence only in an improper way. Another division is into actual and potential being. Ens is called the first of all concepts, in respect to ontology and to psychology; the latter statement of Aristotle appears to be confirmed by developmental psychology. Thing (res) and ens are synonymous, a res may be a res extra mentem or only rationis. Every ens is: something, i.e. has quiddity, one, true, i.e. corresponds to its proper nature, and good. These terms, naming aspects which are only virtually distinct from ens, are said to be convertible with ens and with each other. Ens is an analogical term, i.e. it is not predicated in the same manner of every kind of being, according to Aquinas. In Scotism ens, however, is considered as univocal and as applying to God in the same sense as to created beings, though they be distinguished as entia ab alto from God, the ens a se. See Act, Analogy, Potency, Transcendentals. -- R.A.
ishwara pranidhana. :::constantly living with an awareness of the divine presence; surrender to God's will
ishwara &
Jaya (Sanskrit) Jaya [from the verbal root ji to conquer] Conquering, winning, victorious. As a noun, conquest, victory, hence a favorite proper name, applied to gods and goddesses, Arjuna, the sun, etc. In the Puranas, the jayas are the twelve great gods (or twelve great hierarchies of beings) created by Brahma to assist him in his work of creation in the very beginning of the kalpa. Also termed chhandajas — those born of their own will or svabhava, in human and other form. Being lost in samadhi they neglected to create, and therefore they were cursed to be born repeatedly in each manvantara until the seventh. They are called respectively: Ajitas, Tushitas, Satyas, Haris, Vaikunthas, Sadhyas, and Adityas. They are equivalent to the manasaputras or reincarnating egos.
Karma-marga: Sanskrit for path of action. The term applied in Hindu philosophy to the approach to God and spiritual perfection through selfless and harmonious actions (cf. Karma; karma yoga).
karma yoga. ::: the yoga of action chosen primarily by those of an outgoing nature; the yoga of selfless devotion of all inner and outer activities as a sacrifice to the Lord; selfless service to God without any intention for gain or reward; one of the four paths of yoga
khutbah ::: n. --> An address or public prayer read from the steps of the pulpit in Mohammedan mosques, offering glory to God, praising Mohammed and his descendants, and the ruling princes.
king ::: 1. Applied to God. 2. The formal title of a monarch, usually accompanied by or substituted for the proper name.
King of Kings. Applied to God. (In Savitri refers to Virat.)
latria ::: n. --> The highest kind of worship, or that paid to God; -- distinguished by the Roman Catholics from dulia, or the inferior worship paid to saints.
lies to God.” He once asked Michael for the
lokapāla. (T. 'jig rten skyong ba; C. si tianwang; J. shitenno; K. sa ch'onwang 四天王). In Sanskrit, "world guardians" or "protectors of the world"; an alternate name for the four "great kings" (mahārāja) of heaven, who were converted by the Buddha and entrusted with protecting the inhabitants of the world. The world guardians reside in the first and lowest of the six heavens of the sensuous realm of existence (KĀMADHĀTU), the heaven of the four great kings (CĀTURMAHĀRĀJAKĀYIKA). They are vassals of sAKRA, the lord or king (INDRA) of the gods (DEVA) (sAKRO DEVĀNĀM INDRAḤ), who is lord of the heaven of the thirty-three devas (TRĀYASTRIMsA), the second of the six sensuous realm heavens, which is located at the summit of the world's central axis of Mount SUMERU. The world guardians' names are (1) DHṚTARĀstRA, who guards the gate to the east at the midslope of Mount Sumeru, which leads to the continent of VIDEHA; (2) VIRudHAKA in the south, who guards the gate that leads to JAMBUDVĪPA; (3) VIRuPĀKsA in the west, who guards the gate that leads to GODĀNĪYA; and (4) VAIsRAVAnA in the north, who guards the gate that leads to UTTARAKURU. Of the eight classes of demigods, who are subservient to the world guardians, Dhṛtarāstra rules over the GANDHARVA and putana; Virudhaka over the KUMBHĀndA and PRETA; Virupāksa over the NĀGA and PIsĀCA; and Vaisravana over the YAKsA and RĀKsASA. The four world guardians began as indigenous Indian or Central Asian deities, who were eventually incorporated into Buddhism; they seem to have been originally associated with royal (KsATRIYA) lineages, and their connections with royal warfare are evidenced in the suits of armor they come to wear as their cult is transmitted from Central Asia to China, Korea, and Japan.
Loki [from Danish lys, Swed ljus, Anglo-Saxon leoht, Latin lux light; cf liechan, liuhan to enlighten; Greek leukos white.] In Norse myths, the giant grown to godhood who represents the active human mind: on one hand he is related to Logi (flame), destructive wildfire; on the other he is called Lopt (lofty), when he represents aspiring, elevating intelligence. Like Lucifer, he is the enlightener of humankind who became transformed in popular stories into a culprit guilty of all the ills that can result from the misuse of mind.
Madhav: “This is another key idea in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, that Nature, what is called Prakriti in Indian philosophy, is not different, not alien to the Purusha. Nature is not foreign to the soul, to God. It is a conscious front of God. Scratch Nature, look behind the exterior of Nature and you will find God. The apparent difference, distinction between Nature and God is only a superficial appearance. Nature is really a power of God. It is devatma shakti, the self-power of God—svagunair nigudham lost in its qualitative workings. She is not separate; conscious, not something unconscious. Nature is aware that it is only a front of God behind.” The Book of the Divine Mother
Maimon, Moses ben: (better known as Maimonides) (Abu Imram Musa Ibn Maimun Ibn Abdallah) (1135-1204) Talmud commentator and leading Jewish philosopher during the Middle Ages. Born in Cordova, left Spain and migrated to Palestine in 1165 and ultimately 1160, settled in Fez, N. Africa, whence he settled in Fostat, Egypt. His Guide for the Perplexed (More Nebukim in Heb.; Dalalat al-hairin, in Arab.) contains the summa of Jewish philosophic thought up to his time. It is written in the spirit of Aristotelianism and is divided into three parts. The first is devoted to the problems of Biblical anthropomorphisms, Divine attributes, and exposition and criticism of the teachings of the Kalam; the second to the proof of the existence of God, matter and form, creatio de novo, and an exposition of prophecy; the third to God and the world including problems of providence, evil, prescience and freedom of the will, teleology, and rationality of the precepts of the Torah. Maimonides exerted great influence not only on the course of subsequent Jewish speculation but also on the leaders of the thirteenth century scholastic philosophy, Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. -- M.W.
malebranchism ::: n. --> The philosophical system of Malebranche, an eminent French metaphysician. The fundamental doctrine of his system is that the mind can not have knowledge of anything external to itself except in its relation to God.
Methodology: The systematic analysis and organization of the rational and experimental principles and processes which must guide a scientific inquiry, or which constitute the structure of the special sciences more particularly. Methodology, which is also called scientific method, and more seldom methodeutic, refers not only to the whole of a constituted science, but also to individual problems or groups of problems within a science. As such it is usually considered as a branch of logic; in fact, it is the application of the principles and processes of logic to the special objects of the various sciences; while science in general is accounted for by the combination of deduction and induction as such. Thus, methodology is a generic term exemplified in the specific method of each science. Hence its full significance can be understood only by analyzing the structure of the special sciences. In determining that structure, one must consider the proper object of the special science, the manner in which it develops, the type of statements or generalizations it involves, its philosophical foundations or assumptions, and its relation with the other sciences, and eventually its applications. The last two points mentioned are particularly important: methods of education, for example, will vary considerably according to their inspiration and aim. Because of the differences between the objects of the various sciences, they reveal the following principal methodological patterns, which are not necessarily exclusive of one another, and which are used sometimes in partial combination. It may be added that their choice and combination depend also in a large degree on psychological motives. In the last resort, methodology results from the adjustment of our mental powers to the love and pursuit of truth. There are various rational methods used by the speculative sciences, including theology which adds certain qualifications to their use. More especially, philosophy has inspired the following procedures: The Soctattc method of analysis by questioning and dividing until the essences are reached; the synthetic method developed by Plato, Aristotle and the Medieval thinkers, which involves a demonstrative exposition of the causal relation between thought and being; the ascetic method of intellectual and moral purification leading to an illumination of the mind, as proposed by Plotinus, Augustine and the mystics; the psychological method of inquiry into the origin of ideas, which was used by Descartes and his followers, and also by the British empiricists; the critical or transcendental method, as used by Kant, and involving an analysis of the conditions and limits of knowledge; the dialectical method proceeding by thesis, antithesis and synthesis, which is promoted by Hegelianlsm and Dialectical Materialism; the intuitive method, as used by Bergson, which involves the immediate perception of reality, by a blending of consciousness with the process of change; the reflexive method of metaphysical introspection aiming at the development of the immanent realities and values leading man to God; the eclectic method (historical-critical) of purposive and effective selection as proposed by Cicero, Suarez and Cousin; and the positivistic method of Comte, Spencer and the logical empiricists, which attempts to apply to philosophy the strict procedures of the positive sciences. The axiomatic or hypothetico-deductive method as used by the theoretical and especially the mathematical sciences. It involves such problems as the selection, independence and simplification of primitive terms and axioms, the formalization of definitions and proofs, the consistency and completeness of the constructed theory, and the final interpretation. The nomological or inductive method as used by the experimental sciences, aims at the discovery of regularities between phenomena and their relevant laws. It involves the critical and careful application of the various steps of induction: observation and analytical classification; selection of similarities; hypothesis of cause or law; verification by the experimental canons; deduction, demonstration and explanation; systematic organization of results; statement of laws and construction of the relevant theory. The descriptive method as used by the natural and social sciences, involves observational, classificatory and statistical procedures (see art. on statistics) and their interpretation. The historical method as used by the sciences dealing with the past, involves the collation, selection, classification and interpretation of archeological facts and exhibits, records, documents, archives, reports and testimonies. The psychological method, as used by all the sciences dealing with human behaviour and development. It involves not only introspective analysis, but also experimental procedures, such as those referring to the relations between stimuli and sensations, to the accuracy of perceptions (specific measurements of intensity), to gradation (least noticeable differences), to error methods (average error in right and wrong cases), and to physiological and educational processes.
Mitzvah ::: (pl. mitzvot, "commandment, obligation"). A ritual or ethical duty or act of obedience to God's will. See also commandments.
Monotheists recognize but one God, conceived as a supreme personality and usually endowed with attributes pertaining to human personality, this mental image of God therefore being but a reflection of the human mind, with its inherent limitations and biases; yet even monotheists tacitly recognize other gods under the name of natural forces. Polytheism recognizes hierarchies of divine beings, and pantheism discerns divine power as everywhere and eternally present. The human being also in essence is a divinity. The attribution of personality to God is justly regarded as an inadmissible limitation; but there is a lack of clearness as to the meaning of such words as personality, self, and individuality, which unfortunately leads some monotheistic minds to the fear that the denial of personality will reduce the conception of divinity to merely an empty abstraction. Yet our inability to conceive the inconceivable has nothing to do with our intuition and duty, nor with the vision of the inner god as the supreme guide in a human life. See also PERSONAL GOD
named Kazbeel, “he who lies to God.”
oath ::: n. --> A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with a reverent appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed.
A solemn affirmation, connected with a sacred object, or one regarded as sacred, as the temple, the altar, the blood of Abel, the Bible, the Koran, etc.
An appeal (in verification of a statement made) to a superior sanction, in such a form as exposes the party making the appeal to an indictment for perjury if the statement be false.
of all evil, yet subservient to God.” It was Mas¬
offerer ::: n. --> One who offers; esp., one who offers something to God in worship.
of Solomon. When Solomon prayed to God for
omniscience ::: n. --> The quality or state of being omniscient; -- an attribute peculiar to God.
One of the two attributes (q.v.) of God which, according to Spinoza, are accessible to the human intellect (Ethics, II, passim). While the attribution of thought (cogitatio, q.v.) to God was a medieval commonplace, the attribution of extension to God was, in the tradition, highly heretical. Spinoza, however, was at great pains to show (Ibid, I, 14-18) that unless such attribution was made, all theories of God's causality were rendered either nonsensical or explicitly contradictory. -- W.S.W.
only a test of his single-minded devotion to God.
"O son of Immortality, live not thou according to Nature, but according to God; and compel her also to live according to the deity within thee.” Essays Divine and Human*
“O son of Immortality, live not thou according to Nature, but according to God; and compel her also to live according to the deity within thee.” Essays Divine and Human
Parabhakti: Supreme devotion to God, when the devotee sees his Ishtham everywhere. Here the devotee transcends all forms of ritualistic worship. This leads to Jnana.
Payasa: A liquid offering to gods prepared with rice (boiled), milk, ghee or melted butter, and sugar, with necessary spices; also known as Paramannam.
people being, apparently, an offence to God).
pneumatics ::: n. --> That branch of science which treats of the mechanical properties of air and other elastic fluids, as of their weight, pressure, elasticity, etc. See Mechanics.
The scientific study or knowledge of spiritual beings and their relations to God, angels, and men.
Pneumatology: (Gr. pneuma, spirit + logos, theory) In the most general sense pneumatology is the philosophical or speculative treatment of spirits or souls, including human, divine and those intermediate between God and man. D'Alembert restricted pneumatology to human souls. Discours preliminaire de I'Encyclopedie, § 73; he considered pneumatology, logic and ethics the three branches of the philosophical science of man. The term has also been considered to exclude man and to apply only to God and the angelic hierarchy. (See article by Bersot in Franck's Dict. des Sci. Philos. ) The wide sense in which pneumatology embraces first, God, second, the angels and third, man is perhaps the most convenient and justifiable usage. -- L.W.
Prapatti marga: A Sanskrit term for the way of salvation by a complete and utter surrender to God.
Prasada: Food dedicated to God at His worship and thereafter eater by the faithful devotees as something holy; tranquillity; grace.
prayerless ::: a. --> Not using prayer; habitually neglecting prayer to God; without prayer.
PRAYER. ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and therefore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudi- ties there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which ima- gines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flat- tered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little te^td to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essen- tial movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth.
The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that, being omniscient, his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual's desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least, human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes, -and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used, -- or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way, again, may either look upon that Will as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded, yogaksemam vahamyaham. ~ TSOY, SYN
Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is (here consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the givinc of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange.
In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily, in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, -- in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there, -- or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Prayer for others ::: The fact of praying and the attitude it brings, especially unselfish prayer for others, itself opens you to the higher Power, even if there is no corresponding result in the person prayed for. 'Nothing can be positively said about that, for the result must necessarily depend on the persons, whe- ther they arc open or receptive or something in them can res- pond to any Force the prayer brings down.
Prayer must well up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration.
Prayer {Ideal)'. Not prayer insisting on immediate fulfilment, but prayer that is itself a communion of the mind and heart with the Divine*and can have the joy and satisfaction of itself, trusting for fulfilment by the Divine in his own time.
Prayer ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and th
refore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudities there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which imagines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flattered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little regard to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essential movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth. The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that being omniscient his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual’s desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes,—and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used,—or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way again may either look upon thatWill as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded. Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is there consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the giving of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange. In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, —in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there,—or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 23-24, Page: 566-67-68
prayingly ::: adv. --> With supplication to God.
Predestination The doctrine that God has foreordained everything; specifically, that God has foreordained what people shall be saved and what damned. Reprobation is used in reference to those foreordained to be damned, and election is used for those who are to be saved. Endless sectarian disputes have prevailed as to whether or not the salvation offered by Christ provides a way of escape from the doom of reprobation; and the eternal dilemma as to free will has never ceased to perplex the minds of theologians. How to permit free will to enter into the picture without derogating from the authority of God, how to attribute plenary power to God without destroying free will; how to find a modus vivendi or ingenious sophism by which the contraries may be reconciled — these matters may be found discussed in theological treatises on the subject.
Prenex normal form: See Logic, formal, §3. Prescience: Supposedly direct acquaintance with the future in contrast to fore-knowledge which is usually considered to be descriptive and inferential (see Fore-Knowledge) Prescience is usually attributed only to God. -- L.W.
quote :::Christ said, 'I and the Father are one'. That does not mean that Christ laid claim to Godhood for His own person. It is what the dervishes call 'Hama man am', which means all is He and He is all. There is not an atom in the universe that He is not. We must recognize Him, we must respect Him in every face, even in the face of our enemy...
Ribono shel Olam ::: (Heb. Master of the Universe) Reference to God.
Sabbath ::: The seventh day of the week (Shabbat), recalling the completion of the creation and the Exodus from Egypt. It is a day symbolic of new beginnings and one dedicated to God, a most holy day of rest. The commandment of rest is found in the Bible and has been elaborated by the rabbis. It is a special duty to study Torah on the Sabbath and to be joyful. Sabbaths near major festivals (see calendar) are known by special names.
sacrifice ::: n. **1. The surrender to God or a deity, for the purpose of propitiation or homage, of some object of possession. Also applied fig. to the offering of prayer, thanksgiving, penitence, submission, or the like. 2. Forfeiture or surrender of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim. tree-of-sacrifice. v. 3.** To surrender or give up (something).
sacrifice ::: n. --> The offering of anything to God, or to a god; consecratory rite.
Anything consecrated and offered to God, or to a divinity; an immolated victim, or an offering of any kind, laid upon an altar, or otherwise presented in the way of religious thanksgiving, atonement, or conciliation.
Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher
saint ::: n. --> A person sanctified; a holy or godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue; any true Christian, as being redeemed and consecrated to God.
One of the blessed in heaven.
One canonized by the church. ::: v. t.
sanctification ::: n. --> The act of sanctifying or making holy; the state of being sanctified or made holy;
the act of God&
self-existence ::: n. --> Inherent existence; existence possessed by virtue of a being&
"Self-giving in fact means a change from ego-centricity to God-centricity; . . .” Letters on Yoga
“Self-giving in fact means a change from ego-centricity to God-centricity; …” Letters on Yoga
Shekhinah ::: Divine presence. The Bible refers to God’s dwelling in the midst of the children of Israel (Exod. 13:21-2; 40:34-8). Subsequently the concept of the Shekhinah embodied God’s presence in the world. In Kabbalistic sources the term Shekhinah refers to the tenth Sefirah, representing God’s feminine aspect.
Shemoneh Esreh ::: (Heb.eighteen) The main section of Jewish prayers recited in a standing position (see amida) and containing 19 (yes!) "benedictions": praise to (1) God of the fathers/patriarchs, (2) God's power and (3) holiness; prayers for (4) knowledge, (5) repentance, (6) forgiveness, (7) redemption, (8) healing sick persons, (9) agricultural prosperity, (10) ingathering the diaspora, (11) righteous judgment, (12) punishment of the wicked and heretics (birkat haminim, (13) reward of the pious, (14) rebuilding Jerusalem, (15) restoration of the royal house of David, (16) acceptance of prayers, (17) thanks to God, (18) restoration of Temple worship, and (19) peace.
Sri Aurobindo: "The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
Star-angels the regents or cosmic spirits of the stars: “Every planet according to the esoteric doctrine is in its composition a Septenary like man, in its principles. That is to say, the visible planet is the physical body of the sidereal being, the Atma or Spirit of which is the Angel, or Rishi, or Dhyan-Chohan, or Deva, or whatever we call it” (BCW 10:31). This was the basis for the worship of star-angels by all antiquity, a worship which in modified form was taken over by primitive Christianity and still exists in the Roman Catholic Church, although the esoteric meaning was lost. The seven star-angels — Michael (like unto God), Gabriel (the strength of God), Raphael (divine virtue), Uriel (God’s light and fire), Scaltiel (the speech of God), Jehudiel (the praise of God), and Barachiel (the blessing of God) — referred to the rectors of the seven sacred planets. “It is through their ‘divine attributes,’ which have led to the formation of the names, that these archangels may be identified by an easy esoteric method of transmutation with the Chaldean great gods and even with the Seven Manus and the Seven Rishis of India” (BCW 10:19).
Suddhabhakti: Pure devotion to God.
Sui generis: (Lat ) Alone of its kind, the condition of a subject which is unique, applied puticularly to God. -- V.J.B.
Svaha: An oblation or offering made to gods; an exclamation used in offering oblations to gods.
Tariqa(t) (tarika) (A) The spiritual path, the mystical way back to God. Distinction is made between the sjari’a islam (exoteric, religious law) and the tariqa islam (esoteric, the mystical aspect of islam)
Taylor, Alfred Edward: Born in 1869, professor of philosophy at St. Andrews and Edinburgh, after teaching for many years at Oxford. Taylor's metaphysics were predominantly Hegelian and idealist (as in Elements of Metaphysics) during his early years, in later years (as in numerous essays in Mind, and his Gifford Lectures Faith of a Moralist) he has become something of a neo-scholastic, although he follows no school exclusively. In his Gifford Lectures he argues from moral experience to God; in other essays, he declares that grounds for belief are found in cosmology, in conscience and in religious experience. As an Anglo-Catholic, he has given (in volume two of his Giffords) a learned apologia for this position, on philosophical grounds. -- W.N.P.
Temple, William: For many years Archbishop of York, Temple (born 1881) has written extensively on the philosophy of religion. In Mens Creatrix and most recently in Nature Man and God, he has argued for a universe of levels, culminating in value, and pointing to God as Supreme Value and hence Ultimate Reality. Recent work on the nature of revelation has given him the definition of revelation as "coincidence of divinely guided event and divinely guided apprehension", in this setting he places (see Christ the Truth) the Incarnation as central and most significant event apprehended by the Christian community. He is a Platonist in tendency, although within recent years this has been modified by scholasticism, and a study of Marxian philosophy. -- W.N.P.
Teshuvah (&
testification ::: n. --> The act of testifying, or giving testimony or evidence; as, a direct testification of our homage to God.
test of his single-minded devotion to God, Abu
that Mastema appealed to God to spare some of
that “to lead the Shekinah back to God and to
"The gospel of the Gita reposes upon this fundamental Vedantic truth that all being is the one Brahman and all existence the wheel of Brahman, a divine movement opening out from God and returning to God. All is the expressive activity of Nature and Nature a power of the Divine which works out the consciousness and will of the divine Soul master of her works and inhabitant of her forms.” Essays on the Gita
“The gospel of the Gita reposes upon this fundamental Vedantic truth that all being is the one Brahman and all existence the wheel of Brahman, a divine movement opening out from God and returning to God. All is the expressive activity of Nature and Nature a power of the Divine which works out the consciousness and will of the divine Soul master of her works and inhabitant of her forms.” Essays on the Gita
Theology ::: From Greek, “study of deity”; a general term for discussions and investigations of things pertaining to God(s), and by extension, to religious matters. One who engages formally in theological studies is called a “theologian.”
theomachy ::: n. --> A fighting against the gods, as the battle of the gaints with the gods.
A battle or strife among the gods.
Opposition to God or the divine will.
the prayers of the saints to God” (according to
The problem of attributes gave rise to extensive discussions. In general, the attempt is made to convey some knowledge about God and yet maintain that His essence is inconceivable. The number of attributes varies with individual philosophers, from three of Bahya to eight of Ibn Daud. Saadia counts one, living, potent and wise as essential attributes; Bahya one, existent, and eternal. Ha-Levi substitutes living for existent. Ibn Daud adds to those of Saadia and Bahya three more: true, willing, and potent. Maimonides considers living, potent, wise, and willing as those agreed upon by philosophers. The difficulty, however, does not consist in the number but in their content, or in other words, how to speak of essential attributes and not to impair the simplicity of God's essence. Bahya was the first to assert that their content is negative, e.g., existent means not non-existent. He was followed in this by all others. Maimonides is especially insistent upon the negative meaning and asserts that they are to be applied to God and man in an absolute homonymic manner, i.e., there is no possible relation between God and other beings. Gersonides and Crescas, on the other hand, believe that the essential attributes are positive though we cannot determine their content. There are, of course, other attributes which are descriptive of His action, but these are not essential.
ties are known to God alone, and through whose
Tikkun Sof'rim ::: Literally “Corrections of the Scribes;” 18 changes to the Hebrew biblical text to avoid references to God that were deemed unseemly, dating from pre-Rabbinic times.
Tov ::: (Heb.) Good. ::: Transcendent ::: In theology, the aspect of God that is beyond time and space, as opposed to God's immanence.
ungodly ::: a. --> Not godly; not having regard for God; disobedient to God; wicked; impious; sinful.
Polluted by sin or wickedness.
Veda, plural Vedas: (Skr. knowledge) Collectively the ancient voluminous, sacred literature of India (in bulk prior to 1000 B.C.), composed of Rigveda (hymns to gods), Samaveda (priests' chants), Yajurveda (sacrificial formulae), and Atharvaveda (magical chants), which among theosophic speculations contain the first philosophic insights. Generally recognized as an authority even in philosophy, extended and supplemented later by sutras (q.v.) and various accessory textbooks on grammar, astronomy, medicine, etc., called Vedangas ("members of the Veda") and the philosophical treatises, such as the Upanishads (q.v.). -- K.F.L.
Veda: The generic name for the most ancient sacred literature of the Hindus, consisting of the four collections called (1) Rig Veda, hymns to gods, (2) Sama Veda, priests’ chants, (3) Yajur Veda, sacrificial formulae in prose, and (4) Atharva Veda, magical chants; each Veda is divided into two broad divisions, viz. (1) Mantra, hymns, and (2) Brahmana, precepts, which include (a) Aranyakas, theology, and (b) Upanishads, philosophy; the Vedas are classified as revealed literature; they contain the first philosophical insights and are regarded as the final authority; tradition makes Vyasa the compiler and arranger of the Vedas in their present form; the Vedic period is conservatively estimated to have begun about 1500 to 1000 B.C.
vow ::: n. --> A solemn promise made to God, or to some deity; an act by which one consecrates or devotes himself, absolutely or conditionally, wholly or in part, for a longer or shorter time, to some act, service, or condition; a devotion of one&
vow, offering, dedication, gift (from an inferior to a superior), consecration, dedication to God, promise to God.
When androgynous or hermaphrodite is used in philosophy, it does not mean physically or ethereally double-sexed — except when physical dual-sexed beings are distinctly referred to — but means the dual characteristic of nature in manifestation. Very often this duality is separated into “masculine” and “feminine,” using the words familiar to human life, although this duality is perhaps more accurately described by the words positive and negative, or by spirit and matter, or again by consciousness and vehicle. Here we have the reason for the separation of the deities in ancient pantheons into gods and goddesses, although occasionally in the mythological tales deities are represented as dual sexed. This androgynous or dual character of all the manifested worlds commenced with cosmic buddhi, or mahabuddhi, although the first more defined manifestations of individualized duality began on the plane of cosmic kama where fohat especially works. Above that the two rays from the One ascend again to reunite.
worship ::: a. --> Excellence of character; dignity; worth; worthiness.
Honor; respect; civil deference.
Hence, a title of honor, used in addresses to certain magistrates and others of rank or station.
The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; religious reverence and homage; adoration, or acts of reverence, paid to God, or a being viewed as God.
Obsequious or submissive respect; extravagant admiration;
KEYS (10k)
60 Sri Ramakrishna
29 Saint Thomas Aquinas
17 Sri Aurobindo
12 Sri Ramana Maharshi
11 Saint Augustine of Hippo
5 Jalaluddin Rumi
5 Swami Vivekananda
4 Thomas A Kempis
4 Anonymous
4 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
3 Swami Saradananda
3 Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
3 Saint Basil the Great
3 Maximus the Confessor
2 Sri Sarada Devi
2 Simone Weil
2 Saint Thomas Aquinas
2 Saint Francis de Sales
2 Saint Bonaventure
2 Saint Benedict of Nursia
2 Saint Ambrose
2 Saint Alphonsus Liguori
2 Irenaeus
1 Wikipedia
1 Voltaire
1 The Quran
1 The incense they offer to GOD
1 Swami Turiyananda
1 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
1 Swami Ramakrishnananda
1 SWAMI PREMANANDA
1 SWAMI BRAHMANANDA
1 Sri Ramakrishna?
1 Sri Ramakrishna
1 Sri Aurobindo
1 Sri Anandamayi Ma
1 Sophronius of Jerusalem
1 Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani]
1 Saint Therese of Lisieux
1 Saint Teresa of the Andes
1 Saint Rose of Lima
1 Saint John of the Ladder
1 Saint John of the Cross
1 Saint John Climacus
1 Saint John Cassian
1 Saint Ignatius of Antioch
1 Saint Gregory of Nazianzen
1 Saint Basil
1 Saint Amma Syncletice
1 Saint Alphonsus Ligouri
1 Saint Albert the Great
1 Robert Heinlein
1 Ramesh Balsekar
1 Rabia al-Adawiyya
1 Philokalia
1 Orson Welles
1 Origen
1 Mitar Tarabich
1 Maximus
1 Leo the Great
1 Lalla
1 King Solomon
1 Joseph Campbell
1 John Scotus Eriugena
1 John of the Ladder
1 John of the Cross
1 John 4:8
1 JB
1 James Joyce
1 Israel Regardie
1 Isaac of Nineveh
1 id
1 Hermes
1 Helwa
1 Hassidic Rabbi -
1 Hans Christian Andersen
1 Gerhard Tersteegen
1 Ferdinand Ulrich
1 C .S. Lewis
1 Bonaventure
1 Blessed Cardinal Newman
1 Basil of Caesarea
1 Baruch Spinoza
1 Antoine the Healer
1 Anthony the Great
1 Anselm
1 Saint Teresa of Avila
1 Meister Eckhart
1 Jalaluddin Rumi
1 Ibn Arabi
1 Homer
1 Heraclitus
1 Epictetus
1 Abraham Maslow
1 2nd century sermon
1 1 John 4:3
1 ?
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
60 Anonymous
24 Oswald Chambers
18 Charles Spurgeon
17 C S Lewis
14 Sri Ramana Maharshi
13 Pope Francis
12 Charles Haddon Spurgeon
12 Beth Moore
11 Rick Warren
10 Victor Hugo
10 Timothy Keller
10 Mother Teresa
10 Max Lucado
10 Matthew Henry
9 Rumi
9 John Calvin
9 Elizabeth George
8 Mahatma Gandhi
8 Joyce Meyer
7 Thomas Merton
1:Every end is very close to God." ~ Hassidic Rabbi -, #KEYS
2:Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. ~ John 4:8, #KEYS
3:What we give to the poor, we lend to God. ~ Homer, #KEYS
4:The friend of silence comes close to God. ~ Saint John Climacus, (579-649 AD), #KEYS
5:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #KEYS
6:To God all things are beautiful and good and just. ~ Heraclitus, #KEYS
7:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands." ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
8:The Guru is the mediator. He takes man to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
9:Extreme longing is the surest way to God-vision. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
10:Lovers whisper to God ! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
11:The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #KEYS
12:The only offering you can make to God is your increasing awareness. ~ Lalla, trans. Coleman Barks #KEYS
13:Give the mind to studies and the heart to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
14:Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori #KEYS
15:The Avatars are to God what the waves are to the ocean. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
16:Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls." ~ Saint Rose of Lima, #KEYS
17:We speak to God when we pray; we listen to Him when we read the Scriptures. ~ Saint Ambrose, [T5], #KEYS
18:Every infinity... is made finite to God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
19:Prayer is the unfolding of our will to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, 3.21.1, #KEYS
20:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #KEYS
21:We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
22:Do not reduce your prayers to words, but rather make the totality of your life a prayer to God. ~ Isaac of Nineveh, #KEYS
23:Man achieves likeness to God through grace ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.151)., #KEYS
24:Prayer is the unfolding of our will to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.21.1)., #KEYS
25:True friendship consists in mutually perfecting one another and drawing closer to God. ~ Saint Teresa of the Andes, #KEYS
26:To pick up a straw with loving intention is more to God than to remove mountains without love." ~ Gerhard Tersteegen, #KEYS
27:The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes." ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #KEYS
28:Abraham offered to God his mortal son who did not die, and God gave up his immortal Son who died for all of us. ~ Origen, #KEYS
29:Let's hold hands and get drunk near the sun and sing sweet songs to God. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #KEYS
30:Giving one self up to God, means constantly remembering the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
31:Man out of Nature wakes to God's complexities, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I, #KEYS
32:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
33:True self-love consists in directing oneself to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.100.5)., #KEYS
34:Love is due first to God, and then to our neighbor ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.34.6ad2)., #KEYS
35:I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
~ Voltaire,#KEYS
36:When the mind is free from attachment to sense objects, it goes straight to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
37:The past must be abandoned to God's mercy, the present to our fidelity, the future to divine providence. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #KEYS
38:It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. ~ Saint Albert the Great, (c. 1200 - 1280), #KEYS
39:To God belong the East and the West; whithersoever you turn, there is the Face of God; God is All-embracing, All-knowing. ~ The Quran, #KEYS
40:If a devotee prays to God with real longing, God cannot help revealing Himself to him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
41:This turning to God is made evident in different degrees, and like any other gift, must be renewed. ~ Philokalia, Theophan the Recluse, #KEYS
42:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5],#KEYS
43:Do you know the meaning of karmayoga? It is to surrender to God the fruit of all action. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
44:Faith guides even us and we follow its sure light on the way which conducts us to God and His homeland. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
45:Render to God the sole worship which is fitting towards Him, not to be evil. ~ Hermes, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
46:Those who have not attained to God, what power have they to untie the bonds of the world? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
47:Devotion to God increases in the same proportion as attachment to sense objects decreases. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
48:Show great devotion to your parents; but don't obey them if they stand in your way to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
49:If one surrenders to God, there will be no cause for anxiety. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Conscious Immortality, #KEYS
50:Murder does more harm to one's neighbor than blasphemy does to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.13.3)., #KEYS
51:Sacred scriptures all point the way to God. Once you know the way, what is the use of books? ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
52:Start with God - the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.
~ King Solomon,#KEYS
53:World bound men, cannot resist the temptation of women and gold and direct their minds to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
54:The image of God is found in the soul according as the soul turns to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.93.8), #KEYS
55:There is no difference in work. Do not think that this work will lead to God and that will not. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
56:Earnestly pray to God that you may receive the love of His name and He will fulfill your desire. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
57:In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #KEYS
58:Everyone sleeps, except lovers, who stay awake, telling stories to God." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
59:In prayer, more is accomplished by listening than by talking. Let us leave to God the decisions as to what shall be said. ~ Saint Francis de Sales #KEYS
60:The order of the parts of the universe to one another results from the order of the whole universe to God. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, On Power vii.9, #KEYS
61:A soul would do better, in this present age, to love, pray, and surrender oneself entirely to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
62:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#KEYS
63:Pray to God in any way you will. He is sure to hear you, for he hears even the footfall of an ant. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
64:Always be faithful to God in keeping the promises made to Him and do not bother about the ridicule of the foolish. ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
65:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and -- to God only. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 1.02, #KEYS
66:Lose yourself altogether when bowing down to God with a single-minded devotion and you will obtain joy and power in proportion. ~ Sri Anandamayi Ma, #KEYS
67:The wise call by the name 'self-surrender' the offering of oneself to God through devotion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
68:No name is applicable to God, only He is called Love,-so great and precious a thing is Love. ~ id, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
69:Once the way to God is known, the next step is to work one's way to the goal - realization is the goal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
70:In trying to reach God one should follow implicitly the advice of a single Guru who knows the way to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
71:Blessed are they who long to give their time to God, and who cut themselves off from the hindrances of the world. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
72:It is far better to talk to God than to talk about Him, for there is so much self love intermingled with spiritual conversations. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #KEYS
73:The profession of love to God which is insufficient to restrain from disobedience to God is a lie. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
74:There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" ~ C .S. Lewis, #KEYS
75:All you need to do is to trust God. Following the path of devotion, one should leave everything to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
76:When we pray, we direct our intention to God, which intention has the force of a cry ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.12.2ad1). #KEYS
77:When we pray, we direct our intention to God, which intention has the force of a cry ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.12.2ad1)., #KEYS
78:Attachment is bondage; yet again, attachment opens the door to liberation to one who becomes attached to God or the Guru or to illumined souls. ~ SWAMI PREMANANDA, #KEYS
79:Bhakti can arise only when there is a wholehearted devotion to God, such as that of a chaste wife for her husband. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
80:Continence is a denial of the body and an assent to God. It withdraws from everything mortal, having, as it were, the Spirit of God as a body. ~ Basil of Caesarea, #KEYS
81:I Have Sinned So Much. If I Repent To God, Will He Accept My Repentance?" She Replied, "If He Wants To Accept Your Repentance, You Will Repent. ~ Rabia al-Adawiyya, #KEYS
82:Knowledge relating to God keeps pace with faith. Where there is little faith, it is idle to look for much knowledge. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
83:One is safe to live in the world if one has Jnana and non-attachment, and along with these, intense devotion to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
84:Pray to God earnestly, in time He will surely emancipate you and enable you to swim happily upon the ocean of bliss. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
85:One becomes near to God through contemplation, devout affection, and humble but firm intention ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.96)., #KEYS
86:One is safe to live in the world, if one has Jnana and non-attachment, and along with these, intense devotion to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
87:Some are already awake.They have certain marks. They do not care to hear or speak of anything but what relates to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
88:In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God.
~ Orson Welles,#KEYS
89:We pray to God for Bliss and receive it by Grace. The bestower of bliss must be Bliss itself and also Infinite. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
90:You should pray to God that your worldly duties may be reduced. And you will achieve the goal if you renounce mentally. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
91:All the doors to God are crowded except for one: the door of humility and humbleness. ~ Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani], @Sufi_Path #KEYS
92:Something cannot be added to God by the action of anything, for His goodness is completely perfect ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.18)., #KEYS
93:Charity makes us adhere to God for His own sake, uniting our minds to God by the emotion of love ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.17.6)., #KEYS
94:Day is to make a living, Night is only for Love.... Commoners sleep fast, Lovers whisper to God ! ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
95:In the conviction that I am God's servant or I am His worshiper, there is no harm. On the other hand, it brings us to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
96:Give up everything to God, resign yourself to Him and there will be no more trouble for you. Everything is done by His Will. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
97:The most powerful way to resist evil is to sit with good friends who have turned their faces to God. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
98:Because of his infinite goodness, it is more proper to God to show mercy and to spare than to punish ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.21.2)., #KEYS
99:When one has misfortune, they turn to God; but in a short time they are drawn down to the world by its irresistible attractions. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
100:The angel plucks a large handful of flowers, and they carry it with them up to God, where the flowers bloom more brightly than they ever did on earth. ~ Hans Christian Andersen , #KEYS
101:Bring a thousand bags of gold coins to God, and He will only tell you: Bring the heart if you come to Us." ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
102:My love is not a hunger of the heart, My love is not a craving of the flesh; It came to me from God, to God returns.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Divine Plan,#KEYS
103:Our minds are starters in the race to God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 02.05, #KEYS
104:To attain to God with the mind is a great blessing, but to comprehend Him is impossible ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 1, lect. 5)., #KEYS
105:Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends. ~ Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, #KEYS
106:Whatever belongs to others accidentally belongs to God essentially, such as, to be powerful, wise, and the like ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.6.3)., #KEYS
107:You say you offer your body, soul and all poessessions to God. Were they yours that you could offer them? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Day by Day, 22-11-45 #KEYS
108:You should constantly discriminate between the real and the unreal. Know the worldly objects to which the mind is drawn to be unreal and surrender your mind to God. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
109:The nearer you come to God the less are you disposed to question and reason. Then it is time for enjoyment which comes through Samadhi. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
110:To see the very First Truth in Itself so transcends the capacity of human nature that it is proper to God alone ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 3.147)., #KEYS
111:In Samadhi one forgets one has a body, loses all attachment to things of this world, and likes no other words than those relating to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
112:Let a Bhakti pray to God and it will be given to him to realize the impersonal God in samadhi and thus reach the goal of Jnana Yoga also. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
113:The soul offers herself in sacrifice to God as the beginning of her creation and as the end of her beatification ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.85.2)., #KEYS
114:We do not come to God with bodily steps, but with those of the mind, the first of which is faith ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on Jn 6, lect. 4)., #KEYS
115:Why is it that people are fed at religious feasts? It is the same as offering a sacrifice to God, who is the Living Fire in all creatures. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
116:You go to God and your personality becomes one with God, this is samadhi. Then you retrace your steps, back to your ego where you started. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
117:As Radna neared Krishna, the stronger was his fragrance. The nearer one gets to God, the more one's heart is flooded with blessed feelings. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
118:Let there be harmony between thoughts and words. Don't pray to God as your all-in-all ... while your mind has made the world its all-in-all. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
119:Some make riches the object of their desires, others glory. For me, I desire nothing save to cling to God and put in Him alone the hope of my soul stripped of passion. ~ John of the Ladder, #KEYS
120:In order to be able to renounce, one must pray to God for the will power to do so. One must immediately renounce what one feels to be unreal. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
121:And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Hebrews, 11:6, #KEYS
122:But God's Word is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in these last times was made a man among men, that he might join the end to the beginning: that is, join man to God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
123:How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self? Grant, Lord, that I may know myself that I may know thee.
~ Saint Augustine of Hippo,#KEYS
124:Isn't feeding people a kind of service to God? God exists in all beings as fire. To feed people is to offer oblations to that Indwelling Spirit. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
125:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
126:Some make riches the object of their desires, others glory. For me, I desire nothing save to cling to God and put in Him alone the hope of my soul stripped of passion. ~ Saint John of the Ladder, #KEYS
127:... and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world." ~ 1 John 4:3, #KEYS
128:Let me be fodder for wild beasts — that is how I can attain to God. I am God's wheat and I am being ground by the teeth of wild beasts to make a pure loaf for Christ. ~ Saint Ignatius of Antioch, #KEYS
129:As Augustine says, to attain to God with the mind is a great blessing, but to comprehend Him is impossible ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (Commentary on John 1, lect. 5)., #KEYS
130:We love irrational creatures out of charity, in as much as we wish them to endure, to give glory to God, and be useful to man ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 2-2.25.11)., #KEYS
131:The Spirit prepares mankind for the Son of God, the Son leads it to God, and God gives it the gift of incorruptible eternal life, a life that everyone receives who sees God. ~ Irenaeus, Against Heresies, #KEYS
132:Both peace and peacelessness come to us for the sake of our own experience, according to God's dispensation, but we have to remain steady under all circumstances by holding on to Him. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
133:Often when after falling into sin we strive to return to God, we experience further and more grievous attacks from the old enemy ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.44.1ad4)., #KEYS
134:By suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 3.48.2)., #KEYS
135:By suffering out of love and obedience, Christ gave more to God than was required to compensate for the offense of the whole human race ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST.3.48.2)., #KEYS
136:Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendor. ~ Sophronius of Jerusalem, #KEYS
137:For this passover to be perfect, we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience. ~ Bonaventure, #KEYS
138:God is not to be reached by the weak. Never be weak. You have infinite strength within you. How else will you conquer anything? How else will you come to God? ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
139:Always keep your mind spotless. Don't allow impure thoughts to enter it. If you find such desires tormenting you, pray to God and chant His name. He will protect you. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
140:If you give God something, you receive it back a thousand times over. That is why after doing meritorious deeds one offers a handful of water to God. It is the symbol of offering the fruit to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
141:When thou lookest up to heaven and gazest at the beauty of the stars, pray to the Lord of the visible world; pray to God the Arch-artificer of the universe, Who in wisdom hath made them all. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
142:In the same way that a powerful medicine cures an illness, so illness itself is a medicine to cure passion. And there is much profit of soul in bearing illness quietly and giving thanks to God." ~ Saint Amma Syncletice, #KEYS
143:Seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervour and glowing love. ~ Saint Bonaventure, #KEYS
144:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #KEYS
145:When he says: 'Break into shouts of joy, you who never knew a mother's pangs', he means that we should not grow weary like women in labour, but tirelessly and in all simplicity offer our prayers to God. ~ 2nd century sermon, #KEYS
146:I believe that a triangle, if it could speak, would say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that the divine nature is eminently circular; and thus would every one ascribe his own attributes to God. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #KEYS
147:All human perceptions, wherever they come from, include good and evil. It is necessary to know how to determine and assimilate all the good and offer it to God, and to eliminate all the evil. " ~ Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, #KEYS
148:Whoever wishes to walk the straight road to God, stands in need of both the inherent spiritual knowledge of Scripture, and the natural contemplation of beings according to the spirit. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Amb. 10.17 [1128c], #KEYS
149:As thou wrappest thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
150:I" can do nothing. Everything that happens is God's will. One hundred percent acceptance of that which is surrender to God's will is enlightenment. That does not lead to enlightenment, that is itself enlightenment. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
151:Spend one year and give up your ten largest, most impactful and ten most common vices to God, likely new ones would be aquired. but if any new movements arise they must pass by God first. If they pass then they can be admitted. ~ JB, #KEYS
152:This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God. ~ Saint Gregory of Nazianzen, #KEYS
153:The object of food is to build a strong body & a fine intellect. Unless the body & the mind are pure it is not possible to go thro spiritual practices. It is the food offered to God that builds a pure body & mind. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
154:The spiritual path is not one where we find our way to God, but rather one where we remove everything that prevents us from seeing that we're already in the divine court. ~ Helwa, @Sufi_Path #KEYS
155:A certain pride, a certain awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at night, though he knew it was in God's power to take away his life while he slept and hurl his soul hellward ere he could beg for mercy. ~ James Joyce, #KEYS
156:Living in the world one is safe, if one has Viveka (discrimination of the Real from the unreal), and Vairagya (dispassion for worldly things), and along with these intense devotion to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
157:Nothing brings you nearer to God then the sweet bond of love. Let whoever has found this way seek no other." ~ Meister Eckhart, (c. 1260 - c. 1328), German theologian, philosopher and mystic, Wikipedia., #KEYS
158:Man is a hero so long as he struggles. But to conquer one's passions is no joke. Man can only do it by finding something that gives him greater pleasure. Man must give up everything to God, then alone he thrives. ~ Swami Ramakrishnananda, #KEYS
159:Hold on to God even in gloom. Never miss meditation or forget to repeat the name of the Lord. Meditation is the anchorage of the soul. Meditation will purify your mind. Continue japa and meditation without losing heart. ~ Swami Saradananda, #KEYS
160:Life now became a sure approach to God,
Existence a divine experiment
And cosmos the soul's opportunity. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Yoga of the King, The Yoga of the Soul's Release,#KEYS
161:The more arduously one practices spiritual disciplines, the more quickly one will attain to God. Even if he doesn't practice any spiritual disciplines he will attain to Him at the last moment of his life-he will certainly. ~ Sri Sarada Devi, #KEYS
162:Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ~ Anonymous, The Bible, James, 4:7-8, #KEYS
163:You have had enough of lectures, arguments, quarrels, discussions, and dissensions. Can such things interest you any more? Now gather your whole mind and direct it to God. Plunge deep into God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
164:[The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love him, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion. ~ Saint John Cassian, #KEYS
165:Just as the principal intention of human law is to create friendship of one man to another; so the chief intention of Divine law is to establish friendship of man to God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1-2.99.2)., #KEYS
166:I taught the prophets from the beginning, and even to this day I continue to speak to all men. But many are hardened. Many are deaf to My voice. Most men listen more willingly to the world than to God. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
167:Every one of us tries to discover how to sing to God. You must sing to him, but you must sing well. He does not want your voice to come harshly to his ears, so sing well, brothers! ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
168:Now it is your bounden duty to give your entire mind to God, to plunge deep into the Ocean of His Love. There is no fear of death from plunging into this Ocean, for this is the Ocean of Immortality. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
169:If a man is to be healed of sin his mind must necessarily cleave not only to God, but also to the mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, in whom rests the remission of all sins ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ScG 4.72)., #KEYS
170:The nearer you come to God, the less you are disposed to questioning and reasoning. When you actually attain Him, when you behold Him as the Reality, then all noise, all disputations, come to an end. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
171:We say that God is our Father. In the same way we call Him Mother, and so on. These relationships are conceived in order to strengthen Bhakti in us, and they make us feel nearer and dearer to God. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
172:No man is fit to enjoy heaven unless he has resigned himself to suffer hardship for Christ. (Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more helpful for you on this earth than to suffer willingly for Christ. ~ Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, #KEYS
173:For whatever good work we may do, let us not claim any praise or benefit. It belongs to God. Give up the fruits to God. Let us stand aside and think that we are only servants obeying God, our Master. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
174:Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
175:Whenever a name taken from any created perfection is attributed to God, it must be separated in its signification from all that belongs to that imperfect mode proper to creatures ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.14.1ad1)., #KEYS
176:[Noetic movement] is the movement of the soul circling around God in a manner beyond knowledge, for the soul does not know God after the manner of beings, owing to God's absolute transcendence of beings. ~ Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum 10.3 [1112d-1113a], #KEYS
177:Everything imperfect is a participation of what is perfect. Therefore even what falls short of the nature of an image, so far as it possesses any sort of likeness to God, participates in some degree the nature of an image. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, ST I.93.2.ad1, #KEYS
178:There will be plenty of food in towns and villages, but it will be poisoned. Many will eat because of hunger and die immediately. Those who will fast to the end will survive because the Holy Ghost will save them and they will be close to God..." ~ Mitar Tarabich, #KEYS
179:When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by acedia. Attacked by many sinful thoughts, he said to God 'Lord, I want to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?' ~ Anthony the Great, #KEYS
180:Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. ~ Leo the Great, #KEYS
181:God is brought into the presence of our affections through faith, since the believer assents to God voluntarily, according to what is said in Ephesians ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (3:17): "that Christ may dwell by faith in our hearts.", #KEYS
182:One must pray to God without any selfish desire. But selfish worship, if practiced with perseverance, is gradually turned into selfless worship. Dhruva practiced tapasya to obtain his kingdom, but at last he realized God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
183:As one has to learn to read... so one must learn to feel in all things, first and almost solely, the obedience of the universe to God. It is truly an apprenticeship; and like every apprenticeship it calls for time and effort. ~ Simone Weil, 'Love of God & Affliction' 180, #KEYS
184:Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads on to God-realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogin, who has striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #KEYS
185:You proclaimed your faith in the Father - recall what you did - and the Son and the Spirit. Mark the sequence of events. In proclaiming this faith you died to the world, you rose again to God, and, as though buried to sin, you were reborn to eternal life. ~ Saint Ambrose, #KEYS
186:Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts. Keep only thought of God, and thoughts that can aid you in seeking him. Close your door and seek him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your face, Lord, will I seek. ~ Anselm, #KEYS
187:One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like. Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
188:He who leads the life of a householder should devote fifteen parts of his mind to God; otherwise he will face ruin and fall into the clutches of Death. He should perform the duties of the world with only one part of his mind. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
189:As have been our conduct and pursuits, so will be our dreams. Thus will thou pray without ceasing; if thou pray not only in words, but unite thyself to God through all the course of life and so thy life be made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer. ~ Saint Basil the Great, #KEYS
190:A bhakta surrenders to God and rests secure in His protection
A jnani knows that there is nothing beside the Self and so remains happy.
One must adhere firmly to either of these courses. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Conscious Immortality, Ch.5.#KEYS
191:By their gifts, they acknowledge what they believe in their hearts, that they may show forth the mystery of their faith and understanding. ~ The incense they offer to GOD, the myrrh to MAN, the gold to the KING, consciously paying honour to the Divine and human Nature in union., #KEYS
192:How rare is selflessness! Selfishness and self-advertisement are rampant everywhere! How little of the mind is given to God and how much of it to the world and its objects! Unless you have dispassion toward the world, you cannot attain knowledge or devotion. ~ Swami Turiyananda, #KEYS
193:Uqba ibn Muslim said: 'No quality in a man is dearer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than the longing to meet Him. At no moment is a man closer to God, Great and Glorious is He, than when he sinks down in prostration. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
194:Great is the influence of desires that if they once leave an impression on your mind, they will drag you down lower and lower; yet they will not let you feel your downward course. The only way to be saved from these dangers is to offer yourself solely to God. ~ SWAMI BRAHMANANDA, #KEYS
195:My advice to you is not to become attached to the world. Have a friendly relationship with one another. That will be for your good and make you all happy. Do your worldly duties with a part of your mind and direct most of it to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
196:As one has to learn to read, or to practice a trade, so one must learn to feel in all things, first and almost solely, the obedience of the universe to God… As soon as we feel this obedience with our whole being, we see God. ~ Simone Weil, On Science, Necessity & the Love of God, #KEYS
197:There can be a proportion of the creature to God, insofar as it is related to Him as an effect to its cause, and as potentiality to its act; and in this way the created intellect can be proportioned to know God ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, (ST 1.12.1ad4)., #KEYS
198:Prayer does not demand high intelligence or eloquence. God wants your heart when you pray. Even a few words from a pure, humble soul, though illiterate, appeals to God more than the eloquent, flowing words of an orator. Pray to God freely like a little child ~ Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #KEYS
199:Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations—we become God. ~ Saint Basil, #KEYS
200:Stick to God ! Who cares what comes to the body or to anything else. Through the terrors of evil, say -- my God, my love ! Through the pangs of death, say -- my God, my love ! Through all the evils under the sun, say -- my God, my love. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #KEYS
201:Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Philippians, 4:6-7, #KEYS
202:God is infinite, and infinite are the ways to reach Him. The important thing is somehow to cultivate devotion to God and love for Him. What is the use of knowing many things? It is enough to cultivate love of God by following any of the paths. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
203:Why don't you give your power of attorney to God? Rest all your responsibilities on Him. If you entrust an honest man with your responsibilities, will he misuse his power over you? God alone knows whether or not He will punish you for your sins. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
204:You are no doubt in the world. What if you are? You must surrender the fruit of your action to God. You must not seek any result for yourself. But mark one thing. The desire for bhakti cannot be called a desire. You may desire bhakti and pray for it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
205:See how he himself provides you with a way of singing. Do not search for words, as if you could find a lyric which would give God pleasure. Sing to him 'with songs of joy.' This is singing well to God, just singing with songs of joy. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
206:What is karmayoga? Its aim is to fix one's mind on God by means of work.If a person performs worship, japa, & other forms of devotion, surrendering the results to God, he may be said to practice karmayoga. Attainment of God alone is the aim of karmayoga. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
207:Asked whether she did not dread leaving her body at such a distance from her own city, my mother replied, "Nothing is far to God; nor need I fear lest He should be ignorant at the end of the world of the place whence He is to raise me up." ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
208:In God, there is no sorrow or suffering or affliction. If you want to be free of all affliction and suffering, hold fast to God, and turn wholly to Him, and to no one else. Indeed, all your suffering comes from this: that you do not turn towards God. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
209:Don't take too much trouble to save money. Those who surrender their hearts and souls to God, those who are devoted to Him and have taken refuge in Him, do not worry much about money. As they earn, so they spend. The money comes in one way and goes out the other ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
210:Innumerable are the ways that lead to God. There are the paths of jnāna, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karma yoga, and bhaktiyoga ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
211:Pray to God with a longing heart. He will surely listen to your prayer if it is sincere. Perhaps He will direct you to holy men with whom you can keep company; and that will help you on your spiritual path. Perhaps someone will tell you, 'Do this and you will attain God.' ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
212:Worship Siva. To perform the worship of God u will be preoccupied for a longtime with such religious duties as plucking flowers, making sandal-paste, polishing the utensils of worship, & arranging offerings. As u perform these duties ur mind will naturally be directed to God ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
213:The only nature contrary to the nature which supremely is, and by which everything else that is was made, is a nature which has no being at all.... There is no being contrary to God... who is the author of all beings of any kind whatsoever. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xii.2, #KEYS
214:If everything that is comprehended by knowledge is rendered finite by the comprehension of the knower, then, in some inexpressible way, all infinity is rendered finite to God because it is certainly not incomprehensible to his knowledge. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, City of God xii.19(18), #KEYS
215:Who will presume that he's living in such a way that he has no need to say to God, Forgive us our debts? Only an arrogant person... not someone who is truly great but someone puffed up with pride, who is justly resisted by the one who pours out his grace and humble. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
216:fruits of the sacrifice :::
The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [109],#KEYS
217:For just as the first general precepts of the law of nature are self-evident to one in possession of natural reason, and have no need of promulgation, so also that of believing in God is primary and self-evident to one who has faith: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
218:Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light.
An exit is shown, a road of hard escape
From the sorrow and the darkness and the chain;
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain,#KEYS
219:For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ~ Anonymous, The Bible, Hebrews, 9:13-14, #KEYS
220:247. Men in the world have two lights, duty and principle; but he who has passed over to God, has done with both and replaced them by God's will. If men abuse thee for this, care not, O divine instrument, but go on thy way like the wind or the sun fostering and destroying.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human, Karma,#KEYS
221:An absolute supernatural darkness falls
On man sometimes when he draws near to God:
An hour arrives when fail all Nature's means;
Forced out from the protecting Ignorance
And flung back on his naked primal need,
He at length must cast from him his surface ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Issue,#KEYS
222:362. Limit not sacrifice to the giving up of earthly goods or the denial of some desires and yearnings, but let every thought and every work and every enjoyment be an offering to God within thee. Let thy steps walk in thy Lord, let thy sleep and waking be a sacrifice to Krishna.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays Divine And Human, Karma, [T1],#KEYS
223:Praise be to God; whose compassion is all-embracing and Whose mercy is universal; Who rewards His servants for their remembrance [dhikr] [of Him] with His remembrance [of them] - verily God (Exalted is He!) has said, 'Remember Me, and I will remember you' - Opening lines from Kitab al-Adhkar wa'l Da'awat of the Ihya ulum ad-Din" ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #KEYS
224:Truthfulness in speech is the tapasya of the Kaliyuga. It is difficult to practise other austerities in this cycle. By adhering to truth one attains God. Tulsidas said: 'Truthfulness, obedience to God, and the regarding of others' wives as one's mother, are the greatest virtues. If one does not realize God by practising them, then Tulsi is a liar.' ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
225:As one becomes proficient in the work of the Order and one's insight and understanding develops, it will become apparent that all of these methods may be tied together and unified to become a magical engine by means of which the Mountain of Initiation may be scaled and the Kingdom of Heaven reached, so that man aspires to God and God aspires to man. ~ Israel Regardie, The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, #KEYS
226:An absolute supernatural darkness falls
On man sometimes when he draws near to God:
An hour arrives when fail all Nature's means;
Forced out from the protecting Ignorance
And flung back on his naked primal need,
He at length must cast from him his surface soul
And be the ungarbed entity within:
That hour had fallen now on Savitri.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Issue,#KEYS
227:If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first--Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising; give your first thoughts to God; make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament; say the Angelus devoutly; eat and drink to God's glory; say the Rosary well; be recollected; keep out bad thoughts; make your evening meditation well; examine yourself daily; go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect. ~ Blessed Cardinal Newman, Meditations and Devotions, #KEYS
228:A DEVOTEE:"Sir, is there no help, then, for such a worldly person?"
MASTER:"Certainly there is. From time to time he should live in the company of holy men, and from time to time go into solitude and meditate on God. Furthermore, he should practice discrimination and pray to God, 'Give me faith and devotion.' Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospels of Ramakrishna,#KEYS
229:In Bahaí belief, the Holy Spirit is the conduit through which the wisdom of God becomes directly associated with his messenger, and it has been described variously in different religions such as the burning bush to Moses, the sacred fire to Zoroaster, the dove to Jesus, the angel Gabriel to Muhammad, and the Maid of Heaven to Bahaullah.[14] The Bahaí view rejects the idea that the Holy Spirit is a partner to God in the Godhead, but rather is the pure essence of Gods attributes
~ ?,#KEYS
230:Far be it from us to doubt that all number is known to Him 'Whose understanding is infinite' (Ps. 147:5). The infinity of number, though there be no numbering of infinite numbers, is yet not incomprehensible by Him Whose understanding is infinite. And thus, if everything which is comprehended is defined or made finite by the comprehension of him who knows it, then all infinity is in some ineffable way made finite to God, for it is comprehensible by His knowledge. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
231:One does not say to God, Show your love for me first, shower on me the experience of yourself, satisfy my demand, then I will see whether I can love you so long as you deserve it. It is surely the seeker who must seek and love first, follow the quest, become impassioned for the Sought-then only does the veil move aside and the Light be seen and the Face manifest that alone can satisfy the soul after its long sojourn in the desert
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Yoga - II, Sadhana through Love and Devotion,#KEYS
232:Don't appeal to mercy to God the Father up in the sky, little man, because he's not at home and never was at home, and couldn't care less. What you do with yourself, whether you are happy or unhappy-- live or die-- is strictly your business and the universe doesn't care. In fact you may be the universe and the only cause of all your troubles. But, at best, the most you can hope for is comradeship with comrades no more divine (or just as divine) as you are. So quit sniveling and face up to it-- 'Thou art God!'
~ Robert Heinlein, Oct. 21, 1960.,#KEYS
233:If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. The bee, realizing the joy of sipping honey, doesn't buzz about any more. What will vou achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else.
What will you gain by merely repeating 'siddhi'? You will not be intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a longing heart. ~ Sri Ramakrishna?,#KEYS
234:But you must remember that nothing can be achieved except in its proper time. Some persons must pass through many experiences and perform many worldly duties before they can turn their attention to God; so they have to wait a long time. If an abscess is lanced before it is soft, the result is not good; the surgeon makes the opening when it is soft and has come to a head. Once a child said to its mother: 'Mother, I am going to sleep now. Please wake me up when I feel the call of nature.' 'My child,' said the mother, 'when it is time for that, you will wake up yourself. I shan't have to wake you.' ~ Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
235:A man will cherish the illusion that he is the doer as long as he has not seen God, as long as he has not touched the Philosopher's Stone. So long will he know the distinction between his good and bad actions. This awareness of distinction is due to God's maya; and it is necessary for the purpose of running His illusory world. But a man can realize God if he takes shelter under His vidyamaya and follows the path of righteousness. He who knows God and realizes Him is able to go beyond maya. He who firmly believes that God alone is the Doer and he himself a mere instrument is a jivanmukta, a free soul though living in a body. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
236:The glory he had glimpsed must be his home. ||19.2||
A brighter heavenlier sun must soon illume
This dusk room with its dark internal stair,
The infant soul in its small nursery school
Mid objects meant for a lesson hardly learned
Outgrow its early grammar of intellect
And its imitation of Earth-Nature’s art,
Its earthly dialect to God-language change,
In living symbols study Reality
And learn the logic of the Infinite. ||19.3||
The Ideal must be Nature’s common truth,
The body illumined with the indwelling God,
The heart and mind feel one with all that is,
A conscious soul live in a conscious world. ||19.4|| ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, 1:5, || 19.2 - 19.4 ||,#KEYS
237:18. Of the devotees, who is the greatest?
He who gives himself up to the Self that is God is the most excellent devotee. Giving one's self up to God means remaining constantly in the Self without giving room for the rise of any thoughts other than that of the Self. Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not? We know that the train carries all loads, so after getting on it why should we carry our small luggage on our head to our discomfort, instead of putting it down in the train and feeling at ease? ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who am I,#KEYS
238:The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation aroused only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation. This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from world-existence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monists, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga,#KEYS
239:God doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his own master. But God can be seen the moment His grace descends. He is the Sun of Knowledge. One single ray of His has illumined the world with the light of knowledge. That is how we are able to see one another and acquire varied knowledge. One can see God only if He turns His light toward His own face.
The police sergeant goes his rounds in the dark of night with a lantern in his hand. No one sees his face; but with the help of that light the sergeant sees everybody's face, and others, too, can see one another. If you want to see the sergeant, however, you must pray to him: 'Sir, please turn the light on your own face. Let me see you.' In the same way one must pray to God: 'O Lord, be gracious and turn the light of knowledge on Thyself, that I may see Thy face.' ~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
240:The Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape from the world to God, synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of shortcuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a synthesis becomes necessary.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Synthesis of the Systems, 45,#KEYS
241:And the first of the adepts covered His shame with a cloth, walking backwards, and was white. And the second of the adepts covered his shame with a cloth, walking sideways, and was yellow. And the third of the adepts made a mock of His nakedness, walking forwards, and was black. And these are the three great schools of the Magi, who are also the three Magi that journeyed unto Bethlehem; and because thou hast not wisdom, thou shalt not know which school prevaileth, or if the three schools be not one.*
* This doctrine of the Three Schools is of extreme interest. Roughly, it may be said that the White is the Pure Mystic, whose attitude to God is one of reverence. The Yellow School conceals the Mysteries indeed, but examines them as it goes along. The Black School is that of pure Scepticism. We are now ready to study the philosophical bases of these three Schools.
~ Aleister Crowley, Magick Without Tears?, 43?,#KEYS
242:Jnanaprakasha:: Jnana includes both the Para and the Apara Vidya, the knowledge of Brahman in Himself and the knowledge of the world; but the Yogin, reversing the order of the worldly mind, seeks to know Brahman first and through Brahman the world. Scientific knowledge, worldly information & instruction are to him secondary objects, not as it is with the ordinary scholar & scientist, his primary aim. Nevertheless these too we must take into our scope and give room to God's full joy in the world. The methods of the Yogin are also different for he tends more and more to the use of direct vision and the faculties of the vijnana and less and less to intellectual means. The ordinary man studies the object from outside and infers its inner nature from the results of his external study. The Yogin seeks to get inside his object, know it from within & use external study only as a means of confirming his view of the outward action resulting from an already known inner nature.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Record Of Yoga - I,#KEYS
243:There is only one thing painful in the beginning to a raw or turbid part of the surface nature; it is the indispensable discipline demanded, the denial necessary for the merging of the incomplete ego. But for that there can be a speedy and enormous compensation in the discovery of a real greater or ultimate completeness in others, in all things, in the cosmic oneness, in the freedom of the transcendent Self and Spirit, in the rapture of the touch of the Divine. Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Yoga of Divine Works, The Sacrifice, the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice [109],#KEYS
244:But in whatever way it comes, there must be a decision of the mind and the will and, as its result, a complete and effective self-consecration. The acceptance of a new spiritual idea-force and upward orientation in the being, an illumination, a turning or conversion seized on by the will and the heart's aspiration, -this is the momentous act which contains as in a seed all the results that the Yoga has to give. The mere idea or intellectual seeking of something higher beyond, however strongly grasped by the mind's interest, is ineffective unless it is seized on by the heart as the one thing desirable and by the will as the one thing to be done. For truth of the Spirit has not to be merely thought but to be lived, and to live it demands a unified single-mindedness of the being; so great a change as is contemplated by the Yoga is not to be effected by a divided will or by a small portion of the energy or by a hesitating mind. He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Self-Consecration,#KEYS
245:SHYAM: "What is the distinction between the gross body and the subtle body?"
MASTER: "The body consisting of the five gross elements is called the gross body. The subtle body is made up of the mind, the ego, the discriminating faculty, and the mind-stuff. There is also a causal body, by means of which one enjoys the Bliss of God and holds communion with Him. The Tantra calls it the Bhagavati Tanu, the Divine Body. Beyond all these is the Mahakarana, the Great Cause. That cannot be expressed by words.
"What is the use of merely listening to words? Do something! What will you achieve by merely repeating the word 'siddhi'? Will that intoxicate you? You will not be intoxicated even if you make a paste of siddhi and rub it all over your body. You must eat some of it. How can a man recognize yarns of different counts, such as number forty and number forty-one, unless he is in the trade? Those who trade in yarn do not find it at all difficult to describe a thread of a particular count. Therefore I say, practise a little spiritual discipline; then you will know all these — the gross, the subtle, the causal, and the Great Cause. While praying to God, ask only for love for His Lotus Feet." ~ Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
246:Bhakti Yoga, the Path of Devotion; :::
The path of Devotion aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss and utilses normally the conception of the supreme Lord in His personality as the divine Lover and enjoyer of the universe. The world is then realised as a a play of the Lord, with our human life as its final stages, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revealation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase the intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation. ... We can see how this larger application of the Yoga of Devotion may be used as to lead to the elevation of the whole range of human emotion, sensation and aesthetic perception to the divine level, its spiritualisation and the justification of the cosmic labour towards love and joy in humanity.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, Introduction - The Conditions of the Synthesis, The Systems of Yoga,#KEYS
247:Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others,—though to God nothing is impossible. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral Yoga
For a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral Yoga
If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka Of Integral yoga
If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga: Renunciation
Sadhaka of Integral yoga
To give oneself is the secret of sadhana, not to demand and acquire a thing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Mother with Letters on The Mother, The Mother's Love,#KEYS
248:Shastra is the knowledge and teaching laid down by intuition, experience and wisdom, the science and art and ethic of life, the best standards available to the race. The half-awakened man who leaves the observance of its rule to follow the guidance of his instincts and desires, can get pleasure but not happiness; for the inner happiness can only come by right living. He cannot move to perfection, cannot acquire the highest spiritual status. The law of instinct and desire seems to come first in the animal world, but the manhood of man grows by the pursuit of truth and religion and knowledge and a right life. The Shastra, the recognised Right that he has set up to govern his lower members by his reason and intelligent will, must therefore first be observed and made the authority for conduct and works and for what should or should not be done, till the instinctive desire nature is schooled and abated and put down by the habit of self-control and man is ready first for a freer intelligent self-guidance and then for the highest supreme law and supreme liberty of the spiritual nature.
For the Shastra in its ordinary aspect is not that spiritual law, although at its loftiest point, when it becomes a science and art of spiritual living, Adhyatma-shastra, - the Gita itself describes its own teaching as the highest and most secret Shastra, - it formulates a rule of the self-transcendence of the sattwic nature and develops the discipline which leads to spiritual transmutation. Yet all Shastra is built on a number of preparatory conditions, dharmas; it is a means, not an end. The supreme end is the freedom of the spirit when abandoning all dharmas the soul turns to God for its sole law of action, acts straight from the divine will and lives in the freedom of the divine nature, not in the Law, but in the Spirit. This is the development of the teaching which is prepared by the next question of Arjuna. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays On The Gita,#KEYS
249:Nati is the submission of the soul to the will of God; its acceptance of all touches as His touches, of all experience as His play with the soul of man. Nati may be with titiksha, feeling the sorrow but accepting it as God's will, or with udasinata, rising superior to it and regarding joy and sorrow equally as God's working in these lower instruments, or with ananda, receiving everything as the play of Krishna and therefore in itself delightful. The last is the state of the complete Yogin, for by this continual joyous or anandamaya namaskara to God constantly practised we arrive eventually at the entire elimination of grief, pain etc, the entire freedom from the dwandwas, and find the Brahmananda in every smallest, most trivial, most apparently discordant detail of life & experience in this human body. We get rid entirely of fear and suffering; Anandam Brahmano vidvan na bibheti kutaschana. We may have to begin with titiksha and udasinata but it is in this ananda that we must consummate the siddhi of samata. The Yogin receives victory and defeat, success and ill-success, pleasure and pain, honour and disgrace with an equal, a sama ananda, first by buddhi-yoga, separating himself from his habitual mental & nervous reactions & insisting by vichara on the true nature of the experience itself and of his own soul which is secretly anandamaya, full of the sama ananda in all things. He comes to change all the ordinary values of experience; amangala reveals itself to him as mangala, defeat & ill-success as the fulfilment of God's immediate purpose and a step towards ultimate victory, grief and pain as concealed and perverse forms of pleasure. A stage arrives even, when physical pain itself, the hardest thing for material man to bear, changes its nature in experience and becomes physical ananda; but this is only at the end when this human being, imprisoned in matter, subjected to mind, emerges from his subjection, conquers his mind and delivers himself utterly in his body, realising his true anandamaya self in every part of the adhara.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Record Of Yoga,#KEYS
250:In the Indian spiritual tradition, a heart's devotion to God, called Bhakti, is regarded as the easiest path to the Divine. What is Bhakti? Is it some extravagant religious sentimentalism? Is it inferior to the path of Knowledge? What is the nature of pure and complete spiritual devotion to God and how to realise it?
What Is Devotion?
...bhakti in its fullness is nothing but an entire self-giving. But then all meditation, all tapasya, all means of prayer or mantra must have that as its end... [SABCL, 23:799]
Devotion Is a State of the Heart and Soul
Bhakti is not an experience, it is a state of the heart and soul. It is a state which comes when the psychic being is awake and prominent. [SABCL, 23:776]
...Worship is only the first step on the path of devotion. Where external worship changes into the inner adoration, real Bhakti begins; that deepens into the intensity of divine love; that love leads to the joy of closeness in our relations with the Divine; the joy of closeness passes into the bliss of union. [SABCL, 21:525]
Devotion without Gratitude Is Incomplete
...there is another movement which should constantly accompany devotion. ... That kind of sense of gratitude that the Divine exists; that feeling of a marvelling thankfulness which truly fills you with a sublime joy at the fact that the Divine exists, that there is something in the universe which is the Divine, that it is not just the monstrosity we see, that there is the Divine, the Divine exists. And each time that the least thing puts you either directly or indirectly in contactwith this sublime Reality of divine existence, the heart is filled with so intense, so marvellous a joy, such a gratitude as of all things has the most delightful taste.
There is nothing which gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. One hears a bird sing, sees a lovely flower, looks at a little child, observes an act of generosity, reads a beautiful sentence, looks at the setting sun, no matter what, suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion-indeed so deep, so intense-that the world manifests the Divine, that there is something behind the world which is the Divine.
So I find that devotion without gratitude is quite incomplete, gratitude must come with devotion. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
251:they are acting all the while in the spirit of rajasic ahaṅkara, persuade themselves that God is working through them and they have no part in the action. This is because they are satisfied with the mere intellectual assent to the idea without waiting for the whole system and life to be full of it. A continual remembrance of God in others and renunciation of individual eagerness (spr.ha) are needed and a careful watching of our inner activities until God by the full light of self-knowledge, jñanadı̄pena bhasvata, dispels all further chance of self-delusion. The danger of tamogun.a is twofold, first, when the Purusha thinks, identifying himself with the tamas in him, "I am weak, sinful, miserable, ignorant, good-for-nothing, inferior to this man and inferior to that man, adhama, what will God do through me?" - as if God were limited by the temporary capacities or incapacities of his instruments and it were not true that he can make the dumb to talk and the lame to cross the hills, mūkaṁ karoti vacalaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim, - and again when the sadhak tastes the relief, the tremendous relief of a negative santi and, feeling himself delivered from all troubles and in possession of peace, turns away from life and action and becomes attached to the peace and ease of inaction. Remember always that you too are Brahman and the divine Shakti is working in you; reach out always to the realisation of God's omnipotence and his delight in the Lila. He bids Arjuna work lokasaṅgraharthaya, for keeping the world together, for he does not wish the world to sink back into Prakriti, but insists on your acting as he acts, "These worlds would be overpowered by tamas and sink into Prakriti if I did not do actions." To be attached to inaction is to give up our action not to God but to our tamasic ahaṅkara. The danger of the sattvagun.a is when the sadhak becomes attached to any one-sided conclusion of his reason, to some particular kriya or movement of the sadhana, to the joy of any particular siddhi of the yoga, perhaps the sense of purity or the possession of some particular power or the Ananda of the contact with God or the sense of freedom and hungers after it, becomes attached to that only and would have nothing else. Remember that the yoga is not for yourself; for these things, though they are part of the siddhi, are not the object of the siddhi, for you have decided at the beginning to make no claim upon God but take what he gives you freely and, as for the Ananda, the selfless soul will even forego the joy of God's presence, ... ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #KEYS
252:It is natural from the point of view of the Yoga to divide into two categories the activities of the human mind in its pursuit of knowledge. There is the supreme supra-intellectual knowledge which concentrates itself on the discovery of the One and Infinite in its transcendence or tries to penetrate by intuition, contemplation, direct inner contact into the ultimate truths behind the appearances of Nature; there is the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in or through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us. These two, an upper and a lower hemisphere, in the form of them constructed or conceived by men within the mind's ignorant limits, have even there separated themselves, as they developed, with some sharpness.... Philosophy, sometimes spiritual or at least intuitive, sometimes abstract and intellectual, sometimes intellectualising spiritual experience or supporting with a logical apparatus the discoveries of the spirit, has claimed always to take the fixation of ultimate Truth as its province. But even when it did not separate itself on rarefied metaphysical heights from the knowledge that belongs to the practical world and the pursuit of ephemeral objects, intellectual Philosophy by its habit of abstraction has seldom been a power for life. It has been sometimes powerful for high speculation, pursuing mental Truth for its own sake without any ulterior utility or object, sometimes for a subtle gymnastic of the mind in a mistily bright cloud-land of words and ideas, but it has walked or acrobatised far from the more tangible realities of existence. Ancient Philosophy in Europe was more dynamic, but only for the few; in India in its more spiritualised forms, it strongly influenced but without transforming the life of the race.... Religion did not attempt, like Philosophy, to live alone on the heights; its aim was rather to take hold of man's parts of life even more than his parts of mind and draw them Godwards; it professed to build a bridge between spiritual Truth and the vital and material human existence; it strove to subordinate and reconcile the lower to the higher, make life serviceable to God, Earth obedient to Heaven. It has to be admitted that too often this necessary effort had the opposite result of making Heaven a sanction for Earth's desires; for, continually, the religious idea has been turned into an excuse for the worship and service of the human ego. Religion, leaving constantly its little shining core of spiritual experience, has lost itself in the obscure mass of its ever extending ambiguous compromises with life: in attempting to satisfy the thinking mind, it more often succeeded in oppressing or fettering it with a mass of theological dogmas; while seeking to net the human heart, it fell itself into pits of pietistic emotionalism and sensationalism; in the act of annexing the vital nature of man to dominate it, it grew itself vitiated and fell a prey to all the fanaticism, homicidal fury, savage or harsh turn for oppression, pullulating falsehood, obstinate attachment to ignorance to which that vital nature is prone; its desire to draw the physical in man towards God betrayed it into chaining itself to ecclesiastic mechanism, hollow ceremony and lifeless ritual. The corruption of the best produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil. At the same time in a vain effort at self-defence against this downward gravitation, Religion was driven to cut existence into two by a division of knowledge, works, art, life itself into two opposite categories, the spiritual and the worldly, religious and mundane, sacred and profane; but this defensive distinction itself became conventional and artificial and aggravated rather than healed the disease.... On their side Science and Art and the knowledge of Life, although at first they served or lived in the shadow of Religion, ended by emancipating themselves, became estranged or hostile, or have even recoiled with indifference, contempt or scepticism from what seem to them the cold, barren and distant or unsubstantial and illusory heights of unreality to which metaphysical Philosophy and Religion aspire. For a time the divorce has been as complete as the one-sided intolerance of the human mind could make it and threatened even to end in a complete extinction of all attempt at a higher or a more spiritual knowledge. Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind's horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment. A sterile agnosticism awaits us above the brilliant phosphorescence of a half-knowledge that is still the Ignorance. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Ascent of the Sacrifice - 1, #KEYS
253:The Two Paths Of Yoga :::
14 April 1929 - What are the dangers of Yoga? Is it especially dangerous to the people of the West? Someone has said that Yoga may be suitable for the East, but it has the effect of unbalancing the Western mind.
Yoga is not more dangerous to the people of the West than to those of the East. Everything depends upon the spirit with which you approach it. Yoga does become dangerous if you want it for your own sake, to serve a personal end. It is not dangerous, on the contrary, it is safety and security itself, if you go to it with a sense of its sacredness, always remembering that the aim is to find the Divine.
Dangers and difficulties come in when people take up Yoga not for the sake of the Divine, but because they want to acquire power and under the guise of Yoga seek to satisfy some ambition. if you cannot get rid of ambition, do not touch the thing. It is fire that burns.
There are two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline), and the other of surrender. The path of tapasya is arduous. Here you rely solely upon yourself, you proceed by your own strength. You ascend and achieve according to the measure of your force. There is always the danger of falling down. And once you fall, you lie broken in the abyss and there is hardly a remedy. The other path, the path of surrender, is safe and sure. It is here, however, that the Western people find their difficulty. They have been taught to fear and avoid all that threatens their personal independence. They have imbibed with their mothers' milk the sense of individuality. And surrender means giving up all that. In other words, you may follow, as Ramakrishna says, either the path of the baby monkey or that of the baby cat. The baby monkey holds to its mother in order to be carried about and it must hold firm, otherwise if it loses its grip, it falls. On the other hand, the baby cat does not hold to its mother, but is held by the mother and has no fear nor responsibility; it has nothing to do but to let the mother hold it and cry ma ma.
If you take up this path of surrender fully and sincerely, there is no more danger or serious difficulty. The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga. If you were dealing in human affairs, then you could resort to deception; but in dealing with the Divine there is no possibility of deception anywhere. You can go on the Path safely when you are candid and open to the core and when your only end is to realise and attain the Divine and to be moved by the Divine. There is another danger; it is in connection with the sex impulses. Yoga in its process of purification will lay bare and throw up all hidden impulses and desires in you. And you must learn not to hide things nor leave them aside, you have to face them and conquer and remould them. The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free, they rush up and invade the being. So long as this mental control has not been replaced by the Divine control, there is a period of transition when your sincerity and surrender will be put to the test. The strength of such impulses as those of sex lies usually in the fact that people take too much notice of them; they protest too vehemently and endeavour to control them by coercion, hold them within and sit upon them. But the more you think of a thing and say, "I don't want it, I don't want it", the more you are bound to it. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to dissociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned. The impulses and desires that come up by the pressure of Yoga should be faced in a spirit of detachment and serenity, as something foreign to yourself or belonging to the outside world. They should be offered to the Divine, so that the Divine may take them up and transmute them. If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, "I want union with you" and in your heart meaning "I want powers and enjoyments"? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficulties - difficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
254:Chapter 18 - Trapped in a Dream
(A guy is playing a pinball machine, seemingly the same guy who rode with him in the back of the boat car. This part is played by Richard Linklater, aka, the director.)
Hey, man.
Hey.
Weren't you in a boat car? You know, the guy, the guy with the hat? He gave me a ride in his car, or boat thing, and you were in the back seat with me?
I mean, I'm not saying that you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about.
No, you see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot that you gave him directions to let me off at, I get out, and end up getting hit by a car, but then, I just woke up because I was dreaming, and later than that, I found out that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I'd woken up.
Oh yeah, those are called false awakenings. I used to have those all the time.
Yeah, but I'm still in it now. I, I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever, I keep waking up, but, but I'm just waking up into another dream. I'm starting to get creeped out, too. Like I'm talking to dead people. This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dreamtime that exists outside of life. I mean, (desperate sigh) I'm starting to think that I'm dead.
I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had. I know that's, when someone says that, then usually you're in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be, but it sounds like, you know, what else are you going to do, right? Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.
What, you read it in your dream?
No, no. I read it before the dream. It was the preamble to the dream. It was about that book, um Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. You know that one?
Uh, yeah yeah, he won an award for that one.
Right, right. That's the one he wrote really fast. It just like flowed right out of him. He felt he was sort of channeling it, or something. But anyway, about four years after it was published, he was at this party, and he met this woman who had the same name as the woman character in the book. And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book, and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police, and he had the same name as the chief of police in his book. So she's telling him all of this stuff from her life, and everything she's saying is right out of his book. So that's totally freaking him out, but, what can he do?
And then shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter, and he saw this kind of, um, you know, dangerous, shady looking guy standing by his car, but instead of avoiding him, which he says he would have usually done, he just walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?" And the guy said, "Yeah. I, I ran out of gas." So he pulls out his wallet, and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done, and then he gets home and thinks, wait a second, this guy, you know, he can't get to a gas station, he's out of gas. So he gets back in his car, he goes and finds the guy, takes him to the gas station, and as he's pulling up at the gas station, he realizes, "Hey, this is in my book too. This exact station, this exact guy. Everything."
So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he's telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts. You're describing the Book of Acts." And he's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts." So he, you know, goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it's like uncanny. Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of Acts.
And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge, or demon, had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And that we're all in 50 A.D., and there's someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that's what time is. That's what all of history is. It's just this kind of continuous, you know, daydream, or distraction.
And so I read that, and I was like, well that's weird. And than that night I had a dream and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, you know, he's not really a psychic, you know I'm thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating, up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like, "Okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down please." And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.
Now Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person. And though I'd never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says, "Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's 50 A.D. Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation. I mean that's what time is. I mean, and it's no more 50 A.D. than it's two thousand and one. And there's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in."
And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes." All of life is like, "No thank you. No thank you. No thank you." then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace." I mean, that's the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right?
Right.
So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me. And so I'm petting him, really happy to see him, you know, he's been dead for years. So I'm petting him and I realize there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach. And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs. She's like [cough] [cough] "Oh, excuse me." And there's vomit, like dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad. And I think, "Well, wait a second, that's not just the smell of vomit," which is, doesn't smell very good, "that's the smell of like dead person vomit." You know, so it's like doubly foul. And then I realize I'm actually in the land of the dead, and everyone around me is dead. My dog had been dead for over ten years, Lady Gregory had been dead a lot longer than that. When I finally woke up, I was like, whoa, that wasn't a dream, that was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead.
So what happened? I mean how did you finally get out of it?
Oh man. It was just like one of those like life altering experiences. I mean I could never really look at the world the same way again, after that.
Yeah, but I mean like how did you, how did you finally get out of the dream? See, that's my problem. I'm like trapped. I keep, I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream. It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it, and I want to wake up for real. How do you really wake up?
I don't know, I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore. But, um, if that's what you're thinking, I mean you, you probably should. I mean, you know if you can wake up, you should, because you know someday, you know, you won't be able to. So just, um ... But it's easy. You know. Just, just wake up. ~ Waking Life,#KEYS
255:DEVOTEE: "How can I develop love for God?"
MASTER: "Repeat His name, and sins will disappear. Thus you will destroy lust, anger, the desire for creature comforts, and so on."
DEVOTEE: "How can I take delight in God's name?"
MASTER: "Pray to God with a yearning heart that you may take delight in His name. He will certainly fulfil your heart's desire." ~ Sri Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Pray to God and say the lines. ~ bette-davis, @wisdomtrove 2:There's no limit to God's love. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 3:Suffering brings me so close to God. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 4:Service to man is service to god ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 5:Faith is your reaction to God's ability. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 6:I ascribe my change wholly to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 7:Let every man come to God in his own way. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 8:To God all things are beautiful and good and just. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 9:We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 10:May gratitude to God permeate my entire life. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 11:Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 12:I prefer being honest to being & 13:Even if I want I cannot make you say sorry to God. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 14:Listen to no man who has not listened to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 15:Theology is a science of mind applied to God. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 16:A tear is enough water to float a desire to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 17:Love is the Song of the Soul singing to God. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 18:Man is to be understood only in his relationship to God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 19:To be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 20:In a real sense faith is total surrender to God . ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 21:Seek your master, say your prayers and surrender to God. ~ bulleh-shah, @wisdomtrove 22:A Christian is someone who has turned to God from idols. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 23:Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 24:If you will tend to God's business, He will tend to yours. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 25:If you have humility you are halfway to God-realization. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 26:I spent most of my time talking to God more than to people. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 27:Prayer is a silent surrendering of everything to God. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 28:Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 29:We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 30:Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 31:We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 32:Our way lies not in human ingenuity, but in a return to God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 33:The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 34:We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 35:The Christian's life should be one of thankfulness to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 36:Everyone sleeps, except lovers, who stay awake, telling stories to God. ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 37:If we keep holding on to God, there is nothing to fear. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 38:Next to God, “love” is the word most mangled in every language. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 39:Through prayer we speak to God. In meditation, God speaks to us. ~ edgar-cayce, @wisdomtrove 40:If you want to be loathsome to God, just run with the herd. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 41:The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 42:Sainthood lies in the habit of referring the smallest actions to God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 43:Solely by turning to God is there any hope for man to gain peace. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 44:The instant I reach Heaven, I'm going to speak to God very sharply. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 45:Each child born on earth Is a unique promise of God To God Himself. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 46:Obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 47:The whole duty of man is summed up in obedience to God's will. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 48:What you do to these men on California's Death Row, you do to God. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 49:Deflating inflated egos is so important to God that He offers to help. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 50:The closer we are to Nature, the closer we are to God. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 51:When you turn to God you discover He has been facing you all the time. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 52:Prayer is more than a wish; it is the voice of faith directed to God. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 53:The angels minister to God's servants in time of hardship and danger. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 54:Gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 55:Only the prayer which comes from our heart can get to God's heart. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 56:To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 57:An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 58:The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart. ~ plutarch, @wisdomtrove 59:Death belongs to God alone; by what right do men touch that unknown thing? ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 60:The glory of the salvation of souls belongs to God, and to Him alone. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 61:We in America should be grateful to God for the blessing he has given us. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 62:Crying to God for five minutes is equal to one hour of meditation. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 63:The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those who are close to him. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 64:The greatest gift one can give to God is to be pleased with his creation. ~ michael-singer, @wisdomtrove 65:When men enter into the state of marriage, they stand nearest to God. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 66:A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 67:Of all the gifts You have offered to God, Your happiness-gift He treasures most. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 68:I would as soon pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 69:Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 70:Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 71:The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 72:I look at you, and I see in you the yearning to get back to God. That yearning is love. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 73:My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. I have found this, too. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 74:If you want to be holy then you must give time to God and not just intend to. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 75:It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose him as an alternative to hell. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 76:It's amazing what we lose in life by listening to fear, instead of listening to God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 77:When we yield ourselves completely to God, He gives Himself completely to us. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 78:A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 79:It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 80:Whatever is making you so angry, it's time for you to give it to God and get over it. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 81:He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 82:Pray to God: It's all right if you don't love me, but please let me love you! ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 83:Any path to knowledge is a path to God-or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use ~ arthur-c-carke, @wisdomtrove 84:He who looks sinward has his back to God-he who looks Godward has his back to sin. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 85:Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 86:It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God than religion. ~ paul-davies, @wisdomtrove 87:Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn't him. ~ douglas-adams, @wisdomtrove 88:I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 89:To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 90:Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 91:No matter how often I talk to God, he never tells me anything I didn’t already know. ~ ashleigh-brilliant, @wisdomtrove 92:We are called not to adjust ourselves to each other, but to adjust ourselves to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 93:To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 94:Every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 95:... our little things are all big to God's love; our big things are all small to His power. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 96:Prayer is simply talking to God like a friend and should be the easiest thing we do each day. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 97:The curses of the ungodly are more pleasing to God's ears than the hallelujahs of the pious ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 98:The truth is, if we don't learn to submit to authority, we won't ever learn to submit to God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 99:We shall not long have love to man if we do not first and chiefly cultivate love to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 100:No man has any right to speak to men about God who has not first spoken to God about men. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 101:The world will never be converted to God unitl Christians cry less and laugh and sing more. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 102:To be religious is to have one's attention fixed on God and on one's neighbour in relation to God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 103:Turn you situation over to God because He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 104:True worship, worship that is pleasing to God, radiates throughout a person's entire life. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 105:Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 106:The gratitude ascending from man to God is the supreme transaction between earth and heaven. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 107:When you desire to be most alive to God, you will generally find sin most alive to repel you. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 108:You should give your all to God, and then worry no more about what he may do with what is his. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 109:How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 110:Motives reveal why we do what we do, which is actually more important to God than what we're doing. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 111:My friends, it is one thing to go to church or chapel; it is quite another thing to go to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 112:The next time you are called to suffer, pay attention. It may be the closest you'll ever get to God. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 113:Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do that with all thy might and leave the issues calmly to God. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 114:and thus of being conjoined to God by faith and love, and to be conjoined to God is to live to ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 115:Forgiveness doesn't diminish justice; it just entrusts it to God. He guarantees the right retribution. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 116:Never hesitate to take what you think are small things to God; after all, EVERYTHING is small to God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 117:If we are to be just like Jesus, we must have regular time of talking to God and listening to his Word. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 118:Make sure you are doing what is important to God-not just what is important to everyone else you know. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 119:Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God the more of God will be seen in you. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 120:The great conversion called for by Jesus is to move from belonging to the world to belonging to God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 121:We must do worldly jobs, but if we do them with sanctified minds, they become offerings to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 122:No man gives anything acceptable to God until has has first given himself in love and sacrifice. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 123:Our talents are the gift that God gives to us... What we make of our talents is our gift back to God ~ leo-buscaglia, @wisdomtrove 124:We do not come to God as bad people trying to become good people; we come as rebels to lay down our arms. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 125:If a Hindu wants to find the way to God, he has the right to go to any priest, nun or any other person. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 126:Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 127:There is but one temple in this Universe: The Body. We speak to God whenever we lay our hands upon it. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 128:Humility can give everything to God. Everything comes from the source, everything returns to the source. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 129:I turned to speak to God About the world's despair But to make bad matters worse I found God wasn't there. ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 130:Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 131:Nothing that man can present to God by way of sacrifice can ever purchase the blessing of forgiveness. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 132:Prayer feeds the soul - as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul - and it brings you closer to God. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 133:Prayer is speaking to God - but sometimes He uses our times of prayerful silence to speak to us in return. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 134:We ought not to be looking for a place to hide, but a place to give ourselves as an offering to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 135:I turned to speak to God About the world's despair; But to make bad matters worse, I found God wasn't there ~ robert-frost, @wisdomtrove 136:Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 137:But Pride always means enmity - it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 138:God does not love sinners because they are attractive; sinners are attractive to God because he loves them. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 139:I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 140:Prayer is first of all listening to God. It's openness. God is always speaking; he's always doing something. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 141:To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just. ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 142:To pray with your fists closed means you're hanging onto something. Let it go. Open your hands to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 143:As a broken microphone cannot broadcast a message, so a restless mind cannot transmit prayers to God ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 144:In vocal prayer we speak to God; in mental prayer he speaks to us. It is then that God pours Himself into us. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 145:Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 146:You have need to pray to God, not only to help you in your troubles& 147:Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an idolator, though he perform the highest and most heavy service of God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 148:Every day I pray. I yield myself to God and the tensions and anxieties go out of me and peace and power come in. ~ dale-carnegie, @wisdomtrove 149:The feeling of a direct responsibility of the individual to God is almost wholly a creation of Protestantism. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 150:He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 151:Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 152:I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights but also devote myself to God. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 153:I treat policies like war. I hoodwink one flank so as to trounce the other. In my family we kneel only to God. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 154:Suffering is sent to remind you to turn your thoughts towards That which is real - to God who will give you solace. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 155:I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: & 156:Love is the song of the soul singing to God. It is the balanced rhythmic dance of planets - sun and moon lit ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 157:Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 158:The whole being of any Christian is faith and love. Faith brings the person to God, love brings the person to people. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 159:This attachment of Love to God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 160:Song of God and Son of Man, there He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 161:Thank you, always say thank you; it's the greatest gift you can give someone; because thank you is what you say to God. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 162:In the great orchestra we call life, you have an instrument and a song, and you owe it to God to play them both sublimely. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 163:Since I am I, I must make an act of self-surrender, however small or however easy, in living to God rather than to my self. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 164:Knowing that all things contrary to God's laws are transient, let us avoid despair and radiate hope for a warless world. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 165:The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that uncertainty and all wisdom will be yours. ~ adyashanti, @wisdomtrove 166:We don't ask God for too much; in fact, we ask for too little. Turn to Him for everything. Give everything to God. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 167:Why wouldn't we run to God. He's sooo good. God's not mad at anybody. He just wants to help us be the best that we can be. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 168:Satan hates God for His own sake, and everything that is dear to God he hates for the very reason that God loves it. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 169:People who are close to God cultivate a personal intimacy with Him like a good gardener cultivates beautiful flowers. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 170:On the way to God you have to pass through beauty, pure beauty. If you do not pass through beauty it is not God that you find. ~ barry-long, @wisdomtrove 171:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 172:I always want to listen to people and receive good criticism, but I just don't have to answer to them; I have to answer to God. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 173:The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 174:I will not talk to God about how big my problems are. I will talk to my problems about how big my God is. This is my declaration. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 175:Men are free to decide their own moral choices, but they are also under the necessity to account to God for those choices. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 176:He bequeaths us His manger, from which to learn how God came down to man, and His cross to teach us how man may go up to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 177:If we understand and feel that the greatest act of devotion and worship to God is not to harm any of His beings, we are loving God. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 178:I'm convinced, more than ever, that man finds liberation only when he binds himself to God and commits himself to his fellow man. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 179:The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 180:The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 181:When we submit to God's plans, we can trust our desires. Our assignment is found at the intersection of God's plan and our pleasures. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 182:There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him... It has nothing in common with anything created. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 183:All work is empty save when there is love. And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. ~ kahlil-gibran, @wisdomtrove 184:Consider seriously how quickly people change, and how little trust is to be had in them; and hold fast to God, Who does not change. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 185:We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 186:As you read or listen to God's Word and spend time talking to Him in prayer, your spirit will eventually become stronger than your flesh. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 187:Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 188:When we're in the middle of a difficult time, we have to speak against that lie that says, "God is not here." We have to draw near to God. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 189:Glory to God in highest heaven, Who unto man His Son hath given; While angels sing with tender mirth, A glad new year to all the earth. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 190:Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts.. if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 191:The wish to talk to God is absurd. We cannot talk to one we cannot comprehend — and we cannot comprehend God; we can only believe in Him. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 192:Faith is opening and surrendering to God. The spiritual journey does not require going anywhere because God is already with us and in us. ~ thomas-keating, @wisdomtrove 193:For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 194:Plain horse sense ought to tell us that anything that makes no change in the man who professes it makes no difference to God, either. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 195:When you pray be sure that you listen as well as talk. You have things you want to say to God but He also has things He wants to say to you. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 196:I do make conversion, if conversion means really turning people to God - to have a clean heart and to love God. That's the real conversion. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 197:The saints rejoiced at injuries and persecutions, because in forgiving them they had something to present to God when they prayed to Him. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 198:Well, I tell you, if I have been wrong in my agnosticism, when I die I'll walk up to God in a manly way and say, Sir, I made an honest mistake. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 199:Apart from moral conduct, all that man thinks himself able to do in order to become acceptable to God is mere superstition and religious folly. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 200:In order to be true to one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to refuse to cooperate with an evil system. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 201:When a person, yielding to God and believing the truth of God, is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 202:If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love. ~ michelangelo, @wisdomtrove 203:There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, & 204:To trifle with Scripture is to deprive yourself of its aid. Reverence it, and look up to God with devout gratitude for having given it to you. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 205:I wish to God I knew as much about writing as I did when I was 19. I was absolutely certain about most things then. Also, I suspect, more accurate. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 206:True love is love that causes us pain, that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray to God and ask Him to give us the courage to love ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 207:When home is ruled according to God's Word, angels might be asked to stay a night with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 208:The only person you have to think about lying twice to is either yourself or to God. The press isn't either of them. And I just figured they're irrelevant. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 209:The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him for the healing of America - our country is in need of and ready for a spiritual renewal. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 210:When I try to describe myself to God I say, & 211:Patient and regular practice is the whole secret of spiritual realization. Do not be in a hurry in spiritual life. Do your utmost, and leave the rest to God. ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove 212:The hope is indeed that some will experience and believe: The purpose of a number of spiritual gurus is to demonstrate to God-fearing men faux spirituality. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 213:The child of God knows his good works do not make him acceptable to God, for he was acceptable to God by Jesus Christ long before he had any good works. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 214:We are not responsible to God for the soul that are saved, but we are responsible for the Gospel that is preached, and for the way in which we preach it ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 215:When you open the door which you shut in order to pray to God, the first person you meet as you go out is your neighbour whom you shall love. Wonderful! ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 216:The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. The God's name is Abraxas. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 217:Desire can be eradicated from the roots by firmly imbibing the four attributes of: Jnan, Atmanishtha, Vairagya, Dharma and the full fledged devotion to God. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 218:Next to God, love is the word most mangled in every language. The highest form of regard between two people is friendship, and when love enters, friendship dies. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 219:When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 220:God is not to be reached by the weak. Never be weak. You have infinite strength within you. How else will you conquer anything? How else will you come to God? ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 221:We suffer much agony because we try to get from people what only God can give us, which is a sense of worth and value. Look to God for what you need, not to people. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 222:You cannot study the Bible diligently and earnestly without being struck by an obvious fact-the whole matter of personal holiness is highly important to God! ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 223:The marvel of heaven and earth, of time and eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery that brings more glory to God than all creation. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 224:The way to innocence, to the uncreated and to God leads on, not back, not back to the wolf or to the child, but ever further into sin, ever deeper into human life. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 225:Through my obedience to God, He has been able to use my life to help others. It's been a great journey and I'm looking forward to all the things God has in the future. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 226:Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made. ~ antoine-de-saint-exupery, @wisdomtrove 227:Joy is prayer; joy is strength, joy is love. God loves a cheerful giver. The best way we can show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 228:Learn to commit every situation to God, and trust Him for the outcome. God's love for you never changes, no matter what problems you face or how unsettled life becomes. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 229:Over the years of much self-hate, I came to realize that whether sexuality was in my life or not, it didn't seem to matter. I just surrendered the whole thing to God. ~ frederick-lenz, @wisdomtrove 230:Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 231:Everybody has God inside, but not everybody is able to see God within. One can see God only when one cries for Him. Those who cry for God and pray to God can realise God. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 232:God much are the truly wealthy. So our inner happiness depends not on what we experience but on the degree of our gratitude to God, Gratitude ‚Äî the Secret of Life. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 233:When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 234:Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God's guidance. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 235:See to whom Jesus is drawing near, three kinds of people: to those who make peace with him, to those who are devoted to God, and to those who are kind to their neighbors. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 236:Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, & 237:Honest to God, Bill, the way things are going, all I can think of is that I'm a character in a book by somebody who wants to write about somebody who suffers all the time. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 238:See to whom Jesus is drawing near, three kinds of people: to those who make peace with him, to those who are devoted to God, and to those who are kind to their neighbors. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 239:Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 240:The Christian view is that men were created to be in a certain relationship to God (if we are in that relation to Him, the right relation to one another will follow inevitably). ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 241:I tell my mother I went to God in spite of my religious education. I feel that my religious education was inadequate, but that doesn't mean that Judaism was inadequate. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 242:Art can lead you to God. I think that's the purpose of everything. If it's not doing that, what's it doing? It's leading you the other way. It's certainly not leading you nowhere. ~ bob-dylan, @wisdomtrove 243:One will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 244:... the person who surrenders absolutely to God, with no reservations, is absolutely safe. From this safe hiding-place he can see the devil , but the devil cannot see him. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 245:If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 246:One will observe that all things are arranged according to their degrees of beauty and excellence, and that the nearer they are to God, the more beautiful and better they are. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 247:If you are having difficulty loving or relating to an individual, take him to God. Bother the Lord with this person. Don't you be bothered with him - leave him at the throne. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 248:They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. ~ francis-bacon, @wisdomtrove 249:It is our job to listen to God and let Him tell us what is going on and what we are to do about it - leaving the rest to Him to work out according to His knowledge and will, not ours. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 250:Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 251:His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied man. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 252:Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer. If every fret makes you lean more on the Beloved, it will be a benefit. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 253:No matter how dear you are to God, if pride is harboured in your spirit, He will whip it out of you. They that go up in their own estimation must come down again by His discipline ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 254:Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 255:Start calling yourself healed, happy, whole, blessed, and prosperous. Stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 256:Death, in the final analysis, is only the easiest and quickest means to go back to God. If only we could make people understand that we come from God and that we have to go back to Him! ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 257:Life is short. Time is fleeting. Realize the Self. Purity of the heart is the gateway to God. Aspire. Renounce. Meditate. Be good; do good. Be kind; be compassionate. Inquire, know Thyself. ~ sivananda, @wisdomtrove 258:The nearer we are to God, the less we will have occasions to cry or weep. The further we are from God, the more will long faces come. The more we know God, the more misery vanishes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 259:To God all things are beautiful, good, and right; human beings, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong. It would not be better if things happened to people just as they ~ heraclitus, @wisdomtrove 260:It is not woman who claims the highest in man. It is a man's own religious soul that drives him on beyond women, to his supreme activity. For his highest, man is responsible to God alone. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 261:Even people who don't share my specific faith (denomination, beliefs, etc.) are typically enthusiastic about my profession of faith in God and my commitment to living to God-given standards. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 262:The full acting out of the self's surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 263:A man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world - his heart to God and his hands to work. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 264:I didn't believe it could be so monstrous. It's wrong to be so absorbed in divine law as not to perceive human law. Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men tough that unknown thing? ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 265:It is written on the gate of heaven: Nothing in existence is more powerful than destiny. And destiny brought you here, to this page, which is part of your ticket-as all things are-to return to God. ~ hafez, @wisdomtrove 266:The purpose of life is to listen - to yourself, to your neighbor, to your world and to God and, when the time comes, to respond in as helpful a way as you can find ... from within and without. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 267:I take the assumption that every religion has been rooted in some mystical or transcendent experience. From that assumption, I just look at all the different systems as metaphors or doorways to God. ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 268:The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, & 269:But if you search further, you find in yourself nothing similar to God, but rather you affirm that God stands above all this as cause, origin, and the light of life of your intellective soul. ~ nicholas-of-cusa, @wisdomtrove 270:There is a descent from God through the world to animals, and an ascent from animals through the world to God. He is the highest point of the scale, pure act and active power, the purest light. ~ giordano-bruno, @wisdomtrove 271:There are such things as consecrated griefs, sorrows that may be common to everyone but which take on a special character when accepted intelligently and offered to God in loving submission. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 272:God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak to God from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 273:Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God's punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 274:In a world that might say one vote doesn't matter... , it does matter because each person is of infinite worth and value to God... Your vote is a declaration of importance as a person and a citizen. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 275:In meditative prayer, one thinks and speaks not only with the mind and lips, but in a certain sense with one's whole being... All good meditative prayer is a conversation of our entire self to God. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 276:This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 277:Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God's punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 278:The Bible teaches that faith is the only approach that we have to God. No man has sins forgiven, no man goes to heaven, no man has assurance of peace and happiness, until he has faith in Jesus Christ. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 279:The good man has his enemies. He would not be like His Lord if he had not. If we were without enemies we might fear that we were not the friends of God, for friendship of the world is enmity to God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 280:The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up. The shortcut to closing a door is to bury yourself in the details. This is how we must look to God. As if everything's fine. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 281:We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 282:We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 283:Love is as simple as the absence of self- given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 284:The finite mind of man can never grasp the mysteries of the infinite. It is the highest wisdom, as it is our great happiness, to accept our limitations, to use what we have, and leave the rest to God. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 285:The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart." -Charles Spurgeon ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 286:TO worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 287:I suppose identity depends on memory. And if my memory is blotted out, then I wonder if I exist - I mean, if I am the same person. Of course, I don't have to solve that problem. It's up to God, if any. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 288:Man is so created that as to his internal he cannot die; for he is capable of believing in God, and thus of being conjoined to God by faith and love, and to be conjoined to God is to live to eternity. ~ emanuel-swedenborg, @wisdomtrove 289:If the average man is made in God's image, then a man such as Beethoven or Aristotle is plainly superior to God, and so God may be jealous of him, and eager to see his superiority perish with his bodily frame. ~ h-l-mencken, @wisdomtrove 290:As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God's voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through our words. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 291:Never give up! Never give up! Physical fitness is of paramount importance. There is no age limit when we live in the heart and when we try to be of prayerful and soulful service to God in the heart of humanity. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 292:Through the higher love the whole life of man is to be elevated from temporal selfishness to the spring of all love, to God: man will again be master over nature by abiding in God and lifting her up to God. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 293:We can express our worship to God in many ways. But if we love the Lord and are led by His Holy Spirit, our worship will always bring a delighted sense of admiring awe and a sincere humility on our part. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 294:I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless; That only men incredulous of despair, half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air beat upward to god's throne in loud access of shrieking and reproach ~ elizabeth-barrett-browning, @wisdomtrove 295:There is no one true religion, each religion has its truths and there are many paths we can choose to take that will lead us to to God. All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven in his own way. ~ epictetus, @wisdomtrove 296:We must of necessity be servant to someone, either to God or to sin. The man who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and gentle master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 297:Man has infinite power within himself, and he can realise it - he can realise himself as the one infinite Self. It can be done; but you do not believe it. You pray to God and keep your powder dry all the time. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 298:Christ took our sins and the sins of the whole world as well as the Father's wrath on his shoulders, and he has drowned them both in himself so that we are thereby reconciled to God and become completely righteous. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 299:Our valleys may be filled with foes and tears; but we can lift our eyes to the hills to see God and the angels, heaven's spectators, who support us according to God's infinite wisdom as they prepare our welcome home. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 300:Theology is but a science of applied to God. As schools change theology must necessarily change. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas of truth are not. Theology is but our ideas of truth classified and arranged. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 301:When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you're right in the center of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 302:I rarely speak about God. To God yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But open discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 303:A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in his love than in your weakness. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 304:If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave; they will never rise again when you have committed them to Him. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back again like the stone of Sisyphus. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 305:of God in my life. I surrender my mind, my heart, my need for safety, and my need for rational explanations and orderly instructions to God’s will for me. I trust that all that is in my life is as it should be. I release ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 306:We get our moral bearings by looking at God. We must begin with God. We are right when, and only when, we stand in a right position relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other position. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 307:God's greatest truth is that there is not one way only but many ways Home. There are a thousand paths to God and everyone will get you there. Indeed, all paths lead to God. This is because there is no other place to go. ~ neale-donald-walsch, @wisdomtrove 308:I always begin my prayer in silence, for it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is the friend of silence-we need to listen to God because it's not what we say but what He says to us and through us that matters. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 309:One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like. Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 310:In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 311:of God in my life. I surrender my mind, my heart, my need for safety, and my need for rational explanations and orderly instructions to God’s will for me. I trust that all that is in my life is as it should be. I release ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 312:The exterior must be joined to the interior to obtain anything from God, that is to say, we must kneel, pray with the lips, and soon, in order that proud man, who would not submit himself to God, may be now subject to the creature. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 313:As far back as I can remember, my mother would have me down by the bed at night with her, praying. I can still hear her voice calling my name to God and telling him that she wanted me to follow him in whatever he called me to do. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 314:I would to God that saints would cling to Christ half as earnestly as sinners cling to the devil. If we were as willing to suffer for God as some are to suffer for their lusts, what perseverance and zeal would be seen on all sides! ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 315:Religion is to be used as a stepping stone to God but it must never be used as a tower to hold one aloft from others. We are all cells in the body of humanity. When anyone attempts to isolate another, they only isolate themselves more. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 316:We minister the Word of God. The proclamation of the Gospel comes after individuals have opened their hearts to God and turned from themselves to others. Only then are they truly ready to hear and benefit fully from the Word of the Lord. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 317:For the first time in the history of the world, Buddhism proclaimed a salvation which each individual could gain from him or herself, in this world, during this life, without any least reference to God, or to gods either great or small. ~ aldous-huxley, @wisdomtrove 318:I do not feel that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, prefigured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here; and this idea of a creating hand refers to God. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 319:George Bush says he speaks to god every day, & Christians love him for it. If George Bush said he spoke to god through his hair dryer, they would think he was mad. I fail to see how the addition of a hair dryer makes it any more absurd. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 320:It is the burning lava of the soul that has a furnace within& 321:Prayer plumes the wings of God's young eaglets so that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer brings inner strength to God's warriors and sends them forth to spiritual battle with their muscles firm and their armor in place. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 322:God doesn't love me any more or less because I had some work done on my face. You know, I prayed about it a long, long, long, long, long time, because there again, I wouldn't want to do anything that I felt was going to be offensive to God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 323:There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in - that we do it to God, to Christ, and that's why we try to do it as beautifully as possible. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 324:The decision we must make now is whether we will give our allegiance to outmoded and unjust customs or to the ethical demands of the universe. As Christians we owe our allegiance to God and His will, rather than to man and his folkways ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 325:My mother and sister must be very happy to be home with God, and I am sure their love and prayers are always with me. When I go home to God, for death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 326:As a young man with most of my life ahead of me, I decided early to give my life to something eternal and absolute. Not to these little gods that are here today and gone tomorrow. But to God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 327:I think half the troubles for which men go slouching in prayer to God are caused by their intolerable pride. Many of our cares are but a morbid way of looking at our privileges. We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 328:Our life is full of brokenness - broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 329:Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 330:believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that you have no ground for it. Whatever you are, you have nothing to make you proud. The more you have, the more you are in debt to God; and you should not be proud of that which renders you a debtor. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 331:Give up all self, all egotisms get out of anger, lust, give all to God. "I am not, but Thou art; the old man is all gone, only Thou remainest." "I am Thou." Blame none; if evil comes, know the Lord is playing with you and be exceeding glad. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 332:Some people keep God in a Sunday morning box and say, & 333:Muhammad has always been standing higher than the Christianity. He does not consider god as a human being and never makes himself equal to God. Muslims worship nothing except God and Muhammad is his Messenger. There is no any mystery and secret in it. ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 334:As the arrow, loosed from the bow by the hand of the practiced archer, does not rest till it has reached the mark, so men pass from God to God. He is the mark for which they have been created, and they do not rest till they find their rest in him. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 335:Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, who live a life that gives evidence that spirit has found celebration through them. ~ wayne-dyer, @wisdomtrove 336:A sense of solitude is one of the most beautiful things that parents can give a child. It doesn't mean leaving the child alone, but it does mean creating safe spaces where the child can be with other people. It does mean directing their attention to God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 337:I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 338:Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 339:Right faith is of necessity required for Baptism, since it is said: "the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) ... Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing and thus we must recall that without faith no one is acceptable to God. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 340:America has begun a spiritual reawakening. Faith and hope are being restored. Americans are turning back to God. Church attendance is up. Audiences for religious books and broadcasts are growing. And I do believe that he has begun to heal our blessed land. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 341:If by excessive labor we die before reaching the average age of man, worn out in the Master's service, then glory be to God. We shall have so much less of earth and so much more of heaven. It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 342:It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 343:Right faith is of necessity required for Baptism, since it is said: "the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) ... Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing and thus we must recall that without faith no one is acceptable to God. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 344:We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 345:Do not let me hear Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly, Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession, Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God. The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 346:Every person who confesses that Christ Jesus is Lord, repents of their sin and gives their heart to God is a child of God and belongs to Him. And in Christ, we are made right with God, we are His righteousness, and we have the power of Christ in us to live right. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 347:Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and man's obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; he would have the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard! ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 348:To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 349:The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God's presence, to listen to God's voice, to look at God's beauty, to touch God's incarnate Word and to taste fully God's infinite goodness. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 350:The easiest and shortest way to God-realization is through the contact of a Sadguru, which means keeping the company or sahavas of such a Master, obeying him and serving him. This remedy is like a special express train which carries you straight to your destination. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 351:... the greatest thing each person can do is to give himself to God utterly and unconditionally - weaknesses, fears, and all. For God loves obedience more than good intentions or second-best offerings, which are all too often made under the guise of weakness. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 352:To be united to God in unity of person was not fitting to human flesh, according to its natural endowments, since it was above his dignity; nevertheless, it was fitting that God, by reason of his infinite goodness, should unite it to himself for human salvation. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 353:You can only get next to God through the effort of preparation. To experience the uncreated, the state of awareness will have to be held for several minutes. You are then between time and the time-less - waiting for the unknown, which will come but cannot be willed. ~ barry-long, @wisdomtrove 354:The easiest and shortest way to God -realization is through the contact of a Sadguru , which means keeping the company or sahavas of such a Master, obeying him and serving him. This remedy is like a special express train which carries you straight to your destination. ~ meher-baba, @wisdomtrove 355:The best worship that we ever render to God is far from perfect. Our praises, how faint and feeble they are! Our prayers, how wandering, how wavering they are! When we get nearest to God, how far off we are! When we are most like Him, how greatly unlike Him we are! ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 356:We venture to assert, that if there be any day in the year, of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is the 25th of December. Regarding not the day, let us, nevertheless, give thanks to God for the gift of His dear Son. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 357:When you are open to receive what God is able to do for you, you stop doing. You learn how to "Be still and know!" You know that your good is on the way, according to God's nature and willingness to give. You also put your faith in the fact that God is always on time. ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove 358:Prayer is spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him. Prayer to God is like a child's conversation with his father. It is natural for a child to ask his father for the things he needs. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 359:In essence I find that the foundation of modern conservatism is driven by a clinging to God in fear of the world, whereas the foundation of modern liberalism is a clinging to the world in fear of God; albeit, the true foundation should be one's clinging to God in fear of God. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 360:Let any man turn to God in earnest, let him begin to exercise himself unto godliness, let him seek to develop his powers of spiritual receptivity by trust and obedience and humility, and the results will exceed anything he may have hoped in his leaner and weaker days. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 361:Because my dad abused me, I was determined to never let a man tell me what to do. God clearly showed me that I needed to be a submissive wife if I wanted to be effective in ministry. The truth is, if we don't learn to submit to authority, we won't ever learn to submit to God. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 362:... .If you are guided toward a faith, use it as a stepping stone to God, not as a barrier between yourself and God's other children or as a tower to hold you aloft from others. If you are not guided toward a faith (or even if you are) seek God in the silence - seek within. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 363:We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 364:Do what you may, strive as earnestly as you can, live as excellently as you please, make what sacrifices you choose, be as eminent as you can for everything that is lovely and of good repute, yet none of these things can be pleaseing to God unless they be mixed with faith. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 365:I always give all the glory to God, but I do not forget that He gave me the privilege of ministering from the first to a praying people. We had prayer meetings that moved our very souls, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 366:A bolder course would be to abandon the duality of seer and seen, and count both as one. In that vision the seer does not see or distinguish, or even imagine, two; he is changed, no longer himself nor owning himself there, but belongs to God, one with him, centre joined with centre. ~ plotinus, @wisdomtrove 367:One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 368:For just as the first general precepts of the law of nature are self-evident to one in possession of natural reason, and have no need of promulgation, so also that of believing in God is primary and self-evident to one who has faith: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 369:For just as the first general precepts of the law of nature are self-evident to one in possession of natural reason, and have no need of promulgation, so also that of believing in God is primary and self-evident to one who has faith: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 370:What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 371:I love all religions. ... If people become better Hindus, better Muslims, better Buddhists by our acts of love, then there is something else growing there." She upheld that there are many ways to God': "All is God - Buddists, Hindus, Christians, etc., all have access to the same God." ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 372:Your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view to emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your humanity. Would to God a like spirit would diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country; but I despair of seeing it. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 373:We must keep in mind that where the road is crooked, God makes it straight, and where our hearts are wounded, God makes us whole. As we open our hearts in purity and simplicity, admitting to God that we are completely powerless in the area of our problem, His illumination redeems us. ~ marianne-williamson, @wisdomtrove 374:I DECLARE that God has a great plan for my life. He is directing my steps. And even though I may not always understand how, I know my situation is not a surprise to God. He will work out every detail to my advantage. In His perfect timing, everything will turn out right. This is my declaration. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 375:I often had to run very quickly to be on time, and from being a fleet runner was generally successful; but when in doubt I prayed earnestly to God to help me, and I well remember that I attributed my success to the prayers and not to my quick running, and marvelled how generally I was aided. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 376:A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It consents, so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 377:A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 378:The deeper men go into life, the deeper is their conviction that this life is not all. It is an unfinished symphony. A day may round out an insect's life, and a bird or a beast needs no tomorrow. Not so with him who knows that he is related to God and has felt the power of an endless life. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 379:A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying [God]. It “consents,” so to speak, to [God's] creative love. It is expressing an idea which is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 380:My life force energy is a connection to God. It's a connection to all that is. I am part of all that is, and what comes through me is for my highest good. When you know that, you will be guided to go in the direction you need to go, and then it's about listening to, and acting on, the guidance. ~ anita-moorjani, @wisdomtrove 381:The weak, the fearful, the ignorant will never reach the Atman. You cannot undo what you have done; the effect must come. Face it, but be careful never to do the same thing again. Give up the burden of all deeds to God. Give all, both good and bad. God helps those who do not help themselves. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 382:The president of the United States has claimed, on more than one occasion, to be in dialogue with God. If he said that he was talking to God through his hairdryer, this would precipitate a national emergency. I fail to see how the addition of a hairdryer makes the claim more ridiculous or offensive. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 383:They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from malice, it is possible to make a quite probable judgment that they would never come away from evil. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 384:Ever-new Joy is God. He is inexhaustible; as you continue your meditations during the years, He will beguile you with an infinite ingenuity. Devotees like yourself who have found the way to God never dream of exchanging Him for any other happiness; He is seductive beyond thought of competition. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 385:They also have at that critical point of death the opportunity to be converted to God through repentance. And if they are so obstinate that even at the point of death their heart does not draw back from malice, it is possible to make a quite probable judgment that they would never come away from evil. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 386:Anybody who is an entrepreneur is a person who essentially has impaired judgment. The odds of success are zilch. This valley is loaded to the gills with a whole lot of totally insane people who honest to God believe that they can be the next Bill Gates or the next Scott McNealy. And that is genuinely stupid. ~ tom-peters, @wisdomtrove 387:What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and work flow. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 388:EVERY national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 389:I have been trying to make the reader believe that we actually are, at present, creatures whose character must be, in some respects, a horror to God, as it is, when we really see it, a horror to ourselves. This I believe to be a fact: and I notice that the holier a man is, the more fully he is aware of that fact. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 390:The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave - caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition - cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner. ~ teresa-of-avila, @wisdomtrove 391:Brother Lawrence expressed the highest moral wisdom when he testified that if he stumbled and fell he turned at once to God and said, & 392:Each particular being, in its individuality, its concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now, in the circumstances ordained for it by His Love and His infinite Art. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 393:It was not to save a nation that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, nor to appease angry gods... Then why does Abraham do it? For God's sake... He does it for the sake of God because God demands proof of his faith... He was not justified by being virtuous, but by being an individual submitted to God in faith. ~ soren-kierkegaard, @wisdomtrove 394:The command "Be ye prfect" is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and he is going to make good his words. He will make us into a god or goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature... a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 395:At that instant he knew that all his doubts, even the impossibility of believing with his reason, of which he was aware in himself, did not in the least hinder his turning to God. All of that now floated out of his soul like dust. To whom was he to turn if not to Him in whose hands he felt himself, his soul, and his love? ~ leo-tolstoy, @wisdomtrove 396:Some few, and I am one of them, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the North would proclaim a crusade against slavery. In the long-run, a million horrid deaths would be amply repaid in the cause of humanity. Great God! how I should like to see the greatest curse on earth - slavery - abolished! ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 397:If, then, God is always in that good state in which we sometimes are, this compels our wonder; and if in a better this compels it yet more. And God is in a better state. And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 398:At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 399:In the spiritual life the easiest way to conquer ego is to offer gratitude to God for five minutes daily. If you cannot offer gratitude for five minutes, then utter it for one minute. Offer your gratitude to God. Then you will feel that inside you a sweet, fragrant and beautiful flower is growing. That is the flower of humility. ~ sri-chinmoy, @wisdomtrove 400:By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists . . . Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 401:We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance which we owe only to God. They they become gods: then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, and also destroy themselves. For natural loves that are allowed to become gods do not remain loves. They are still called so, but can become in fact complicated forms of hatred. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 402:And so, in my view the most important thing of all is that we should give ourselves up entirely to God whenever he allows anything to befall us, whether insult, tribulation or any other kind of suffering, accepting it with joy and gratitude and allowing God to guide us all the more rather than seeking these things out ourselves. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 403:When we are harassed and reach the limit of our own strength, many of us then turn in desperation to God-& 404:Future contingents cannot be certain to us, because we know them as such. They can be certain only to God whose understanding is in eternity above time. Just as a man going along a road does not see those who come after him; but the man who sees the whole road from a height sees all those who are going along the road at the same time. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 405:Man is a fallen star till he is right with heaven: he is out of order with himself and all around him till he occupies his true place in relation to God. When he serves God, he has reached that point where he doth serve himself best, and enjoys himself most. It is man's honour, it is man's joy, it is man's heaven, to live unto God. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 406:Even as he would be guilty of falsehood who would, in the name of another person, proffer things that are not committed to him, so too does a man incur the guilt of falsehood who, on the part of the Church, gives worship to God contrary to the manner established by the Church or divine authority, and according to ecclesiastical custom. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 407:Future contingents cannot be certain to us, because we know them as such. They can be certain only to God whose understanding is in eternity above time. Just as a man going along a road does not see those who come after him; but the man who sees the whole road from a height sees all those who are going along the road at the same time. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 408:It's so easy to settle for less than God's best for us because we don't always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God's will. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 409:Even as he would be guilty of falsehood who would, in the name of another person, proffer things that are not committed to him, so too does a man incur the guilt of falsehood who, on the part of the Church, gives worship to God contrary to the manner established by the Church or divine authority, and according to ecclesiastical custom. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 410:Detachment from things does not mean setting up a contradiction between & 411:May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint! I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sins. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 412:Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth, I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already. God’s already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn’t pay Him for what He’s done for me. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 413:The Son of God did not want to be seen and found in heaven. Therefore he descended from heaven into this humility and came to us in our flesh, laid himself into the womb of his mother and into the manger and went on to the cross. This was the ladder that he placed on earth so that we might ascend to God on it. This is the way you must take. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 414:When you make a mistake and the devil comes and tells you & 415:Even a stone, and more easily a flower or a bird, could show you the way back to God, to the Source, to yourself. When you look at it or hold it & let it be without imposing a word of mental label on it, a sense of awe, of wonder, arises within you. Its essence silently communicates itself to you and reflects your own essence back to you. ~ eckhart-tolle, @wisdomtrove 416:He talks about God, and loving God. he says that when we open to loving a person, whether that person is a spouse, friend, or child, we open our hearts to loving God. He says when we let someone love us, we're opening our hearts to god's love. he says the acts are the same. p 19 I decide loving isn't for the fain. Its for the courageous. p 19 ~ melody-beattie, @wisdomtrove 417:In doing your best serving others for free, a lot of eyebrows will raise and sneers will curve many a - faces. But in the end those incredulous to what you put up with to help, no longer matter. It's not between you and those snobs, but with whom you have given your hand to lift, and of course to God who Is watching and noting it in your book. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 418:There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 419:Pure love is a willingness to give, without a thought of receiving anything in return. Love can save the world from nuclear destruction. Love God: turn to God with receptiveness and responsiveness. Love your fellow human beings: turn to them with friendliness and givingness. Make yourself fit to be called a child of God by living the way of love. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 420:I had gradually come, by this time [1839-01], to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow as a sign, etc., etc. and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian. ~ charles-darwin, @wisdomtrove 421:Whoever will listen will hear the speaking heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 422:Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to a preacher who uses the Word of God to draw attention to himself. But a sensational preacher stimulates the senses and leaves the spirit untouched. Instead of being the way to God, his & 423:Walk with me, but don't follow me blindly. Hold fast to the truth, not to my garments. My body is merely a clay structure; today it is here, tomorrow it shall be gone. If you attach yourself to me today, what are you going to do tomorrow when I am not with you? Attach yourself to God, attach yourself to humanity, only then will you be closer to me. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 424:Riches are the pettiest and least worthy gifts which God can give a man. What are they to God's Word, to bodily gifts, such as beauty and health; or to the gifts of the mind, such as understanding, skill, wisdom! Yet men toil for them day and night, and take no rest. Therefore God commonly gives riches to foolish people to whom he gives nothing else. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 425:Our great tendency in this age is to increase our speed, to run faster, even in the Christian life. In the process our walk with God stays shallow, and our tank runs low on fumes. Intimacy offers a full tank of fuel that can only be found by pulling up closer to God, which requires taking necessary time and going to the effort to make that happen. ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 426:It's not easy to sit and trust that in solitude God will speak to you - not as a magical voice but that God will let you know something gradually over the years. And in that word from God you will find the inner place from which to live your life. Solitude is where spiritual ministry begins. That's where Jesus listened to God. That's where we listen to God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 427:Teach me to take all grace / And spring it into blades of act, / Grow spears and sheaves of charity, / While each new instant, (new eternity) / Flowering with clean and individual circumstance, / Speaks me the whisper of [God's] consecrating Spirit. / Then will obedience bring forth new Incarnations / Shining to God with the features of [the Lord's] Christ. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 428:There were times, especially when I was traveling for & 429:Stick to God! Who cares what comes to the body or to anything else! Through the terrors of evil, say-my God, my love! Through the pangs of death, say-my God, my love! Through all the evils under the sun, say-my God, my love! Thou art here, I see Thee. Thou art with me, I feel Thee. I am Thine, take me. I am not of the world's but Thine, leave not then me. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 430:The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy... .We may not be able to give much but we can always give the joy that springs from a heart that is in love with God. All over the world people are hungry and thirsty for God's love. We meet that hunger by spreading joy. Joy is one of the best safeguards against temptation. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 431:As we celebrate Thanksgiving, we should reflect on the full meaning of this day as we enjoy the fellowship that is so much a part of the holiday festivities. Searching our hearts, we should ask what we can do as individuals to demonstrate our gratitude to God for all He has done. Such reflection can only add to the significance of this precious day of remembrance. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 432:Devotion gradually progresses to higher levels. . . . One type goes to God and asks Him to remove his suffering. Another one will ask for money or material things. A third will request liberation or release from his bondage. And the fourth will not ask for anything. He will just enjoy praying and praising his Lord. That is the highest form of prayer. ~ swami-satchidananda-saraswati, @wisdomtrove 433:The psychoanalysis of individual human beings, however, teaches us with quite special insistence that the god of each of them is formed in the likeness of his father, that his personal relation to God depends on his relation to his father in the flesh and oscillates and changes along with that relation, and that at bottom God is nothing other than an exalted father. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 434:If you will take me for your wife, Walter, I will love you dearly. If you will let me go with you, Walter, I will go to the world's end without fear. I can give up nothing for you - I have nothing to resign, and no one to forsake; but all my love and life shall be devoted to you, and with my last breath I will breathe your name to God if I have sense and memory left. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 435:It is altogether unlawful to kill oneself... Wherefore suicide is contrary to the inclination of nature, and to charity whereby every man should love himself... Life is God's gift to man, and is subject to His power, Who kills and makes to live. Hence whoever takes his own life, sins against God... for it belongs to God alone to pronounce sentence of death and life. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove 436:It is a poor thing to strike our colors to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up & 437:The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 438:When you are tempted to get discouraged, remind yourself that according to God’s word, your future is getting brighter; you are on your way to a new level of glory. You may think you’ve got a long way to go, but you need to look back at how far you’ve already come. You may not be everything you want to be but atleast you can thank God that you’re not what you used to be. ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 439:It is altogether unlawful to kill oneself... Wherefore suicide is contrary to the inclination of nature, and to charity whereby every man should love himself... Life is God's gift to man, and is subject to His power, Who kills and makes to live. Hence whoever takes his own life, sins against God... for it belongs to God alone to pronounce sentence of death and life. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove 440:Some people seem to think that my life dedicated to simplicity and service is austere and joyless, but they do not know the freedom of simplicity. I am thankful to God every moment of my life for the great riches that have been showered upon me. My life is full and good but never overcrowded. If life is overcrowded then you are doing more than is required for you to do. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 441:The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world& 442:Of alle the floures in the mede, Than love I most these floures whyte and rede, Swiche as men callen daysies in our toun. . . . . Til that myn herte dye. . . . . That wel by reson men hit calle may The & 443:Children, pray for the good of everyone. We should pray to God to give a good mind even to those who harm us. One cannot sleep peacefully when there is a theif in the neighborhood. Likewise, when we pray for the well-being of others, it is we who gain peace and quietude. Children, the mantra & 444:In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on God alone. When no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God& 445:Somewhere, sometime, somehow you got tangled up in garbage, and you've been avoiding God. You've allowed a veil of guilt to come between you and your Father. You wonder if you could ever feel close to God again. The message of the torn flesh is you can. God welcomes you. God is not avoiding you. God is not resisting you. The curtain is down, the door is open, and God invites you in ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove 446:A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or, he may be in Church and be aware of God; but, if he is more aware of Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him. He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 447:To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrow, is always a measure of what has gone before. ~ alice-walker, @wisdomtrove 448:We never know when we too will be called into eternity. I doubt if even one of those people who got on those planes or walked into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon last Tuesday morning thought it would be the last day of their lives. They didn't - it didn't occur to them. And that's why each of us needs to face our own spiritual need and commit ourselves to God and his will now. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 449:A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practiced spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child. ~ sri-ramakrishna, @wisdomtrove 450:Our vow of chastity is nothing but our undivided love for Christ in chastity, then we proceed to the freedom of poverty-poverty is nothing but freedom. And that total surrender is obedience. If I belong to God, if I belong to Christ, then he must be able to use me. That is obedience. Then we give wholehearted service to the poor. That is service. They complete each other. That is our life. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 451:Religion, as distinguished from modern paganism, implies a life in conformity with nature. It may be observed that the natural life and the supernatural life have a conformity to each other which neither has with the mechanistic life... A wrong attitude towards nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude towards God... [We should] struggle to recover the sense of relation to nature and to God. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 452:The problem of why God created the universe still troubles thinking men; but if we cannot know why, we can at least know that He did not bring His worlds into being to meet some unfulfilled need in Himself, as a man might build a house to shelter him against the winter cold or plant a field of corn to provide him with necessary food. The word & 453:When our children die, we drop them into the unknown, shuddering with fear. We know that they go out from us, and we stand, and pity, and wonder. If we receive news, that a hundred thousand dollars had been left them by some one dying, we should be thrown into an ecstasy of rejoicing; but when they have gone home to God, we stand, and mourn, and pine, and wonder at the mystery of Providence. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 454:Prayer is first of all listening to God. It's openness. God is always speaking; he's always doing something. Prayer is to enter into that activity... Convert your thoughts into prayer. As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in dialogue,... a conversation with God. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 455:This passage from nothingness to real being, this quitting of oneself is a birth accompanied by pain, for by it natural love is excluded. All grief except grief for sin comes from love of the world. In God is neither sorrow, nor grief, nor trouble. Wouldst thou be free from all grief and trouble, abide and walk in God, and to God alone. As long as love of the creature is in us, pain cannot cease. ~ meister-eckhart, @wisdomtrove 456:Each one of us has some kind of vocation. We are all called by God to share in His life and in His Kingdom. Each one of us is called to a special place in the Kingdom. If we find that place we will be happy. If we do not find it, we can never be completely happy. For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God's will, to be what God wants us to be. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 457:God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "0 Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 458:At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our life, which is inaccessable to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 459:True religion is not talk, or doctrines, or theories, nor is it sectarianism. It is the relation between soul and God. Religion does not consist in erecting temples, or building churches, or attending public worship. It is not to be found in books, or in words, or in lectures, or in organizations. Religion consists in realization. We must realize God, feel God, see God, talk to God. That is religion. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 460:I want to have a lasting experience with God. Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I loose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears. I want to be with God all the time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to leave in this world and enjoy its delights, but also elevate myself to God. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 461:We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world ¬ó of all living things. The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand. Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 462:Without out suffering, our work would just be social work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus Christ, not part of the Redemption. All the desolation of the poor people, not only their material poverty, but their spiritual destitution, must be redeemed. And we must share it, for only by being one with them can we redeem them by bringing God into their lives and bringing them to God. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 463:If you feel "stuck" today, you may want to examine what you're holding on to. Be willing let go of past disappointments by choosing forgiveness. Who hurt you? Who wronged you? Release it to God. Do you need to forgive yourself? Do you need to receive God's forgiveness? Let go of the past so you can overcome disappointments and experience the bright future God has in store for you! There is freedom in forgetting! ~ joel-osteen, @wisdomtrove 464:Man is not by any means of fixed and enduring form (this, in spite of suspicions to the contrary on the part of their wise men, was the ideal of the ancients). He is nothing else than the narrow and perilous bridge between nature and spirit. His innermost destiny drives him on to the spirit and to God. His innermost longing draws him back to nature, the mother. Between the two forces his life hangs tremulous and irresolute. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 465:For centuries, the battle of morality was fought between those who claimed that your life belongs to God and those who claimed that it belongs to your neighbors - between those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of ghosts in heaven and those who preached that the good is self-sacrifice for the sake of incompetents on earth. And no one came to say that your life belongs to you and that the good is to live it. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 466:Worry is anti-trust. If you're worried, you don't trust something: your kids, their friends, strangers, the church, even God. Can He take care of your children? Certainly. Jesus says, & 467:Any praise I receive does not change me, for I pass it right along to God. I walk because God gives me strength to walk, I live because God gives me the supply to live, I speak because God gives me the words to speak. All I did was to surrender my will to God's will. My entire life has prepared me for this undertaking. This is my calling. This is my vocation. This is what I must be doing. I could not be happy doing anything else. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 468:If, therefore, man has come into the world to search for God and, if he has found Him, to adhere to Him and to find repose in adhering to Him-man cannot search for Him and attain Him in this sensible and corporeal world, since God is spirit rather than body, and cannot be attained in intellectual abstraction, since one is able to conceive nothing similar to God, as he asserts-how can one, therefore, search for Him in order to find Him? ~ nicholas-of-cusa, @wisdomtrove 469:Pray to God for gladness. Be glad as children, as the birds of heaven. And let not the sin of men confound you in your doings. Fear not that it will wear away your work and hinder its being accomplished. Do not say, & 470:A perfect practice of Christianity would, of course, consist in a perfect imitation of the life of Christ - I mean, in so far as it was applicable in one's own particular circumstance. Not in an idiotic sense - it doesn't mean that every Christian should grow a beard, or be a bachelor, or become a travelling preacher. It means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 471:Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer, Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities. ~ sri-aurobindo, @wisdomtrove 472:I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same fifty percent rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't... Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe... same as the voodoo lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles. It's all the same... so just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself... ~ george-carlin, @wisdomtrove 473:Wherever God may keep you at any time, from there itself must you undertake the pilgrimage to God-realization. In all forms, in action and non-action is He, the One Himself. While attending to your work with your hands, keep yourself bound to Him by sustaining japa, the constant remembrance of Him in your heart and mind. In God's empire, it is forgetfulness of Him that is detrimental. The way to Peace lies in the remembrance of Him and of Him alone. ~ anandamayi-ma, @wisdomtrove 474:Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.' Valjean, who did not recall having made any promise, was silent. The bishop had spoken the words slowly and deliberately. He concluded with a solemn emphasis: Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 475:It's a risky thing to pray and the danger is that our very prayers get between God and us. The great thing in prayer is not to pray, but to go directly to God. . . . The fact is, though, that if you descend into the depths of your own spirit and arrive somewhere near the center of what you are, you are confronted with the inescapable truth that, at the very root of your existence, you are in constant and immediate contact with the infinite power of God. ~ thomas-merton, @wisdomtrove 476:We say that if a temple, or a symbol, or an image helps you to realize the Divine within, you are welcome to it. Have two hundred images if you like. If certain forms and formulas help you to realize the Divine, God speed you; have, by all means, whatever forms, temples, whatever ceremonies you want to bring you nearer to God. But do not quarrel about them; the moment you quarrel, you are not going Godward, you are going backward towards the brutes. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 477:When we try to imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that-which-is-not- God as the raw material for our minds to work on; hence whatever we visualize God to be, He is not, for we have constructed our image out of that which He has made and what He has made is not God. If we insist upon trying to imagine Him, we end with an idol, made not with hands but with thoughts; and an idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 478:The highest form of praise you can offer to yourself, to God and to the world is to spend time each day expressing gratitude. It says to God that you are aware and appreciative of grace. It says to life that you are acknowledging its awesome presence in you. It says to yourself that you are worth the time it takes to be healed. Time spent in silence, contemplation and gratitude is time spent in devotion to a higher calling and a more loving state of being. ~ lyania-vanzant, @wisdomtrove 479:I always have a feeling of awe and wonder at what God can do - using me as an instrument. I believe that anyone who is fully surrendered to God's will can be used gloriously - and will really know some things - and will probably be called self-righteous. You're called self-righteous if you are self-centered enough to think you know everything - but you may also be called self-righteous by the immature if you are God-centered enough to really know some things. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 480:The beginning of prayer is silence. If we really want to pray we must first learn to listen, for in the silence of the heart God speaks. And to be able to see that silence, to be able to hear God we need a clean heart; for a clean heart can see God, can hear God, can listen to God; and then only from the fullness of our heart can we speak to God. But we cannot speak unless we have listened, unless we have made that connection with God in the silence of our heart. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 481:Isn't it human beings who impart vitality to the image in the temple? If no one sculpts the stone, it doesn't become an image. If no one installs it in the temple, it does not acquire any sanctity. If no worship is done, it does not acquire any power. Without human effort there cannot be any temples. What is wrong then in saying that we should view great masters as equal to God? Temples installed by such spiritual masters have a special energy of their own. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 482:I am a deeply religious person, but I belong to no denomination. I follow the spirit of God's law, not the letter of the law. One can become so attached to the outward symbols and structure of religion that one forgets its original intent - to bring one closer to God. We can only gain access to the Kingdom of God by realizing it dwells within us as well as in all humanity. Know that we are all cells in the ocean of infinity, each contributing to the others' welfare. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 483:Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods. It would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 484:The spiritual life is the real life; all else is illusion and deception. Only those who are attached to God alone are truly free. Only those who live up to the highest light live in harmony. All who act upon their highest motivations become a power for good. It is not important that others be noticeably affected: results should never be sought or desired. Know that every right thing you do - every good word you say - every positive thought you think - has good effect. ~ peace-pilgrim, @wisdomtrove 485:Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favour that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 486:A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am. Everything that was literature has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written, thank God. This then? This is not a book. This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty . . . what you will. ~ henry-miller, @wisdomtrove 487:Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. In spite of its religious form (giving thanks to God for a good harvest), its essential, secular meaning is a celebration of successful production. It is a producers & 488:Children, we may go to the temple, reverently circumambulate the sanctum sanctorum and put our offering in the charity box, but on our way out if we kick the beggar at the door, where is our devotion? Compassion towards the poor is our duty to God. Mother is not saying that we should give money to every beggar that sits in front of a temple, but do not despise them. Pray for them as well. When we hate others, it is our own mind that becomes impure. Equality of vision is God. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 489:I believe certain doctrines because God says they are true; and the only authority I have for their truth is the Word of God. I receive such and such doctrines, not because I can prove them to be compatible with reason, not because my judgment accepts them, but because God says they are true. Now this is one of the best services we can render to God,-to submit ourselves to him in our belief of what he has revealed, and ask him to fix his truths in our hearts, and make us obey them. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 490:Yes, would to God that I could persuade the rich and the mighty that they would permit the whole Bible to be painted on houses, on the inside and the outside, so that all can see it. That would be a Christian work... If it is not a sin but good to have the image of Christ in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes? This is especially true since the heart is more important than the eyes, and should be less stained by sin because it is the true abode and dwelling place of God. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 491:There can be no barrenness in full summer. The very sand will yield something. Rocks will have mosses, and every rift will have its wind-flower, and every crevice a leaf; while from the fertile soil will be reared a gorgeous troop of growths, that will carry their life in ten thousand forms, but all with praise to God. And so it is when the soul knows its summer. Love redeems its weakness, clothes its barrenness, enriches its poverty, and makes its very desert to bud and blossom as the rose. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 492:There is no short cut to God; sadhana must be performed regularly and with devotion. It is our own effort which will enable us to experience the grace of God which is being showered on us all the time. Therefore, whatever spare time you get, use it to seek God. If you create peace in your own heart by doing sadhana, then that will have a positive effect on your family, your work and so on. The peace and love of God will overflow out of your heart and encourage others to move on the right path. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 493:Life, as it exists on Earth in the form of men, animals and plants, is to be found, let us suppose in a high form in the solar and stellar regions. Rather than think that so many stars and parts of the heavens are uninhabited and that this earth of ours alone is peopled – and that with beings perhaps of an inferior type – we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God, who is the center and circumference of all stellar regions ~ nicholas-of-cusa, @wisdomtrove 494:Many spiritual traditions describe spiritual awakening as leading to an experience of intense devotion to God. Other traditions maintain that having a devotional relationship with God characterizes a lesser awakening. It shows we’re still enmeshed in the illusion of separateness, because in reality we are one with God. In my experience these two approaches are complementary not contradictory. Being one with God and being in love with God are paralogically different ways of experiencing the same awakened state. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 495:A woman once told me that she did not feel the need to reach out to those around her because she prayed every day. Surely, this was enough. But a prayer is about our relationship to God; a blessing is about our relationship to the spark of God in one another. God may not need our attention as badly as the person next to us on the bus or behind us in line in the supermarket. Everyone in the world matters, and so do their blessings. When we bless others, we offer them refuge from an indifferent world. ~ rachel-naomi-remen, @wisdomtrove 496:No matter who causes you grief, take your complaints to the meditation room, where your real friend is. In addition to your husband or wife, you should have a friend - and that friend should be God. Even if your husband or wife makes you unhappy, tell that to God, and not to anyone else. If your neighbor picks a fight with you, go to the meditation room and complain, & 497:You can lead a truly spiritual life while remaining a householder. You will be able to enjoy the bliss of the Self, but your mind has to be on God all the time. Then you can easily attain bliss. A mother bird will be thinking of the young ones in the nest, even when she is out looking for food. Similarly, you have to keep your mind on God, while engaged in all worldly actions. The important thing is to be completely dedicated to God or the Guru. Once you have that dedication, the goal will not be far away. ~ mata-amritanandamayi, @wisdomtrove 498:God judges men from the inside out; men judge men from the outside in. Perhaps to God, an extreme mental patient is doing quite well in going a month without murder, for he fought his chemical imbalance and succeeded; oppositely, perhaps the healthy, able and stable man who has never murdered in his life yet went a lifetime consciously, willingly never loving anyone but himself may then be subject to harsher judgment than the extreme mental patient. It might be so that God will stand for the weak and question the strong. ~ criss-jami, @wisdomtrove 499:There can be no love so long as there is lust- even a speck of it, as it were, in the heart. None but men of great renunciation, none but mighty giants among men, have a right to that Love Divine. If that highest ideal of love is held out to the masses, it will indirectly tend to stimulate its worldly which dominates the heart of man- for, meditating on love to God by thinking of oneself as His wife or beloved, one would very likely be thinking most of the time of one's own wife- the result is too obvious to point out. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 500:Rather than seeking total control, relinquish it. You can't run the world, but you can entrust it to God. This is the message behind Paul's admonition to "rejoice in the Lord." Peace is within reach, not for lack of problems, but because of the presence of a sovereign Lord. Rather than rehearse the chaos of the world, rejoice in the Lord's sovereignty, as Paul did. Sovereignty gives the saint the inside track to peace. Others see the problems of the world and wring their hands. We see the problems of the world and bend our knees. ~ max-lucado, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Time to talk to God. ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
2:I do like to sing to God! ~ Jenny Lind, #NFDB
3:I raise my pelvis to God ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
4:A day to God is a thousand years, ~ RZA, #NFDB
5:Some kneel and lie to God. ~ Elton John, #NFDB
6:Next to God, thy parents. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
7:Evil is maybe lying to God. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
8:To God's own heart be true. ~ Dottie West, #NFDB
9:I will never turn to God. ~ Marianne Wiggins, #NFDB
10:Nearness to God is common to us all, ~ Rumi, #NFDB
11:Pray to God and say the lines. ~ Bette Davis, #NFDB
12:There's no limit to God's love. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
13:I’ll never speak to God again. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
14:When we pray we speak to God; ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
15:Joy is the grace we say to God. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
16:No wide road leads to God. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
17:Pray to god someone prays for me ~ Kevin Gates, #NFDB
18:I listen and talk to God daily. ~ John Galliano, #NFDB
19:Suffering brings me so close to God. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
20:I am an atheist, thanks be to God. ~ Luis Bunuel, #NFDB
21:We must be open to God's miracles. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
22:I am trying to get closer to God. ~ Lenny Kravitz, #NFDB
23:I learn the lines and pray to God. ~ Claude Rains, #NFDB
24:Painting is saying "Ta" to God. ~ Stanley Spencer, #NFDB
25:Ramadan makes you closer to God. ~ Saddam Hussein, #NFDB
26:Science brings men nearer to God. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
27:Ted, I swear to God, quothe he. ~ George Saunders, #NFDB
28:What we give to the poor, we lend to God. ~ Homer, #NFDB
29:All religions do not point to God ~ Ravi Zacharias, #NFDB
30:But I'm Crazy. I swear to God I am. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
31:I just want to give my love to God. ~ Sharon Jones, #NFDB
32:I talk to God but the sky is empty. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
33:Prayer unites the soul to God. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
34:The ego hates losing – even to God. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
35:The inner emptiness is the door to God. ~ Rajneesh, #NFDB
36:This is how we must look to God. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
37:We owe thankfulness to God, not sour faces. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
38:What we give to the poor, we lend to God. ~ Homer, #NFDB
39:Your passion is your connection to God. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
40:We all on a party line to God... ~ Kathryn Stockett, #NFDB
41:Service to man is service to god ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
42:We ascribe to God. We don't add to Him. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
43:I ascribe my change wholly to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
44:There’s a cure, but it belongs to God. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
45:Pray to God. He listens once in a while. ~ Shikha Kaul, #NFDB
46:The blood was shed to unite us to God. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
47:The higher the hair, the closer to god. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
48:Glory be to God for all things! ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
49:Glory?....Glory belongs to God alone. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
50:We matter to God — God only knows why. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
51:Resistance to tyranny is service to God. ~ James Madison, #NFDB
52:Always talk to God, never listen to the cops. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
53:That’s not a reason to give your life to God. ~ C D Reiss, #NFDB
54:The friend of silence comes close to God. ~ John Climacus, #NFDB
55:The heat of midnight tears will bring you to God. ~ M r b, #NFDB
56:To be closer to god, be closer to people. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
57:When they pray, what do they say to God? ~ Jonathan Kozol, #NFDB
58:15Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
59:Every infinity... is made finite to God. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
60:He's true to God who's true to man. ~ James Russell Lowell, #NFDB
61:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
62:None get to God but through trouble. ~ Catherine of Aragon, #NFDB
63:The wailing of broken hearts is the doorway to God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
64:You are as close to God as you choose to be. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
65:Every infinity... is made finite to God. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
66:Glory be to God for dappled things. ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins, #NFDB
67:He who will pray to God eagerly will see Him. ~ Sarada Devi, #NFDB
68:I prefer being honest to being 'honest to God.' ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
69:Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
70:Temptation provokes me to look upward to God. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
71:...to bring souls to God- and God to souls. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
72:8Come near to God, and he will come near to you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
73:Hopeless situations are never hopeless to God. ~ Chip Ingram, #NFDB
74:I am responsible only to God and history. ~ Francisco Franco, #NFDB
75:I want to play trailer trash; I swear to God. ~ Joan Van Ark, #NFDB
76:Prayer to God as Father is for Christians only. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
77:Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
78:Seeker, who says religion is the way to God? ~ Brian Herbert, #NFDB
79:Talking to God was damned good business. ~ Victor Villasenor, #NFDB
80:Talking to God was damned good business. ~ Victor Villase or, #NFDB
81:The closer we are to God, the richer we are ~ Shri Radhe Maa, #NFDB
82:Who hath no faith to man, to God hath none. ~ George Chapman, #NFDB
83:God is the only Friend for the Soul on the Way to God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
84:Humankind's ladder to God is a ladder of deeds. ~ Sholem Asch, #NFDB
85:If you lie to yourself you will lie to God too. ~ Tyler Perry, #NFDB
86:It is only thanks to God that I'm an atheist ~ Gianni Vattimo, #NFDB
87:Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
88:Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
89:Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God. ~ Arvo Part, #NFDB
90:We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
91:(Why appeal to God when you can call in Apaches?) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
92:Why you do what you do matters the most to God. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
93:You can talk to God because God listens. Always. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
94:Every night I pray to God: 'Please, no more wack MC's.' ~ J Ro, #NFDB
95:I hope to bring people to God with my songs. ~ Mahalia Jackson, #NFDB
96:I swear to god; happiness is the best makeup. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
97:Let every man come to God in his own way. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
98:Next to God, thy Parents; next them, the Magistrate. ~ Various, #NFDB
99:Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God. ~ Stephen R Prothero, #NFDB
100:As often as we do good, we offer sacrifices to God. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
101:But every human path leads on to God; ~ Edmund Clarence Stedman, #NFDB
102:for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. ~ Thomas Paine, #NFDB
103:Glory be to God for dappled things- ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins, #NFDB
104:I don't stutter when I talk to God. He loves me. ~ Bennett Cerf, #NFDB
105:I had failed to make a gift of myself to God. ~ Karen Armstrong, #NFDB
106:I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office. ~ Louie Gohmert, #NFDB
107:No one chooses his time. That is up to God. ~ Jill Eileen Smith, #NFDB
108:To God all things are beautiful and good and just. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
109:We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
110:He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God. ~ Abraham Kuyper, #NFDB
111:It's not up to God for us to use the gift of faith. ~ James Cook, #NFDB
112:Man is to be understood only in his relation to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
113:May gratitude to God permeate my entire life. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
114:Music and art and poetry attune the soul to God. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
115:O Lord have mercy on me, to God I commend my soul. ~ Anne Boleyn, #NFDB
116:To God all things are beautiful and good and just. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
117:We come to God by love and not by navigation. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
118:We drank the rum, and I forgot my promise to God. ~ Daniel Defoe, #NFDB
119:Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
120:All of creation is a song of praise to God. ~ Hildegard of Bingen, #NFDB
121:Even as a very small child I used to talk to God. ~ Gloria Gaynor, #NFDB
122:God gave Himself to you: give yourself to God. ~ Robert Southwell, #NFDB
123:...I can hang on to God and trust that He knows. ~ Melody Carlson, #NFDB
124:Ingratitude to man is ingratitude to God. ~ Samuel ibn Naghrillah, #NFDB
125:Love denied blights the soul we owe to God. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
126:Anything you say from your heart to God is a prayer. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
127:Each one prays to God according to his own light. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
128:Even if I want I cannot make you say sorry to God. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
129:I called out to God, but the devil keeps answering. ~ Cee Lo Green, #NFDB
130:If there were 1,000 ways to God we would want 1,001. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
131:One who truly meets the world goes out also to God. ~ Martin Buber, #NFDB
132:People are leaving the church and going back to God. ~ Lenny Bruce, #NFDB
133:Pray to God and make your heart as pure as the star. ~ Sarada Devi, #NFDB
134:Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
135:the first road to God is prayer, the second is joy. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
136:Theology is a science of mind applied to God. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
137:The urge is to create. The outcome belongs to God. ~ Sophy Burnham, #NFDB
138:To be unknown to God is entirely too much privacy. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
139:Who in all his works sees God, in truth he goes to God. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
140:Wise people know that all their money belongs to God. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
141:Your faithfulness makes you trustworthy to God. ~ Edwin Louis Cole, #NFDB
142:All that we do without offering it to God is wasted. ~ John Vianney, #NFDB
143:All work, according to God’s design, is service. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
144:A tear is enough water to float a desire to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
145:Jesus is the one who brings God to us and us to God. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
146:little grain remained. Men prayed to God for drier ~ Oliver P tzsch, #NFDB
147:Pray like it’s up to God; then act like it’s up to you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
148:Superstition is more injurious to God than atheism. ~ Denis Diderot, #NFDB
149:The soul who is most untouched is the most like to God. ~ Hadewijch, #NFDB
150:Who are you— anyone who talks back to God? Romans 9:20 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
151:Your worship is not a gift from you to God. It is ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
152:Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
153:Give the mind to studies and the heart to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
154:I cannot walk an inch / without trying to walk to God. ~ Anne Sexton, #NFDB
155:Indifference is the only road that never gets to God. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
156:Knowledge without devotion to God produces hatred. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
157:Love is the Song of the Soul singing to God. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
158:Man is to be understood only in his relationship to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
159:My worth to God in public is what I am in private. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
160:Record company execs eat their young, I swear to God. ~ Linda Barnes, #NFDB
161:Surrender yourself to God and be at peace with him. ~ Shri Radhe Maa, #NFDB
162:Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
163:To believe in God is to give your heart to God. ~ Frederick Buechner, #NFDB
164:To be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
165:We bring nothing to God, and He gives us everything. ~ Gary L Thomas, #NFDB
166:We say F**k It to God and worship the devil instead. ~ John C Parkin, #NFDB
167:(3) Is it not to God alone that all sincere faith is due? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
168:As close as you are to God, so close is God to you. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
169:Give the mind to studies and the heart to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
170:I felt it better to speak to God than about Him. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
171:POINT TO PONDER: I’m as close to God as I choose to be. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
172:Pray as if it's up to God, work as if it's up to you. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
173:Thanks be to God we lived so long and did so much good. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
174:That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
175:Theology is the doctrine or teaching of living to God. ~ William Ames, #NFDB
176:Virginity is something that can be offered to God. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
177:Always pull back-and see how silly we must look to God. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
178:Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. James 4:8 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
179:else and bring it to God; the praises of God ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
180:Get a Job, she shouted silently to God. Get a real Job. ~ Lorrie Moore, #NFDB
181:If the ox could think, it would attribute oxality to God. ~ Xenocrates, #NFDB
182:I have not sold myself to God.
- Babelogue ~ Patti Smith,#NFDB
183:I must labor to keep my heart actively responsive to God. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
184:It is only love which makes us acceptable to God. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
185:The closer you get to God, the more you become yourself. ~ Jason Evert, #NFDB
186:This only is denied even to God: the power to undo the past. ~ Agathon, #NFDB
187:To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
188:When you is precious to God, you become important to Satan. ~ Ron Hall, #NFDB
189:You do the foot work, and leave the results up to God. ~ Cupcake Brown, #NFDB
190:You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God. ~ John Vianney, #NFDB
191:Yukio!! I swear to God I'll surpass you!! Just you watch! ~ Kazue Kato, #NFDB
192:A Christian is someone who has turned to God from idols. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
193:Addiction is the fucking devil—I swear to God it is. ~ Jessica Sorensen, #NFDB
194:Each one of us is an outlet to God and an inlet to God. ~ Ernest Holmes, #NFDB
195:Hate is bait for the devil, love is the gate to god ~ Benny Bellamacina, #NFDB
196:Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
197:Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God. ~ Rembrandt, #NFDB
198:Praise and glory to God for whom nothing is too hard ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
199:Praying is talking to God. Meditating is listening. ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
200:Sin is the most wonderfully roundabout path to God ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
201:We pray to God for Bliss and receive it by Grace. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
202:You can either be a Host to God, or a Hostage to your ego! ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
203:Be ever more obedient to God and He will save you. ~ Pachomius the Great, #NFDB
204:Exhale . . . and give all worries to God and the angels. ~ Doreen Virtue, #NFDB
205:I fear God and next to God I mostly fear them that fear him not. ~ Saadi, #NFDB
206:The way to stay connected to God was through His Word. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
207:To surrender to God means to let go and just love. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
208:Whatever a man prefers to God, that he makes a god to himself. ~ Cyprian, #NFDB
209:Whatever prayer is not according to God’s will is utterly ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
210:Whatever we leave to God, God does and blesses us. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
211:Your wisest moments will be those when you say yes to God. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
212:Dear Nettie, I don't write to God no more, I write to you. ~ Alice Walker, #NFDB
213:Do you know what good art is? It is saying "ta" to God. ~ Stanley Spencer, #NFDB
214:Glory to God in the highest, Ohio has saved the Nation. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
215:If you have humility you are halfway to God-realization. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
216:In a real sense faith is total surrender to God . ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
217:in the grocery store. Our obedience to God is evidence ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
218:I spent most of my time talking to God more than to people. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
219:Prayer is a silent surrendering of everything to God. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
220:Surfing's the source. Can change your life. Swear to god ~ Patrick Swayze, #NFDB
221:The truth is — you are as close to God as you choose to be. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
222:You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
223:All great actions return to God, from whom they are derived. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
224:Blessing come to you when you are obedient to God’s commands. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
225:If you turn to God once, He will turn to you a million times. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
226:Left to himself, natural man would never come to God. ~ William Lane Craig, #NFDB
227:Spiritual leadership is moving people on to God's agenda. ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
228:The Avatars are to God what the waves are to the ocean. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
229:To you, I'm an atheist.
To God, I'm the loyal opposition. ~ Woody Allen,#NFDB
230:Unbelief can render a person stone deaf to God's voice. ~ Henry T Blackaby, #NFDB
231:We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
232:all that is in the past, and the past belongs to God. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
233:A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
234:Chris McCandless was at peace, serene as a monk gone to God. ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
235:Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~ William Wordsworth, #NFDB
236:I felt it better to speak to God than about Him. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
237:Let the consequences of your obedience be left up to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
238:Our way lies not in human ingenuity, but in a return to God. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
239:Restoration and hope is available each time you return to God. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
240:The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes. ~ Teresa of vila, #NFDB
241:The purer I try to become, the nearer I feel to be to God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
242:To perform one's duty is the greatest service to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
243:We’ll stay true to God only if our love becomes a decision. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
244:Whate'er we leave to God,
God does and blesses us. ~ Henry David Thoreau,#NFDB
245:When a man turns his face to God he finds sunshine everywhere. ~ Abdu l Bah, #NFDB
246:When the ruler is obedient to God, God is his protector and friend. ~ Saadi, #NFDB
247:Beware of those who attribute petty instructions to God. ~ Abdul Sattar Edhi, #NFDB
248:Give your life to God; he can do more with it than you can! ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
249:God is not subject to religion. Religion is subject to God. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
250:I swear to God, if I get shot again, Indigo will strangle me. ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
251:It is only love which makes us acceptable to God. ~ Saint Therese of Lisieux, #NFDB
252:Our joys have shadows. The perfect smile belongs to God alone. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
253:Remember, the first road to God is prayer, the second is joy. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
254:Survival in Egypt begins with a yes to God's call on your life. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
255:The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
256:We all have a tendency to use prayer to dictate to God. ~ Jen Pollock Michel, #NFDB
257:We are most unfair to God; we do not allow Him to sin. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
258:We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
259:Would to God that we might spend a single day really well! ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
260:Abandonment to God is of more value than personal holiness! ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
261:But pleasing to the eye isn't the same as pleasing to God. ~ Liz Curtis Higgs, #NFDB
262:Everyone sleeps, except lovers, who stay awake, telling stories to God ~ Rumi, #NFDB
263:Everything if given to God can become your gateway to joy. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
264:He entered the elevator and together they moved closer to god ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
265:I pray hard, work hard, and leave the rest to God. ~ Florence Griffith Joyner, #NFDB
266:I will always be your father . . . and I wish to God I wasn’t. ~ Nalini Singh, #NFDB
267:My heart matters to God. My heart has always mattered to him. ~ John Eldredge, #NFDB
268:Next to God we are nothing. To God we are Everything. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
269:Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
270:The Christian's life should be one of thankfulness to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
271:...the closest thing to god on this earth
is a woman's body... ~ Rupi Kaur,#NFDB
272:There's a reason I'm known - to bring people to Allah, to God. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
273:When you're connected to God, every moment is perfectly perfect. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
274:18And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
275:Duty and to-day are ours; results and futurity belong to God. ~ Horace Greeley, #NFDB
276:If we keep holding on to God, there is nothing to fear. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
277:I hate it when you talk to God. He always agrees with you. ~ Marshall Thornton, #NFDB
278:I live on hairspray. The bigger the hair, the closer to God. ~ Miranda Lambert, #NFDB
279:I think it's about time we gave up religion and got back to God. ~ Lenny Bruce, #NFDB
280:I wish to God I might induce her to mind me!' he ejaculated. ~ Georgette Heyer, #NFDB
281:I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam. ~ Charles Babbage, #NFDB
282:Life is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God. ~ A R Bernard, #NFDB
283:The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
284:The closer you live to God, the smaller everything else appears. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
285:Through prayer we speak to God. In meditation, God speaks to us. ~ Edgar Cayce, #NFDB
286:Trouble will drive those to God who have said to him, “Go away ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
287:you can’t cling to God’s grace and your shame at the same time. ~ Melissa Tagg, #NFDB
288:All roads lead to the earth; the abyss leads to God. Jump! ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
289:Her relationship to God wasn’t doctrinal. It was functional. ~ Nadia Bolz Weber, #NFDB
290:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, #NFDB
291:If you want to be loathsome to God, just run with the herd. ~ Soren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
292:If you want to be loathsome to God, just run with the herd. ~ S ren Kierkegaard, #NFDB
293:Listen less to your own thoughts and more to God's thoughts. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
294:Many of our trials serve as invitations to cling to God. ~ Linda Evans Shepherd, #NFDB
295:Oh, that I could spend every moment of my life to God's glory! ~ David Brainerd, #NFDB
296:The more helpful we are to others, the more like we are to God. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
297:The nearer a man gets to God, the greater he sees his sin. ~ Martyn Lloyd Jones, #NFDB
298:The time has come to turn to God and reassert our trust in Him. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
299:A life that is lived without regard to God cannot be called living. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
300:Each man must have his own special route to lead him to God. ~ Nikos Kazantzakis, #NFDB
301:In contemplation of created things, by steps we may ascend to God. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
302:I pray to God to be a great player, but I want to keep my life. ~ Carlos Beltran, #NFDB
303:I wish to God that Apple and Google were partners in the future. ~ Steve Wozniak, #NFDB
304:Purity doesn't happen by accident; it requires obedience to God. ~ Joshua Harris, #NFDB
305:Spare the child and spoil the rod, I am not sellin' myself to god. ~ Patti Smith, #NFDB
306:The best we can say to God in prayer, is what He has said to us. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
307:The discipline of daily devotion to God undergirds decisions. ~ Edwin Louis Cole, #NFDB
308:Theology is taught by God, teaches God, and leads to God. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
309:The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God ~ Antonio Gaudi, #NFDB
310:We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
311:We lie to God in prayer if we do not rely on him afterwards. ~ Robert B Leighton, #NFDB
312:You are not on a journey to God; you are on a journey WITH God. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
313:Artists create things that point us to beauty, to truth, to God. ~ Katherine Reay, #NFDB
314:Faith leads us beyond ourselves. It leads us directly to God. ~ Pope John Paul II, #NFDB
315:Friend, be not afraid of thy office, thou sendest me to God. ~ Thomas the Apostle, #NFDB
316:It is a comely fashion to be glad; Joy is the grace we say to God. ~ Jean Ingelow, #NFDB
317:It's only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to God. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
318:One of the ways in which I feel close to God is writing poetry. ~ Christian Wiman, #NFDB
319:Sainthood lies in the habit of referring the smallest actions to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
320:Solely by turning to God is there any hope for man to gain peace. ~ Anandamayi Ma, #NFDB
321:The instant I reach Heaven, I'm going to speak to God very sharply. ~ H L Mencken, #NFDB
322:When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
323:When you seek a connection to God, you suffer. God is not absent. ~ Mark Whitwell, #NFDB
324:All things are possible to God and to you in God-consciousness. ~ Eric Butterworth, #NFDB
325:Creation is not a hurdle on the road to God, it is the road itself. ~ Martin Buber, #NFDB
326:If the property belongs to God he is able to pay the tax. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll, #NFDB
327:I swear to God, I wish I was cute and dumb. Just for a day. ~ Brian Michael Bendis, #NFDB
328:Listening to God is far more important than giving Him your ideas. ~ Frank Laubach, #NFDB
329:Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
330:Oh! I will give my heart to God,” I said. “You do not want it. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
331:Open your ears to God before you open your mouth to others. ~ Suzanne Woods Fisher, #NFDB
332:People would make a much fuller confession to Satan than to God. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
333:Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.2 —American motto suggested ~ Jon Meacham, #NFDB
334:The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
335:The whole duty of man is summed up in obedience to God's will. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
336:What you do to these men on California's Death Row, you do to God. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
337:Worship is an exercise of the Holy Spirit directed primarily to God ~ Ralph Martin, #NFDB
338:Your willingness to serve God is as important as your service to God. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
339:Afterwards, when it's all over, you meet God. What do you say to God? ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
340:Deflating inflated egos is so important to God that He offers to help. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
341:Each child born on earth Is a unique promise of God To God Himself. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
342:Faithfulness to God requires your obedience, even when it’s difficult. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
343:If prayer is you talking to God, then intuition is God talking to you. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
344:I have surrendered to God; therefore I surrender to nothing else. ~ E Stanley Jones, #NFDB
345:It's up to men to build things ... it's up to God to blow them down. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
346:Killing innocent people in the name of God is the highest insult to God. ~ Amit Ray, #NFDB
347:my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
348:Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
349:Thanks be to God, that he gave me Stubborness, when I know I am right. ~ John Adams, #NFDB
350:That IS what journal writing is all about—showing ourselves to God. ~ Frank McCourt, #NFDB
351:When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing. ~ Saint Francis of Assisi, #NFDB
352:When you give a gift to one of God's children, you give a gift to God. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
353:When you pray, you talk to God. When you meditate, you listen to God. ~ Joey Reiman, #NFDB
354:Your lowest points are launching pads to God's greatest promotions. ~ Joseph Prince, #NFDB
355:You talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic. ~ Doris Egan, #NFDB
356:Even though it's my job to be an actor, I have given my life to God. ~ Angus T Jones, #NFDB
357:Every temptation is an opportunity of our getting nearer to God. ~ John Quincy Adams, #NFDB
358:If we are proud of our talents we betray our lack of gratitude to God. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
359:If we open our hearts to God, He has promised to work within us. ~ Margaret Thatcher, #NFDB
360:If you believe there's only one path to God, then you're limiting God. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
361:If you don't feel like praying, pray to God to give you the desire. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
362:Like a drug, the withdrawal is going to suck. I hope to God I survive. ~ Jewel E Ann, #NFDB
363:no religion was superior because they all brought people closer to God ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
364:...Pomeranians speak only to Poodles and Poodles speak only to God. ~ Charles Kuralt, #NFDB
365:Prayer is more than a wish; it is the voice of faith directed to God. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
366:Sincerity carries the soul in all simplicity to open its heart to God. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
367:The angels minister to God's servants in time of hardship and danger. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
368:The secret of true happiness lies within unwavering devotion to God ~ Shri Radhe Maa, #NFDB
369:You can think of faith simply as a kind of path from your heart to God. ~ Ay e Kulin, #NFDB
370:All good meditative prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
371:All peoples, clap your hands. Cry to God with shouts of joy! Ps 47 (46):2 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
372:... divine love is not something belonging to God: it is God Himself. ~ Henri Bergson, #NFDB
373:Don't do it. I swear to god I will break your fingers off... Okay, do it. ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
374:Gratitude to God is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
375:Honest to God, she was the noisiest woman he'd ever been shot at with. ~ Jill Shalvis, #NFDB
376:Islam is nothing but man's exclusive and total submission to God. ~ Abul A la Maududi, #NFDB
377:no religion was superior because they all brought people closer to God; ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
378:Only the prayer which comes from our heart can get to God's heart. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
379:Our task is to relate our lives to God, and let Him work through us. ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
380:Remember, a daily prayer to God is not an option in the day! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
381:Render to God the sole worship which is fitting towards Him, not to be evil. ~ Hermes, #NFDB
382:Spiritual strength is connected to faithful obedience to God's commands. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
383:The great rule of moral conduct is next to God, respect time. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater, #NFDB
384:The nearest each of us can come to God is by loving the truth. ~ R Buckminster Fuller, #NFDB
385:There—fore what is contrary to human nature is contrary to God’s will. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
386:To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
387:True listening is obedient listening. To listen to God is to obey Him. ~ Leanne Payne, #NFDB
388:We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
389:We talk to God--that is prayer; God talks to us--that is inspiration. ~ H Emilie Cady, #NFDB
390:All religions are the same. They all lead to God. God is everybody. ~ Neem Karoli Baba, #NFDB
391:Don’t cry out to God for change, and then be afraid of it when it comes. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
392:How can the heart travel to God, when it is chained by its desires? ~ Ibn Arabi, [T5], #NFDB
393:If a situation requires swearing to God it is — by definition — extreme. ~ Pam Houston, #NFDB
394:In worship we are ascribing greatness, goodness, and glory to God. It ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
395:I swear to God, the sups in this city could have their own reality show. ~ Chloe Neill, #NFDB
396:It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts. ~ Corrie ten Boom, #NFDB
397:No man can come to God but by an extraordinary revelation of the Spirit. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
398:One way you can get really close to God is to sin as hard as you can. ~ John Darnielle, #NFDB
399:to God—and to him. Most could barely make rent or put food on the ~ Mary Higgins Clark, #NFDB
400:When I kissed you the day I left, I swear to God you stripped me bare. ~ Scarlett Cole, #NFDB
401:You have never looked in the eyes of someone who does not matter to God. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
402:Any conscious, wilful impairment of the body is an affront to God. ~ Stephen L Richards, #NFDB
403:Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God. ~ Lenny Bruce, #NFDB
404:Every man is wholly honest to himself and to God, but not to any one else. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
405:Giving one self up to God, means constantly remembering the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
406:I don't belong to any denomination or religion, I just belong to God. ~ Akiane Kramarik, #NFDB
407:No woman wants to be in submission to a man who isn't in submission to God! ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
408:O Mary, you give assistance to everyone endeavoring to rise to God! ~ Bridget of Sweden, #NFDB
409:Open a door for me, or I swear to God I will break through a wall. ~ Sarah Rees Brennan, #NFDB
410:Prayer is the opening of the soul to God so that he can speak to us. ~ Georgia Harkness, #NFDB
411:The more of himself man attributes to God, the less he has left in himself. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
412:There are thousands of paths to God and every one gets you there. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
413:The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart. ~ Plutarch, #NFDB
414:with every choice we move either closer to God or farther away from him. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
415:Worship is an endeavor to bring to God that which costs you something. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
416:Come to God with your emptiness, and He will fill you with His best! ~ Alisa Hope Wagner, #NFDB
417:Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that unknown thing? ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
418:Death belongs to God alone; by what right do men touch that unknown thing? ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
419:Everything in life belongs to God. Our purpose has already been mapped out. ~ David Luiz, #NFDB
420:Faith is not merely you holding on to God- it is God holding on to you ~ E Stanley Jones, #NFDB
421:For j the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
422:Giving one self up to God, means constantly remembering the Self. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
423:If you choose to be obedient to God, God meets you with divine enablement. ~ Johnny Hunt, #NFDB
424:I have received my all from God. Oh, that I could return my all to God. ~ David Brainerd, #NFDB
425:I think my heart has broken, but I have offered the fragments to God. ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
426:Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. ~ Eric Liddell, #NFDB
427:One real thing is closer to God than all the diagrams in the world ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
428:The glory of the salvation of souls belongs to God, and to Him alone. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
429:The more one is united to his neighbor the more he is united to God. ~ Dorotheus of Gaza, #NFDB
430:The wise man comes to God without saying a word and stands in awe of Him. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
431:We in America should be grateful to God for the blessing he has given us. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
432:A better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:19 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
433:Before commencing any soul work, pray to God to guide you within it. ~ Padma Aon Prakasha, #NFDB
434:Bring Solomon Gorge to God that he might purge the sin from this evil land! ~ Lucian Bane, #NFDB
435:Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
436:Crying to God for five minutes is equal to one hour of meditation. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
437:Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God. ~ Saint Jerome, #NFDB
438:Great teachers who are faithful to God’s Word are a blessing to God’s church. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
439:little input of God's Word results in little resemblance to God's Son. ~ Donald S Whitney, #NFDB
440:Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him, he liked to say. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
441:May we always say thank you to God, especially for his patience and mercy. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
442:My religion says that only he who is prepared to suffer can pray to God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
443:One of the greatest testimonials to God's love is His provision of His Word. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
444:One real thing is closer to God than all the diagrams in the world. ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
445:Pious people spoke to God, and crazy people imagined that God spoke back. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
446:Showing up where I am and not where I wish I were is saying yes to God. ~ Emily P Freeman, #NFDB
447:To god what is God's, to Caesar what is Caesar's. To humans - what? ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, #NFDB
448:To know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man. Not ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
449:Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
450:After every temptation you will be either closer to God or further from Him. ~ Jason Evert, #NFDB
451:At the end of the day, prime allegiance must be to God himself, to God alone. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
452:Complaint against God is far nearer to God than indifference about Him. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
453:Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God. ~ Maria Mitchell, #NFDB
454:Every number has a name! Every name has a story! Every story matters to God! ~ Perry Noble, #NFDB
455:Give each short hour to God and the years will take care of themselves. ~ Karen Anna Vogel, #NFDB
456:Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon. From God we come and to God we return. ~ Soniah Kamal, #NFDB
457:Mothers are only human, you turn it over to God and then you just wing it. ~ Jo Ann Mapson, #NFDB
458:Spiritual practices are ways of becoming awake and staying awake to God. ~ Brian D McLaren, #NFDB
459:The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those who are close to him. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
460:The human spirit lies open to God alone, for it is a fathomless depth. ~ Seraphim of Sarov, #NFDB
461:The Pantheon was the first church I'd ever seen that had an open view to God ~ Bran Ferren, #NFDB
462:When men enter into the state of marriage, they stand nearest to God. ~ Henry Ward Beecher, #NFDB
463:Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs? ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
464:A Christian is not his own master, since all his time belongs to God. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #NFDB
465:Beauty attached to God is sacrament, cut off from God it becomes an idol. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
466:Calm down, stop trying to figure out the answers, and turn your focus to God. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
467:He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. ~ Saint Benedict of Nursia, #NFDB
468:I found it hard work now to pray to God, because despair was swallowing me up ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
469:Prayer is the way to die to our own wishes and surrender everything to God. ~ Scot McKnight, #NFDB
470:The cure for shame will always be found in how we become connected to God. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
471:The poor silly-clever Irishman takes off his hat to God's Englishman. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
472:There is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
473:Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
474:A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
475:At the fork in every road, choose the road that brings you nearer to God. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
476:Marriage is a team effort. Grow closer to each other as you grow closer to God. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
477:Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
478:The closer we are to God, the more the slightest sin will cause us deep sorrow. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
479:The greatest gift one can give to God is to be pleased with His creation. ~ Michael A Singer, #NFDB
480:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
481:Creativity is God's gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to God. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
482:Every day, I get closer to God. Every day, my will to do the right thing gets stronger. ~ DMX, #NFDB
483:Every prophet and every saint has a way, But all lead to God. All ways are really one. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
484:He who has no love in his heart to God, you may set him down for an apostate. ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
485:I am what I am, I'm doing very well in my life, and I'm thankful to God for that. ~ LL Cool J, #NFDB
486:If you don't feel as close to God today as you did yesterday, who moved? ~ Chris Heimerdinger, #NFDB
487:in our Christian lives, success is obedience to God, not results we can measure. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
488:Man wants to be reconciled to God; wants to know that the past is forgiven. ~ Matthew Simpson, #NFDB
489:No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devill builds a Chappell hard by. ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
490:The eleventh commandment: Thou shalt be tolerant of all paths that lead to God. ~ James Cook, #NFDB
491:To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me. ~ Vladimir Putin, #NFDB
492:We will walk to God
barefoot:
our feet lacerated,
our limbs wounded. ~ Saadi Youssef,#NFDB
493:when we operate according to God’s Word, we operate according to God’s will. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
494:Which is the best religion? [...] The religion that brings you closest to God. ~ Howard Storm, #NFDB
495:2 I will say to God: “Do not declare me •guilty! Let me know why You prosecute me. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
496:And if Time is anything akin to God, I suppose that Memory must be the Devil. ~ Diana Gabaldon, #NFDB
497:A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. ~ Charles Grandison Finney, #NFDB
498:Because the truth of God is love, conversion to God is conversion to love. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
499:I do not care to die, but I pray to God I may never leave this field. ~ Winfield Scott Hancock, #NFDB
500:It’s best not to depend on the gray haired. We’re too close to God to rely on, ~ Nadia Hashimi, #NFDB
501:My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
502:Nothing grieves me so much as that I cannot live constantly to God’s glory. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
503:Of all the gifts You have offered to God, Your happiness-gift He treasures most. ~ Sri Chinmoy, #NFDB
504:Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is letting God talk to you.” —Yogi Bhajan ~ Maria Shriver, #NFDB
505:Prayer is the expression of your heart’s sincere desires poured out to God. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
506:So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
507:There will never be anything more exciting or wonderful than being close to God. ~ Rick Joyner, #NFDB
508:to offer one-tenth to God; but under the new covenant, ten-tenths are required. ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
509:Wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor people, I honest to God believe that. ~ Joe Biden, #NFDB
510:When you take your troubles to God, you may have them but they don't have you. ~ Patti LaBelle, #NFDB
511:Worry that is either untrusting or distracting is very dishonorable to God. It ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
512:You really don't even own the present moment, for even this belongs to God. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
513:As a Christian, you are “of God, and through God,” then live “to God. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
514:If you do not give the tenth part to God, he will take the nine parts. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #NFDB
515:If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia ~ Thomas Szasz, #NFDB
516:I never sleep comfortably except when I am at sermon or when I pray to God. ~ Francois Rabelais, #NFDB
517:I never sleep in comfort save when I am hearing a sermon or praying to God. ~ Francois Rabelais, #NFDB
518:In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, men wanted to be close to God ~ Raymond Carver, #NFDB
519:I would as soon pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
520:Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
521:Live simply, love seriously, care deeply, speak kindly...leave the rest to God. ~ Joanne Clancy, #NFDB
522:Live to seek to draw close to God in all ways and seek His transforming love ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
523:Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
524:The closest thing to god on this earth is a woman's body it's where life comes from ~ Rupi Kaur, #NFDB
525:The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
526:The greatest gift one can give to God is to be pleased with His creation. Do ~ Michael A Singer, #NFDB
527:True worship is obedience to God for no other reason than that you delight in God. ~ J D Greear, #NFDB
528:Death belongs only to God. By what right to men tamper with a thing so unknowable? ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
529:Death belongs only to God. What right have men to lay hands on a thing so unknown? ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
530:I always prayed to God, “I want to help people and please help me to do that. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
531:If a man is unable to grow fruits where he lives, he is not ready to talk to God. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
532:If you talk to God, you are praying; If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia. ~ Thomas Szasz, #NFDB
533:I had made myself the center of my own existence and had my back turned to God. ~ Bede Griffiths, #NFDB
534:In those olden days, when they built cathedrals, men wanted to be close to God. ~ Raymond Carver, #NFDB
535:It follows that we pray rightly only when we come to God trusting in the Mediator. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
536:Prayer is designed to adjust you to God's will, not to adjust God to your will. ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
537:Prayer is speaking to God. Meditation is listening to God. Trust tranquility. ~ Shirley MacLaine, #NFDB
538:Reviling a Muslim is disobedience to God, and fighting with him is infidelity. ~ Elijah Muhammad, #NFDB
539:The Church will pray to God for the dead. The survivor has honour and glory. ~ Alexander Suvorov, #NFDB
540:The honest to God truth is that I'm mad at myself. I should've known better. ~ Miranda Kenneally, #NFDB
541:The human spirit lies open to God alone, for it is a fathomless depth. ~ Saint Seraphim of Sarov, #NFDB
542:There is no door to God through dope; that is a lie peddled by the unscrupulous. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
543:There is no way for a human being to come to God that does not involve surrender. ~ John Ortberg, #NFDB
544:To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. ~ Woody Allen, Stardust Memories (1980), #NFDB
545:What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God. ~ Hans Urs von Balthasar, #NFDB
546:Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God ~ Leo F Buscaglia, #NFDB
547:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
548:Careful obedience to God’s law may serve as a strategy for rebelling against God ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
549:Hatred toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
550:I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
551:I swear to god if I had an Adam's apple, I'd tell her to peel it and take a bite. ~ Andrea Gibson, #NFDB
552:I swear to God I’m a freak. I mean it. One day I’m going to forget how to wake up. ~ Alice Oseman, #NFDB
553:Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
554:No name is applicable to God, only He is called Love,—so great and precious a thing is Love. ~ id, #NFDB
555:Our prayers are not limited to God's sovereignty, but the ultimate expression of it ~ Tim Chester, #NFDB
556:Prayer is you speaking to God. Meditation is allowing the spirit to speak to you. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
557:Romans 9—Is this chapter contrary to God’s desire for all persons to be saved? ~ Norman L Geisler, #NFDB
558:Small numbers make no difference to God. There is nothing small if God is in it. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
559:that absolute commitment to God involves a deep and sustained wrestling with God. ~ Peter Rollins, #NFDB
560:We want to go to God for answers, but sometimes what we get is God’s presence. ~ Nadia Bolz Weber, #NFDB
561:...when your heart is broken, don't go silent - speak to God in his own language... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
562:Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God. ~ Leo F Buscaglia, #NFDB
563:First off, don’t swear to God around me. He’s not listening when I’m in the room. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
564:I look at you, and I see in you the yearning to get back to God. That yearning is love. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
565:It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose him as an alternative to hell. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
566:It's not where we've been that matters to God. It's who we are becoming in Him. ~ Liz Curtis Higgs, #NFDB
567:Men have ascribed to God imperfections that they would deplore in themselves. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
568:My guru said that when he suffers, it brings him closer to God. I have found this, too. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
569:Saint Francis. “When we pray to God,” he said, “we must be seeking nothing—nothing. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
570:Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
571:The Covenanters themselves bound their posterity to God by express words in their bonds. ~ Various, #NFDB
572:...the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. ~ Moses, #NFDB
573:We must suffer in order to go to God. We forget this truth far too often. ~ Madeleine Sophie Barat, #NFDB
574:When I violate one point of God's law, I bring myself into opposition to God Himself. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
575:A clean heart can see God, can speak to God, and can see the love of God in others. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
576:Devotion to God is the only acceptable motive for actions that are pleasing to God. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
577:Honest to God, Story. The bullet didn’t kill me, but the way you make me feel might. ~ Tessa Bailey, #NFDB
578:I find that we are all such sinners that it is better to leave the judging to God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
579:If you say be the ball I swear to God…” “Nah, boy. Don’t be the ball. Just grow a pair. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
580:I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
581:I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception. ~ Elizabeth I, #NFDB
582:To God belongs the East and the West,' I said in Arabic like the late Enishte. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
583:I try and reduce myself to an almost blank slate and hope to God that I am creative. ~ Ben Kingsley, #NFDB
584:[M]an in religion – in his relation to God – is in relation to his own nature[.] ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
585:Man out of Nature wakes to God’s complexities, ~ Sri Aurobindo, Collected Plays and Stories, Act I, #NFDB
586:Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts. ~ Philip Neri, #NFDB
587:Oh, that I could dedicate my all to God. This is all the return I can make Him. ~ David Livingstone, #NFDB
588:O, ye who take freedom from man, with what words shall ye answer it to God? ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, #NFDB
589:Tell 'em to God. Don' go burdenin' other people with your sins. That ain't decent. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
590:The Israelites give ample proof that signs may only addict us to signs, not to God. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
591:There is hope for the future because God has a sense of humor and we are funny to God. ~ Bill Cosby, #NFDB
592:We are not saved by making promises to God but by believing the promises of God. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
593:When you swear to God, its true ... right now God is watching and saying, this is true. ~ Dane Cook, #NFDB
594:A mathematical formula should never be "owned" by anybody! Mathematics belong to God. ~ Donald Knuth, #NFDB
595:Before you can cry to God and seek him God must come to you and must have found you, ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
596:He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
597:I do not believe in a personal connection to God; that's where it gets transcendental. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
598:If you need something in addition to God to make you happy, that is your true King. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
599:I pray every night. I just talk to God and I can go to sleep. I don't worry anymore. ~ Anna Chlumsky, #NFDB
600:It's funny how the closer you get to God, the more you realize how far you are from Him. ~ Mark Hart, #NFDB
601:Live a life of prayer, giving glory to God and continually listening for His guidance. ~ Mary C Neal, #NFDB
602:Pray to God: It's all right if you don't love me, but please let me love you! ~ Mata Amritanandamayi, #NFDB
603:"The way of Cain" says there are many paths that lead to God rather than one path. ~ Robert Jeffress, #NFDB
604:At this moment, each one of us is as close to God’s throne of grace as we choose to be. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
605:EARS: I listen to God. I hear the joys of life. I am part of life. I listen with love. ~ Louise L Hay, #NFDB
606:Faith without works is not faith at all, but a simple lack of obedience to God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
607:He who looks sinward has his back to God-he who looks Godward has his back to sin. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
608:If you're in bad mood, take a deep breath.
If you're in good mood, give thanks to God. ~ Toba Beta,#NFDB
609:If you turn things over to God, you will finally find the power you need to break free. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
610:Once we surrender our mind to God completely, He will take care of us in every way. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
611:Our minds are starters in the race to God. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, The Godheads of the Little Life, #NFDB
612:Render your body to them" his father had taught, "but know your soul belongs to God. ~ Edward P Jones, #NFDB
613:Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
614:The Holy Scriptures lead us to God and open the path to the knowledge of God. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
615:To remain free from thoughts is the best offering one can make to God.
~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, [T5],#NFDB
616:Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
617:When you are wired to God in a unique way, nothing can separate you from the love of God ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
618:You give to God not through your accomplishments, but through the person you become. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
619:Any path to knowledge is a path to God-or Reality, whichever word one prefers to use ~ Arthur C Clarke, #NFDB
620:A woman's heart should be so close to God that a man should have to chase Him to find her. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
621:belonged to God and to that India which he considered not as a geographical entity but as ~ The Mother, #NFDB
622:Faith abases men and exalts God, it gives all the glory of redemption to God alone. ~ Jonathan Edwards, #NFDB
623:It is cheerful to God when you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
624:It is sweet to die young! It is sweet to render to God a life still full of illusions! ~ Andre Chenier, #NFDB
625:It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God than religion. ~ Paul Davies, #NFDB
626:It must be a great disappointment to God if we are not dazzled at least ten times a day. ~ Mary Oliver, #NFDB
627:Live among others as if God beheld you; speak to God as if others were listening. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
628:Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
629:now there are many that study more to gain parties to themselves, than to gain souls to God. ~ Various, #NFDB
630:Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn't him. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
631:Obviously somebody had been appallingly incompetent and he hoped to God it wasn’t him. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
632:Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
633:Prayer is a rising up and a drawing near to God in mind and in heart, and in spirit. ~ Alexander Whyte, #NFDB
634:She prays to God, but He's silent. She searches for guidance, but the forest only moans. ~ Carrie Ryan, #NFDB
635:That we devote ourselves to God, is seen In living just as though no God there were. ~ Robert Browning, #NFDB
636:The experience of bliss can be the purest one of all and therefore the closest to God. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
637:The life of prayer is just love to God, and the custom of being ever with Him. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
638:The more we listen to God's voice, the easier it is to recognize when He speaks to us. ~ Larry Burkett, #NFDB
639:The question is not, "Why is there only one way to God?" but "Why is there even one way?" ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
640:True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark. ~ N T Wright, #NFDB
641:When you reach out to God humbly, you'll find that He's already reaching out to you. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
642:Who builds a church to God and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
643:109Everything in the heavens and earth belongs to God; it is to Him that all things return. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
644:A Christian makes his body a sacrifice to God, though he does not give it to be burned. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
645:A decisive cleansing of the conscience is a prerequisite for unhindered access to God ~ Michael L Brown, #NFDB
646:Being saved from your sins is not about you giving to God; it’s about God giving to you. ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
647:Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
648:Humility and purity are the wings which carry us to God and make us almost divine. ~ Pio of Pietrelcina, #NFDB
649:I felt very close to God.... My friends say that's because I was always on my knees. ~ Armistead Maupin, #NFDB
650:I'm always talking to God about whether or not he exists - that's how I know I'm a theist. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
651:indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
652:I talk to God everyday but don't always expect him to listen to me. Am sure he is busier. ~ Shikha Kaul, #NFDB
653:I've surrendered that to God. I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore. ~ Jeremy Lin, #NFDB
654:Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun. ~ Kanye West, #NFDB
655:Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
656:Therefore submit to God.… Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:7–8) ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
657:There is this: We give thanks to God not because of how we feel but because of who He is. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
658:the unexpected truth that the safest place for a sinful person to go is to God. ~ Erwin Raphael McManus, #NFDB
659:To believe when all means fail is exceedingly pleasing to God and is most acceptable. ~ David Wilkerson, #NFDB
660:To God there is nothing small. The moment we have given it to God, it becomes infinite. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
661:And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. ~ Lupita Nyong o, #NFDB
662:For I am come a whirlwind of wasted things
and I will ride this tantrum back to God ~ Christian Wiman,#NFDB
663:Gratitude is the joy that arises in response to God’s good will toward us in all his gifts. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
664:Have death always before your eyes as a salutary means of returning to God. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #NFDB
665:It's a madhouse, of course. A complete, utter madhouse. I only hope to God it remains one. ~ Paul Bowles, #NFDB
666:Prayer is fundamentally a transformation of will, a lifting of the heart and will to God. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
667:repent of their sins and turn to God—and prove they have changed by the good things they do. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
668:Satan's kryptonite is separation through slander. He slanders God to us and us to God. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
669:Statistics, likelihoods, and probabilities mean everything to men, nothing to God. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
670:The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God. ~ Leon M Lederman, #NFDB
671:The primary virtue is: hold your tongue; who knows how to keep quiet is close to God. ~ Cato the Younger, #NFDB
672:You belong neither to God nor the state nor me. You belong to yourself and no one else. ~ Oriana Fallaci, #NFDB
673:A Christian who practices asceticism trains himself to say no to his desires and yes to God. ~ Rod Dreher, #NFDB
674:Dependence, sorrow, repentance, a longing to change—these are the gates to God's kingdom. ~ Philip Yancey, #NFDB
675:Every time we give in to selfishness and say “No” to God, we spoil his loving plan for us. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
676:for next to God, who is our strength, all depends upon the valour of our arms. ~ Bernal D az del Castillo, #NFDB
677:Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible spiritually to God for other people? ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
678:Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
679:I am very grateful to God everyday that my eyes flutter open and I can jump out of that bed! ~ Jerry Reed, #NFDB
680:If a devotee prays to God with real longing, God cannot help revealing Himself to him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
681:I'm a survivor of life. I try to give the glory to God and appreciate what's happening to me. ~ Mike Epps, #NFDB
682:Listen, open a window to God and begin to delight yourself by gazing upon Him through the opening. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
683:Loving yourself unconditionally is one of the most precious gifts you can give back to God. ~ Nancy Rynes, #NFDB
684:No matter how often I talk to God, he never tells me anything I didn’t already know. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant, #NFDB
685:Not the way to God but the way of God to humanity: that is the sum of Christianity. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
686:Religion does not belong to God; it belongs to the human reaction against mortality! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
687:Sometimes it’s good to be alone, because that’s when your heart is really open to God. ~ Chris Oyakhilome, #NFDB
688:Thanks be to God, there is hope to-day; this very hour you can choose Him and serve Him. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
689:The only way to move from your reality to God’s reality is through people who love you. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
690:The primary object of doctrine is God; the secondary object is all things in relation to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
691:Whatever it is, let it go. Give it to God."
At Winter's End
Ruth Logan Herne ~ Ruth Logan Herne,#NFDB
692:What you are is god's gift to you, What you make of yourself is your gift to god ~ Hans Urs von Balthasar, #NFDB
693:When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer. ~ Cyprian, #NFDB
694:Where I'm from, life's a gamble, grab the dice/'Fore I leave, pray to God, then I grab my Nikes ~ Fashawn, #NFDB
695:You can't leave [the children] to God when God has left them to us." - Sister Carlotta ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
696:A life totally committed to God has nothing to fear, nothing to lose, nothing to regret. ~ Pandita Ramabai, #NFDB
697:A mothers greatest joy in having a child is to give that child fully and freely to God. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
698:And thanks be to God, Johnny, said Mr Dedalus, that we lived so long and did so little harm. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
699:Because things are unpleasant," said Jean Val- Jean, "that is no reason to be unjust to God. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
700:Business is a spiritual endeavor, and it brings us closer to one another and closer to God. ~ Daniel Lapin, #NFDB
701:Despite all my efforts, I still can't honestly say that I feel closer to God and to myself. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
702:God is not a slot machine. We don't go to God to get something; we go to give something. ~ Mother Angelica, #NFDB
703:Honest to god, I'm so happy it's frightening! I'm just so chuffed - that's all I can say. ~ Robbie Fowler, #NFDB
704:I pray to God I get inside a girl's head one day and see what in the WORLD they are thinking. ~ A J McLean, #NFDB
705:It would seem more appropriate to say that we are debtors to God’s justice, not to his grace. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
706:... our little things are all big to God's love; our big things are all small to His power. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
707:Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan. ~ John Bunyan, #NFDB
708:Repentance is a change of willing, of feeling and of living, in respect to God. ~ Charles Grandison Finney, #NFDB
709:The gift of sonship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
710:The lover of silence draws close to God. He talks to Him in secret and God enlightens him. ~ John Climacus, #NFDB
711:The most shattering thought I've ever had is my personal accountability to God one day ~ Leonard Ravenhill, #NFDB
712:Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. ~ Solomon, #NFDB
713:To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
714:Walking with God doesn't lead to God's favor; God's favor leads to walking with God. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
715:We speak to God when we pray; we listen to Him when we read the Scriptures. ~ Saint Ambrose, [T5], #index, #NFDB
716:When men do what is displeasing to God, they perform their own will, not God's. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
717:When, therefore, man lives according to man, not according to God, he is like the devil. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
718:You have to be very strong to live close to God or a mountain, or you'll turn a little mad. ~ Rumer Godden, #NFDB
719:A little quiet reflection will remind me that yes to God always leads in the end to joy. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
720:Cheese!" I exclaimed. It was a secret prayer, whose meaning was known only to God and to me. ~ Alan Bradley, #NFDB
721:Everything gives way to money, and money gives way to nothing, neither to man nor to God. ~ Theodore Parker, #NFDB
722:If one surrenders to God, there will be no cause for anxiety. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, Conscious Immortality, #NFDB
723:If we come to God, it will be through one Jewish mediator-king, or it will not be at all. ~ Russell D Moore, #NFDB
724:I swear to God . . .”
“God doesn’t come to this part of the house, so swear to me.” -Liam C ~ J J McAvoy,#NFDB
725:I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Romans 12:1 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
726:I was extremely lucky. I had some huge crashes and yet I am still here, thanks to God. ~ Emerson Fittipaldi, #NFDB
727:Love is the seed of happiness, and love to God is fostered and developed by worship. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
728:No matter what sin you find yourself in, turn to God. Let Him forgive, heal, and restore. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
729:Tell me and, I swear to God, I'll make it so you won't be scared ever again," he promised. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
730:The curses of the ungodly are more pleasing to God's ears than the hallelujahs of the pious ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
731:There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his on free will ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
732:to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
733:Vengeance to God alone belongs; But, when I think of all my wrongs My blood is liquid flame! ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
734:We must look to God for His grace and His power to perfect godly qualities in our lives. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
735:We shall not long have love to man if we do not first and chiefly cultivate love to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
736:William Ames (1576-1633) defined theology as the “teaching [doctrina] of living to God.”[2] ~ Kelly M Kapic, #NFDB
737:Yes, I like that word. "More" is a prayer to God, isn't it? Gratitude and plea, all in one. ~ Art Garfunkel, #NFDB
738:You do what you were made to do. Some of us were made to read and write. Thanks be to God. ~ Nancy M Malone, #NFDB
739:All those years thinking I was saved and had said my yes to God, but was really living the no. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
740:Fear is sinful when it attributes to God characteristics that are inconsistent with His nature. ~ Lou Priolo, #NFDB
741:Genuine faith can find encouragement, even in that which is discouraging and get nearer to God. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
742:He nods, eagerly. I wish to God I didn’t have to add that ‘eagerly’ onto that description. ~ Charlotte Stein, #NFDB
743:If you had seen one day of war, you would pray to God that you would never see another. ~ Duke of Wellington, #NFDB
744:I said to God: I will not die before I know you, God replied," He who knows me never dies. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
745:I shall entrust my affair to God, for God is Observant of [His] worshippers.
Quran-Ghafir(44) ~ Anonymous,#NFDB
746:It'll be your own torture," he said, serious. "I hope to God it'll torture you to madness. ~ Anthony Burgess, #NFDB
747:I was on my own, and every night I prayed to God that I could be strong both in body and soul. ~ Dave Pelzer, #NFDB
748:I wish to God I may die if I don’t love you. There ain’t no sky above us if I don’t love you ~ James Baldwin, #NFDB
749:Justice this side of heaven is a myth. It’s not our job anyway. Real justice belongs to God. ~ Colleen Coble, #NFDB
750:Let us bear our cross and leave it to God to determine the length and the weight. ~ Rose Philippine Duchesne, #NFDB
751:Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
752:Of all human activities, man's listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will. ~ Pope Paul VI, #NFDB
753:O this world is beautiful because of you! To love somebody means that we're closer to God. ~ Joseph Goebbels, #NFDB
754:Pray to God that He might create is us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. ~ Felix Mendelssohn, #NFDB
755:Take heed of thinking. The farther you go from the church of Rome, the nearer you are to God. ~ Henry Wotton, #NFDB
756:The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God. ~ Whittaker Chambers, #NFDB
757:The main measure of your devotion to God is not your devotional life. It is simply your life. ~ John Ortberg, #NFDB
758:Through a tree we were made debtors to God; so through a tree we have our debt canceled. ~ Irenaeus of Lyons, #NFDB
759:We must not be afraid of solidarity; rather let us make all we have and are available to God. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
760:When you pray, you are speaking to yourself. When you take action, you are speaking to God. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
761:Wherever there are men and women who have consecrated their lives to God, there you find joy. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
762:Charity is the cement which binds Communities to God and persons to one another . . . ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
763:Do not be afraid of what God asks of you! It is worth saying 'yes' to God. In him we find joy. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
764:Give thanks to God, who made necessary things simple, and complicated things unnecessary. ~ Gregory Skovoroda, #NFDB
765:God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word in the universe. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
766:Go there and I swear to God you’ll have to check ‘other’ when asked if you’re male or female. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
767:How does a blind man say he was wrong? I thought you were lost, but you were never lost to God. ~ DiAnn Mills, #NFDB
768:I do not want to die of this disease. So I say to God: "It is seriously time for a miracle." ~ Farrah Fawcett, #NFDB
769:I swear to God, if you saw me when I am by myself in the woods, I'm a lunatic. I sing, I dance. ~ Chris Evans, #NFDB
770:Prayer consists simply in giving to God all the careful attention of which the soul is capable. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
771:Show great devotion to your parents; but don't obey them if they stand in your way to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
772:The essence of prayer is simply talking to God as you would to a beloved friend—without ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
773:The more you read Scripture, the more you actually talk to God rather than think about fear. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
774:There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will. ~ Agatha Christie, #NFDB
775:Those who turn to God for comfort may find comfort but I do not think they will find God. ~ Mignon McLaughlin, #NFDB
776:Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
777:Trust to God to weave your thread into the great web, though the pattern shows it not yet. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
778:When a fantasy turns you on, you're obligated to God and nature to start doing it right away. ~ Stewart Brand, #NFDB
779:When you retire for the night offer grateful homage to God for being with you all day long. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
780:7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
781:Because it’s our duty to God to protect the rest of humanity from evil creatures of the night. ~ Richelle Mead, #NFDB
782:Celibacy is a great help, inasmuch as it enables one to lead a life of full surrender to God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
783:Every Christian has hurts and this is one of yours, but you go to God every time and He holds you. ~ Lori Wick, #NFDB
784:Every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
785:Faith and hope...are the wings by which our souls, rising above the world, are lifted up to God. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
786:Glory be to God! the whole of the bulwarks of salvation are secured by divine power, ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
787:Promise me you’ll give it all to God and let Him decide it for you. He’ll gift you no regrets. ~ Fisher Amelie, #NFDB
788:Should it happen tomorrow, I would fall to my knees to give thanks to God for such a career. ~ Placido Domingo, #NFDB
789:The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
790:There two things everybody had to do: Go to God and find out what living is for yourself. ~ Zora Neale Hurston, #NFDB
791:The root of pride is found to consist in man not being in some way subject to God and His rule. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
792:The ultimate aim of prayer is “obedience to God’s will, not the contemplation of his being. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
793:The world will never be converted to God unitl Christians cry less and laugh and sing more. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
794:To be religious is to have one's attention fixed on God and on one's neighbour in relation to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
795:To talk to his children about God, a person needs to first talk to God with the impossible. ~ Edwin Louis Cole, #NFDB
796:Until you respond to God by faith, you do not receive from Him, because God is a faith-God. ~ Chris Oyakhilome, #NFDB
797:We are not saved by making promises to God; we are saved by believing God’s promises to us. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
798:And when you go to God's house, it ain't got to be no fashion show. You just come as you are. ~ Esm Raji Codell, #NFDB
799:Being inside her was like prayer. It was worship. It was the closest to God I had ever been. ~ Jessica Gadziala, #NFDB
800:Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
801:I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse. ~ Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, #NFDB
802:Not going to God because your faith is weak is like not going to the doctor because you feel sick. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
803:pride always means enmity—it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
804:Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
805:We look upon the enemy of our souls as a conquered foe, so he is, but only to God, not to us. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
806:Whatever happened to God's justice? I am convinced that God exist and God is one asshole. ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
807:All gifts from God are intended to direct our attention to God and create fresh affection for God. ~ C J Mahaney, #NFDB
808:All that minister about holy things must have an eye to God's command as their rule and warrant; ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
809:Death is nothing else but going home to God, the bond of love will be unbroken for all eternity. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
810:Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver. ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins, #NFDB
811:It's true that every road leads to God. But only one way leads to a pleasant encounter with Him. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
812:need of encouragement, look to God first. He will never tell you that you’re not going to make it. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
813:Not, how much of my money will I give to God, but, how much of God’s money will I keep for myself? ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
814:Praise be to God the marvels of Whose creation are not subject to the arrows of accident. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
815:Prayer that is thoughtless and detached is offensive to God and should be offensive to us. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
816:The gratitude ascending from man to God is the supreme transaction between earth and heaven. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
817:There is not other relation to God save that which appears upon the road along which Job travelled. ~ Karl Barth, #NFDB
818:The Spirit is that within man which closest approaches the Center - is nearest to God. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
819:When you desire to be most alive to God, you will generally find sin most alive to repel you. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
820:Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
821:Yielding to God's will can be hard. And sometimes, it really hurts. But it always brings peace. ~ John M Perkins, #NFDB
822:You should give your all to God, and then worry no more about what he may do with what is his. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
823:A humble knowledge of ourselves is a surer way to God than is the search for depth of learning. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
824:All ages are equidistant from eternity, and just as immediately accessible to God's presence. ~ Leopold von Ranke, #NFDB
825:Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that unknown thing?" ========== Les Misérables ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
826:Each time you turn your life issues over to God and allow Him to lead, you build trust in Him. ~ Elizabeth George, #NFDB
827:Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
828:Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness. Listen to God. Adore Him in the Eucharist. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
829:If we do not cling to riches, selfishness or greed - then I believe we are getting closer to God. ~ Daniel Ortega, #NFDB
830:I swear to God. Sometimes you men are complete idiots. We love you, and you just screw everything up. ~ J Daniels, #NFDB
831:It is when God appears to have abandoned us that we must abandon ourselves most wholly to God. ~ Francois Fenelon, #NFDB
832:It’s ironic that as scientists that don’t believe in god, were the ones that are closest to god. ~ Hiromu Arakawa, #NFDB
833:My friends, it is one thing to go to church or chapel; it is quite another thing to go to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
834:Ned gets decapitated? I swear to God, if that actually happens, I’m throwing away my television. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
835:swear to God, if you hurt my truck in any way, I’m going to give you the spanking of a lifetime. ~ Lani Lynn Vale, #NFDB
836:The friend of silence comes close to God. In secret he converses with him and receives his light. ~ John Climacus, #NFDB
837:The next time you are called to suffer, pay attention. It may be the closest you'll ever get to God. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
838:There was something a bit sinister about Noah’s devotion to God; creepy, if you know what I mean. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
839:The sky may be overcast today with clouds, but a fervent prayer to God is enough to dispel them. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
840:The wise call by the name 'self-surrender' the offering of oneself to God through devotion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
841:We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
842:When I'm focusing on what's important to God, I live differently. I invest my time differently. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
843:Always remember that there is no conversion to God if there is no conversion to the oppressed. ~ Ignacio Ellacuria, #NFDB
844:Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
845:Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God ~ Mark Hitchcock, #NFDB
846:For always remember this friends, that who a man is is always more important to God than what he does. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
847:Holiness is pleasing to God, beneficial to men, and essential to the promotion of our own happiness ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
848:If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, andhe that does not live to God, is dead. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
849:...if you want to talk to God, it's best to do it where you don't have to shout to have yourself heard. ~ M J Rose, #NFDB
850:It's not possible to be close to God without thinking about the lost. They never leave His mind. ~ Christine Caine, #NFDB
851:Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
852:Neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
853:Obeying God is listening to God, having an open heart to follow the path that God points out to us. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
854:People have no morals, I swear to God. The things that people do for ratings! It's unforgivable. ~ Madonna Ciccone, #NFDB
855:Remain grateful for every outcome. Every outcome. Gratitude is the connecting energy to God. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
856:Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” JOB 22:21 ~ Norman Vincent Peale, #NFDB
857:The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God not by doing it right but by doing it wrong! ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
858:There seemed to be some correlation between devotion to God and a misguided zeal for marshmallows. ~ David Sedaris, #NFDB
859:The wise call by the name 'self-surrender' the offering of oneself to God through devotion. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
860:We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel, #NFDB
861:Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do that with all thy might and leave the issues calmly to God. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
862:A humble self-knowledge is a surer way to God than a search after deep learning.” Thomas À Kempis ~ Ian Morgan Cron, #NFDB
863:All of you desire to belong entirely to God, and God also wants all of you to belong to Him ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
864:Being away from you… it gets harder and harder… I swear to God it actually feels like I’m dying. ~ Jessica Sorensen, #NFDB
865:By piety I mean that union of reverence and love to God which the knowledge of his benefits inspires. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
866:Forgiveness doesn't diminish justice; it just entrusts it to God. He guarantees the right retribution. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
867:Here's the thing- I love you and I love her, but I swear to God I'll kick your ass if you hurt her. ~ Katie McGarry, #NFDB
868:If you ever…ever… touch her again, I swear to God, Grady, I‟ll fucking kill you. Do you hear me? ~ Kimberly Derting, #NFDB
869:Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from GOD and acceptance by GOD through my obedience to GOD ~ C J Mahaney, #NFDB
870:The question is not whether you ever gave yourself to God, but whether you are His now. ~ Elizabeth Payson Prentiss, #NFDB
871:Through the medium of prayer we go to our enemy, stand by his side, and plead for him to God. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
872:We're called to be faithful, to take those first difficult steps--and to leave the results up to God. ~ Alex Harris, #NFDB
873:All attributes ascribed to God are attributes of His acts, and do not imply that God has any qualities. ~ Maimonides, #NFDB
874:Every time it rains, the soil counts every drop to know exactly how many times to thank to God! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
875:He had no idea how to speak to God, so he recited snippets of prayers that he’d heard in movies. ~ Laura Hillenbrand, #NFDB
876:If we are to be just like Jesus, we must have regular time of talking to God and listening to his Word. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
877:I swear to god if he hurts you I will string him up by his toes and shove a hot fire poker in his ass. ~ Stacy Borel, #NFDB
878:Learned arguments do not make a man holy and righteous, whereas a good life makes him dear to God. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
879:Let your constant practice be to offer yourself to God, that He may do with you what He pleases. ~ Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
880:Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God the more of God will be seen in you. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
881:Religion: total submission to God as it pleases Him and not as we think it would please Him ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
882:Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as 'Pass the salt' It's a secret, direct prayer language to God. ~ Katy Perry, #NFDB
883:The glutton cannot turn his mind to God,” he said dismissively. “But neither can the starving man. ~ Katherine Arden, #NFDB
884:The great and merciful surprise is that we come to God, not by doing it right, but by doing it wrong. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
885:Tragically, we live in a day when offense to God doesn't matter nearly as much as offense to others. ~ Mark Driscoll, #NFDB
886:Until you can leave the matter of forgiveness to God, you will not have acquired true humility. ~ Colleen McCullough, #NFDB
887:What higher approval could a person enjoy than to know that what he or she has done is pleasing to God? ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
888:When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings. ~ Jonathan Swift, #NFDB
889:As long as he has a house with two bathrooms. I swear to God, I don't care if he's Jack the Ripper. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
890:destruction. Turning to God can save your life, but, in the process, it can annihilate your soul. ~ Zia Haider Rahman, #NFDB
891:Honest to God, dollface, you need to stop running around in that fuckin’ nightie. You’re killin’ me. ~ Kristen Ashley, #NFDB
892:If Jews, Christians and Muslims pray to God for the food He provides; Hindus pray to food as God. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
893:If you've opened your loving to God's love,you're helping people you don't knowand have never seen. ~ Jalaluddin Rumi, #NFDB
894:I speak it to God: I don’t really want more time; I just want enough time, time to do my one life well. ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
895:I've seen it coming from the very beginning. I would to God the reader had something to tell me first. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
896:My desire is to live more to God to-day than yesterday, and to be more holy this hour than the last. ~ Francis Asbury, #NFDB
897:Now filet mignon come with every meal. I swear to God that I'm so high, Feel like i am going up a hill. ~ Wiz Khalifa, #NFDB
898:People prayed to God to spare me, and I was spared for a reason—to use my life for helping people. ~ Malala Yousafzai, #NFDB
899:Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
900:Sin is the despairing refusal to find your deepest identity in your relationship and service to God. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
901:The first Advocate is speaking to God for you, but the second Advocate is speaking to you for you. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
902:The one true way of dying to self is the way of patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
903:There is no straight line to Goodness, to Love, or to God. And thank God, Grace is always retroactive. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
904:The wisest thing you'll ever do in this life is to draw close to God and to seek Him with all your heart. ~ Bob Sorge, #NFDB
905:Waiting on the Lord is a confident, disciplined, expectant, active, sometimes painful clinging to God. ~ John Ortberg, #NFDB
906:We do not come to God as bad people trying to become good people; we come as rebels to lay down our arms. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
907:When even the scrupulously detached BBC is exhorting us to talk to God, you know something is going on. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
908:When my prayers to God were met with indifference, I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance ~ Lin Manuel Miranda, #NFDB
909:When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good orderly direction. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
910:You come to God not by being strong, but by being weak; not by being right, but through your mistakes. ~ Richard Rohr, #NFDB
911:All of a sudden, you’re not too proud to ask for help. That’s what it means to surrender to God. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
912:All the sick are gonna be healed, the dead are gonna be raised and nations are gonna turn to God in a day. ~ Paul Cain, #NFDB
913:altar to God is the human mind. To “desecrate the altar” is to fill it with non-loving thoughts. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
914:As for the fact of a sin, is it probable that anything cancels it? All times are eternally present to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
915:But Pride always means enmity -- it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
916:Do not be obsessed by egotism, imagining that you are the cause of action, everything is due to God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
917:God doesn't want us to just feel gratitude, but for us to show it by giving thanks to God with our lives. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
918:here is the testimony of faith: darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor, #NFDB
919:He who lives by faith does not have life in himself; he flees to God because he does not possess it. The ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
920:I feel thankful to God, first and foremost, allowing me to enjoy this 'smell the roses' kind of thing. ~ Stevie Wonder, #NFDB
921:I swear to God, I think my panties just melted off my body. How can Crush just talking sex make me hot? ~ Jillian Dodd, #NFDB
922:It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they should lead them. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
923:Killing must feel good to God too. He does it all the time. Did God feel good about that? He felt powerful. ~ Hannibal, #NFDB
924:Many people know Christ as their Savior, but the woman who says yes to God longs to know Him as Lord. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
925:Our talents are the gift that God gives to us... What we make of our talents is our gift back to God ~ Leo F Buscaglia, #NFDB
926:Revival is when God's people return to God and God returns to them, and everyone sees the difference. ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
927:The gospel reveals the glory of God. According to God's Word, he is the sovereign Creator of all things. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
928:The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God. ~ Daniel Webster, #NFDB
929:The path to God is rarely a steady climb upward. We climb, we fall back, and we climb higher again. ~ Harold S Kushner, #NFDB
930:The readings described prayer as talking to God and meditation as listening to the divine within. A ~ Kevin J Todeschi, #NFDB
931:When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God: good, orderly direction. ~ Julia Cameron, #NFDB
932:When we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want Him to speak to us, we search the scriptures. ~ Robert D Hales, #NFDB
933:By giving yourself to God, You not only receive Himself in exchange, but eternal life as well. ~ Saint Francis de Sales, #NFDB
934:Devotion to God is studying him in every aspect; serving God is teaching what you know of Him to others. ~ Reshad Feild, #NFDB
935:Everything I am, everything I'll ever be, I owe to my family, to God's grace and to the people of Indiana. ~ Mike Pence, #NFDB
936:For neither man nor angel can discern hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible, except to God alone. ~ John Milton, #NFDB
937:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and to God only.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, [T5],#NFDB
938:How often I failed in my duty to God, because I was not leaning on the strong pillar of prayer. ~ Saint Teresa of Avila, #NFDB
939:If a dying Savior could bring us to God’s grace, surely a living Savior can keep us in His grace. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
940:If a Hindu wants to find the way to God, he has the right to go to any priest, nun or any other person. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
941:If you don't surrender to God, don't think you don't surrender. Everybody surrenders -- to something. ~ E Stanley Jones, #NFDB
942:I prayed to trees. This was easier than praying directly to God. There was nearly always a tree nearby. ~ Sharon Creech, #NFDB
943:It is a well-known fact that the farther one travels from the capital, the nearer one approaches to God. ~ Boris Akunin, #NFDB
944:It's dangerous, but it's a place full of the majesty of creation, too. It's a shining testimony to God. ~ Mary Connealy, #NFDB
945:Like most of those who are full of pride, he had no concept of repentance and apologizing to God. ~ Benjamin L Reynolds, #NFDB
946:Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
947:Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less. ~ Pope John XXIII, #NFDB
948:Santa Claus is just a story," says Seth. "He's just the opening band to God. There is no Santa Claus. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
949:Talking to God should be part of every aspect of life, in times of peace as well as in every battle. ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
950:The only things we can control are our happiness, our destiny, our impact on others. Rest is up to God. ~ Viola Shipman, #NFDB
951:There is but one temple in this Universe: The Body. We speak to God whenever we lay our hands upon it. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
952:Thou canst not pray to God without praying to Love, but mayest pray to Love without praying to God. ~ Richard B Garnett, #NFDB
953:We would all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace—if we were more alone with God. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
954:24Is man to have everything he wishes for,a 25when the present life and the life to come belong only to God? ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
955:For this alone is lacking even to God, to make undone the things that have once been done. (Quoting Agathon) ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
956:He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and -- to God only. ~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, 1.02, #NFDB
957:In Islam, the legislative power and competence to establish laws belong exclusively to God Almighty. ~ Ruhollah Khomeini, #NFDB
958:I talk to God every single day. And I say, 'God, my life is in your hands, and I trust you with me.' ~ Tammy Faye Bakker, #NFDB
959:I think women are closer to God than we are. They walk right out there like they know what they're doing. ~ Barry Hannah, #NFDB
960:most of us show such disrespect to God that we do not even hear what He says. It is as if He never has spoken. ~ Various, #NFDB
961:So stop worrying; give your concerns to God, and live in grace. Grace isn’t just divine favor; it’s power! ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
962:The great # conversion called for by Jesus is to move from belonging to the world to belonging to God. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
963:The law perfected nothing, but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:19 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
964:The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
965:The rewards of life and devotion to God are love and inner rapture, and the capacity to receive the light of God. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
966:Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, and the future to God's providence. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
967:we have this treasure in p jars of clay, q to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
968:We must become people who remove barriers to God, instead of people who are busy installing new ones. ~ Benjamin L Corey, #NFDB
969:When you yield yourself in complete and whole-hearted obedience to God, He can do great things through you. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
970:You don't need to pray to God any more when there are storms in the sky, but you do have to be insured. ~ Bertolt Brecht, #NFDB
971:You see that I am a very little soul who can offer to God only very little things. — ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX ~ Jana Riess, #NFDB
972:You've to close down your umbrella when you are under a canopy. Drop your pride; give praise to God! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
973:Because God is with you all the time, no place is any closer to God than the place where you are right now. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
974:Contentment ... has an internal quietness of heart that gladly submits to God in all circumstances. ~ Joni Eareckson Tada, #NFDB
975:Humility can give everything to God. Everything comes from the source, everything returns to the source. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
976:I have been the most religious person since I was 2 years old. I always felt this crazy connection to God. ~ Heidi Montag, #NFDB
977:I swear to God, Tani. The way you half-answer things, it’s like you want people to think you’re the villain. ~ Alisha Rai, #NFDB
978:I turned to speak to God About the world's despair But to make bad matters worse I found God wasn't there. ~ Robert Frost, #NFDB
979:Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way ~ Karl Barth, #NFDB
980:Lying to God is like sawing the branch you're sitting on. The better you do it, the harder you fall. ~ Frederick Buechner, #NFDB
981:My heart goes out to you, and I long to see you all coming constantly to God for a fresh supply of love. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
982:Nothing that man can present to God by way of sacrifice can ever purchase the blessing of forgiveness. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
983:Prayer feeds the soul - as blood is to the body, prayer is to the soul - and it brings you closer to God. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
984:Prayer is speaking to God - but sometimes He uses our times of prayerful silence to speak to us in return. ~ Billy Graham, #NFDB
985:Spiritual adultery occurs when I give the love that belongs to God alone to something or someone else. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
986:The blood of the heroes is closer to God than the ink of the philosophers and the prayers of the faithful. ~ Julius Evola, #NFDB
987:The reduction of the universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to God, that is love. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
988:The reduction of the universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to God, this is love. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
989:They that hold the greatest farmes, pay the least rent (applyed to rich men that are unthankful to God). ~ George Herbert, #NFDB
990:We break our promises to one another. We break our promises to God. But God never breaks His promises to us. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
991:We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
992:When obedience to God contradicts what I think will give me pleasure, let me ask myself if I love Him. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
993:Where women are honored, the divinities are pleased. Where they are despised, it is useless to pray to God. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
994:Writing is communicating with an unknown intimate who is always available, the way the faithful turn to God. ~ Ariel Levy, #NFDB
995:You could not pity anything if you weren't a man; pity was a surprise to God. It was not his invention. ~ Bernard Malamud, #NFDB
996:You have need to pray to God, not only to help you in your troubles--but to help you in your blessings ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
997:12Christian brothers, I ask you from my heart to give your bodies to God because of His loving-kindness to us. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
998:According to God's word, everybody at some point is going to be given the opportunity to know the truth. ~ Stephen Baldwin, #NFDB
999:All my devotion is an insult to God unless every bit of my practical life squares with Jesus Christ's demands. ~ Eric Ludy, #NFDB
1000:Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. ~ Jeffrey R Holland, #NFDB
1001:He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon no longer be listening to God, either. —DIETRICH BONHOEFFER ~ Various, #NFDB
1002:He who has learned to look to God in everything he does is at the same time diverted from all vain thoughts. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1003:I’ve heard it said that prayer is the act of talking to God, while meditation is the act of listening. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1004:Jesus came into this world not as a philosopher or a general but as a carpenter. All work matters to God. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1005:Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way. ~ Karl Barth, #NFDB
1006:Let your constant practice be to offer yourself to God, that He may do with you what He pleases. ~ Saint Alphonsus Liguori, #NFDB
1007:Live near to God, and so all things will appear to you little In comparison to eternal realities. ~ Robert Murray M Cheyne, #NFDB
1008:The characteristic common to God and man is apparently that: the desire and the ability to make things. ~ Dorothy L Sayers, #NFDB
1009:The difference between empty and full is love—love that is found in Jesus that restores you to God the Father. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1010:The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
1011:The profession of love to God which is insufficient to restrain from disobedience to God is a lie. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
1012:There are persons who elected to give their existence to God. They are happy, happy in their self-giving. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1013:To look to God is to look to the realm of consciousness that can deliver us from the pain of living. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1014:When a stray animal crosses your path, it may be as close to God as you're going to get in this lifetime. ~ Kinky Friedman, #NFDB
1015:Who can you ask? No one will say. People pray to God, but they don't ask him. You just have to live. ~ Svetlana Alexievich, #NFDB
1016:Every Christian can witness to God in the workplace, not only with words, but above all with an honest life. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1017:God does not love sinners because they are attractive; sinners are attractive to God because he loves them. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1018:Hearken to God, if you would have peace with God. Hearken to conscience, if you would have peace of conscience. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1019:He will pray to God, and God will delight in him. That man will behold His face with a shout of joy. Job 33:26 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1020:I came from God, and I'm going back to God, and I won't have any gaps of death in the middle of my life. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1021:In the Kural there is a chapter on invocation to God. But there is no place in it for principle of idol worship. ~ Periyar, #NFDB
1022:Mexican Indians still say that scattered corn which has not been picked up will complain to God about it. ~ Margaret Visser, #NFDB
1023:My responsibility as an artist is to turn up at the page or the piano or the microphone. The rest is up to God. ~ Nick Cave, #NFDB
1024:...out of God's indescribable love, Jesus suffered retribution in order to reconcile sinners like us to God... ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1025:Prayer is first of all listening to God. It's openness. God is always speaking; he's always doing something. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1026:Sanctification will be drudgery unless we believe that holiness is possible and that it is pleasing to God. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
1027:Spiritual formation into Christlikeness—true change of character—comes from living in relationship to God. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1028:To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just. ~ Heraclitus, #NFDB
1029:We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God? ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
1030:As a broken microphone cannot broadcast a message, so a restless mind cannot transmit prayers to God ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1031:Faith guides even us and we follow its sure light on the way which conducts us to God and His homeland. ~ Pio of Pietrelcina, #NFDB
1032:God’s word is the way to God himself. If you miss the word of God, you will miss God. Jesus is the word! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1033:In Sadhana there will be internal talk with God. You will give up all attachments and attach only to God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1034:I swear to god anyone with half an education who stays in America to teach is suffering some kind of psychosis ~ Nathan Hill, #NFDB
1035:It's a huge responsibility to have influence and to steward it in a way that leads to God-honoring leadership. ~ Bill Hybels, #NFDB
1036:I want to talk about God in a literary way. But I think I would have a very hard time praying to God. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1037:I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
1038:Not only then has each man his individual relation to God, but each man has his peculiar relation to God. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1039:People tethered to God by faith can let themselves go because they know they will get themselves back. ~ Cornelius Plantinga, #NFDB
1040:Submission to the Scriptures is submission to God. Rebellion against the Scriptures is rebellion against God ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
1041:That's why we love disaster, Harry sees it, puts us back in touch with guilt and sends us crawling back to God ~ John Updike, #NFDB
1042:...the Piedra Lumbre is the best thing I've ever known in New Mexico---the closest thing to God, I guess. ~ Georgia O Keeffe, #NFDB
1043:Well, I am a Christian who believes that there are certainly many more paths to God other than Christianity. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1044:All you need to do is to trust God. Following the path of devotion, one should leave everything to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1045:But humans disappoint. Adam, in tasting the fruit, indicates that he prefers Eve to God, so God banishes them. ~ Bruce Feiler, #NFDB
1046:Everywhere, wherever you may find yourself, you can set up an altar to God in your mind by means of prayer. ~ John Chrysostom, #NFDB
1047:For cleanness of body was ever esteemed to proceed from a due reverence to God, to society, and to ourselves. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
1048:He trusted to God, since there was no one else. He hoped for heaven. But he fully expected the alternative. ~ Joe Abercrombie, #NFDB
1049:If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God? ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1050:In vocal prayer we speak to God; in mental prayer he speaks to us. It is then that God pours Himself into us. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1051:It is theologically false to believe that satan is a counterpart to God, he is rather the enemy to Abraham. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim, #NFDB
1052:Listening to God - which is a key part of practicing His presence - is not a method, but a walk with a person. ~ Leanne Payne, #NFDB
1053:People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1054:Prayer lets you speak to God; meditation lets God speak to you. Both are essential to becoming a friend of God. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1055:Prepare thy soul calmly to obey; such offering will be more acceptable to God than every other sacrifice. ~ Pietro Metastasio, #NFDB
1056:Saints are people who belong fully to God. They are not afraid of being mocked, misunderstood or marginalized. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1057:Since the life of the soul is bound to God, those who are by sin alienated from him are to be regarded as dead. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1058:The profession of love to God which is insufficient to restrain from disobedience to God is a lie. {p. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
1059:Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
1060:Turn your situation over to God because He can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime. – Joyce Meyer ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1061:Very well, you possess free will; but now you must use your free will to enslave yourself to God and to us. ~ Robert Sheckley, #NFDB
1062:Well, I do listen to God for direction, but I really don't have time to listen to other artists all that much. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1063:We must forget ourselves and all self-interest, and listen, and be attentive to God. ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, #NFDB
1064:Writing is communicating with an unknown intimate who is always available, the way the faithful can turn to God. ~ Ariel Levy, #NFDB
1065:All you need to do is to trust God. Following the path of devotion, one should leave everything to God. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1066:And as all Christians know there is another way of giving to God; every stranger whom we feed or clothe is Christ. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1067:He who is unable to spend a long time together in prayer, should often lift up his mind to God by short prayers. ~ Philip Neri, #NFDB
1068:I had a werewolf morning. Awoke with a rum hangover, imagined blood on the walls, and prayed to god it was mine. ~ Randy Wayne, #NFDB
1069:I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1070:I knew what he was saying and I wished to God he was someone else, someone who didn’t have to say things out loud. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1071:I'm grateful to God that, through the Negro church, the dimension of nonviolence entered our struggle. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1072:It’s all right to talk to God about your problems. But sometimes you need to talk to your problems about God. ~ David Jeremiah, #NFDB
1073:Love is the reduction of the universe to the single being, and the expansion of a single being, even to God ~ Honore de Balzac, #NFDB
1074:Nor is any service pleasing to God till the guilt of sin be removed by our interest in the great propitiation. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1075:The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1076:The holiness of love inspired ordinary men and women to act like angels. It lifted them on wings closer to God. ~ Nancy Holder, #NFDB
1077:The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator. Science brings men nearer to God. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
1078:Tony Vance was going to answer for what he’d done. Not to the cops, not to God. He was going to answer to me. ~ Craig Schaefer, #NFDB
1079:..we're not changed by the promises we make to God; we're changed by believing the promises God makes to us. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
1080:When you don’t understand what’s going on, run to God’s goodness rather than questioning whether it exists. ~ Paul David Tripp, #NFDB
1081:Glory belongs to God, of course; that's what the word really means. And you can't serve God with a gun. ~ Gregory David Roberts, #NFDB
1082:He who always acts under obedience may be assured that he will not have to give an account of his actions to God. ~ Philip Neri, #NFDB
1083:I believe," she said slowly at last, "that the tormented are very close to God. I'm sorry, Sergeant." He ~ Lois McMaster Bujold, #NFDB
1084:I cannot imagine not going home to animals. They are the closest thing to God. They don't harbour resentment. ~ Ellen DeGeneres, #NFDB
1085:If grace belongs to God, there are those who say that luck belongs to the Devil and that he looks after his own. ~ Sarah Dunant, #NFDB
1086:If man was not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man was made for God, why is he so opposed to God? ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1087:If we have abandoned ourselves to God, there is only one rule for us: the duty of the present moment. ~ Jean Pierre de Caussade, #NFDB
1088:I sit and talk to God And he just laughs at my plans ~ Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers, Feel, Escapology (18 November 2002), #NFDB
1089:It is God in you that responds to God without, or affirms his own words trembling on the lips of another. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1090:It’s considered totally obscene to make any request to God, because if he doesn’t know, what’s the point asking him? ~ Sadhguru, #NFDB
1091:Management [ Providence ], knowledge, and intention are not the same when ascribed to us and when ascribed to God. ~ Maimonides, #NFDB
1092:Man has learned to cope with all questions of importance without recourse to God as a working hypothesis. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1093:Prayer means that the total you is praying. Your whole being reaches out to God, and God reaches down to you. ~ E Stanley Jones, #NFDB
1094:The goal of work is not to gain wealth and possessions, but to serve the common good and bring glory to God. ~ Richard J Foster, #NFDB
1095:Therefore by the example of Abram, entire self-renunciation is enjoined, that we may live and die to God alone. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1096:Though we live in a new generation, it is sadly plagued by the same old problem of failing to submit to God’s Word. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1097:Trouble me not, friar, I have confessed my sins to God, and obtained absolution through the merits of Jesus Christ. ~ John Foxe, #NFDB
1098:True worship that is pleasing to God creates within the human heart a spirit of expectation and insatiable longing. ~ A W Tozer, #NFDB
1099:We bring God glory by worshiping him. Worship is our first responsibility to God. We worship God by enjoying him. ~ Rick Warren, #NFDB
1100:We need to work at ensuring that our commitment to holiness is a commitment to God, not to our own self-esteem. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1101:Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1102:Whoso hearkens not to God's voice, is an idolator, though he perform the highest and most heavy service of God. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1103:...You say to God, “I have never seen you provide for me.”
God says to you, “You have never trusted Me. ~ Corallie Buchanan,#NFDB
1104:115The East and the West belong to God: wherever you turn, there is His Face.b God is all pervading and all knowing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1105:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1106:Beauty is at once a royal path to God and an impediment to reaching God if it is taken as a god in itself. ~ Seyyed Hossein Nasr, #NFDB
1107:Every day I pray. I yield myself to God and the tensions and anxieties go out of me and peace and power come in. ~ Dale Carnegie, #NFDB
1108:He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. Romans 4:20 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1109:He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1110:Human imagination is not simply our means of reaching out to God but God's means of manifesting himself to us. ~ Christian Wiman, #NFDB
1111:Little mother, thy son will be a yogi. As a spiritual engine, he will carry many souls to God’s kingdom. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1112:Man is closer to God according to his existence in grace than he is according to his existence in nature. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #NFDB
1113:Meditating on the nature and dignity of prayer can cause saying at least one thing to God: Lord, teach us to pray! ~ Karl Rahner, #NFDB
1114:Religion is the finger pointing to God. People are too busy licking the finger to notice where it's pointing. ~ Anthony de Mello, #NFDB
1115:She has had a couple of lovers before, but honest to God, no one has ever felt as good, as perfect a fit, as him. ~ Sarah Rayner, #NFDB
1116:she would watch with glee as Rain was relegated to standing in her shoes; Easter hoped to God they pinched. ~ Bernice L McFadden, #NFDB
1117:Snow reminds Ka of God! But I’m not sure it would be accurate. What brings me close to God is the silence of snow. ~ Orhan Pamuk, #NFDB
1118:The feeling of a direct responsibility of the individual to God is almost wholly a creation of Protestantism. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1119:The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart." -Charles Spurgeon ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1120:Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will l entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1121:To secure integrity there must a lofty sense of duty and a deep responsibility to future times as well as to God. ~ Joseph Story, #NFDB
1122:Why is it that when we talk to God, it's called 'prayer,' but when God speaks to us, it's called schizophrenia? ~ Henry Blackaby, #NFDB
1123:You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which d through us will produce thanksgiving to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1124:17Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1125:All God's creatures are His family; and he is the most beloved of God who tries to do most good to God's creatures. ~ Abdul Kalam, #NFDB
1126:And so you must grant to God what is God and not try to think of what you have lost, for that way is madness. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
1127:But the Bible teaches that we are always either drawing nearer to God or falling away. There is no holding pattern. ~ Jim Cymbala, #NFDB
1128:Can the spouse be better than in her husband's company? Where can the soul be better than in drawing near to God? ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
1129:Every night I talk to God, but he don't say nothing back. I know he protecting me, but I still stay with my gat. ~ Curtis Jackson, #NFDB
1130:He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
1131:Holy love to God is the fire by which all our offerings must be made; else they are not of a sweet savour to God. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1132:I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it.
~ Voltaire,#NFDB
1133:Instead of being proud that you led someone to God, be more concerned with the person you pushed away from Him. ~ Donna Lynn Hope, #NFDB
1134:Love is the reduction of the universe to the single being,
and the expansion of a single being, even to God ~ Honor de Balzac,#NFDB
1135:Science, which brings man nearer to God ~ Louis Pasteur, quoted in René Vallery-Radot, The Life of Pasteur (1902), vol. 1, p. 194, #NFDB
1136:The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God. ~ Mary Baker Eddy, #NFDB
1137:A man may lie to his psychiatrist, his doctor, his wife, his employer, to God and to Mom, but his teeth tell all; ~ Stephen Hunter, #NFDB
1138:Christ's mighty prayers are as vocal to God as His daily services. He witnesses under all circumstances. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1139:Fix not the time and the way in which the ideal shall be fulfilled.Work and leave time and way to God all-knowing. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
1140:For an action to be truly obedient to God, it must be done from a motivation of genuine love and gratitude to Him. ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
1141:Happiness is a by-product of wanting something more than happiness-to be rightly related to God and our neighbor. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1142:I turned to speak to God
About the world's despair
But to make bad matters worse
I found God wasn't there. ~ Robert Frost,#NFDB
1143:I want nothing to be off-limits to God. He can have free access to all that I am, everywhere I go, all the time. ~ James MacDonald, #NFDB
1144:Let not then any one deceive you, as indeed you are not deceived, inasmuch as you are wholly devoted to God. ~ Ignatius of Antioch, #NFDB
1145:Let us expect that God is going to use us. Let us have courage and go forward, looking to God to do great things. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1146:or I swear to God, I will hunt down whoever did this and kill them myself.” Icy determination backs her every word. ~ Meghan March, #NFDB
1147:Pray Psalm 88 to God. It’s OK to be honest with Him about your pain and your troubles—even your anger and your doubts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1148:Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning God. ~ Juan de la Cruz, #NFDB
1149:So close was Christ's connection with God that he equated a man's attitude to himself with the man's attitude to God. ~ John Stott, #NFDB
1150:Sweetheart, as soon as you have an angry thought you give it to God. He’s the only one big enough to handle it. ~ Hannah Alexander, #NFDB
1151:these words of wisdom, so rarely understood: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
1152:When I listen to gospel singers pouring their heart out to God, it's the act of pouring their hearts out that interests me. ~ Moby, #NFDB
1153:When our purpose is to give credit to God for his love, power, and perfection in all we do, we can serve him properly. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1154:As a result, they were all astounded and gave glory to God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:12 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1155:Be constantly committed to prayer or to reading [Scripture]; by praying, you speak to God, in reading, God speaks to you. ~ Cyprian, #NFDB
1156:Blessed be to God for the day of rest and religious occupation wherein earthly things assume their true size. ~ William Wilberforce, #NFDB
1157:By praying the Psalms back to God, we learn to pray in tune with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Ben Patterson ~ Donald S Whitney, #NFDB
1158:Do what God says do. Endeavor to be faithful, no matter what happens or what comes. And leave the results to God. ~ Kenneth E Hagin, #NFDB
1159:Even one who has been to God a million times with the same problem need not fear exhausting the grace of God. ~ Tullian Tchividjian, #NFDB
1160:Everything that I will ever accomplish, I owe to God, to my parent's sacrifices, and to the United States of America. ~ Marco Rubio, #NFDB
1161:Everywhere, wherever you may find yourself, you can set up an altar to God in your mind by means of prayer. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
1162:Fix not the time and the way in which the ideal shall be fulfilled.Work and leave time and way to God all-knowing. ~ Sri Aurobindo., #NFDB
1163:For verily it is not deep words that make a man holy and upright; it is a good life which maketh a man dear to God. ~ Thomas Kempis, #NFDB
1164:GoD-the first step in learning is bowing down to GoD; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning. ~ Eugene H Peterson, #NFDB
1165:he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21fully convinced that u God was able to do what he had promised. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1166:He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7:25 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1167:If the Church is in Christ, its initial act is always the act of thanksgiving, of returning the world to God. ~ Alexander Schmemann, #NFDB
1168:I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights but also devote myself to God. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1169:I'm not a goddamned faith healer! I don't talk to God! I'm a mechanic and her goddamned engine was broken!
--Joanne ~ C E Murphy,#NFDB
1170:I need some older, wiser being to cry to. I talk to God, but the sky is empty, and Orion walks by and doesn't speak. ~ Sylvia Plath, #NFDB
1171:It is faith—without good works and prior to good works—that takes us to heaven. We come to God through faith alone. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1172:I treat policies like war. I hoodwink one flank so as to trounce the other. In my family we kneel only to God. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
1173:It's kind of spooky when you are caught talking to God everybody thinks you're nuts. They used to call you a prophet. ~ Paul Zindel, #NFDB
1174:I will take no more physick, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God unclouded. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1175:Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation-and for me the most important part is listening to God's replies. ~ Frank C Laubach, #NFDB
1176:Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation - and for me the most important part is listening to God's replies. ~ Frank Laubach, #NFDB
1177:Simplicity is the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him. ~ Thomas a Kempis, #NFDB
1178:That we devote ourselves to God is seen In living just as though no God there were. ~ Robert Browning, Paracelsus (1835), Part I, #NFDB
1179:The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1180:The purpose of prayer is not for the disciple to give information to God. The purpose of prayer is intimacy with God. ~ David Platt, #NFDB
1181:Through my choices and actions, I have learned the most effective way of speaking to God is without saying a word. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1182:To God your every Want In instant Prayer display, Pray always; Pray, and never faint; Pray, without ceasing, Pray. ~ Charles Wesley, #NFDB
1183:We must prove to God that we have done all that depends on us. Then what we cannot do he would come and do for us. ~ Sunday Adelaja, #NFDB
1184:We should not only let our troubles confirm our dedication to God, but our prosperity should do the same. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1185:24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1186:Giving voice to God's Word is a method of calling for things that God has given by promise and are not yet manifest. ~ Charles Capps, #NFDB
1187:Healing does not mean going back to the way things were before, but rather allowing what is now to move us closer to God. ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
1188:I had a werewolf morning. Awoke with a rum hangover, imagined blood on the walls, and prayed to god it was mine. ~ Randy Wayne White, #NFDB
1189:I had been so used to God's voice in the fire and stars that I had forgotten to listen for it in the counsels of men. ~ Mary Stewart, #NFDB
1190:I have gone through a period of seeking to understand what or how strong or what are the connections I have to God. ~ Peter Jennings, #NFDB
1191:I'm not a goddamned faith healer! I don't talk to God! I'm a mechanic and her goddamned engine was broken!
--Joanne ~ C E Murphy,#NFDB
1192:In other words, he explained, unless we bear witness to God’s presence by our own good deeds, He is not present. ~ Thomas L Friedman, #NFDB
1193:I realize political credibility is important in this world,but it's more important to be faithful to God. ~ Theodore Edgar McCarrick, #NFDB
1194:I see God through my children. I speak to God through my children. I am humbled for the blessings He has given me. ~ Michael Jackson, #NFDB
1195:It doesn’t matter to God what we call ourselves, or even what we call Him. We’re the only ones who care about that. ~ Hillary Jordan, #NFDB
1196:It's true what they say, you know: if you talk to God, you're religious; but if you hear from God, yor're schizophrenic. ~ Tim Downs, #NFDB
1197:Joy comes when you turn it over to God to deal with. This is when you will feel the true release from it's weight. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1198:love—God’s love to me, and my love to God, and my love to my fellowmen. The three are one; you cannot separate them. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1199:Never take your obedience as the reason God blesses you; obedience is the outcome of being rightly related to God. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1200:Somehow, turning to God and trusting him with the mysteries of suffering is the answer to the problem of suffering. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
1201:Those that are enemies to God's church are enemies to themselves, and, sooner or later, they will be made to see it. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1202:To tell you the honest-to-God truth: without Scientology, I would be dead. So, I can personally highly recommend it. ~ Kirstie Alley, #NFDB
1203:Worship is not a twenty minute period during a church service, but a lifestyle of relating to God in a particular way. ~ Mike Bickle, #NFDB
1204:Worship is the proper response of all moral, sentient beings to God, ascribing all honor and worth to their Creator-God ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1205:A fast is not a hunger strike. Fasting submits to God's commands. A hunger strike makes God submit to our demands. ~ Edwin Louis Cole, #NFDB
1206:All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. ~ George W Bush, #NFDB
1207:But humans disappoint. Adam, in tasting the fruit, indicates that he prefers Eve to God, so God banishes them.
~ Bruce Feiler,#NFDB
1208:I began to see my life and each breath I am given as a living prayer to God and a way to pray for others for our world. ~ Mary C Neal, #NFDB
1209:I swear to God, it never ends!” Ethan roared.
“Not when you’re immortal,” Malik agreed. “That’s actually the point. ~ Chloe Neill,#NFDB
1210:it is the heart itself that must be converted to God, and the Holy Spirit transforms it when we open ourselves to him. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1211:I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but I felt that, when it came to God, there was a broken promise in there somewhere. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
1212:Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears. ~ Criss Jami, #NFDB
1213:Love is the song of the soul singing to God. It is the balanced rhythmic dance of planets - sun and moon lit ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1214:My love is not a hunger of the heart, My love is not a craving of the flesh; It came to me from God, to God returns. ~ Sri Aurobindo, #NFDB
1215:Shout to God with a jubilant cry. For the LORD Most High is awe-inspiring, a great King over all the earth. Psalm 47:1–2 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1216:Tear your heart out of your chest. And hand it to God. There is no other healing. I swear, there is no other healing ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
1217:Thanks be to God, the air is soft as in April in Seville, and it is a pleasure to be in it, so fragrant it is. ~ Christopher Columbus, #NFDB
1218:The whole being of any Christian is faith and love. Faith brings the person to God, love brings the person to people. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1219:This attachment of Love to God is indeed one that does not bind the soul but effectively breaks all its bondages. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1220:Weakness is what keeps driving us to God, by the overwhelming conviction that there just isn't anywhere else to go. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
1221:We pray to God for Bliss and receive it by Grace. The bestower of bliss must be Bliss itself and also Infinite. ~ Sri Ramana Maharshi, #NFDB
1222:We sit in meditation and cry to God, we cry to the light, as little children, knowing God will do everything for us. ~ Frederick Lenz, #NFDB
1223:You propose to give up everything to God; be sure, then, to include yourself among the things to be given up.—ST. BENEDICT. ~ Various, #NFDB
1224:All people go to God after their death, but the happy person is the one who goes to God while still alive." Sayyid Qutb . ~ Sayed Qutb, #NFDB
1225:Before you say one word to God, take a minute and imagine what it would be like to stand before His throne as you pray. ~ Francis Chan, #NFDB
1226:Do you know why God wants you rich? So you can do more. The wealthier you become, the more responsible you are to God. ~ Jerry Savelle, #NFDB
1227:Do you think a sociopath cries to God as they die? Ironic that one counterfeit being would cry out to another for help. ~ C J Anderson, #NFDB
1228:Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to God alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And cries it shall be done. ~ Charles Wesley, #NFDB
1229:For the record, I take no satisfaction in being right. For the record, I pray to God that I'm wrong.
I'm not wrong... ~ Steve Alten,#NFDB
1230:Can't nothing bother me when I got my hands in the dirt, he said. Like I'm talking to God with my fingers. ~ Jesmyn Ward, #NFDB
1231:I'm always striving to be a better man to God, a better husband, a better Dad so it's just work, but I'm committed to it. ~ Andre Ward, #NFDB
1232:In some of the best worship songs we bring our praises to God - yet at the same time also end up preaching to ourselves. ~ Matt Redman, #NFDB
1233:PSA73.28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1234:Sometimes — moments like this — only a song could bridge his heart to God’s, filling his senses with truth and hope. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
1235:Song of God and Son of Man, there He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1236:So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God! ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1237:Start with God - the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning. ~ Solomon, #NFDB
1238:Tear your heart out of your chest. And hand it to God. There is no other healing. I swear, there is no other healing. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
1239:Thank you, always say thank you; it's the greatest gift you can give someone; because thank you is what you say to God. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
1240:There is never a sickness Jesus cannot heal and never a disease Jesus cannot cure. To God's power, nothing is impossible! ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
1241:We are not simply to read psalms; we are to be immersed in them so that they profoundly shape how we relate to God. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1242:We cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
1243:We just write down a bunch of words, and pray to god they make sense. And if we don't, it doesn't matter, we're artists. ~ Tom DeLonge, #NFDB
1244:When anyone prays, the angels that minister to God and watch over mankind gather round about him and join with him in prayer. ~ Origen, #NFDB
1245:You have to give yourself up to God. Everyone who repents and gives their heart to God will be saved. Everyone. Even you. ~ S T Rogers, #NFDB
1246:According to God, the One who designed and instituted marriage, love is a choice. It’s a matter of obedience, not emotion. ~ Kay Arthur, #NFDB
1247:American capitalism has helped finance the communist take over of the world. Somebody is going to answer to God for this. ~ Kent Hovind, #NFDB
1248:Are you learning to say things after listening to God, or are you saying things and trying to make God's word fit in? ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1249:By dialogue, we let God be present in our midst, for as we open ourselves to one another, we open ourselves to God. ~ Pope John Paul II, #NFDB
1250:... emptiness itself can birth the fullness of grace beacuse in the emptiness we have the opportunity to turn to God, ... ~ Ann Voskamp, #NFDB
1251:Faith is the way we as receivers relate appropriately to God as the giver. It is empty hands held open for God to fill. ~ Miroslav Volf, #NFDB
1252:Giving to God should come from the firstfruits of a person's labor rather than from what is left after the bills are paid. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
1253:In our prayers, we talk to God, in our Bible study, God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1254:In prosperity, give thanks to God with humility and fear lest by pride you abuse God's benefits and so offend him. ~ Louis IX of France, #NFDB
1255:In the great orchestra we call life, you have an instrument and a song, and you owe it to God to play them both sublimely. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1256:In vocal prayer we go to God on foot. In meditation we go to God on horseback. In contemplation we go to God in a jet. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1257:It's critical to God that we think about how we live, how we spend the present time with which we're gifted each day. ~ Craig Groeschel, #NFDB
1258:Loneliness is dangerous ... because if aloneness does not lead to God, it leads to the devil. It leads to the self. ~ Joyce Carol Oates, #NFDB
1259:Now I lay me down to cheat on the woman I love so, and if I die between these sheets I pray to God she'll never know. ~ David Allan Coe, #NFDB
1260:Once we are reconciled to God, the estrangement is over, the hostilities have ended, and the peace is sealed for eternity. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1261:Since I am I, I must make an act of self-surrender, however small or however easy, in living to God rather than to my self. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1262:Slavish fear brings not back the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of love allure him to Jesus' bosom. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1263:The great thing about an independent film is that you're too busy working, and you're too busy hoping to God to get it done. ~ Ann Dowd, #NFDB
1264:The less you attached to the world, the more you love God.The nearer you approach to God, the more you feel His love. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
1265:The more ready you are to give yourselves to God and to others, the more you will discover the authentic meaning of life. ~ Jason Evert, #NFDB
1266:The nearer a man lives to God, the more intensely has he to mourn over his own evil heart." -Charles Spurgeon ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1267:The question is, can a human being hold on to God in the face of suffering? After all, suffering is the test of love. ~ John Ortberg Jr, #NFDB
1268:We and God have business with each other, and in opening ourselves to God's influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled. ~ William James, #NFDB
1269:What is impossible to God? Not that which is difficult to His power, but that which is contrary to His nature. ~ Saint Ambrose of Milan, #NFDB
1270:When it comes to God's existence, I'm not an atheist and I'm not agnostic. I'm an acrostic. The whole thing puzzles me. ~ George Carlin, #NFDB
1271:And last, but not least, I had to abandon my autonomy in favor of obedience to God. That lesson was the hardest learned. ~ Jennie Goutet, #NFDB
1272:Beware of the inclination to dictate to God what consequences you would allow as a condition of your obedience to Him. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1273:"Do not worry in the least about yourself, leave all worry to God" this appears to be the commandment in all religions. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1274:Faith is what I live by in everything that I do. I strive to give glory to God in every aspect of my life, even my films. ~ Kel Mitchell, #NFDB
1275:Go courageously to God, along the way He has traced out for you, steadfastly embracing the means He offers you. ~ Margaret Mary Alacoque, #NFDB
1276:If we break promises to God, shouldn't we be allowed an occasional violation of our word to our friends and superiors? ~ James Lee Burke, #NFDB
1277:I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God. ~ Saint Patrick, #NFDB
1278:Only where God is can there be a new beginning. We cannot command God to grant it; we can only pray to God for it. ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, #NFDB
1279:Start with God - the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1280:The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that insecurity, and all wisdom will be yours. ~ Adyashanti, #NFDB
1281:The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that uncertainty and all wisdom will be yours. ~ Adyashanti, #NFDB
1282:There will be no sickness for the saint of God. ... If your body belongs to God, it does not and cannot belong to sickness. ~ Benny Hinn, #NFDB
1283:We don't ask God for too much; in fact, we ask for too little. Turn to Him for everything. Give everything to God. ~ Marianne Williamson, #NFDB
1284:Why wouldn’t we run to God. He’s sooo good. God’s not mad at anybody. He just wants to help us be the best that we can be. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
1285:yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. + 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1286:A life of gratitude to God for being saved is far more pleasing than a life based on self-righteousness over being good. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1287:Always remember the essence of Christian holiness is simplicity and purity: one design, one desire: entire devotion to God. ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
1288:believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
1289:Faith is the soul looking upward to God, hope is looking forward to the future, and love is looking outward to others. ~ Norman L Geisler, #NFDB
1290:Faste knew better than to argue with a doctor, since they were the closest things to God's representatives here on Earth. ~ Steig Larsson, #NFDB
1291:Faste knew better than to argue with a doctor, since they were the closest things to God's representatives here on Earth. ~ Stieg Larsson, #NFDB
1292:If God exists then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling can matter forever. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1293:If you would learn the secret of right relations, look only for the divine in people and things, and leave all the rest to God. ~ J Boone, #NFDB
1294:It is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God’s sight than to appear lovely to man’s eyes but lame to God’s. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1295:[P]salms are basically prayers and hymns, by their very nature they are addressed to God or express truth about God in song. ~ Gordon Fee, #NFDB
1296:Scriptures were written, not to satisfy our curiosity and make us astronomers, but to lead us to God, and make us saints. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1297:Sin is a great thing as long as it's recognized. It leads a good many people to God who wouldn't get there otherwise. ~ Flannery O Connor, #NFDB
1298:Spiritual joy is what you experience when you choose to give thanks to God no matter what happens-even when things go wrong. ~ Jim George, #NFDB
1299:The soul-winner must be a master of the art of prayer. You cannot bring souls to God if you go not to God yourself. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1300:The very fact that we have access to God's attention and presence should concentrate the thoughts and elevate the heart. ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1301:We reverence God and we hallow God's name when our life is such that it brings honor to God and attracts others to Him. ~ William Barclay, #NFDB
1302:Christians who live to be pleasing to God are so spiritually attractive that people want to know what makes them stand apart. ~ Zig Ziglar, #NFDB
1303:Humility means that you acknowledge you don’t know everything, and you might be especially confused when it comes to God. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
1304:I knew what he was saying, and I wished to God he was someone else, someone who didn't have to say things out loud. ~ Benjamin Alire S enz, #NFDB
1305:In Fellowship; alone To God, with Faith, draw near, Approach His Courts, besiege His Throne With all the power of Prayer. ~ Charles Wesley, #NFDB
1306:Love can heal. Love can renew. Love can make us safe. Love can inspire us with its power. Love can bring us closer to God. ~ Deepak Chopra, #NFDB
1307:Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious.There's only one master of the heart-Jesus, not religion. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1308:Only a man who works purely for God can at the same time do a very good job and leave the results of the job to God alone. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1309:The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God. ~ Martin Buber, #NFDB
1310:The mystery of the child’s soul is hidden completely from the parents. It belongs to God alone, to whom life belongs. ~ Adrienne von Speyr, #NFDB
1311:thinking about the deep call of Christ, which was not about winning, but about submission to God, wherever that might lead. ~ Eric Metaxas, #NFDB
1312:To God on whom we rely knows what suffering is all about- not merely in the way that God knows everything, but by experience. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1313:A life of gratitude to God for being saved is far more pleasing than a life based on self-righteousness over being good. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1314:All I know is that the closer I get to God, the deeper I get into the Bible, and the heavier the burden seems on my shoulders. ~ Tim LaHaye, #NFDB
1315:Always turn to God in the midst of your struggle and view people who offended you as an instruments of divine sovereignty. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1316:Areas where there is a lack of data, or a lack of understanding, are automatically assumed to belong, by default, to God. ~ Richard Dawkins, #NFDB
1317:†Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1318:bubble over the edge of my eyelids but I will them back. I swear to God, if I cry in his presence, I’ll kick my own ass. ~ Julie Prestsater, #NFDB
1319:Can you imagine the impact on our own culture if American Christians began using their riches as if they belonged to God? ~ Richard Stearns, #NFDB
1320:Don't kneel to me, that is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
1321:even in our most intense worship, we should not forget that our relationship to god is tied to our relationship with others. ~ Jeffrey Lang, #NFDB
1322:I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing. ~ Elyse M Fitzpatrick, #NFDB
1323:It's like church over here. It's like church in here. First of all, give an honor to God and our Lord and Savior Barack Obama. ~ Jamie Foxx, #NFDB
1324:The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching. ~ Joseph Smith Jr, #NFDB
1325:The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever planted. ~ John Muir, #NFDB
1326:The gospel keeps me relating to God on the basis of Jesus’s perfections, not on the illusions of my religious achievements. ~ Gloria Furman, #NFDB
1327:For our lives are in the Lord's hands; and they can do nothing unto us before God suffer them. Therefore give all thanks to God. ~ John Foxe, #NFDB
1328:Genesis 1:1. When bara is used in the Torah, it is used only with reference to God—because only God can create from nothing. ~ Dennis Prager, #NFDB
1329:I have lived long enough to learn how much there is I can really do without.... He is nearest to God who needs the fewest things. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1330:I think the Church is a conduit to God. The Church is not God. And I think that from the very beginning Jesus taught us that. ~ Martin Sheen, #NFDB
1331:Ive seen the majestic beauty of nature and the overwhelming perfection of it. To me, theres nothing closer to God than that. ~ Cote de Pablo, #NFDB
1332:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
1333:May we learn to say “thank you” to God and to one another. We teach children to do it, and then we forget to do it ourselves! ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1334:Old religious dogma attempts to convince you that you are on a journey to God, then makes you pay tolls along that roadway. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
1335:Once God has spoken; o twice have I heard this: that p power belongs to God, 12 and that to you, O Lord, q ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1336:Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God. ~ Bill Bright, #NFDB
1337:The human soul is to God is as the flower to the sun; it opens at its approach, and shuts when it withdraws. —BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE ~ Mark Nepo, #NFDB
1338:The word 'Islam' means 'peace.' The word 'Muslim' means 'one who surrenders to God.' But the press makes us seem like haters. ~ Muhammad Ali, #NFDB
1339:Unchecked power, driven by self-interest, scarcity, grandiosity and aggression, is deadly to God’s original fruitful purposes. ~ Andy Crouch, #NFDB
1340:Why didn’t we build more hospitals and fewer churches, you could pray to God everywhere but you could not operate in a gutter! ~ Axel Munthe, #NFDB
1341:Wicked Israelites are as abominable to God as wicked Canaanites, and more so, and will be as soon spued out, or sooner. Such ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1342:You are tied on [to God] with a bond that cannot be broken. And when you are tied on to God... you do not have to be afraid. ~ Angela Thomas, #NFDB
1343:Your relationship to God is the single most important aspect of your life. If that is not in order, nothing else will be. ~ Henry T Blackaby, #NFDB
1344:17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1345:Continually revise your relationship to God until the only certainty you have is not that you are faithful, but that He is. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1346:ECCLESIASTES 5:4–7 “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow” (v. 4). ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1347:Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she bears witness to God’s love. Be missionaries of God’s tenderness! ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1348:God's greatest gift to you is your unlimited potential. Your greatest gift to God is to use that potential to the fullest. ~ James Arthur Ray, #NFDB
1349:I swear to God that if a guy in a hockey mask and a chainsaw starts singing about the music, I’m going to start shooting.” “You’re ~ J R Rain, #NFDB
1350:It's bold, rash, and embarrassing, Martha talking to God this way. But her honesty paved the way for Jesus to speak to her. ~ Emily P Freeman, #NFDB
1351:Justice and beauty are central to God's new world and should be central to our work. Together they frame the good news of Jesus. ~ N T Wright, #NFDB
1352:Many come short, being satisfied with the works of God rather than hungering for and reaching on to God Himself.” —A. W. Tozer ~ Randy Alcorn, #NFDB
1353:on the front of the white marble tomb was the inscription: Here rests in honored glory, an American soldier, known but to God. ~ Marc Cameron, #NFDB
1354:Prayer is the key that opens heaven; the favors we ask descend upon us the very instant our prayers ascend to God. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
1355:Some nights, she wakes me after reading something and wants to try it.
I swear to God I'm the luckiest asshole in the world. ~ Jay McLean,#NFDB
1356:Start the day with love, spend the day with love, fill the day with love and end the day with love. That is the way to God. ~ Sathya Sai Baba, #NFDB
1357:the buddhists say there are 149 ways to god. i'm not looking for god, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
1358:There is an appropriate way to use your story, not as an excuse but as a testimony to God's ability to free you from the past. ~ Andy Stanley, #NFDB
1359:All paths lead to God, and it doesn’t matter if you call him Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, or even if you believe that he is a she. ~ Heather Graham, #NFDB
1360:God incarnates Himself as man and teaches people the path of devotion. He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
1361:Me, I'm spiritually retarded, I need to be knee deep in water with a fly rod in my hands, that's about as close to God as I get. ~ Steve Earle, #NFDB
1362:Other forms of relating to God that have unique value in connecting us to Him include contemplative prayer and centering prayer. ~ Larry Crabb, #NFDB
1363:People are most similar to God when he is the object of their affection. People should delight in God, as he does in himself. ~ Edward T Welch, #NFDB
1364:Start with God - the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.
~ King Solomon,#NFDB
1365:The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its devotion to God which is manifested by actions. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
1366:Wine is God’s special drink. The purpose of good wine is to inspire us to a livelier sense of gratitude to God. —John Calvin ~ Lauren F Winner, #NFDB
1367:Worldly business often crowds into our duties, and while our mouths are speaking to God, our hearts are thinking of the world: ~ Thomas Watson, #NFDB
1368:Before he can devote himself to God or a woman, a boy will devote himself to his father, even foolishly, even beyond explanation. ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1369:By all means, somebody will oppose it, but if only it is a noble cause pleasant to God, you have no reason to retreat! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah, #NFDB
1370:If it is true, if it is beautiful, if it is honorable, if it is right, then claim it. Because it is from God. And you belong to God. ~ Rob Bell, #NFDB
1371:In Bonaventure’s view only one who is on a journey to God can really know God; faith seeks understanding through the path of love. ~ Ilia Delio, #NFDB
1372:In the end, thought Sol, past logic and hope, it is dreams and the love of those dearest to us that form Abraham’s answer to God. ~ Dan Simmons, #NFDB
1373:I will not talk to God about how big my problems are. I will talk to my problems about how big my God is. This is my declaration. ~ Joel Osteen, #NFDB
1374:Jesus Christ will fill your lives with everything that God's approval produces. Your lives will then bring glory and praise to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1375:Leaders don't pray to God for money. They simply ask for His grace to solve problems. By solving problems, the money comes. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1376:Let us learn to dream again. To learn to dream again is to have big plans. To learn to dream again is to readjust, to look to God. ~ T B Joshua, #NFDB
1377:Now he is a man who could talk to God and the devil and make them work they difference--as long as neither of them have a woman. ~ Marlon James, #NFDB
1378:One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1379:One night I prayed to God, I asked could he please remove my enemies from my life, and before you knew it I started losing friends. ~ Meek Mill, #NFDB
1380:Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you're listening. Playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time. ~ Kelsey Grammer, #NFDB
1381:So, in the last resort, we must turn down or disqualify our nearest and dearest when they come between us and our obedience to God. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1382:The ultimate goal of Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy was assimilation to god through the cultivation of virtue and truth. ~ Algis U davinys, #NFDB
1383:we Do as the ascendants to GOD ; the prisoners and the unemployeds Do , we Forget the Pain & Raise Hope ~ Mahmoud Darwish ~ Mahmoud Darwish, #NFDB
1384:And now the woman is praying to God............... I am laughing laughing because God is forgetting everybody in this country. ~ Uzodinma Iweala, #NFDB
1385:Beautiful thoughts hardly bring us to God until they are acted upon. No one can have a true idea of right until he does it. ~ William Ralph Inge, #NFDB
1386:Certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. ~ Francis Bacon, #NFDB
1387:Don't you dare leave me. I swear to God, I will follow you into hell if I have to and drag you back by the hair."
~Dragos ~ Thea Harrison,#NFDB
1388:He bequeaths us His manger, from which to learn how God came down to man, and His cross to teach us how man may go up to God. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1389:If God is jealous herein, we should be so, afraid of offering any worship to God otherwise than as he has appointed in his word. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1390:If we understand and feel that the greatest act of devotion and worship to God is not to harm any of His beings, we are loving God. ~ Meher Baba, #NFDB
1391:In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
1392:I swear to God, Brad, if you ever want to have sex with me again, you'll find that bitch and tell her I want the epidural...now! ~ Kelly Elliott, #NFDB
1393:Leaders don't pray to God to fill their potholes. They ask God for shovels so they can do it by His grace. Pray practically. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
1394:Life is just a breath. All that will matter forever and ever in our heavenly state is the glory that came to God through our lives. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1395:My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1396:Now I think I just couldn't believe an adult could do such a thing to a little person. I know better now. I wish to God I didn't. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1397:Pray to God in secret and with yearning, that you may have that passionate attachment and devotion to Him. Shed tears for Him. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
1398:The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity. ~ Benjamin Haydon, #NFDB
1399:The issue that you may be facing or struggling with today may be an issue of the covenant. If it is, you are free to appeal to God. ~ Tony Evans, #NFDB
1400:The way the Balinese see it, God takes what belongs to God—the gesture—while man takes what belongs to man—the food itself.) ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1401:We express true love in obedience to God and service to others- not reckless or selfish behavior- and we choose these behaviors. ~ Joshua Harris, #NFDB
1402:Whereas my joy lies in being close to God. I have taken shelter in the Lord, continually to proclaim what you have done. (Ps. 73:28) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1403:17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1404:40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD; 41 Let us lift our hearts and hands To God in heaven. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1405:As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
1406:Don’t take her from me,” he whispered fiercely, hoping the words wrenched from the depths of his soul somehow made it to God’s ears. ~ Maya Banks, #NFDB
1407:Do your duty, and don't swerve from it. Do that which your conscience tells you to be right, and leave the consequences to God. ~ Benjamin Haydon, #NFDB
1408:God is the newest thing there is, the youngest thing there is. God is the beginning and if we are united to God we become new again. ~ Ilia Delio, #NFDB
1409:I'm convinced, more than ever, that man finds liberation only when he binds himself to God and commits himself to his fellow man. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
1410:In sorrow and suffering, go straight to God with confidence, and you will be strengthened, enlightened and instructed. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
1411:In the darkest times of your life, your praise to God should be the loudest. Let the enemy know you’re not afraid of the dark. ~ Stormie Omartian, #NFDB
1412:It is well known in the legal profession that many judges, upon ascending the bench, think they are three steps closer to God. ~ Vincent Bugliosi, #NFDB
1413:Jesus . . .” he groaned. “You got two seconds before I lay you over that table and fuck you so hard it breaks. Swear to God, Soph. ~ Joanna Wylde, #NFDB
1414:Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul's language. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1415:The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1416:The seed of acceptable devotion must come from heaven's storehouse. Only the prayer which comes from God can go to God. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1417:The truth. I don’t even know what that is anymore.
Be patient. Pray about it, and listen to God. He’ll help you figure it out. ~ Denise Hunter,#NFDB
1418:The way to God is the opposite to that of the world. And to few, very few, are given to have God and mammon at the same time. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1419:We cannot know of ourselves what will be pleasing to God; it is necessary that a law-giver should be sent from heaven to instruct us. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1420:we should go to God in our prayers not on the ground of any goodness in ourselves, but on the ground of Jesus Christ’s claims. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1421:Yes, thanks to God... my life has a goal, much more important than my artistic activities, that is the struggle against Leukemia. ~ Jose Carreras, #NFDB
1422:15 ‡ Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice† of praise—the fruit of lips† that openly profess his name. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1423:And I swear to God, that smile is so electric and has such a weight to it that I feel my breath catch in my throat –and about melts my ~ R R Banks, #NFDB
1424:But she rarely did so, for every one in the town was ready to look after her as being an idiot, and so specially dear to God. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1425:Hope deprives us of everything that is not God, in order that all things may serve their true purpose as means to bring us to God. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
1426:I now understand more of our calling. The weakest instruments are chosen to do the greatest works so that the glory might go to God. ~ Paul Washer, #NFDB
1427:I swear to God, I would marry the first person who asked me, just because it seems so completely impossible that anyone would ask. ~ Minnie Driver, #NFDB
1428:It is false to suggest that Thomas Jefferson or any other Founding Father believed in a legal barrier to God in the public square. ~ Newt Gingrich, #NFDB
1429:My job is to be obedient to God, to apply His Word, and to walk according to His ways — not according to the world’s suggestions. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1430:Our soul is not united to our body in the ordinary sense of these terms. It is immediately and directly united to God alone. ~ Nicolas Malebranche, #NFDB
1431:Right now, get down on your hands and knees and pray to God or Allah or Buddha or whoever if you are an unsophisticated investor. ~ James Altucher, #NFDB
1432:There is no way to work your way to God. There is no way to climb up to heaven. There is only one way, and that is through Christ. ~ Kevin DeYoung, #NFDB
1433:There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him... It has nothing in common with anything created. ~ Meister Eckhart, #NFDB
1434:When we submit to God's plans, we can trust our desires. Our assignment is found at the intersection of God's plan and our pleasures. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1435:Agape is an obedient response of availability to God, not a feeling. But, although it is not a feeling, its ultimate end is a feeling. ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1436:Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the LORD Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1437:Deliverance is always found on 'the mount'; living faith must first prove to God that it has taken His word and promise for victory. ~ Rees Howells, #NFDB
1438:Do you think a sociopath cries to God as they die? Ironic that one counterfeit being would cry out to another for help, said Chiron. ~ C J Anderson, #NFDB
1439:I swear to God, if he's hurt you, Amani, I will make him suffer for it."
"You don't believe in God."
"Then I swear to you. ~ Alwyn Hamilton,#NFDB
1440:It is impossible to pray while sleeping—you must be awake and alert to talk to God, just as you are when talking with anyone. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
1441:Let no one think he can be totally indifferent to God in this life and suddenly develop a capacity for Him at the moment of death. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
1442:Much of the Soul they talk, but all awry;
And in themselves seek virtue; and to themselves
All glory arrogate, to God give none ~ John Milton,#NFDB
1443:Now he is a man who could talk to God and the devil and make them work out they difference--as long as neither of them have a woman. ~ Marlon James, #NFDB
1444:Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ's behalf, “Be reconciled to God. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1445:To God each one of us is His favorite. God's love comes to all, but it comes to all as each, not to all as some anonymous aggregate. ~ Peter Kreeft, #NFDB
1446:We need the Holy Spirit to change our hearts if we are going to be willing to come to God and hear his word submissively. ~ Vern Sheridan Poythress, #NFDB
1447:You need to structure and organize your life so that you can do the maximum good for others and thus bring the maximum glory to God. ~ Tim Challies, #NFDB
1448:As John Newton said, if we are not getting much out of going to God in prayer, we will certainly get nothing out of staying away. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
1449:Emma had honest-to-God fantasies about stopping by a pet store and getting a cat. Emma was allergic to cats. That’s how bad things were. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1450:He can make the absurd seem reasonable. People believe he has a direct line to God. And why do they believe that? Because he told them ~ Celia Aaron, #NFDB
1451:I am so grateful to God for giving me the gift of 48 years with my daughter. And I accept that He knew when it was time to take her. ~ Cissy Houston, #NFDB
1452:I told her I loved her and all. It was a lie, of course, but the thing is, I meant it when I said it. I'm crazy. I swear to God I am. ~ J D Salinger, #NFDB
1453:Many crores of rupees are squandered in this country by way offering gratitude to God and bribing Him to gain greater and greater wealth. ~ Periyar, #NFDB
1454:Note, Our sorrow upon any account is sinful and inordinate when it diverts us from our duty to God and embitters our comfort in him, ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1455:The first thing a man must do if he desires to be used in the Lord's work, is to make an unconditional surrender of himself to God. ~ Dwight L Moody, #NFDB
1456:The key to learning and knowing that we can trust God is to recognize that there is a spirit within us that is connected to God. It ~ Iyanla Vanzant, #NFDB
1457:There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1458:The saints, who are living sacrifices to God, must have salt in themselves, for every sacrifice must be salted with salt (Mark 9:49, ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1459:We've been deceived by the thought that we would be more pleasing to God in our own way than in the way God has given us. ~ Saint Catherine of Siena, #NFDB
1460:What the Voortrekkers failed to realize in their moment of victory was that they had offered the covenant to God, not He to them. ~ James A Michener, #NFDB
1461:When we are calling to God to turn the eye of His favor towards us He is calling to us to turn the eye of our obedience towards Him. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
1462:without faith we are not acceptable to God, but God makes us acceptable to Him through the gift of faith, leading to our justification. ~ R C Sproul, #NFDB
1463:Arrogance is actually just ignorance. Ignorance of what you really are in relation to the world-but most of all in relation to God. ~ Yasmin Mogahed, #NFDB
1464:Attachments to older forms of worship may be comfortable, but they may contain elements of falsehood that make them unacceptable to God. ~ Max Anders, #NFDB
1465:Christ’s obscurity was as purposefully planned—and equally glorifying to God—as His journey to fame and His fall from the public’s favor. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1466:Does the sinner respond to God’s grace against his own will? No, he responds because God’s grace makes him willing to respond. The ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
1467:Every religion has a prophet who is pointing people to God. Jesus is the only one who says, 'I am God, and I am coming to find you.' ~ Timothy Keller, #NFDB
1468:Every time you get on your knees and pray to God, 'Holy' keeps the respect and reverence while 'Father' brings Him close & intimate. ~ Ravi Zacharias, #NFDB
1469:I can always pray to God with confidence because my righteous state is a gift given through grace in faith on the cross by Jesus! ~ Alisa Hope Wagner, #NFDB
1470:If we can see the true seriousness of our sin, we will no longer object to God’s supposed severity but marvel at His mercy. ~ Vern Sheridan Poythress, #NFDB
1471:If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an ultra. ~ Dean Karnazes, #NFDB
1472:I have made to God the offering you made to me of your heart and have asked him to unite mine with yours in that of Our Lord. ~ Saint Vincent de Paul, #NFDB
1473:In order to pray I have to be paying more attention to God than to what people are saying to me; to God than to my clamoring ego. ~ Eugene H Peterson, #NFDB
1474:In tribulation immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction. ~ Saint John of the Cross, #NFDB
1475:Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide.” Acts 4:19 ~ Beth Moore, #NFDB
1476:There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.' ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1477:There is but one way to tranquility of mind and happiness, and that is to account no external things thine own, but to commit all to God. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
1478:The Sephiroth, as defined by G. Scholem, are ‘the ten names most common to God and in their entirety they form his one great Name’. ~ Frances A Yates, #NFDB
1479:The truth. I don’t even know what that is anymore.
Be patient. Pray about it, and listen to God. He’ll help you figure it out. ~ Denise Hunter,#NFDB
1480:Thomas Aquinas: “Theology is taught by God, teaches of God and leads to God” (Theologia a Deo docetur, Deum docet, et ad Deum ducit). ~ Kelly M Kapic, #NFDB
1481:To God be humble, to thy friend be kind, and with thy neighbors gladly lend and borrow; His chance tonight, it maybe thine tomorrow. ~ William Dunbar, #NFDB
1482:Was it hypocritical to turn to God now, when she had done her utmost to be independent, to make her way without Him until this point? ~ Julie Klassen, #NFDB
1483:We are bound to earth by desire and also to God, heaven, and the angels. A slave is a slave whether to man, to God, or to angels. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
1484:When we give anything more priority than we give to God, we commit idolatry. Thus we all commit idolatry countless times every day. ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1485:Who one believes God to be is most accurately revealed not in any credo but in the way one speaks to God when no one else is listening. ~ Nancy Mairs, #NFDB
1486:You do not own the molecules. They are stardust. They belong to God. What you do own is your soul. Nobody can take that away from you. ~ Hugh MacLeod, #NFDB
1487:Being a systematic theologian allows me to indulge all my interests - in literature, film, art, music - by relating them all to God. ~ Kevin Vanhoozer, #NFDB
1488:Cling to God, and leave all the rest to Him: He will not let you perish. Your soul is very dear to Him, He wishes to save it. ~ Margaret Mary Alacoque, #NFDB
1489:Compassion matters to God. This is the time for service, not self-centeredness. Cancel the pity party. Love the people God brings to you. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
1490:Give it to God,” he says simply. “How you feel about it is yours and yours alone. Whether or not you should be judged; that’s for God. ~ Dot Hutchison, #NFDB
1491:In America, you’re allowed to justify almost any kind of bigotry, sexism, or intolerance if you source it to God’s big book of bad ideas. ~ Bill Maher, #NFDB
1492:I swore to God if Daemon said anything ignorant, I was going to lay him out in class. My splint was heavy enough to do damage. ~ Jennifer L Armentrout, #NFDB
1493:Just go to bed and rest your little heart. Pray to God, and remember that He can sweep all your worries away like the swish of a broom. ~ Tricia Goyer, #NFDB
1494:Prayer is not so much the means whereby God's will is bent to man's desires, as it is that whereby man's will is bent to God's desires. ~ Charles Bent, #NFDB
1495:Some people can be so disoriented to God that when he begins to work around them, they actually become annoyed at the interruption! ~ Henry T Blackaby, #NFDB
1496:the pope's being infallible was an impossibility, and the pope arrogantly laid claim to what could belong to God only, as a perfect being. ~ John Foxe, #NFDB
1497:While there may have been an age difference, Josh Duggar's transgressions are far less an affront to God than what gays do with each other. ~ Ted Cruz, #NFDB
1498:20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1499:A friend once said, and I found to be true,That everyday people, they lie to God too,So what makes you think, that they won't lie to you. ~ Lauryn Hill, #NFDB
1500:Always do your duty to others, but love you must give to God alone. Worldly love always brings in its wake untold misery. ~ Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, #NFDB
84 Integral Yoga
78 Yoga
78 Poetry
54 Christianity
46 Islam
38 Philosophy
34 Occultism
18 Psychology
9 Mysticism
9 Fiction
6 Sufism
6 Baha i Faith
3 Science
3 Hinduism
2 Philsophy
2 Mythology
1 Thelema
1 Integral Theory
1 Cybernetics
1 Alchemy
100 Sri Aurobindo
54 Sri Ramakrishna
46 Muhammad
34 The Mother
24 Saint Augustine of Hippo
19 Carl Jung
18 Swami Vivekananda
18 Saint John of Climacus
18 Nolini Kanta Gupta
18 Aldous Huxley
16 Saint Teresa of Avila
15 Anonymous
12 Robert Browning
10 William Wordsworth
10 Aleister Crowley
9 Plato
7 Baha u llah
7 A B Purani
6 William Butler Yeats
6 Satprem
6 James George Frazer
6 H P Lovecraft
5 Swami Krishnananda
5 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
5 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5 Al-Ghazali
4 Walt Whitman
4 Sri Ramana Maharshi
4 Jorge Luis Borges
3 Plotinus
3 Percy Bysshe Shelley
3 Friedrich Nietzsche
3 Franz Bardon
3 Edgar Allan Poe
2 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
2 Ralph Waldo Emerson
2 Rabindranath Tagore
2 Patanjali
2 Ovid
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Ken Wilber
2 Jordan Peterson
2 Hakim Sanai
2 Hafiz
2 Friedrich Schiller
53 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
46 Quran
27 The Synthesis Of Yoga
21 The Bible
19 City of God
18 The Perennial Philosophy
18 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
18 Savitri
17 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
13 Mysterium Coniunctionis
13 Bhakti-Yoga
12 Browning - Poems
10 Wordsworth - Poems
10 Talks
9 The Way of Perfection
8 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
7 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
7 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
6 Yeats - Poems
6 The Golden Bough
6 Lovecraft - Poems
6 Essays Divine And Human
6 Dark Night of the Soul
5 The Study and Practice of Yoga
5 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
5 The Alchemy of Happiness
5 Essays On The Gita
4 The Secret Doctrine
4 Record of Yoga
4 Questions And Answers 1953
4 Liber ABA
4 Labyrinths
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
3 Whitman - Poems
3 The Practice of Magical Evocation
3 The Human Cycle
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Shelley - Poems
3 Raja-Yoga
3 Poe - Poems
3 Magick Without Tears
3 Faust
3 Crowley - Poems
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
3 Collected Poems
3 Aion
2 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
2 The Practice of Psycho therapy
2 The Life Divine
2 The Future of Man
2 The Divine Comedy
2 Tagore - Poems
2 Sex Ecology Spirituality
2 Schiller - Poems
2 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
2 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
2 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
2 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
2 Metamorphoses
2 Maps of Meaning
2 Letters On Yoga II
2 Isha Upanishad
2 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
2 Hafiz - Poems
2 Goethe - Poems
2 Emerson - Poems
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
At that time there lived in Calcutta a rich widow named Rani Rasmani, belonging to the sudra caste, and known far and wide not only for her business ability, courage, and intelligence, but also for her largeness of heart, piety, and devotion to God. She was assisted in the management of her vast property by her son-in-law Mathur Mohan.
In 1847 the Rani purchased twenty acres of land at Dakshineswar, a village about four miles north of Calcutta. Here she created a temple garden and constructed several temples. Her Ishta, or Chosen Ideal, was the Divine Mother, Kali.
--
Saradamani, a little girl of five, lived in the neighbouring village of Jayrambati. Even at this age she had been praying to God to make her character as stainless and fragrant as the white tuberose. Looking at the full moon, she would say: "O God, there are dark spots even on the moon. But make my character spotless." It was she who was selected as the bride for Sri Ramakrishna.
The marriage ceremony was duly performed. Such early marriage in India is in the nature of a betrothal, the marriage being consummated when the girl attains puberty. But in this case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri Ramakrishna lived at Kamarpukur about a year and a half and then returned to Dakshineswar.
--
There are three kinds of formal devotion: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. If a person, while showing devotion, to God, is actuated by malevolence, arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tamasic, since it is influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire for fame or wealth, or from any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is rajasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of friendship, then his devotion is called sattvic, since it is influenced by sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three gunas, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all conditions — in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour, prosperity and adversity.
There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as vaidhi-bhakti, or love of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course of time matures into para-bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself. It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it is misdirected to earthly objects.
--
Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion. He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Sambhu Charan Mallick, a gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house (This expression is used throughout to translate the Bengali word denoting a rich man's country house set in a garden.) at Dakshineswar, when his eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child. Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine emotion. The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light emanating from them entered his soul. The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not set foot in the Kali temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul: "Behold the Christ, who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him. Sri Ramakrishna krishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized his identity with Kali, Rama, Hanuman, Radha, Krishna, Brahman, and Mohammed. The Master went into samadhi and communed with the Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity, too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him, was not the only Incarnation; there were others — Buddha, for instance, and Krishna.
--- ATTITUDE TOWARD DIFFERENT RELIGIONS
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About spirituality in general the following were his conclusions: First, he was firmly convinced that all religions are true, that every doctrinal system represents a path to God. He had followed all the main paths and all had led him to the same goal. He was the first religious prophet recorded in history to preach the harmony of religions.
Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism — Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita — he perceived to represent three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong attachment to the senses, a dualistic form of religion, prescribing a certain amount of material support, such as music and other symbols, is useful. A man of God-realization transcends the idea of worldly duties, but the ordinary mortal must perform his duties, striving to be unattached and to surrender the results to God. The mind can comprehend and describe the range of thought and experience up to the Visishtadvaita, and no further. The Advaita, the last word in spiritual experience, is something to be felt in samadhi. for it transcends mind and speech. From the highest standpoint, the Absolute and Its manifestation are equally real — the Lord's Name, His Abode, and the Lord Himself are of the same spiritual Essence. Everything is Spirit, the difference being only in form.
Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through him She should found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines illustrated in his life.
--
^The word is generally used in the text to denote one devoted to God, a worshipper of the Personal God, or a follower of the path of love. A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna is one who is devoted to Sri Ramakrishna and follows his teachings. The word "disciple", when used in connexion with Sri Ramakrishna, refers to one who had been initiated into spiritual life by Sri Ramakrishna and who regarded him as his guru.
--- THE MASTER'S METHOD OF TEACHING
--
For the householders Sri Ramakrishna did not prescribe the hard path of total renunciation. He wanted them to discharge their obligations to their families. Their renunciation was to be mental. Spiritual life could not be acquired by flying away from responsibilities. A married couple should live like brother and sister after the birth of one or two children, devoting their time to spiritual talk and contemplation. He encouraged the householders, saying that their life was, in a way, easier than that of the monk, since it was more advantageous to fight the enemy from inside a fortress than in an open field. He insisted, however, on their repairing into solitude every now and then to strengthen their devotion and faith in God through prayer, japa, and meditation. He prescribed for them the companionship of sadhus. He asked them to perform their worldly duties with one hand, while holding to God with the other, and to pray to God to make their duties fewer and fewer so that in the end they might cling to Him with both hands. He would discourage in both the householders and the celibate youths any lukewarmness in their spiritual struggles. He would not ask them to follow indiscriminately the ideal of non-resistance, which ultimately makes a coward of the unwary.
--- FUTURE MONKS
--
Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple whom the Master often addressed as Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian life. He was addicted to drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A victim of mental depression, he was brought to Sri Ramakrishna by Ramchandra chandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple to practise the virtue of self-surrender to God, he was impressed. But though he tried thenceforth to do so, he was unable to give up his old associates and his drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes to an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?" And to Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink wine as wine? Offer it to Kali, and then take it as Her prasad, as consecrated drink
. But see that you don't become intoxicated; you must not reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually Surendra's entire life was changed. The Master designated him as one of those commissioned by the Divine Mother to defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
--
Balaram Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked Sri Ramakrishna whether God really existed and, if so, whether a man could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is sought. There is none more intimate and affectionate than God." Balaram had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words; every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.
--- MAHENDRA OR M.
--
Durgacharan Nag, also known as Nag Mahashay, was the ideal householder among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his intense desire to become a sannyasi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey his father's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical level never lasts. He is indeed blessed who can give his love to God with his whole heart. Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will be ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light". He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors he said, "If the mind clings to the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the Infinite?" That was the end of Durgacharan's medical practice and he threw his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men. On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the sadhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyasi could have lived a more austere life than Durgacharan.
--- GIRISH GHOSH
--
Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all connexions with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not realize Him. When will you devote your mind wholly to God?" Niranjan was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to Dakshineswar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat, threatening to sink it in mid stream. That silenced the offenders. When he reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb his anger.
--- JOGINDRA
--
The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedanta. But he did not wish any of his disciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to practise Vedanta in life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But it is not so easy", Sri Ramakrishna said, "to realize the illusoriness of the world. Study alone does not help one very much. The grace of God is required. Mere personal effort is futile. A man is a tiny creature after all, with very limited powers. But he can achieve the impossible if he prays to God for His grace." Whereupon the Master sang a song in praise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in life Hari achieved a wonderful synthesis of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--- GANGADHAR
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Ruby to God, may be!
[88]
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M. to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on other days. The devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy company is the first and most important means for the generation and growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attri butes, charged with the fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God. Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha (Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary, transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he spent at the feet of the Master.
During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathmrita, (Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. The principle of Bhakti Yoga is to utilise all the normal relations of human life into which emotion enters and apply them no longer to transient worldly relations, but to the joy of the All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful. Worship and meditation are used only for the preparation and increase of intensity of the divine relationship. And this Yoga is catholic in its use of all emotional relations, so that even enmity and opposition to God, considered as an intense, impatient and perverse form of Love, is conceived as a possible means of realisation and salvation.
This path, too, as ordinarily practised, leads away from worldexistence to an absorption, of another kind than the Monist's, in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic.
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yoga that we seek must also be an integral action of Nature, and the whole difference between the Yogin and the natural man will be this, that the Yogin seeks to substitute in himself for the integral action of the lower Nature working in and by ego and division the integral action of the higher Nature working in and by God and unity. If indeed our aim be only an escape from the world to God, synthesis is unnecessary and a waste of time; for then our sole practical aim must be to find out one path out of the thousand that lead to God, one shortest possible of short cuts, and not to linger exploring different paths that end in the same goal. But if our aim be a transformation of our integral being into the terms of God-existence, it is then that a synthesis becomes necessary.
The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
and draw it gradually nearer to God; we have here, as it were, so many stages of the
ascent of the Mount on whose summit the soul attains to transforming union.
0.07 - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
2. And this going forth it says here that it was able to accomplish in the strength and ardour which love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever impede this road), could hinder it; inasmuch as the aforementioned night of purgative20 contemplation lulled to sleep and mortified, in the house of its sensuality, all the passions and desires with respect to their mischievous desires and motions. The line, then, says:
On a dark night
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The excess of beauty natural to God-kind
Could not uphold its claim on time-born eyes;
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
On man sometimes when he draws near to God:
An hour arrives when fail all Nature's means;
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Restored the stress of Nature to God's calm.
A vast unanimity ended life's debate.
--
Life now became a sure approach to God,
Existence a divine experiment
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"Know then, a you proud one, what a paradox you are to yourself. Humble yourself, impotent Reason. Learn, man surpasses man infinitely. Hear from your Master your true state which you do not know. Listen to God."11
"Ils ne peuvent plus nous dire qu'il n'y a que de petits esprits qui aient de la pit: car on leur en fait voir de la mieux pouss dans run des plus grands go-mtres, l'un des plus subtils mtaphysiciens, et des plus pntrants esprits que aient jamais t au monde. La pit d'un tel philosophe devrait faire dire aux indvots et awe libertins ce que dit un jour un certain Diocls, en voyant Epicure dans un temple: 'Quelle fte,' s'criait-il, 'quelle spectacle pour moi, de voir Epicure dans un temple! Tous mes soupons s'vanouissent: la pit reprend sa place; et je ne vis jamais mieux la grandeur de Jupiter que depuis que je vois Epicure genoux!' " aBayle: Nouvelle de la Rpublique des Lettres.
01.12 - Goethe, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The angels weave the symphony that is creation. They represent the various notes and rhythmsin their higher and purer degrees that make up the grand harmony of the spheres. It is magnificent, this music that moves the cosmos, and wonderful the glory of God manifest therein. But is it absolutely perfect? Is there nowhere any flaw in it? There is a doubting voice that enters a dissenting note. That is Satan, the Antagonist, the Evil One. Man is the weakest link in the chain of the apparently all-perfect harmony. And Satan boldly proposes to snap it if God only let him do so. He can prove to God that the true nature of his creation is not cosmos but chaos not a harmony in peace and light, but a confusion, a Walpurgis Night. God acquiesces in the play of this apparent breach and proves in the end that it is part of a wider scheme, a vaster harmony. Evil is rounded off by Grace.
The total eradication of Evil from the world and human nature and the remoulding of a terrestrial life in the substance and pattern of the Highest Good that is beyond all dualities is a conception which it was not for Goe the to envisage. In the order of reality or existence, first there is the consciousness of division, of trenchant separation in which Good is equated with not-evil and evil with not-good. This is the outlook of individualised consciousness. Next, as the consciousness grows and envelops the whole existence, good and evil are both embraced and are found to form a secret and magic harmony. That is the universal or cosmic consciousness. And Goethe's genius seems to be an outflowering of something of this status of consciousness. But there is still a higher status, the status of transcendence in which evil is not simply embraced but dissolved and even transmuted into a supreme reality of which it is an aberration, a reflection or projection, a lower formulation. That is the mystery of a spiritual realisation to which Goe the aspired perhaps, but had not the necessary initiation to enter into.
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
"Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But between these two meetings he participated in a whole series of experiences, experiences of gradually growing awareness. This is partly noted in Prayers and Meditations (I have cut out all the personal segments). But there was one experience I didnt speak of there (that is, I didnt describe it, I put only the conclusion)the experience where I say Since the man refused I was offering participation in the universal work and the new creation and the man didnt want it, he refused, and so I now offer it to God.6
I dont know, Im putting it poorly, but this experience was concrete to the point of being physical. It happened in a Japanese country-house where we were living, near a lake. There was a whole series of circumstances, events, all kinds of thingsa long, long story, like a novel. But one day I was alone in meditation (I have never had very profound meditations, only concentrations of consciousness Mother makes an abrupt gesture showing a sudden ingathering of the entire being); and I was seeing. You know that I had taken on the conversion of the Lord of Falsehood: I tried to do it through an emanation incarnated in a physical being [Richard]7, and the greatest effort was made during those four years in Japan. The four years were coming to an end with an absolute inner certainty that there was nothing to be done that it was impossible, impossible to do it this way. There was nothing to be done. And I was intensely concentrated, asking the Lord, Well, I made You a vow to do this, I had said, Even if its necessary to descend into hell, I will descend into hell to do it. Now tell me, what must I do?The Power was plainly there: suddenly everything in me became still; the whole external being was completely immobilized and I had a vision of the Supreme more beautiful than that of the Gita. A vision of the Supreme.8 And this vision literally gathered me into its arms; it turned towards the West, towards India, and offered meand there at the other end I saw Sri Aurobindo. It was I felt it physically. I saw, sawmy eyes were closed but I saw (twice I have had this vision of the Supremeonce here, much later but this was the first time) ineffable. It was as if this Immensity had reduced itself to a rather gigantic Being who lifted me up like a wisp of straw and offered me. Not a word, nothing else, only that.
0 1962-01-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, they were not surrendered in the way a psychic being can be, because they had no psychic in them. The psychic being is the result of that descent. Only human beings have it. And thats what makes humanity so superior to the gods. Theon insisted greatly on this: throughout his story, humans are far superior to Gods and should not obey themthey should only be in contact with the Supreme in his aspect of perfect Love.
I dont know how to put it. To me, those gods always seemed (not those described in the Puranas, theyre different well, not so very different!) but the way Theon presented them, they seemed just like a bunch of marshmallows! Its not that they had no powerthey had a lot of power, but they lacked that psychic flame.
0 1963-06-22, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the push-button of their will and yet most of those who surrender to God expect that from Him.
I read it to Pavitra; he said, But still, thats rather like the way things work! He didnt quite understand (Mother laughs).
0 1967-07-22, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
to God, man is too slow in opening to His influence.
But to the Truth-Consciousness, everything is going as it should!
0 1970-06-06, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Turn then to God, for him leave all behind;
Forgetting Love, forgetting Satyavan,
02.01 - A Vedic Story, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What does this parable mean? First of all then we must know what Sacrificea Vedic sacrificeis. Sacrifice symbolises the cosmic labour, the march of the universe towards its goal, the conquest of Light over Darkness, the ascent of manhood to Godhead, the flaming rise and progress of consciousness to its supreme expression and embodiment. It is the release out of Inconscience and Unconsciousness to consciousness and finally into the super-consciousness.
Sacrifice consists essentially in lighting the fire and pouring fuelofferingsinto it so that it may burn always and brighter and brighter. It calls the gods, also, it is said, ascends to them, brings them down here to live among men, in men. It lifts men from the ordinary life and consciousness, takes them to the abode of the gods. In other words its function is to bring down and infuse into the human vessel the godly consciousness and delight and power. Its purpose is to divinise human life. Through the sacrifice man offers his present possessions, his body and life and mind to the Deity and deities and by this surrender and submission constant and unfailing (namas) he awakens the Divine in him the Agni that is to lead him to the divine consummation.
02.04 - The Kingdoms of the Little Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Look up to God and round at the universe,
And learn by failure and progress by fall
02.05 - The Godheads of the Little Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Our minds are starters in the race to God,
Our souls deputed selves of the Supreme.
02.08 - The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The mortal perishes to God and Light,
An Adversary governs heart and brain,
03.04 - The Vision and the Boon, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A witness to God's parley with the Night,
It leaned compassionate from immortal calm
--
As if Time dare not open its heart to God.
O radiant fountain of the world's delight
03.05 - The Spiritual Genius of India, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Was not Europe also in her theocratic and mediaeval ages as largely spiritual and as fundamentally religious as India? Churches and cathedrals and monasteries grew like mushrooms in every nook and corner, in all the countries of Europe; it was the clergy who, with their almost unbounded influence and power, moulded and guided the life and aspiration of the people; devotion to God and love of prayer and pilgrimage were as much in the nature of the average European of those times as they are in any Indian of today; every family considered it a duty and an honour to rear up one child at least to be consecrated to the service of God and the Church. The internal as well as the external life of the men of mediaeval Europe was steeped through and through in a religious atmosphere.
The whole world, in fact, was more or less religious in the early stages of its evolution; for it is characteristic of the primitive nature of man to be god-fearing and addicted to religious rite and ceremony. And Europe too, when she entered on a new cycle of life and began to reconstruct herself after the ruin of the Grco-Latin culture, started with the religion of the Christ and experimented with it during a long period of time. But that is what wasTroja fuit. Europe has outgrown her nonage and for a century and a half, since the mighty upheaval of the French Revolution, she has been rapidly shaking off the last vestiges of her mediaevalism. Today she stands clean shorn of all superstition, which she only euphemistically calls religion or spirituality. Not Theology but Science, not Revelation but Reason, not Magic but Logic, not Fiction but Fact, governs her thoughts and guides her activities. Only India, in part under the stress of her own conservative nature, in part under compelling circumstances, still clings to her things of the past, darknesses that have been discarded by the modern illumination. Indian spirituality is nothing but consolidated mediaevalism; it has its companion shibboleth in the cry, "Back to the village" or "Back to the bullock-cart"! One of the main reasons, if not the one reason why India has today no place in the comity of nations, why she is not in the vanguard of civilisation, is precisely this obstinate atavism, this persistent survival of a spirit subversive of all that is modern and progressive.
03.06 - Here or Otherwhere, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It can, however, be asked, what then is meant by being in the world? If it means merely sitting quiet, suffering and observing nonchalantly the impacts of the world something in the manner described by Matthew Arnold in his famous lines on the East, well, that stoic way, the way of indifference is a way of being in the world which is not very much unlike not being in the world; for it means simply erecting a wall of separation or isolation within one's consciousness without moving away physically. It is a psychological escapism. But if by living in the world we should mean participating in the movements of the worldnot only being but becoming, not merely standing as a witness but moving out as a doer then the problem becomes different. For the question we have to ask in that case is what happens to our dutieslife in the world being a series of duties, duty to oneself (self-preservation), duty to the family (race-preservation), duty to the country, to humanity and, finally, duty to God (which last belongs properly to the life in Yoga). Now, can all these duties dwell and flourish together? The Christ is categorical on the point. He says, in effect: Leave aside all else and follow Me and look not back. Christ's God seems to be a jealous God who does not tolerate any other god to share in his sovereign exclusiveness. You have to give up, if you wish to gain. They who lose life shall find it and they who stick to life shall as surely lose it.
But is not The Gita's solution somewhat different? Sri Krishna urges Arjuna to be in the very thick of a deadly fight, not a theoretical or abstract combat, but take a hand in the direst man-slaughter, to do the deed (even like Macbeth) but yogically. Yes, The Gita's position seems to be thatto accept all life integrally, to undertake all necessary work (kartavyam karma) and turn them Godward. The Gita seeks to do it in its own way which consists of two major principles: (1) to do the work, whatever it may be, unattachedwithout any desire for the fruit, simply as a thing that has to be done, and (2) to do it as a sacrifice, as an offering to the supreme Master of works.
04.07 - Readings in Savitri, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Savitri, the Divine Grace in human form, is upon earth. The Divine Consciousness has abandoned its own supreme transcendental status to enter into the human consciousness and partake of the earthly life: it has taken up a mortal frame, to live and dwell here below. Only thus she can transform the lower animal nature into the divine nature, raise man to Godhead, make of earth heaven itself:
A prodigal of her rich divinity,
05.28 - God Protects, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The protection that man naturally needs and asks for is that of life and property. It is, in the ordinary course of things, the duty of the State and society to give this protection. But sometimes the State or society is unable to do its duty as it should. 'In revolutionary epochs, when storm and turmoil are almost a natural occurrence, the individual has to turn upon himself, and it is then that many turn to Godthey have been called rtabhakta, those who become devotees through affliction. Now the first question that comes up is why on earth should God care for the life and property of any individual. Life and death, loss and gain are dualities that form the warp and woof of human existence: God is not more partial to one limb of the pair than to the other. From God's standpoint, so also from the standpoint of a God-lover, the soul is immortal, as indeed the Gita says, and even if the body dies, the soul remains for ever, the body can be killed but not the soulna hanyate hanyamne arre. And as regards property, it is the ignorant who are attached to it; the man of God has no need of it, not only so, it is an obstacle in his way to meet God. Did not the Christ declare that a camel could pass through the eye of a needle, never a rich man enter the kingdom of Heaven. And Nachiketas too, a heroic boy that he was, flung back into the face of Yama himself all the riches offered to him by the Lord of Death.
Have life and property then no value in the eye of God? To the divine consciousness are these things mere my, transient objects of ignorance, ties that bind the soul to earth and have to be cut away and thrown behind? We at least do not hold that opinion. We hold that life and property are valuable, they are significant: they become so in reference to the individual who has them. The life that is dedicated to the Divine, the life that is in some way connected with the higher consciousness, through which something of the world of light and delight comes down into our mortality acquires a special worth and naturally calls for divine protection. Likewise the property placed at the service of the Divine, which is used as an instrument for the Divine's own work upon earth, the Divine will surely protect, for it is then part of his grandeur and glory, aishwarya. Life and property become indeed sacred and inviolable when they are put at the disposal of the Divine for his use in the fulfilment of the cosmic design. As we know, life and property under present conditions upon earth are possessions of the undivine forces, they are weapons through which God's enemies hold sway over earth. Therefore life and property that seek to be on God's side run a great risk, they are in the domain of the hostiles and therefore need special protection. The Divine extends that protection, but under conditions for his rule in the material field is not yet absolute. The Asura too extends his protection to his agents, and his protection appears sometimes, if not often, more effective; for the present world is under his domination and all forces and beings obey him; God and the godly have to admit his terms and work out their design on that basis.
05.29 - Vengeance is Mine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
One who seeks to live in God's consciousness cannot take the law into his own hands; he must leave it all to God. When he takes up the self-appointed task of remedying the situation, "resisting evil" as Christ termed it, he invites resistance from the other side which takes up its own counter-measures. The principle of revancheor vendetta, practised by nations and families, has not been a success, as history has amply proved. It is a seesaw movement, a vicious circle without issue. Not only so, the movement gathers momentum and increases in violence and confusion the farther it proceeds on its career. That is why Christ uttered his warning: and Buddha too declared that enmity cannot be appeased by enmity, it can be appeased only by the want of enmity. The truth is true not only in respect of two enemy forces of the same quality and on the same plane, but also with regard to the antagonism between higher and lower forces, between Good and Evil.
Do we then propose taking it all lying down, it may be asked? Is martyrdom then our ideal? Not so, for we do not believe that evil forces can be appeased or conquered or transformed by yielding to them, letting them free to have their own way. Otherwise Krishna would not have enjoined and inspired (almost incited) Arjuna to enter on a bloody battle. Still forces, whether good or bad, are conquered or quelled or transformed truly and permanently by forces that belong not to the same level of being or consciousness, but to a higher one. Instead of working in a parallelogram of forces, we must take recourse, as it were, to a pyramid of forces. We know of the ideal of soul-force standing against and seeking to persuade or peacefully subdue brute force. It is not an impossibility; only we must be able really to get to the true soul and not a semblance or substitute of it. The true soul is .man's spiritual or divine being the consciousness in which man is one in substance and nature with God. It is not a mere thought formation, a mental and moral ideal. The only force that can succeed against a lower or undivine force is God's own force and the success can be complete and absolute by the calling in or intervention of God's force in its highest status. Anything less than that will be no more than a temporary lull or adjustment.
05.33 - Caesar versus the Divine, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." We do not subscribe to the motto. We do not admit that the world and the spirit are irreconcilables and incommensurables. On the contrary we assert their essential unity and identity. The spiritual force is not and need not be impotent or out of place in Caesar's domain. Rather it is the spiritual man who alone can possess the secret of mastering the forces that work out mundane things, perfectly and faultlessly.
But then, it may be asked, how is it that in the history of the world we find men of action, great dynamic personalities to be mostly not spiritual but rather mundane in their character and outlook? Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Chandragupta, Akbar, even Shivaji, were not spiritual personalities; their actions were of the world and of worldly nature. And the force they wielded cannot be described as spiritual, and yet how effective it was, what mighty changes it brought about in the affairs of men! And do we not actually see in the lives of saints and true spiritual souls that the force of the spirit, if force it can be called, moves away from the field of dynamism, turns towards a plane or height where all incentives and impulses to action fall silent and vanish in the end? The spiritual force is applied to negate all mundane activity, to get out of the profane field of life. That is the skill of Yoga referred to in the Gita, that is how we are to understand the injunction to see "inaction in action", and "action in inaction".
06.01 - The Word of Fate, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As steps to climb to God's far secret heights.
Then is our life a tranquil pilgrimage,
06.02 - The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yes, there are happy ways near to God's sun;
But few are they who tread the sunlit path;
--
Climb not to Godhead by the Titan's road.
Against the Law he pits his single will,
--
Leave the world's fate and her to God's sole guard.
Even if he seems to leave her to her lone strength,
07.04 - The Triple Soul-Forces, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Because thou art, the soul draws near to God;
Because thou art, love grows in spite of hate
07.05 - The Finding of the Soul, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And all the emotions gave themselves to God.
529
--
Allied to Gods and cosmic beings and powers
It built the harmony of its human state;
07.06 - Nirvana and the Discovery of the All-Negating Absolute, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To dedicate it to God's timeless calm:
Then all grew tranquil in her being's space,
07.07 - The Discovery of the Cosmic Spirit and the Cosmic Consciousness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
She was the climbing of his soul to God.
The cosmos flowered in her, she was its bed.
09.02 - The Journey in Eternal Night and the Voice of the Darkness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I will follow with him earth's path that leads to God.
Else shall the eternal spaces open to me,
1.001 - The Opening, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
2. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.
3. The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
10.02 - The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It came to me from God, to God returns.
Even in all that life and man have marred,
1.002 - The Heifer, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
22. He who made the earth a habitat for you, and the sky a structure, and sends water down from the sky, and brings out fruits thereby, as a sustenance for you. Therefore, do not assign rivals to God while you know.
23. And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to Our servant, then produce a chapter like these, and call your witnesses apart from God, if you are truthful.
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98. Whoever is hostile to God, and His angels, and His messengers, and Gabriel, and Michael—God is hostile to the faithless.
99. We have revealed to you clear signs, and none rejects them except the sinners.
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107. Do you not know that to God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, and that apart from God you have no guardian or helper?
108. Or do you want to question your Messenger as Moses was questioned before? Whoever exchanges faith for disbelief has strayed from the right path.
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112. In fact, whoever submits himself to God, and is a doer of good, will have his reward with his Lord—they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve.
113. The Jews say, “The Christians are not based on anything;” and the Christians say, “The Jews are not based on anything.” Yet they both read the Scripture. Similarly, the ignorant said the same thing. God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection regarding their differences.
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115. to God belong the East and the West. Whichever way you turn, there is God’s presence. God is Omnipresent and Omniscient.
116. And they say, “God has begotten a son.” Be He glorified. Rather, His is everything in the heavens and the earth; all are obedient to Him.
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172. O you who believe! Eat of the good things We have provided for you, and give thanks to God, if it is Him that you serve.
173. He has forbidden you carrion, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and what was dedicated to other than God. But if anyone is compelled, without desiring or exceeding, he commits no sin. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
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193. And fight them until there is no oppression, and worship becomes devoted to God alone. But if they cease, then let there be no hostility except against the oppressors.
194. The sacred month for the sacred month; and sacrilege calls for retaliation. Whoever commits aggression against you, retaliate against him in the same measure as he has committed against you. And be conscious of God, and know that God is with the righteous.
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210. Are they waiting for God Himself to come to them in the shadows of the clouds, together with the angels, and thus the matter is settled? All things are returned to God.
211. Ask the Children of Israel how many clear signs We have given them. Whoever alters the blessing of God after it has come to him—God is severe in retribution.
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218. Those who believed, and those who migrated and fought for the sake of God—those look forward to God’s mercy. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
219. They ask you about intoxicants and gambling. Say, “There is gross sin in them, and some benefits for people, but their sinfulness outweighs their benefit.” And they ask you about what they should give: say, “The surplus.” Thus God explains the revelations to you, so that you may think.
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281. And guard yourselves against a Day when you will be returned to God; then each soul will be rewarded fully for what it has earned, and they will not be wronged.
282. O you who believe! When you incur debt among yourselves for a certain period of time, write it down. And have a scribe write in your presence, in all fairness. And let no scribe refuse to write, as God has taught him. So let him write, and let the debtor dictate. And let him fear God, his Lord, and diminish nothing from it. But if the debtor is mentally deficient, or weak, or unable to dictate, then let his guardian dictate with honesty. And call to witness two men from among you. If two men are not available, then one man and two women whose testimony is acceptable to all—if one of them fails to remember, the other would remind her. Witnesses must not refuse when called upon. And do not think it too trivial to write down, whether small or large, including the time of repayment. That is more equitable with God, and stronger as evidence, and more likely to prevent doubt—except in the case of a spot transaction between you—then there is no blame on you if you do not write it down. And let there be witnesses whenever you conclude a contract, and let no harm be done to either scribe or witness. If you do that, it is corruption on your part. And fear God. God teaches you. God is aware of everything.
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284. to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. Whether you reveal what is within your selves, or conceal it, God will call you to account for it. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. God is Able to do all things.
285. The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, as did the believers. They all have believed in God, and His angels, and His scriptures, and His messengers: “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” And they say, “We hear and we obey. Your forgiveness, our Lord. To you is the destiny.”
1.003 - Family of Imran, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
20. If they argue with you, say, “I have surrendered myself to God, and those who follow me.” And say to those who were given the Scripture, and to the unlearned, “Have you surrendered?” If they have surrendered, then they are guided; but if they turn away, then your duty is to convey. God is Seeing of the servants.
21. As for those who defy God’s revelations, and kill the prophets unjustly, and kill those who advocate justice among the people—promise them a painful retribution.
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28. Believers are not to take disbelievers for friends instead of believers. Whoever does that has nothing to do with God, unless it is to protect your own selves against them. God warns you to beware of Him. to God is the destiny.
29. Say, “Whether you conceal what is in your hearts, or disclose it, God knows it.” He knows everything in the heavens and the earth. God is Powerful over everything.
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78. And among them are those who twist the Scripture with their tongues, that you may think it from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say, “It is from God,” when it is not from God. They tell lies and attribute them to God, knowingly.
79. No person to whom God has given the Scripture, and wisdom, and prophethood would ever say to the people, “Be my worshipers rather than God’s.” Rather, “Be people of the Lord, according to the Scripture you teach, and the teachings you learn.”
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97. In it are evident signs; the Station of Abraham. Whoever enters it attains security. Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for all who can make the journey. But as for those who refuse—God is Independent of the worlds.
98. Say, “O People of the Scripture, why do you reject the Revelations of God, when God witnesses what you do?”
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101. And how could you disbelieve, when God’s revelations are being recited to you, and among you is His Messenger? Whoever cleaves to God has been guided to a straight path.
102. O you who believe! Revere God with due reverence, and do not die except as Muslims.
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109. to God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth, and to God all events are referred.
110. You are the best community that ever emerged for humanity: you advocate what is moral, and forbid what is immoral, and believe in God. Had the People of the Scripture believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are the believers, but most of them are sinners.
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129. to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. God is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.
130. O you who believe! Do not feed on usury, compounded over and over, and fear God, so that you may prosper.
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151. We will throw terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they attribute to God partners for which He revealed no sanction. Their lodging is the Fire. Miserable is the lodging of the evildoers.
152. God has fulfilled His promise to you, and you defeated them by His leave; until when you faltered, and disputed the command, and disobeyed after He had shown you what you like. Some of you want this world, and some of you want the next. Then He turned you away from them, to test you; but He pardoned you. God is Gracious towards the believers.
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154. Then after the setback, He sent down security upon you. Slumber overcame some of you, while others cared only for themselves, thinking of God thoughts that were untrue—thoughts of ignorance—saying, “Is anything up to us?” Say, “Everything is up to God.” They conceal within themselves what they do not reveal to you. And they say, “If it was up to us, none of us would have been killed here.” Say, “Even if you Had stayed in your homes, those destined to be killed would have marched into their death beds.” God thus tests what is in your minds, and purifies what is in your hearts. God knows what the hearts contain.
155. Those of you who turned back on the day when the two armies clashed—it was Satan who caused them to backslide, on account of some of what they have earned. But God has forgiven them. God is Forgiving and Prudent.
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172. Those who responded to God and the Messenger, despite the persecution they had suffered. For the virtuous and the pious among them is a great reward.
173. Those to whom the people have said, “The people have mobilized against you, so fear them.” But this only increased them in faith, and they said, “God is enough for us; He is the Excellent Protector.”
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180. Those who withhold what God has given them of his bounty should not assume that is good for them. In fact, it is bad for them. They will be encircled by their hoardings on the Day of Resurrection. to God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth, and God is well acquainted with what you do.
181. God has heard the statement of those who said, “God is poor, and we are rich.” We will write down what they said, and their wrongful killing of the prophets; and We will say, “Taste the torment of the burning.”
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189. to God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. God has power over all things.
190. In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, are signs for people of understanding.
10.03 - The Debate of Love and Death, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
He who would turn to God, must leave the world;
He who would live in the Spirit, must give up life;
10.04 - The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Turn then to God, for him leave all behind;
Forgetting love, forgetting Satyavan,
1.004 - Women, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
59. O you who believe! Obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you dispute over anything, refer it to God and the Messenger, if you believe in God and the Last Day. That is best, and a most excellent determination.
60. Have you not observed those who claim that they believe in what was revealed to you, and in what was revealed before you, yet they seek Satanic sources for legislation, in spite of being commanded to reject them? Satan means to mislead them far away.
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92. Never should a believer kill another believer, unless by error. Anyone who kills a believer by error must set free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the victim’s family, unless they remit it as charity. If the victim belonged to a people who are hostile to you, but is a believer, then the compensation is to free a believing slave. If he belonged to a people with whom you have a treaty, then compensation should be handed over to his family, and a believing slave set free. Anyone who lacks the means must fast for two consecutive months, by way of repentance to God. God is All-Knowing, Most Wise.
93. Whoever kills a believer deliberately, the penalty for him is Hell, where he will remain forever. And God will be angry with him, and will curse him, and will prepare for him a terrible punishment.
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100. Anyone who emigrates for the sake of God will find on earth many places of refuge, and plentitude. Anyone who leaves his home, emigrating to God and His Messenger, and then is overtaken by death, his compensation falls on God. God is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
101. When you travel in the land, there is no blame on you for shortening the prayers, if you fear that the disbelievers may harm you. The disbelievers are your manifest enemies.
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116. God will not forgive that partners be associated with Him; but will forgive anything less than that, to whomever He wills. Anyone who ascribes partners to God has strayed into far error.
117. They invoke in His stead only females. In fact, they invoke none but a rebellious devil.
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125. And who is better in religion than he who submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, and follows the faith of Abraham the Monotheist? God has chosen Abraham for a friend.
126. to God belongs what is in the heavens and what is on earth, and God encompasses everything.
127. They ask you for a ruling about women. Say, “God gives you a ruling about them, and so does what is stated to you in the Book about widowed women from whom you withhold what is decreed for them, yet you desire to marry them, and about helpless children: that you should treat the orphans fairly.” Whatever good you do, God knows it.
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131. to God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. We have instructed those who were given the Book before you, and you, to be conscious of God. But if you refuse— to God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God is in no need, Praiseworthy.
132. to God belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. God suffices as Manager.
133. If He wills, He can do away with you, O people, and bring others. God is Able to do that.
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135. O you who believe! Stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even if against yourselves, or your parents, or your relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, God takes care of both. So do not follow your desires, lest you swerve. If you deviate, or turn away—then God is Aware of what you do.
136. O you who believe! Believe in God and His messenger, and the Book He sent down to His messenger, and the Book He sent down before. Whoever rejects God, His angels, His Books, His messengers, and the Last Day, has strayed far in error.
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139. Those who ally themselves with the disbelievers instead of the believers. Do they seek glory in them? All glory belongs to God.
140. He has revealed to you in the Book that when you hear God’s revelations being rejected, or ridiculed, do not sit with them until they engage in some other subject. Otherwise, you would be like them. God will gather the hypocrites and the disbelievers, into Hell, altogether.
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146. Except those who repent, and reform, and hold fast to God, and dedicate their religion to God alone. These are with the believers; and God will give the believers a great reward.
147. What would God accomplish by your punishment, if you have given thanks, and have believed? God is Appreciative and Cognizant.
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170. O people! The Messenger has come to you with the truth from your Lord, so believe—that is best for you. But if you disbelieve, to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. God is Omniscient and Wise.
171. O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion, and do not say about God except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, is the Messenger of God, and His Word that He conveyed to Mary, and a Spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and do not say, “Three.” Refrain—it is better for you. God is only one God. Glory be to Him—that He should have a son. To Him belongs everything in the heavens and the earth, and God is a sufficient Protector.
1.005 - The Table, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
8. O you who believe! Be upright to God, witnessing with justice; and let not the hatred of a certain people prevent you from acting justly. Adhere to justice, for that is nearer to piety; and fear God. God is informed of what you do.
9. God has promised those who believe and work righteousness: they will have forgiveness and a great reward.
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17. They disbelieve those who say, “God is the Christ, the son of Mary.” Say, “Who can prevent God, if He willed, from annihilating the Christ son of Mary, and his mother, and everyone on earth?” to God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and what is between them. He creates whatever He wills, and God has power over everything.
18. The Jews and the Christians say, “We are the children of God, and His beloved.” Say, “Why then does He punish you for your sins?” In fact, you are humans from among those He created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and what lies between them, and to Him is the return.
19. O People of the Book! Our Messenger has come to you, making things clear to you—after a cessation of messengers—so that you cannot say, “No preacher has come to us, and no warner.” In fact, a preacher has come to you, and a warner; and God is Capable of everything.
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40. Do you not know that to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth? He punishes whom He wills, and He forgives whom He wills. And God is Capable of everything.
41. O Messenger! Do not let those who are quick to disbelief grieve you—from among those who say with their mouths, “We believe,” but their hearts do not believe; and from among the Jews—listeners to lies, listeners to other people who did not come to you. They distort words from their places, and they say, “If you are given this, accept it; but if you are not given it, beware.” Whomever God has willed to divert, you have nothing for him from God. Those are they whose hearts God does not intend to purify. For them is disgrace in this world, and for them is a great punishment in the Hereafter.
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48. And We revealed to you the Book, with truth, confirming the Scripture that preceded it, and superseding it. So judge between them according to what God revealed, and do not follow their desires if they differ from the truth that has come to you. For each of you We have assigned a law and a method. Had God willed, He could have made you a single nation, but He tests you through what He has given you. So compete in righteousness. to God is your return, all of you; then He will inform you of what you had disputed.
49. And judge between them according to what God revealed, and do not follow their desires. And beware of them, lest they lure you away from some of what God has revealed to you. But if they turn away, know that God intends to strike them with some of their sins. In fact, a great many people are corrupt.
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74. Will they not repent to God and ask His forgiveness? God is Forgiving and Merciful.
75. The Messiah son of Mary was only a messenger, before whom other Messengers had passed away, and his mother was a woman of truth. They both used to eat food. Note how We make clear the revelations to them; then note how deluded they are.
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105. O you who believe! You are responsible for your own souls. He who has strayed cannot harm you if you are guided. to God is your return, all of you, and He will inform you of what you used to do.
106. O you who believe! When death approaches one of you, let two reliable persons from among you act as witnesses to the making of a bequest, or two persons from another people if you are travelling in the land and the event of death approaches you. Engage them after the prayer. If you have doubts, let them swear by God: “We will not sell our testimony for any price, even if he was a near relative, and we will not conceal God’s testimony, for then we would be sinners.”
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120. to God belongs the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and what lies in them, and He has power over everything.
1.006 - Livestock, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
1. Praise be to God, Who created the heavens and the earth, and made the darkness and the light. Yet those who disbelieve ascribe equals to their Lord.
2. It is He Who created you from clay, then decided a term—a term determined by Him. Yet you doubt.
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34. Other messengers before you were rejected, but they endured rejection and persecution until Our help came to them. There can be no change to God’s words. News of the Messengers has already reached you.
35. If you find their rejection hard to bear, then if you can, seek a tunnel into the earth, or a stairway into the heaven, and bring them a sign. Had God willed, He could have gathered them to guidance. So do not be of the ignorant.
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45. Thus the last remnant of the people who did wrong was cut off. And praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.
46. Say, “Have you considered? If God took away your hearing and your sight, and set a seal on your hearts, what god other than God would restore them to you?” Note how We explain the revelations in various ways, yet they still turn away.
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57. Say, “I stand on clear evidence from my Lord, and you have rejected Him. I do not possess what you seek me to hasten; the decision belongs solely to God. He states the truth, and He is the Best of Judges.”
58. Say, “If I possessed what you seek me to hasten, the matter between you and me would have been settled. God is well aware of the unjust.”
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62. Then they are brought back to God, their True Master. Unquestionably, His is the judgment, and He is the Swiftest of reckoners.
63. Say, “Who delivers you from the darkness of land and sea?” You call upon Him humbly and inwardly: “If He delivers us from this, We will surely be among the thankful.”
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100. Yet they attributed to God partners—the sprites—although He created them. And they invented for Him sons and daughters, without any knowledge. Glory be to Him. He is exalted, beyond what they describe.
101. Originator of the heavens and the earth—how can He have a son when He never had a companion? He created all things, and He has knowledge of all things.
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124. When a sign comes to them, they say, “We will not believe unless we are given the like of what was given to God’s messengers.” God knows best where to place His message. Humiliation from God and severe torment will afflict the criminals for their scheming.
125. Whomever God desires to guide, He spreads open his heart to Islam; and whomever He desires to misguide, He makes his heart narrow, constricted, as though he were climbing up the sky. God thus lays defilement upon those who do not believe.
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144. And two of the camels, and two of the cattle. Say, “Did He forbid the two males, or the two females, or what the wombs of the two females contain? Were you present when God enjoined this upon you?” Who does greater wrong than he who invents lies and attributes them to God, in order to mislead people without knowledge? God does not guide the wicked people.
145. Say, “In what was revealed to me, I find nothing forbidden to a consumer who eats it, except carrion, or spilled blood, or the flesh of swine—because it is impure—or a sinful offering dedicated to other than God. But if someone is compelled by necessity, without being deliberate or malicious—your Lord is Forgiving and Merciful.
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157. Or lest you say, “Had the Scripture been revealed to us, we would have been better guided than they.” Clarification has come to you from your Lord, and guidance, and mercy. Who then does greater wrong than he who gives the lie to God's messages, and turns away from them? We will repay those who turn away from Our messages with the worst kind of punishment, because of their turning away.
158. Are they waiting for anything but for the angels to come to them, or for your Lord to arrive, or for some of your Lord’s signs to come? On the Day when some of your Lord’s signs come, no soul will benefit from its faith unless it had believed previously, or had earned goodness through its faith. Say, “Wait, we too are waiting.”
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162. Say, “My prayer and my worship, and my life and my death, are devoted to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
163. No associate has He. Thus I am commanded, and I am the first of those who submit.
1.007 - The Elevations, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
28. And when they commit an indecency, they say, “We found our parents doing this, and God has commanded us to do it.” Say, “God does not command indecencies. Are you attributing to God what you do not know?”
29. Say, “My Lord commands justice, and to stand devoted at every place of worship. So call upon Him, and dedicate your faith to Him alone. Just as He originated you, so you will return.”
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43. We will remove whatever rancor is in their hearts. Rivers will flow beneath them. And they will say, “Praise be to God, who has guided us to this. Had God not guided us, we would never be guided. The messengers of our Lord did come with the truth.” And it will be proclaimed to them, “This is the Garden you are made to inherit, on account of what you used to do.”
44. And the inhabitants of the Garden will call out to the inmates of the Fire, “We found what our Lord promised us to be true; did you find what your Lord promised you to be true?” They will say, “Yes.” Thereupon a caller will announce in their midst, “The curse of God is upon the wrongdoers.”
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128. Moses said to his people, “Seek help in God, and be patient. The earth belongs to God. He gives it in inheritance to whomever He wills of His servants, and the future belongs to the righteous.”
129. They said, “We were persecuted before you came to us, and after you came to us.” He said, “Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy, and make you successors in the land; then He will see how you behave.”
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180. to God belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call Him by them, and disregard those who blaspheme His names. They will be repaid for what they used to do.
181. Among those We created is a community—they guide by truth, and do justice thereby.
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189. It is He who created you from a single person, and made from it its mate, that he may find comfort with her. Then, when he has covered her, she conceives a light load, and she carries it around. But when she has grown heavy, they pray to God their Lord, “if You give us a good child, we will be among the thankful.”
190. But when He has given them a good child, they attribute partners to Him in what He has given them. God is exalted above what they associate.
1.008 - The Spoils, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
22. The worst of animals to God are the deaf and dumb—those who do not reason.
23. Had God recognized any good in them, He would have made them hear; and had He made them hear, they would have turned away defiantly.
24. O you who believe! Respond to God and to the Messenger when He calls you to what will revive you. And know that God stands between a man and his heart, and that to Him you will be gathered.
25. And beware of discord which does not afflict the wrongdoers among you exclusively; and know that God is severe in retribution.
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41. And know that whatever spoils you gain, to God belongs its fifth, and to the Messenger, and the relatives, and the orphans, and the poor, and to the wayfarer, provided you believe in God and in what We revealed to Our servant on the Day of Distinction, the day when the two armies met. God is Capable of everything.
42. Recall when you were on the nearer bank, and they were on the further bank, and the caravan was below you. Had you planned for this meeting, you would have disagreed on the timing, but God was to carry out a predetermined matter, so that those who perish would perish by clear evidence, and those who survive would survive by clear evidence. God is Hearing and Knowing.
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44. When you met, He made them appear as few in your eyes, and made you appear fewer in their eyes, so that God may conclude a predetermined matter. to God all matters revert.
45. O you who believe! When you meet a force, stand firm, and remember God much, so that you may prevail.
1.009 - Repentance, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
36. The number of months, according to God, is twelve months—in the decree of God—since the Day He created the heavens and the earth, of which four are sacred. This is the correct religion. So do not wrong yourselves during them. And fight the polytheists collectively, as they fight you collectively, and know that God is with the righteous.
37. Postponement is an increase in disbelief—by which those who disbelieve are led astray. They allow it one year, and forbid it another year, in order to conform to the number made sacred by God, thus permitting what God has forbidden. The evil of their deeds seems good to them. God does not guide the disbelieving people.
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59. If only they were content with what God and His Messenger have given them, and said, “God is sufficient for us; God will give us of His bounty, and so will His Messenger; to God we eagerly turn.”
60. Charities are for the poor, and the destitute, and those who administer them, and for reconciling hearts, and for freeing slaves, and for those in debt, and in the path of God, and for the traveler in need—an obligation from God. God is All-Knowing, Most Wise.
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77. So He penalized them with hypocrisy in their hearts, until the Day they face Him—because they broke their promise to God, and because they used to lie.
78. Do they not know that God knows their secrets and their conspiracies? And that God is the Knower of the unseen?
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90. Some of the Desert-Arabs came to make excuses, asking to be granted exemption, while those who were untrue to God and His Messenger stayed behind. A painful punishment will afflict those among them who disbelieved.
91. There is no blame on the weak, nor on the sick, nor on those who have nothing to give, provided they are true to God and His Messenger. In no way can the righteous be blamed. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
92. Nor on those who approach you, wishing to ride with you, and you said, “I have nothing to carry you on.” So they went away, with their eyes overflowing with tears, sorrowing for not finding the means to spend.
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116. to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He gives life, and He causes death. And besides God, you have neither protector, nor supporter.
117. God has redeemed the Prophet, and the Emigrants, and the Supporters—those who followed him in the hour of difficulty—after the hearts of some of them almost swerved. Then He pardoned them. He is Kind towards them, Compassionate.
1.00c - INTRODUCTION, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
We all came from God, and we are all bound to go to God, call
that God by any name you like; call Him God, or Absolute or
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Now the question arises, is going back to God the higher state,
or is it not? The philosophers of the Yoga school answer
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goes back to God. This is the method of putting it in the
Dualistic form. In the Monistic form you say that man is God,
1.00 - Main, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
Endowments dedicated to charity revert to God, the Revealer of Signs. None hath the right to dispose of them without leave from Him Who is the Dawning-place of Revelation. After Him, this authority shall pass to the Aghsan, and after them to the House of Justice-should it be established in the world by then-that they may use these endowments for the benefit of the Places which have been exalted in this Cause, and for whatsoever hath been enjoined upon them by Him Who is the God of might and power. Otherwise, the endowments shall revert to the people of Baha who speak not except by His leave and judge not save in accordance with what God hath decreed in this Tablet-lo, they are the champions of victory betwixt heaven and earth-that they may use them in the manner that hath been laid down in the Book by God, the Mighty, the Bountiful.
Lament not in your hours of trial, neither rejoice therein; seek ye the Middle Way which is the remembrance of Me in your afflictions and reflection over that which may befall you in future. Thus informeth you He Who is the Omniscient, He Who is aware.
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Should differences arise amongst you over any matter, refer it to God while the Sun still shineth above the horizon of this Heaven and, when it hath set, refer ye to whatsoever hath been sent down by Him. This, verily, is sufficient unto the peoples of the world. Say:
Let not your hearts be perturbed, O people, when the glory of My Presence is withdrawn, and the ocean of My utterance is stilled. In My presence amongst you there is a wisdom, and in My absence there is yet another, inscrutable to all but God, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. Verily, We behold you from Our realm of glory, and shall aid whosoever will arise for the triumph of Our Cause with the hosts of the Concourse on high and a company of Our favoured angels.
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God hath enjoined upon you to observe the utmost cleanliness, to the extent of washing what is soiled with dust, let alone with hardened dirt and similar defilement. Fear Him, and be of those who are pure. Should the garb of anyone be visibly sullied, his prayers shall not ascend to God, and the celestial Concourse will turn away from him. Make use of rose-water, and of pure perfume; this, indeed, is that which God hath loved from the beginning that hath no beginning, in order that there may be diffused from you what your Lord, the Incomparable, the All-Wise, desireth.
God hath relieved you of the ordinance laid down in the Bayan concerning the destruction of books. We have permitted you to read such sciences as are profitable unto you, not such as end in idle disputation; better is this for you, if ye be of them that comprehend.
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Happy the one who entereth upon the first day of the month of Baha, the day which God hath consecrated to this Great Name. And blessed be he who evidenceth on this day the bounties that God hath bestowed upon him; he, verily, is of those who show forth thanks to God through actions betokening the Lord's munificence which hath encompassed all the worlds. Say: This day, verily, is the crown of all the months and the source thereof, the day on which the breath of life is wafted over all created things. Great is the blessedness of him who greeteth it with radiance and joy. We testify that he is, in truth, among those who are blissful.
112
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Recite ye the verses of God every morn and eventide. Whoso faileth to recite them hath not been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, and whoso turneth away from these holy verses in this Day is of those who throughout eternity have turned away from God. Fear ye God, O My servants, one and all. Pride not yourselves on much reading of the verses or on a multitude of pious acts by night and day; for were a man to read a single verse with joy and radiance it would be better for him than to read with lassitude all the Holy Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Read ye the sacred verses in such measure that ye be not overcome by languor and despondency. Lay not upon your souls that which will weary them and weigh them down, but rather what will lighten and uplift them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses towards the Dawning-place of His manifest signs; this will draw you nearer to God, did ye but comprehend.
150
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Ye have been prohibited from making use of pulpits. Whoso wisheth to recite unto you the verses of his Lord, let him sit on a chair placed upon a dais, that he may make mention of God, his Lord, and the Lord of all mankind. It is pleasing to God that ye should seat yourselves on chairs and benches as a mark of honour for the love ye bear for Him and for the Manifestation of His glorious and resplendent Cause.
155
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O people of the Bayan! We, verily, set foot within the School of God when ye lay slumbering; and We perused the Tablet while ye were fast asleep. By the one true God! We read the Tablet ere it was revealed, while ye were unaware, and We had perfect knowledge of the Book when ye were yet unborn. These words are to your measure, not to God's. To this testifieth that which is enshrined within His knowledge, if ye be of them that comprehend; and to this the tongue of the Almighty doth bear witness, if ye be of those who understand. I swear by God, were We to lift the veil, ye would be dumbfounded.
177
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thee-verses sent down by God, the Omnipotent Protector, the Lord of might and power. Beware lest the fire of thy presumptuousness debar thee from attaining to God's Holy Court. Turn unto Him, and fear not because of thy deeds. He, in truth, forgiveth whomsoever He desireth as a bounty on His part; no God is there but Him, the Ever-Forgiving, the All-Bounteous.
We admonish thee solely for the sake of God. Shouldst thou accept this counsel, thou wilt have acted to thine own behoof; and shouldst thou reject it, thy Lord, verily, can well dispense with thee, and with all those who, in manifest delusion, have followed thee. Behold! God hath laid hold on him who led thee astray. Return un to God, humble, submissive and lowly; verily, He will put away from thee thy sins, for thy Lord, of a certainty, is the Forgiving, the Mighty, the All-Merciful.
1.010 - Jonah, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
10. Their call therein is, “Glory be to You, our God.” And their greeting therein is, “Peace.” And the last of their call is, “Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.”
11. If God were to accelerate the ill for the people, as they wish to accelerate the good, their term would have been fulfilled. But We leave those who do not expect Our encounter to blunder in their excesses.
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20. And they say, “If only a miracle was sent down to him from his Lord.” Say, “The realm of the unseen belongs to God; so wait, I am waiting with you.”
21. When We make the people taste mercy after some adversity has touched them, they begin to scheme against Our revelations. Say, “God is swifter in scheming.” Our envoys are writing down what you scheme.
22. It is He who transports you across land and sea. Until, when you are on ships, sailing in a favorable wind, and rejoicing in it, a raging wind arrives. The waves surge over them from every side, and they realize that they are besieged. Thereupon they pray to God, professing sincere devotion to Him: “If You save us from this, we will be among the appreciative.”
23. But then, when He has saved them, they commit violations on earth, and oppose justice. O people! Your violations are against your own souls. It is the enjoyment of the present life. Then to Us is your return, and We will inform you of what you used to do.
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30. There, every soul will experience what it had done previously; and they will be returned to God, their True Master; and what they used to invent will fail them.
31. Say, “Who provides for you from the heaven and the earth? And who controls the hearing and the sight? And who produces the living from the dead, and produces the dead from the living? And who governs the Order?” They will say, “God.” Say, “Will you not be careful?”
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55. Assuredly, to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. Assuredly, the promise of God is true. But most of them do not know.
56. He gives life and causes death, and to Him you will be returned.
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59. Say, “Have you considered the sustenance God has sent down for you, some of which you made unlawful, and some lawful?” Say, “Did God give you permission, or do you fabricate lies and attribute them to God?”
60. What will they think—those who fabricate lies and attribute them to God—on the Day of Resurrection? God is bountiful towards the people, but most of them do not give thanks.
61. You do not get into any situation, nor do you recite any Quran, nor do you do anything, but We are watching over you as you undertake it. Not even the weight of an atom, on earth or in the sky, escapes your Lord, nor is there anything smaller or larger, but is in a clear record.
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66. Certainly, to God belongs everyone in the heavens and everyone on earth. Those who invoke other than God do not follow partners; they follow only assumptions, and they only guess.
67. It is He who made the night for your rest, and the daylight for visibility. Surely in that are signs for people who listen.
1.011 - Hud, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
123. to God belongs the future of the heavens and the earth, and to Him all authority goes back. So worship Him, and rely on Him. Your Lord is never unaware of what you do.
1.012 - Joseph, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
86. He said, “I only complain of my grief and sorrow to God, and I know from God what you do not know.”
87. “O my sons, go and inquire about Joseph and his brother, and do not despair of God's comfort. None despairs of God's comfort except the disbelieving people.”
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108. Say, “This is my way; I invite to God, based on clear knowledge—I and whoever follows me. Glory be to God; and I am not of the polytheists.”
109. We did not send before you except men, whom We inspired, from the people of the towns. Have they not roamed the earth and seen the consequences for those before them? The Home of the Hereafter is better for those who are righteous. Do you not understand?
1.013 - Thunder, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
15. to God prostrates everyone in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows, in the morning and in the evening.
16. Say, “Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?” Say, “God.” Say, “Have you taken besides Him protectors, who have no power to profit or harm even themselves?” Say, “Are the blind and the seeing equal? Or are darkness and light equal? Or have they assigned to God associates, who created the likes of His creation, so that the creations seemed to them alike? Say, “God is the Creator of all things, and He is The One, the Irresistible.”
17. He sends down water from the sky, and riverbeds flow according to their capacity. The current carries swelling froth. And from what they heat in fire of ornaments or utensils comes a similar froth. Thus God exemplifies truth and falsehood. As for the froth, it is swept away, but what benefits the people remains in the ground. Thus God presents the analogies.
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20. Those who fulfill the promise to God, and do not violate the agreement.
21. And those who join what God has commanded to be joined, and fear their Lord, and dread the dire reckoning.
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25. As for those who violate the promise to God, after pledging to keep it, and sever what God has commanded to be joined, and spread corruption on earth—these, the curse will be upon them, and they will have the Worst Home.
26. God dispenses the provisions to whomever He wills, and restricts. And they delight in the worldly life; yet the worldly life, compared to the Hereafter, is only enjoyment.
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33. Is He who is watchful over the deeds of every soul? Yet they ascribe associates to God. Say, “Name them! Or are you informing Him of something on earth He does not know, or is it a show of words?” In fact, the scheming of those who disbelieve is made to appear good to them, and they are averted from the path. Whomever God misguides has no guide.
34. There is for them torment in the worldly life, but the torment of the Hereafter is harsher. And they have no defender against God.
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42. Those before them planned, but the entire plan is up to God. He knows what every soul earns. Those who disbelieve will know to whom the Ultimate Home is.
43. Those who disbelieve say, “You are not a messenger.” Say, “God is a sufficient witness between me and you, and whoever has knowledge of the Scripture.”
1.014 - Abraham, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
30. And they set up rivals to God, in order to lead away from His path. Say, “Enjoy yourselves; your destination is the Fire.”
31. Tell My servants who have believed to perform the prayers, and to give from what We have given them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there is neither trading nor friendship.
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39. “Praise be to God, Who has given me, in my old age, Ishmael and Isaac. My Lord is the Hearer of Prayers.”
40. “My Lord, make me one who performs the prayer, and from my offspring. Our Lord, accept my supplication.”
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46. They planned their plans, but their plans are known to God, even if their plans can eliminate mountains.
47. Do not ever think that God will break His promise to His messengers. God is Strong, Able to Avenge.
1.016 - The Bee, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
48. Have they not observed what God has created? Their shadows revolve from the right and the left, bowing to God as they shrink away.
49. to God bows down everything in the heavens and everything on earth—every living creature, and the angels, and without being proud.
50. They fear their Lord above them, and they do what they are commanded.
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57. And they attribute to God daughters—exalted is He—and for themselves what they desire.
58. And when one of them is given news of a female infant, his face darkens, and he chokes with grief.
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62. And they attribute to God what they themselves dislike, while their tongues utter the lie that theirs is the goodness. Without a doubt, for them is the Fire, and they will be neglected.
63. By God, We sent messengers to communities before you, but Satan made their deeds appear alluring to them. He is their master today, and they will have a painful punishment.
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75. God cites the example of a bonded slave, who has no power over anything; and someone to whom We have given plentiful provision, from which he gives secretly and openly. Are they equal in comparison? All praise belongs to God, but most of them do not know.
76. And God cites the example of two men: one of them dumb, unable to do anything, and is a burden on his master; whichever way he directs him, he achieves nothing good. Is he equal to him who commands justice, and is on a straight path?
77. to God belongs the unseen of the heavens and the earth. The coming of the Hour is only as the twinkling of the eye, or even nearer. God has power over everything.
78. God brought you out of your mothers’ wombs, not knowing anything; and He gave you the hearing, and the eyesight, and the brains; that you may give thanks.
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87. On that Day they will offer their submission to God, and what they had invented will abandon them.
88. Those who disbelieve and obstruct from God’s path—We will add punishment to their punishment, on account of the mischief they used to make.
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116. And do not say of falsehood asserted by your tongues, “This is lawful, and this is unlawful,” in order to invent lies and attribute them to God. Those who invent lies and attribute them to God will not succeed.
117. A brief enjoyment—then they will have a painful punishment.
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120. Abraham was an exemplary leader, devoted to God, a monotheist, and was not of the polytheists.
121. Thankful for His blessings. He chose him, and guided him to a straight path.
1.017 - The Night Journey, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
111. And say, “Praise be to God, who has not begotten a son, nor has He a partner in sovereignty, nor has He an ally out of weakness, and glorify Him constantly.”
1.018 - The Cave, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
1. Praise be to God, who revealed the Book to His servant, and allowed in it no distortion.
2. Valuable—to warn of severe punishment from Himself; and to deliver good news to the believers who do righteous deeds, that they will have an excellent reward.
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15. “These people, our people, have taken to themselves gods other than Him. Why do they not bring a clear proof concerning them? Who, then, does greater wrong than he who invents lies and attributes them to God?”
16. “Now that you have withdrawn from them, and from what they worship besides God, take shelter in the cave. And your Lord will unfold His mercy for you, and will set your affair towards ease.”
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44. That is because authority belongs to God, the True. He is Best in rewarding, and Best in requiting.
45. And cite for them the parable of the present life: it is like water that We send down from the sky; the plants of the earth absorb it; but then it becomes debris, scattered by the wind. God has absolute power over everything.
1.01 - An Accomplished Westerner, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
although he was quite unimpressed with religion, as is evident from the account he gives of his "conversion." Predictably, Clergyman Drewett's mother had undertaken the task of saving the souls of the three heretic children, or at least that of the youngest one, whom she took one day to a meeting of "nonconformist" ministers. After the prayers were over, wrote Sri Aurobindo, nearly all dispersed, but devout people remained a little longer, and it was at that time that conversions were made. I was feeling completely bored. Then a minister approached me and asked me some questions. (I was about ten at that time.) I did not give any reply. Then they all shouted, "He is saved, he is saved," and began to pray for me and offer thanks to God.6 Sri Aurobindo, the seer, was never to become a religious man,
not even in India, and he often emphasized that religion and spirituality are not necessarily synonymous: True theocracy, he would write later, is the kingdom of God in man and not the kingdom of a Pope, a priesthood or a sacerdotal class.7
1.01 - Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
a Kierkegaardian neurosis, or whose relation to God, owing to
the progressive impoverishment of symbolism, developed into
1.01 - Description of the Castle, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
8.: Certain books on prayer that you have read advise the soul to enter into itself,10' and this is what I mean. I was recently told by a great theologian that souls without prayer are like bodies, palsied and lame, having hands and feet they cannot use.' Just so, there are souls so infirm and accustomed to think of nothing but earthly matters, that there seems no cure for them. It appears impossible for them to retire into their own hearts; accustomed as they are to be with the reptiles and other creatures which live outside the castle, they have come at last to imitate their habits. Though these souls are by their nature so richly endowed, capable of communion even with God Himself, yet their case seems hopeless. Unless they endeavour to understand and remedy their most miserable plight, their minds will become, as it were, bereft of movement, just as Lot's wife became a pillar of salt for looking backwards in disobedience to God's command.11
9.: As far as I can understand, the gate by which to enter this castle is prayer and meditation. I do not allude more to mental than to vocal prayer, for if it is prayer at all, the mind must take part in it. If a person neither considers to Whom he is addressing himself, what he asks, nor what he is who ventures to speak to God, although his lips may utter many words, I do not call it prayer.12' Sometimes, indeed, one may pray devoutly without making all these considerations through having practised them at other times. The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave-caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition-cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner. I trust His Majesty will prevent any of you, sisters, from doing so. Our habit in this Order of conversing about spiritual matters is a good preservative against such evil ways.
10.: Let us speak no more of these crippled souls, who are in a most miserable and dangerous state, unless our Lord bid them rise, as He did the palsied man who had waited more than thirty years at the pool of Bethsaida.13' We will now think of the others who at last enter the precincts of the castle; they are still very worldly, yet have some desire to do right, and at times, though rarely, commend themselves to God's care. They think about their souls every now and then; although very busy, they pray a few times a month, with minds generally filled with a thousand other matters, for where their treasure is, there is their heart also.14' Still, occasionally they cast aside these cares; it is a great boon for them to realize to some extent the state of their souls, and to see that they will never reach the gate by the road they are following.
11.: At length they enter the first rooms in the basement of the castle, accompanied by numerous reptiles15' which disturb their peace, and prevent their seeing the beauty of the building; still, it is a great gain that these persons should have found their way in at all.
1.01 - Fundamental Considerations, #The Ever-Present Origin, #Jean Gebser, #Integral
When we have grasped this it is at once apparent that we can extricate ourselves from our dangerous situation only by ordering ou relationships to ourselves, to our I or Ego, and not just our relationships with others, to the Thou, that is to God, the world, our fellow man and neighbor. That seems possible only if we are willing to assimilate the entirety of our human existence into our awareness. This means that all of our structures of awareness that form and support our present consciousness structure will have to be integrated into a new and more intensive form, which would in fact unlock a new reality. To that end we must constantly relive and re-experience in a decisive sense the full depth of our past. The adage that anyone who denies and condemns his past also abnegates his future is valid for the individual as well as for mankind. Our plea for an appropriate ordering and conscious realization of our relationships to the I as well as the Thou chiefly concerns the ordering and conscious recognition of our origin, and of all factors leading to the present. It is only in terms of man in his entirety that we shall achieve the necessary detachment from the present situation, Le., from both our unperspectival ties to the group or collective, and our perspectival attachment to the separated, individual Ego. When we become aware of the exhausted residua of past or passing forms of our understanding of reality we will recognize more clearly the signs of the inevitable new. We will also sense that there are new sources which can be tapped: the sources of the aperspectival world that can liberate us from the two exhausted and deficient forms which have become almost completely invalid and are certainly no longer all-inclusive or decisive.
It is our task in this book to work out this aperspectival basis. Our discussion will rely more an the evidence presented in the history of thought than on the findings of the natural sciences as is the case with the authors Transformation of the Occident. Among the disciplines of historical thought the investigation of language will form the predominant source of our insight since it is the preeminent means of reciprocal communication between man and the world.
1.01 - MASTER AND DISCIPLE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The point is, to love God even as the mother loves her child, the chaste wife her husband, and the worldly man his wealth. Add together these three forces of love, these three powers of attraction, and give it all to God. Then you will certainly see Him.
"It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing heart. The kitten knows only how to call its mother, crying, 'Mew, mew!' It remains satisfied wherever its mother puts it. And the mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it suffers it cries only, 'Mew, mew!' That's all it knows.
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There are some who are devoted to God, and others who are attached to the world.
Four classes of men
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MASTER: "Certainly there is. From time to time he should live in the company of holy men, and from time to time go into solitude to meditate on God. Furthermore, he should practise discrimination and pray to God, 'Give me faith and devotion.' Once a person has faith he has achieved everything. There is nothing greater than faith.
(To Kedar) "You must have heard about the tremendous power of faith. It is said in the purana that Rma, who was God Himself - the embodiment of Absolute Brahman - had to build a bridge to cross the sea to Ceylon. But Hanuman, trusting in Rama's name, cleared the sea in one jump and reached the other side. He had no need of a bridge.
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such as killing a cow, a brahmin, or a woman - he will certainly be saved through his faith. Let him only say to God, 'O Lord, I Will not repeat such an action', and he need not be afraid of anything."
When he had said this, the Master sang:
1.01 - Newtonian and Bergsonian Time, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
The role attributed to God in this matter is unstable. Either
God is entirely passive, in which case it is hard to see how
1.01 - On knowledge of the soul, and how knowledge of the soul is the key to the knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
To whomsoever this revelation has been vouchsafed, if it directs him to reform the world, to invite the nations to turn to God, and to a peculiar way of life, that person is called a prophet, and his way of life is called a law; and that influence which proceeds from him, which transcends what is ordinary, is called a miracle. If he has not been appointed to invite the nations, but worships in accordance with the law of another, he is called a saint, and that which [27] proceeds from him, which transcends what is ordinary, is called a manifestation of grace. The miracle performed by a saint is accounted a miracle of that prophet whose law he follows. He who has received, by whatever meaus, a revelation of the invisible world, is capable of being ordained to the office of a prophet. And if he is not appointed by God, the reason will be either, that at the time the existing law had been newly revealed, and that there was no occasion for a prophet, or else that there may be a peculiarity in prophets which is not found in the saints. It follows that it is our duty not to deny either the saintship or the miracles of the saints, but to acknowledge them as real.
You should be aware, however, that this alchemy of happiness, that is, the knowledge of God, which is the occasion of the revelation of truth, cannot be acquired without spiritual self-denial and effort. Unless a man has reached perfection and the rank of Superior, nothing will be revealed to him, except in cases of special divine grace and merciful providence, and this occurs very rarely. Nor, except by divine condescension, is revelation obtained even by all who by effort reach the rank of Superior. And whosoever would attain holiness can only reach it by the path of difficulty.
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From all which has been said, seeker after the divine mysteries, thou hast learned something of the dignity of the nature of man, and that the way of the mystics is holy and honorable. But I have heard that the mystics say that external knowledge is a veil upon the way to God, and [31] a hindrance in the journey to the truth. Take care and do not deny that they are correct in what they say. For, external knowledge is derived from the sensuous world, and all objects of sense are a hindrance to him who is occupied with spiritual truth; for whoever is attending to sensual objects, indicates that his mind is preoccupied with external properties. And it is impossible that he who would walk in the way of truth, should be for a moment unemployed in meditation, upon obtaining spiritual union and the vision of beauty.
Know, student of the divine mysteries, that the heart is like a reservoir into which five streams flow: these streams at one time run clear, and at another, turbid, and hence the bottom of the reservoir contains much mud. If a person wish to cleanse the reservoir and to get rid of the mud in the bottom, he must first dam up the course of the running streams, and then stir up and put in motion the mud, and until the muddy water has been carried off by the pure water that gushes up at the bottom of the reservoir, he will not allow any other water to run in. Now the external senses resemble those running streams, from which various kinds of knowledge, notions and prejudices proceed to the heart, of which some are pure and purifying, and some are corrupt and corrupting, and until these have been dammed up, the windows of the heart cannot be uncovered so that the illuminating knowledge from God can be revealed to it.
1.01 - On renunciation of the world, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Our God and King is good, ultra-good and all-good (it is best to begin with God in writing to the servants of God). Of the rational beings created by Him and honoured with the dignity of free-will, some are His friends, others are His true servants, some are worthless, some are completely estranged from God, and others, though feeble creatures are equally His opponents. By friends of God, dear and holy Father,1 we simple people mean, properly speaking, those intellectual and incorporeal beings which surround God. By true servants of God we mean all those who tirelessly and unremittingly do and have done His will. By worthless servants we mean those who think of themselves as having been granted baptism, but have not faithfully kept the vows they made to God. By those estranged from God and alienated from Him, we mean those who are unbelievers or heretics. Finally, the enemies of God are those who have not only evaded and rejected the Lords commandment themselves, but who also wage bitter war on those who are fulfilling it.
Each of the classes mentioned above might well have a special treatise devoted to it. But for simple folk like us it would not be profitable at this point to enter into such lengthy investigations. Come then, in unquestioning obedience let us stretch out our unworthy hand to the true servants of God who devoutly compel us and in their faith constrain us by their commands. Let us write this treatise with a pen taken from their knowledge and dipped in the ink of humility which is both subdued yet radiant. Then let us apply it to the smooth white paper of their hearts, or rather rest it on the tablets of the spirit, and let us inscribe the divine words (or rather sow the seeds).2 And let us begin like this.
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Those of us who wish to go out of Egypt and to fly from Pharaoh, certainly need some Moses as a mediator with God and from God, who, standing between action and contemplation, will raise hands of prayer for us to God, so that guided by Him we may cross the sea of sin and rout the Amalek of the passions.4 That is why those who have surrendered themselves to God, deceive themselves if they suppose that they have no need of a director. Those who came out of Egypt had Moses as their guide, and those who fled from Sodom had an angel.5 The former are like those who are healed of the passions of the soul by the care of physicians: these are they who come out of Egypt. The latter are like those who long to put off the uncleanness of the wretched body. That is why they need a helper, an angel, so to speak, or at least one equal to an angel. For in proportion to the corruption of our wounds we need a director who is indeed an expert and a physician.
Those who aim at ascending with the body to heaven, need violence indeed and constant suffering6 especially in the early stages of their renunciation, until our pleasure-loving dispositions and unfeeling hearts attain to love of God and chastity by visible sorrow. A great toil, very great indeed, with much unseen suffering, especially for those who live carelessly, until by simplicity, deep angerlessness and diligence, we make our mind, which is a greedy kitchen dog addicted to barking, a lover of chastity and watchfulness. But let us who are weak and passionate have the courage to offer our infirmity and natural weakness to Christ with unhesitating faith, and confess it to Him; and we shall be certain to obtain His help, even beyond our merit, if only we unceasingly go right down to the depth of humility.
1.01 - Prayer, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Bhakti-Yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. "Bhakti", says Nrada in his explanation of the Bhakti-aphorisms, "is intense love to God"; "When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied for ever"; "This love cannot be reduced to any earthly benefit", because so long as worldly desires last, that kind of love does not come; "Bhakti is greater than karma, greater than Yoga, because these are intended for an object in view, while Bhakti is its own fruition, its own means and its own end."
Bhakti has been the one constant theme of our sages. Apart from the special writers on Bhakti, such as Shndilya or Narada, the great commentators on the Vysa-Sutras, evidently advocates of knowledge (Jnna), have also something very suggestive to say about love. Even when the commentator is anxious to explain many, if not all, of the texts so as to make them import a sort of dry knowledge, the Sutras, in the chapter on worship especially, do not lend themselves to be easily manipulated in that fashion.
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It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building up of our characters in this life: yet we know that that character is of the noblest type in which all these three knowledge and love and Yoga are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a bird to fly the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering. Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance. For those who cannot pursue all these three forms of worship together in harmony and take up, therefore, Bhakti alone as their way, it is necessary always to remember that forms and ceremonials, though absolutely necessary for the progressive soul, have no other value than taking us on to that state in which we feel the most intense love to God.
There is a little difference in opinion between the teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both admit the power of Bhakti. The Jnanis hold Bhakti to be an instrument of liberation, the Bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing to be attained. To my mind this is a distinction without much difference. In fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument, really means a lower form of worship, and the higher form becomes inseparable from the lower form of realisation at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great stress upon his own peculiar method of worship, forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect knowledge true love is inseparable.
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"Meditation again is a constant remembrance (of the thing meditated upon) flowing like an unbroken stream of oil poured out from one vessel to another. When this kind of remembering has been attained (in relation to God) all bandages break. Thus it is spoken of in the scriptures regarding constant remembering as a means to liberation. This remembering again is of the same form as seeing, because it is of the same meaning as in the passage, 'When He who is far and near is seen, the bonds of the heart are broken, all doubts vanish, and all effects of work disappear' He who is near can be seen, but he who is far can only be remembered. Nevertheless the scripture says that he have to see Him who is near as well as Him who, is far, thereby indicating to us that the above kind of remembering is as good as seeing. This remembrance when exalted assumes the same form as seeing. . . . Worship is constant remembering as may be seen from the essential texts of scriptures. Knowing, which is the same as repeated worship, has been described as constant remembering. . . . Thus the memory, which has attained to the height of what is as good as direct perception, is spoken of in the Shruti as a means of liberation. 'This Atman is not to be reached through various sciences, nor by intellect, nor by much study of the Vedas. Whomsoever this Atman desires, by him is the Atman attained, unto him this Atman discovers Himself.' Here, after saying that mere hearing, thinking and meditating are not the means of attaining this Atman, it is said, 'Whom this Atman desires, by him the Atman is attained.' The extremely beloved is desired; by whomsoever this Atman is extremely beloved, he becomes the most beloved of the Atman. So that this beloved may attain the Atman, the Lord Himself helps. For it has been said by the Lord: 'Those who are constantly attached to Me and worship Me with love I give that direction to their will by which they come to Me.' Therefore it is said that, to whomsoever this remembering, which is of the same form as direct perception, is very dear, because it is dear to the Object of such memory perception, he is desired by the Supreme Atman, by him the Supreme Atman is attained. This constant remembrance is denoted by the word Bhakti." So says Bhagavn Rmnuja in his commentary on the Sutra Athto Brahma-jijns (Hence follows a dissertation on Brahman.).
In commenting on the Sutra of Patanjali, Ishvara pranidhndv, i.e. "Or by the worship of the Supreme Lord" Bhoja says, "Pranidhna is that sort of Bhakti in which, without seeking results, such as sense-enjoyments etc., all works are dedicated to that Teacher of teachers." Bhagavan Vysa also, when commenting on the same, defines Pranidhana as "the form of Bhakti by which the mercy of the Supreme Lord comes to the Yogi, and blesses him by granting him his desires". According to Shndilya, "Bhakti is intense love to God." The best definition is, however, that given by the king of Bhaktas, Prahlda:
"That deathless love which the ignorant have for the fleeting objects of the senses as I keep meditating on Thee may not that love slip away from my heart!" Love! For whom? For the Supreme Lord Ishvara. Love for any other being, however great cannot be Bhakti; for, as Ramanuja says in his Shri Bhshya, quoting an ancient chrya, i.e. a great teacher:
1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, O thou I!
Bayazid of Bistun
1.01 - The First Steps, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
Rja-Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self-surrender to God. Then comes sana, or posture; Prnyma, or control of Prna; Pratyhra, or restraint of the senses from their objects; Dhran, or fixing the mind on a spot; Dhyna, or meditation; and Samdhi, or superconsciousness. The Yama and Niyama, as we see, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practice of Yoga will succeed. As these two become established, the Yogi will begin to realise the fruits of his practice; without these it will never bear fruit. A Yogi must not think of injuring anyone, by thought, word, or deed. Mercy shall not be for men alone, but shall go beyond, and embrace the whole world.
The next step is Asana, posture. A series of exercises, physical and mental, is to be gone through every day, until certain higher states are reached. Therefore it is quite necessary that we should find a posture in which we can remain long. That posture which is the easiest for one should be the one chosen. For thinking, a certain posture may be very easy for one man, while to another it may be very difficult. We will find later on that during the study of these psychological matters a good deal of activity goes on in the body. Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations will begin, the whole constitution will be remodelled as it were. But the main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts the chest, neck, and head in a straight line. Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs, and then you have an easy natural postures with the spine straight. You will easily see that you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. This portion of the Yoga is a little similar to the Hatha-Yoga which deals entirely with the physical body, its aim being to make the physical body very strong. We have nothing to do with it here, because its practices are very difficult, and cannot be learned in a day, and, after all, do not lead to much spiritual growth. Many of these practices you will find in Delsarte and other teachers, such as placing the body in different postures, but the object in these is physical, not psychological. There is not one muscle in the body over which a man cannot establish a perfect control. The heart can be made to stop or go on at his bidding, and each part of the organism can be similarly controlled.
1.021 - The Prophets, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
22. If there were in them gods other than God, they would have gone to ruin. So glory be to God, Lord of the Throne, beyond what they allege.
23. He will not be questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned.
1.022 - The Pilgrimage, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
18. Do you not realize that to God prostrates everyone in the heavens and everyone on earth, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the animals, and many of the people? But many are justly deserving of punishment. Whomever God shames, there is none to honor him. God does whatever He wills.
19. Here are two adversaries feuding regarding their Lord. As for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be tailored for them, and scalding water will be poured over their heads.
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31. Being true to God, without associating anything with Him. Whoever associates anything with God—it is as though he has fallen from the sky, and is snatched by the birds, or is swept away by the wind to a distant abyss.
32. So it is. Whoever venerates the sacraments of God—it is from the piety of the hearts.
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41. Those who, when We empower them in the land, observe the prayer, and give regular charity, and command what is right, and forbid what is wrong. to God belongs the outcome of events.
42. If they deny you—before them the people of Noah, and Aad, and Thamood also denied.
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56. Sovereignty on that Day belongs to God; He will judge between them. Those who believe and do good deeds will be in the Gardens of Bliss.
57. But those who disbelieve and reject Our revelations—these will have a humiliating punishment.
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76. He knows what is before them, and what is behind them. to God all matters are referred.
77. O you who believe! Kneel, and prostrate, and worship your Lord, and do good deeds, so that you may succeed.
78. And strive for God, with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you, and has not burdened you in religion—the faith of your father Abraham. It is he who named you Muslims before, and in this. So that the Messenger may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over the people. So pray regularly, and give regular charity, and cleave to God. He is your Protector. What an excellent Protector, and what an excellent Helper.
1.023 - The Believers, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
28. Then, when you and those with you are settled in the Ark, say, “Praise be to God, who has saved us from the wrongdoing people.”
29. And say, “My Lord, land me with a blessed landing, as you are the best of transporters.”
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91. God has never begotten a son, nor is there any god besides Him. Otherwise, each god would have taken away what it has created, and some of them would have gained supremacy over others. Glory be to God, far beyond what they describe.
92. The Knower of the hidden and the manifest. He is exalted, far above what they associate.
10.24 - Savitri, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
From the material life through the vital and the mental life he first reaches the spiritual life and finally the Life Divine. From the animal he rises to manhood, and in the end to Godhood.
But there are intermediaries. The fullness of the realisation depends on the fullness of the incarnation. The Evil in the body, the Evil in the vital, the Evil in the mind are, whatever their virulence and intransigence, subsidiary agents, for they serve only a mightier Lord. The first original Sin is Death, the God of Denial, of non-existence. That is the very sourcefons et origo the fount and origin of all the misfortune, the fate that terrestrial life involves. This demon, this anti-Divine has to be tracked and destroyed or dissolved into its original origin. This is the Nihil that negates the DivineAsat that seeks to nullify Sat and that has created this world of ignorance and misery, that is to say, in its outward pragmatic form. So Savitri sees the one source and knows the remedy. Therefore she pursues death, pursues him to the end, that is, to the end of death. The luminous energy of the Supreme faces now its own shadow and blazes it up. The flaming Light corrodes into the substance of the darkness and makes of it her own transfigured substance. This then is the gift that Savitri brings to man, the Divine's own immortality, transfusing the mortality that reigns now upon earth.
1.024 - The Light, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
15. When you rumored it with your tongues, and spoke with your mouths what you had no knowledge of, and you considered it trivial; but according to God, it is serious.
16. When you heard it, you should have said, “It is not for us to repeat this. By Your glory, this is a serious slander.”
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31. And tell the believing women to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates, and not display their beauty except what is apparent thereof, and to draw their coverings over their breasts, and not expose their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, what their right hands possess, their male attendants who have no sexual desires, or children who are not yet aware of the nakedness of women. And they should not strike their feet to draw attention to their hidden beauty. And repent to God, all of you believers, so that you may succeed.
32. And wed the singles among you, and those who are fit among your servants and maids. If they are poor, God will enrich them from His bounty. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing.
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42. to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to God is the ultimate return.
43. Have you not seen how God propels the clouds, then brings them together, then piles them into a heap, and you see rain drops emerging from its midst? How He brings down loads of hail from the sky, striking with it whomever He wills, and diverting it from whomever He wills? The flash of its lightning almost snatches the sight away.
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48. And when they are called to God and His Messenger, in order to judge between them, some of them refuse.
49. But if justice is on their side, they accept it willingly.
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51. The response of the believers, when they are called to God and His Messenger in order to judge between them, is to say, “We hear and we obey.” These are the successful.
52. Whoever obeys God and His Messenger, and fears God, and is conscious of Him—these are the winners.
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64. Surely, to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. He knows what you are about. And on the Day they are returned to Him, He will inform them of what they did. God has full knowledge of all things.
1.025 - Sadhana - Intensifying a Lighted Flame, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Sadhana is nothing but the intensifying of this flame that has already been lit up in us by God Himself, ultimately. You have been led to this study due to God's grace. It is not because you have money to purchase a book. It is not money that has brought you these discourses, it is not your effort that has brought you to these discourses it is nothing of the kind. It is a divine mystery that has operated in a very inscrutable and marvellous manner for a purpose which is cosmic in significance, and not merely individual, as we may imagine. You have been led to this study for a cosmic purpose, and a divine purpose, which is a coincidence and a collocation of factors which can be understood only by the Cosmic Thinker, God Himself. I have always been holding that, ultimately, it appears to be God who is doing sadhana for God-realisation, and nobody else can do it; and meditation is nothing but God thinking God.
1.026 - The Poets, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
89. Except for him who comes to God with a sound heart.”
90. And Paradise will be brought near for the righteous.
1.027 - The Ant, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
44. It was said to her, “Go inside the palace.” And when she saw it, she thought it was a deep pond, and she bared her legs. He said, “It is a palace paved with glass.” She said, “My Lord, I have done wrong to myself, and I have submitted with Solomon, to God, Lord of the Worlds.”
45. And We sent to Thamood their brother Saleh: “Worship God.” But they became two disputing factions.
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93. And say, “Praise belongs to God; He will show you His signs, and you will recognize them. Your Lord is not heedless of what you do.”
1.028 - History, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
68. Your Lord creates whatever He wills, and He chooses. The choice is not theirs. Glory be to God, and exalted be He above the associations they make.
69. And your Lord knows what their hearts conceal, and what they reveal.
10.29 - Gods Debt, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
What is this debt that God owes to earth and man? We understand the debt that man and earth owe to God, their creator. But how is God indebted to his creation? Besides we learn that God pays his debt through his representative, his protagonist upon earth, the aspiring human being.
First let us understand the mystery of God's debt to man. We know, in ordinary life a subordinate has a duty towards his superior, the lesser owes a debt to the greater. That is easily understood. Likewise the superior also has a duty to his subordinate, the greater has his duty to the smaller. The child owes a debt to his parents; no less is the debt that the parents owe to the child. The parents not only bring forth the child, but they have to bring him up, nourish, foster, educate and settle him in life. We know also, as the scriptures tell us, that there is a debt man owes to the gods. The paying of the debt is described in the institution of the sacrifice (yajna). It is through his sacrifice that man achieves what he has to achieve upon earth. It is the givingof what one is and what one hasto the gods the sacrifice mounts carrying the offering to the gods. But the sacrifice is not a mere one-sided movement, the sacrifice brings from the gods gifts for the manmaterial prosperity and spiritual fulfilment. Man increases himself in this way, but thereby increases the gods also. The offering that man brings in his sacrificeall his possessionshis earthly possessions, but chiefly his possessions of the inner world, the wealth of his spirit, the virtues of his consciousness all go to the gods and increase them, that is to say, they become more manifest and more powerful upon earth and in earthly existence and in the service of man.
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Now, we go beyond the gods, to the very origin, God himself, the Supreme. What is the debt that God, the Supreme, the Divine, owes to us human beings? We owe to God everything, our life, our very existence, our soul and substance given to us by him, then how is he indebted to us? What kind of debt he has incurred which he has to pay to his creature, the human being? Primarily because he is the Divine Father, he has to take charge of his own creation, see to its growth and fruition and fulfilment. Indeed that is the role of the Divine in us (and above us and around us): that is his work, the Divine Work. Since he has put us out of his consciousness (for a special experience of growth and development), it is also his work (and duty) to bring us back to him: after a process of self-separation a process of self-integration. Man, so long as he is a separate consciousness has to dedicate, lift up and unify this separative conscious being to the whole being and consciousness. This is how he discharges his debt to the Divine, and the answering grace of the Divine is the clearing of the debt which He owes to His creatures.
What has been said of man is equally applicable to earth. The destiny of man is the destiny of earth as also the destiny of earth is the destiny of man. For man is an earthly creature, is born out of earth and he grows with the growth of the earth; equally the earth grows with the growth of man.
1.029 - The Spider, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
63. And if you asked them, “Who sends water down from the sky, with which He revives the earth after it had died?” They would say, “God.” Say, “Praise be to God.” But most of them do not understand.
64. The life of this world is nothing but diversion and play, and the Home of the Hereafter is the Life, if they only knew.
65. When they embark on a vessel, they pray to God, devoting their faith to Him; but once He has delivered them safely to land, they attribute partners to Him.
66. To be ungrateful for what We have given them, and to enjoy themselves. They will surely come to know.
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68. And who does greater wrong than he who fabricates lies and attributes them to God, or calls the truth a lie when it has come to him? Is there not in Hell a dwelling for the blasphemers?
69. As for those who strive for Us—We will guide them in Our ways. God is with the doers of good.
1.02 - IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"There is another way: earnestly praying to God. God is our very own. We should say to Him: 'O God, what is Thy nature? Reveal Thyself to me. Thou must show Thyself to me; for why else hast Thou created me?' Some Sikh devotees once said to me, 'God is full of compassion.' I said: 'But why should we call Him compassionate? He is our Creator.
What is there to be wondered at if He is kind to us? Parents bring up their children. Do you call that an act of kindness? They must act that way.' Therefore we should force our demands on God. He is our Father and Mother, isn't He? If the son demands his patrimony and gives up food and drink in order to enforce his demand, then the parents hand his share over to him three years before the legal time. Or when the child demands some pice from his mother, and says over and over again: 'Mother, give me a couple of pice. I beg you on my knees!' - then the mother, seeing his earnestness, and unable to bear it any more, tosses the money to him.
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"Why shouldn't one realize God while living in the world? But, as I said, one must live in holy company, pray to God, weeping for His grace, and now and then go into solitude.
Unless the plants on a footpath are protected at first by fences, they are destroyed by cattle."
1.02 - Karmayoga, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Yoga is communion with God for knowledge, for love or for work. The Yogin puts himself into direct relation with that which is omniscient and omnipotent within man and without him. He is in tune with the infinite, he becomes a channel for the strength of God to pour itself out upon the world whether through calm benevolence or active beneficence. When a man rises by putting from him the slough of self and lives for others and in the joys and sorrows of others; - when he works perfectly and with love and zeal, but casts away the anxiety for results and is neither eager for victory nor afraid of defeat; - when he devotes all his works to God and lays every thought, word and deed as an offering on the divine altar; - when he gets rid of fear and hatred, repulsion and disgust and attachment, and works like the forces of Nature, unhasting, unresting, inevitably, perfectly; - when he rises above the thought that he is the body or the heart or the mind or the sum of these and finds his own and true self; - when he becomes aware of his immortality and the unreality of death; - when he experiences the advent of knowledge and feels himself passive and the divine force working unresisted through his mind, his speech, his senses and all his organs; - when having thus abandoned whatever he is, does or has to the Lord of all, the Lover and Helper of mankind, he dwells permanently in
Him and becomes incapable of grief, disquiet or false excitement,
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
as it portrays Mary, the mother of God, as superordinate to God the Father and Christ the son. That
superordinate position is perfectly valid, however, from the more general mythological perspective
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knew that (sin) is an abomination to God. And in fact it is God who bestows the necessary knowledge.
A prince is defined as one who knows truth (ma at) and whom God teaches. The author of a prayer to
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and immortality brings one near to God;
so the desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom. [Wisdom of Solomon (of the Apocrypha), RSV 6:12-20].
1.02 - Of certain spiritual imperfections which beginners have with respect to the habit of pride., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
They have no desire to speak of the things that they do, because they think so little of them that they are ashamed to speak of them even to their spiritual masters, since they seem to them to be things that merit not being spoken of. They are more anxious to speak of their faults and sins, or that these should be recognized rather than their virtues; and thus they incline to talk of their souls with those who account their actions and their spirituality of little value. This is a characteristic of the spirit which is simple, pure, genuine and very pleasing to God. For as the wise Spirit of God dwells in these humble souls, He moves them and inclines them to keep His treasures secretly within and likewise to cast out from themselves all evil. God gives this grace to the humble, together with the other virtues, even as He denies it to the proud.
8. These souls will give their heart's blood to anyone that serves God, and will help others to serve Him as much as in them lies. The imperfections into which they see themselves fall they bear with humility, meekness of spirit and a loving fear of God, hoping in Him. But souls who in the beginning journey with this kind of perfection are, as I understand, and as has been said, a minority, and very few are those who we can be glad do not fall into the opposite errors. For this reason, as we shall afterwards say, God leads into the dark night those whom He desires to purify from all these imperfections so that He may bring them farther onward.
1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
How many things there are in your body in reference to which you do not know their reality and essence, such as [46] desire, love, misery and pleasure. Their existence is admitted, but their quantity and quality cannot be measured. If you desire to learn the absolute truth about them, you cherish a vain longing; and it is the same, if you desire to know the absolute nature of voice, nutrition or hearing. As that which is perceived by the eye has no relation to voice, and as that which is perceived by the ear has no relation to form, and as that which is perceived by the sense of smelling has no relation to taste, so that the one can be known by means of the other, in the same manner that which is perceived through the medium of the mind or of divine power, cannot be perceived by the senses. Again, as the spirit exists and controls the body, and yet we know not the mode and essence of it, so God is present in all things, and controls and governs all things, but his form, essence and quality are exempt from being known. Exemption and freedom may be illustrated in still another manner. In the same way that the spirit pervades all the limbs and the body, and the body is entirely subject to its control, and that the spirit is indivisible, while the body is divisible, so also in relation to God, all that exists, springs from him, all creatures exist by his word, and in all possible things his operations are seen, yet still he is not related to place, nor does he reason about anything, and he is free from relation or affinity to any quality of bodies or to quantity.
This topic of exemption and freedom, beloved, cannot be perfectly explained, until the mystery about the soul shall have been developed. The law, however, gives no permission to develop this secret, and it is not lawful to stretch out one's hand to do what the legislator forbids. But the language of his excellency the glory of the world,1 "God created man in his own image," cannot be explained [47] until die mystery about the nature of the soul or spirit has been explained.
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O seeker after the divine secrets, now that you have learned that within the body of man, there is a sovereign who possesses and controls it, it is time that you should learn the meaning of the sentences, "Glory to God," "God be praised," "There is no God but God," and "God is the greatest." These sentences are very current on the tongues of men, but they do not know the signification of them. [54] Although these four sentences are in appearance very short, yet there are no others that embrace so much of the knowledge of God. Since from the consideration of the freedom and independence of your own spirit, you have learned the freedom and independence of God, you have in consequence learned the meaning and import of the sentence, "Glory to God." Seeing that from the sovereignty which you exercise over your own spirit, you have learned the sovereignty which God exercises, and know that all causes and instruments are subject to his power, and that all outward and inward mercies, which are incalculable and innumerable, are from him, you therefore know the meaning and import of the phrase, "God be praised." As you know also that all things are of his creation, that his government extends over all things, and that without his will no motion or change can affect any thing, you see the meaning of the words, "There is no God but God. " Listen now to the explanation of the sentence, "God is the greatest."
Do not suppose that, from all that has hitherto been said, you can understand the greatness of God. His greatness and power are above and beyond the comprehension of the mind and wisdom of man. Moreover the phrase "God is the greatest" does not mean that God is larger than other things : it is a sin to indulge in such a belief. It is as much as to say, that there are large things, but that God is larger than they are. The holy meaning of the phrase "God is the greatest" is that God is so great, that he cannot be known or comprehended by the mind or understanding, or be compared with any thing,-that the knowledge of God cannot be attained by means of the knowledge which a man has of his own soul (which God forbid!), that a knowledge of his attributes cannot be attained from a knowledge of the attributes of man, and that his independence and holiness cannot be compared with the independence and holiness of man in any form whatever. God [55] forbid that His sovereignty and government should be compared and measured ! The doctors of the law have been allowed however, in the way of illustration to explain in a certain degree the knowledge, power, excellence and sovereignty of God to man, who is frail and weak in understanding.
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Finally, seeker after divine mysteries, know that the paths to the knowledge of God, are as numerous as the souls of creatures, and their number is known to God alone. But we have spoken so much as is found above, for the sake of both warning and stimulating the seeker after the knowledge and love of God.
The happiness of man consists in the knowledge, obedience and worship of God. Only a little previously we have [56] shown, how it is that man's happiness consists in the knowledge of God. We now proceed to observe, that it is an argument to prove that the happiness of man consists in obedience and devotion, the fact that when a man dies, his destination is to return to where God is. Every thing which concerns man is with God, and his works will all be presented before Him. Whenever all the affairs of a person are in the hands of another, and his employments and his home are with him - when he is near to him and continually has need of him, there will be perfect harmony between the two, and abiding friendship and love. Whoever be the person whom we love, we shall find our happiness with him. There is nothing more delightful than to meet with and look upon an object that we love. But we ought to know that the love of God will never reign in the heart of a man until first the knowledge of God reigns there, and until the remembrance of God becomes unceasing. If one individual love another, he is continually thinking of him, and by this continual remembrance, his love is increased.
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The third class of errorists are those who indeed believe in God and a future life, but whose faith is weak, because they do not understand the requirements of the law. They say that "God is able to do without our worship. There is neither any profit to God from our worship, or any injury done him by our disobedience. If we worship God, we shall learn what good it did in the future world; and if we do not worship him, there will neither be any advantage or harm. God himself so declares in his holy word, "Whosoever keep himself pure, does it for his own advantage," 1 and in another place, "He who does well, does it for his own profit." 2 Although it is better to worship God, yet as God has no need of our worship, therefore if we do not worship him, what harm is there in it ?" These ignorant people resemble the sick man, who when the physician says to him, "you should be abstinent, if you wish to be [59] cured of your malady," should answer, "what advantage is it to you whether I am abstinent or not"? Now though the sick man is right when he says that there is no advantage to the physician from his abstinence, yet if he is not abstinent, he will perish. This class regards obedience and transgression as of the same degree in value. But in the same manner as disease may occasion a man's destruction, so transgression defiles the heart, and will cause it to appear in the future world in a state of woe. And just as abstinence and medicine restore the body to health, so to avoid acts of transgression and sin and to be obedient to God, are means of securing salvation.
The fourth class of men who indulge in error, are those who indeed receive the law, but in some peculiar and erroneous sense. They wrongly say, "The law commands U5 to keep our hearts pure from pride, envy, hatred, anger and dissimulation. But this is a thing which it is impossible to do. For the soul has been created with these qualities and affections, and human nature cannot be changed. It is just as impossible to make a black material white by scraping it, as for the human heart to be free from these qualities." These ignorant men do not know and understand, that the law does not command that these qualities should be entirely effaced and expelled from the heart, but rather requires that they should be brought under subjection to the heart and the reason, to the end that they may not act presumptuously, go beyond the limits set by the law, and indulge in mortal sins. It is possible even to change these qualities, by doing only what reason requires, and by respecting the restrictions of the law. Many devout men in past times have secured this change of the affections of the soul. These qua.ities once existed in the prophet of God, but they were corrected, as we learn from the tradition: "I am a man like you. I become angry, as a man becomes angry." And God speaks in his holy word of [60] "those who control their wrath, and who pardon the men who offend them."1 Notice, that in his eternal word, God praises those who dissipate their anger and irritation : he does not praise those who had no anger or rage, since man cannot be without them.
The fifth class of persons in error are those who say that, "God is merciful and ready to pardon, loving and compassionate, and more pitiful to his servants than a father and mother to their children, and therefore he will pardon our faults and cover our transgressions." They do not consider that notwithstanding God is bounteous and merciful, there are still multitudes of poor and miserable people in the world, multitudes who are infirm and helpless, and many who are subjected to suffering. This is a mystery which is known only to God. But it shows us, that though God is disposed to cover and hide sin, still he is an absolute sovereign and an avenger. While he is bounteous and beneficent, he is at the same time dreadful in his chastisements : while he is a benefactor, and provides the necessaries of life, at the same time he who does not seek to gain, obtains no store: and he who is not industrious, accomplishes nothing in the world. Beloved, these ignorant men, in the affairs of the world, in their schemes of living, and in their business, manifest no trust in the bounty of God, nor do they leave off for one moment their buying and selling, their trades or their farming, although God has decreed the means of their existence many years before they were born, and has made himself surety that it should be provided for them. He announces in his eternal word and book of mighty distinctions, that "there is no creature on the earth, for whom God has not taken upon himself to provide nourishment." 2 Still they make not the least exertion in reference to their relations and condition in eternity, [61] but merely rely upon the mercy of God, notwithstanding God declares in his holy word, "man can have nothing without exertion." 1 When they say that God is gracious and merciful, they speak correctly. But they are not aware that Satan is deceiving them with it, hindering them from obedience and worship, and preventing them from engaging in that cultivation and commerce that would prepare them for eternity.
The sixth class who indulge in error, are those who, exalted with pride, think that they have already attained and are perfect: and they say, "we have reached such a state that transgressions do us no harm: we are like the sea, which is not polluted by filth falling into it." These foolish people are so ignorant, that they do not know that "to be like the sea," means to attain such a degree of calm that no wind can put them in movement and that nothing can cause any perturbation in their minds. These persons on the contrary, if an individual fail to treat them with honor and respect, or if in conversation the individual do not address them as, my lord or dear sir, or speak a word that touches their reputation, they bear him a grudge for a long time, and even perhaps attempt to do him an injury. And if a person take a piece of money or a morsel of bread from them, the world becomes too straight for them, and every thing looks dark. These foolish people have not even yet reached manhood. They are weak in their own souls, and are in subjection like slaves to passion and anger. If it were not so, how could they be so inconsiderate and presumptuous? Beloved, the falsehood and error of these people appear from this consideration. When inadvertently any of the prophets fell into sin, even a little and venial sin, they would spend years in mourning and lamentation over it, and occupied themselves in endeavors to obliterate [62] their faults, and to obtain pardon and forgiveness. Filled with fear and dread, they became blind from their tears; from their long continuing perturbation and distraction of mind, yon would think they had lost the use of their reason. As for the companions of the prophet, and their immediate successors who were faithful witnesses for the truth and the beloved of God, they were so afraid in their suspicionsness of doing wrong, that they abstained in their anxiety, from doing even what was lawful. Do not these ignoramuses know that their degree of attainment does not equal that of the prophets and apostles, and that they are even at a great distance from them ? Why then do they not shrink in fear and awe from the shining vengeance of the glorious God ?
1.02 - On the Service of the Soul, #The Red Book Liber Novus, #unset, #Zen
20). The reference is to Augustine's Confessions (400CE), a devotional work written when he was forty-five years old, in which he narrates his conversion to Christianity in an autobiographical form (Confessions, tr. H. Chadwick [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991]). The Confessions are addressed to God, and recount the years of his wandering from God and the manner of his return. Echoing this in the opening sections of Liber Novus, Jung addresses his soul and recounts the years of his wandering away from her, and the manner of his return. In his published works,
Jung frequently cited Augustine, and referred to his Confessions several times in Transformations and Symbols of the Libido.
1.02 - SADHANA PADA, #Patanjali Yoga Sutras, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
the fruits of work to God is to take to ourselves neither credit
nor blame, but to give both up to the Lord, and be at peace.
1.02 - Self-Consecration, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
2:But in whatever way it comes, there must be a decision of the mind and the will and, as its result, a complete and effective self-consecration. The acceptance of a new spiritual idea-force and upward orientation in the being, an illumination, a turning or conversion seized on by the will and the heart's aspiration, -- this is the momentous act which contains as in a seed all the results that the Yoga has to give. The mere idea or intellectual seeking of something higher beyond, however strongly grasped by the mind's interest, is ineffective unless it is seized on by the heart as the one thing desirable and by the will as the one thing to be done. For truth of the Spirit has not to be merely thought but to be lived, and to live it demands a unified single-mindedness of the being; so great a change as is contemplated by the Yoga is not to be effected by a divided will or by a small portion of the energy or by a hesitating mind. He who seeks the Divine must consecrate himself to God and -- to God only.
3:If the change comes suddenly and decisively by an overpowering influence, there is no further essential or lasting difficulty. The choice follows upon the thought, or is simultaneous with it, and the self-consecration follows upon the choice. The feet are already set upon the path, even if they seem at first to wander uncertainly and even though the path itself may be only obscurely seen and the knowledge of the goal may be imperfect. The secret Teacher, the inner Guide is already at work, though he may not yet manifest himself or may not yet appear in the person of his human representative. Whatever difficulties and hesitations may ensue, they cannot eventually prevail against the power of the experience that has turned the current of the life. The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.
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8:The difficulty of the task has led naturally to the pursuit of easy and trenchant solutions; it has generated and fixed deeply' the tendency of religions and of schools of Yoga to separate the life of the world from the inner life. The powers of this world and their actual activities, it is felt, either do not belong to God at all or are for some obscure and puzzling cause, Maya or another, a dark contradiction of the divine Truth. And on their own opposite side the powers of the Truth and their ideal activities are seen to belong to quite another plane of consciousness than that, obscure, ignorant and perverse in its impulses and forces, on which the life of the earth is founded. There appears at once the antinomy of a bright and pure kingdom of God and a dark and impure kingdom of the devil; we feel the opposition of our crawling earthly birth and life to an exalted spiritual God-consciousness; we become readily convinced of the incompatibility of life's subjection to Maya with the soul's concentration in pure Brahman existence. The easiest way is to turn away from all that belongs to the one and to retreat by a naked and precipitous ascent into the other. Thus arises the attraction and, it would seem, the necessity of the principle of exclusive concentration which plays so prominent a part in the specialised schools of Yoga; for by that concentration we can arrive through an uncompromising renunciation of the world at an entire self-consecration to the One on whom we concentrate. It is no longer incumbent on us to compel all the lower activities to the difficult recognition of a new and higher spiritualised life and train them to be its agents or executive powers. It is enough to kill or quiet them and keep at most the few energies necessary, on one side, for the maintenance of the body and, on the other, for communion with the Divine.
9:The very aim and conception of an integral Yoga debars us from adopting this simple and strenuous high-pitched process. The hope of an integral transformation forbids us to take a short cut or to make ourselves light for the race by throwing away our impediments. For we have set out to conquer all ourselves and the world for God; we are determined to give him our becoming as well as our being and not merely to bring the pure and naked spirit as a bare offering to a remote and secret Divinity in a distant heaven or abolish all we are in a holocaust to an immobile Absolute. The Divine that we adore is not only a remote extracosmic Reality, but a half-veiled Manifestation present and near to us here in the universe. Life is the field of a divine manifestation not yet complete: here, in life, on earth, in the body, -- ihaiva, as the Upanishads insist, -- we have to unveil the Godhead; here we must make its transcendent greatness, light and sweetness real to our consciousness, here possess and, as far as may be, express it. Life then we must accept in our Yoga in order utterly to transmute it; we are forbidden to shrink from the difficulties that this acceptance may add to our struggle. Our compensation is that even if the path is more rugged, the effort more complex and bafflingly arduous, yet after a point we gain an immense advantage. For once our minds are reasonably fixed in the central vision and our wills are on the whole converted to the single pursuit. Life becomes our helper. Intent, vigilant, integrally conscious, we can take every detail of its forms and every incident of its movements as food for the sacrificial Fire within us. Victorious in the struggle, we can compel Earth herself to be an aid towards our perfection and can enrich our realisation with the booty torn from the powers that oppose us.
1.02 - The Human Soul, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
2.: While the soul is in mortal sin nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal reward, since they do not proceed from God as their first principle, and by Him alone is our virtue real virtue. The soul separated from Him is no longer pleasing in His eyes, because by committing a mortal sin, instead of seeking to please God, it prefers to gratify the devil, the prince of darkness, and so comes to share his blackness. I knew a person to whom our Lord revealed the result of a mortal sin19' and who said she thought no one who realized its effects could ever commit it, but would suffer unimaginable torments to avoid it. This vision made her very desirous for all to grasp this truth, therefore I beg you, my daughters, to pray fervently to God for sinners, who live in blindness and do deeds of darkness.
3.: In a state of grace the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of clearest crystal. Its works are pleasing both to God and man, rising from the River of Life, beside which it is rooted like a tree. Otherwise it would produce neither leaves nor fruit, for the waters of grace nourish it, keep it from withering from drought, and cause it to bring forth good fruit. But the soul by sinning withdraws from this stream of life, and growing beside a black and fetid pool, can produce nothing but disgusting and unwholesome fruit. Notice that it is not the fountain and the brilliant sun which lose their splendour and beauty, for they are placed in the very centre of the soul and cannot be deprived of their lustre. The soul is like a crystal in the sunshine over which a thick black cloth has been thrown, so that however brightly the sun may shine the crystal can never reflect it.
4.: O souls, redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, take these things to heart; have mercy on yourselves! If you realize your pitiable condition, how can you refrain from trying to remove the darkness from the crystal of your souls? Remember, if death should take you now, you would never again enjoy the light of this Sun. O Jesus! how sad a sight must be a soul deprived of light! What a terrible state the chambers of this castle are in! How disorderly must be the senses-the inhabitants of the castle-the powers of the soul its magistrates, governors, and stewards-blind and uncontrolled as they are! In short, as the soil in which the tree is now planted is in the devil's domain, how can its fruit be anything but evil? A man of great spiritual insight once told me he was not so much surprised at such a soul's wicked deeds as astonished that it did not commit even worse sins. May God in His mercy keep us from such great evil, for nothing in this life merits the name of evil in comparison with this, which delivers us over to evil which is eternal.
5.: This is what we must dread and pray God to deliver us from, for we are weakness itself, and unless He guards the city, in vain shall we labour to defend it.20' The person of whom I spoke21' said that she had learnt two things from the vision granted her. The first was, a great fear of offending God; seeing how terrible were the consequences, she constantly begged Him to preserve her from falling into sin. Secondly, it was a mirror to teach her humility, for she saw that nothing good in us springs from ourselves but comes from the waters of grace near which the soul remains like a tree planted beside a river, and from that Sun which gives life to our works. She realized this so vividly that on seeing any good deed performed by herself or by other people she at once turned to God as to its fountain head-without whose help she knew well we can do nothing-and broke out into songs of praise to Him. Generally she forgot all about herself and only thought of God when she did any meritorious action.
6.: The time which has been spent in reading or writing on this subject will not have been lost if it has taught us these two truths; for though learned, clever men know them perfectly, women's wits are dull and need help in every way. Perhaps this is why our Lord has suggested these comparisons to me; may He give us grace to profit by them!
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11.: Two advantages are gained by this practice. First, it is clear that white looks far whiter when placed near something black, and on the contrary, black never looks so dark as when seen beside something white. Secondly, our understanding and will become more noble and capable of good in every way when we turn from ourselves to God: it is very injurious never to raise our minds above the mire of our own faults. I described how murky and fetid are the streams that spring from the source of a soul in mortal sin.25' Thus (although the case is not really the same, God forbid! this is only a comparison), while we are continually absorbed in contemplating the weakness of our earthly nature, the springs of our actions will never flow free from the mire of timid, weak, and cowardly thoughts, such as: 'I wonder whether people are noticing me or not! If I follow this course, will harm come to me? Dare I begin this work? Would it not be presumptuous? Is it right for any one as faulty as myself to speak on sublime spiritual subjects?26' Will not people think too well of me, if I make myself singular? Extremes are bad, even in virtue; sinful as I am I shall only fall the lower. Perhaps I shall fail and be a source of scandal to good people; such a person as I am has no need of peculiarities.'
12.: Alas, my daughters, what loss the devil must have caused to many a soul by such thoughts as these! It thinks such ideas and many others of the same sort I could mention arise from humility. This comes from not understanding our own nature; self-knowledge becomes so warped that, unless we take our thoughts off ourselves, I am not surprised that these and many worse fears should threaten us. Therefore I maintain, my daughters, that we should fix our eyes on Christ our only good, and on His saints; there we shall learn true humility, and our minds will be ennobled, so that self-knowledge will not make us base and cowardly. Although only the first, this mansion contains great riches and such treasures that if the soul only manages to elude the reptiles dwelling here, it cannot fail to advance farther. Terrible are the wiles and stratagems the devil uses to hinder people from realizing their weakness and detecting his snares.
1.02 - THE NATURE OF THE GROUND, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Finally there is an incarnation of God in a human being, who possesses the same qualities of character as the personal God, but who exhibits them under the limitations necessarily imposed by confinement within a material body born into the world at a given moment of time. For Christians there has been and, ex hypodiesi, can be but one such divine incarnation; for Indians there can be and have been many. In Christendom as well as in the East, contemplatives who follow the path of devotion conceive of, and indeed directly perceive the incarnation as a constantly renewed fact of experience. Christ is for ever being begotten within the soul by the Father, and the play of Krishna is the pseudo-historical symbol of an everlasting truth of psychology and metaphysics the fact that, in relation to God, the personal soul is always feminine and passive.
Mahayana Buddhism teaches these same metaphysical doctrines in terms of the Three Bodies of Buddha the absolute Dharmakaya, known also as the Primordial Buddha, or Mind, or the Clear Light of the Void; the Sambhogakaya, corresponding to Isvara or the personal God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and finally the Nirmanakaya, the material body, in which the Logos is incarnated upon earth as a living, historical Buddha.
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The Godhead gave all things up to God. The Godhead is poor, naked and empty as though it were not; it has not, wills not, wants not, works not, gets not. It is God who has the treasure and the bride in him, the Godhead is as void as though it were not.
Eckhart
1.02 - The Philosophy of Ishvara, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
In the fourth Pda of the fourth chapter of his Sutras, after stating the almost infinite power and knowledge which will come to the liberated soul after the attainment of Moksha, Vysa makes the remark, in an aphorism, that none, however, will get the power of creating, ruling, and dissolving the universe, because that belongs to God alone. In explaining the Sutra it is easy for the dualistic commentators to show how it is ever impossible for a subordinate soul, Jiva, to have the infinite power and total independence of God. The thorough dualistic commentator Madhvchrya deals with this passage in his usual summary method by quoting a verse from the Varha Purna.
In explaining this aphorism the commentator Rmnuja says, "This doubt being raised, whether among the powers of the liberated souls is included that unique power of the Supreme One, that is, of creation etc. of the universe and even the Lordship of all, or whether, without that, the glory of the liberated consists only in the direct perception of the Supreme One, we get as an argument the following: It is reasonable that the liberated get the Lordship of the universe, because the scriptures say,
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We shall now try to understand what the great representative of the Advaita School has to say on the point. We shall see how the Advaita system maintains all the hopes and aspirations of the dualist intact, and at the same time propounds its own solution of the problem in consonance with the high destiny of divine humanity. Those who aspire to retain their individual mind even after liberation and to remain distinct will have ample opportunity of realising their aspirations and enjoying the blessing of the qualified Brahman. These are they who have been spoken of in the Bhgavata Purna thus: "O king, such are the, glorious qualities of the Lord that the sages whose only pleasure is in the Self, and from whom all fetters have fallen off, even they love the Omnipresent with the love that is for love's sake." These are they who are spoken of by the Snkhyas as getting merged in nature in this cycle, so that, after attaining perfection, they may come out in the next as lords of world-systems. But none of these ever becomes equal to God (Ishvara). Those who attain to that state where there is neither creation, nor created, nor creator, where there is neither knower, nor knowable, nor knowledge, where there is neither I, nor thou, nor he, where there is neither subject, nor object, nor relation, "there, who is seen by whom?" such persons have gone beyond everything to "where words cannot go nor mind", gone to that which the Shrutis declare as "Not this, not this"; but for those who cannot, or will not reach this state, there will inevitably remain the triune vision of the one undifferentiated Brahman as nature, soul, and the interpenetrating sustainer of both Ishvara. So, when Prahlda forgot himself, he found neither the universe nor its cause; all was to him one Infinite, undifferentiated by name and form; but as soon as he remembered that he was Prahlada, there was the universe before him and with it the Lord of the universe "the Repository of an infinite number of blessed qualities". So it was with the blessed Gopis. So long as they had lost sense of their own personal identity and individuality, they were all Krishnas, and when they began again to think of Him as the One to be worshipped, then they were Gopis again, and immediately Bhakti, then, can be directed towards Brahman, only in His personal aspect.
"The way is more difficult for those whose mind is attached to the Absolute!" Bhakti has to float on smoothly with the current of our nature. True it is that we cannot have; any idea of the Brahman which is not anthropomorphic, but is it not equally true of everything we know? The greatest psychologist the world has ever known, Bhagavan Kapila, demonstrated ages ago that human consciousness is one of the elements in the make-up of all the objects of our perception and conception, internal as well as external. Beginning with our bodies and going up to Ishvara, we may see that every object of our perception is this consciousness plus something else, whatever that may be; and this unavoidable mixture is what we ordinarily think of as reality. Indeed it is, and ever will be, all of the reality that is possible for the human mind to know. Therefore to say that Ishvara is unreal, because He is anthropomorphic, is sheer nonsense. It sounds very much like the occidentals squabble on idealism and realism, which fearful-looking quarrel has for its foundation a mere play on the word "real". The idea of Ishvara covers all the ground ever denoted and connoted by the word real, and Ishvara is as real as anything else in the universe; and after all, the word real means nothing more than what has now been pointed out. Such is our philosophical conception of Ishvara.
1.02 - THE QUATERNIO AND THE MEDIATING ROLE OF MERCURIUS, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you are also built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. [RSV]50
[11] In elucidating the alchemical parallel we should note that the author of the scholia to the Tractatus aureus Hermetis prefaces his account of the union of opposites with the following remark:
1.030 - The Romans, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
4. In a few years. The matter is up to God, in the past, and in the future. On that day, the believers will rejoice.
5. In God’s support. He supports whomever He wills. He is the Almighty, the Merciful.
1.031 - Luqman, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
12. We endowed Luqman with wisdom: “Give thanks to God.” Whoever is appreciative—is appreciative for the benefit of his own soul. And whoever is unappreciative—God is Sufficient and Praiseworthy.
13. When Luqman said to his son, as he advised him, “O my son, do not associate anything with God, for idolatry is a terrible wrong.”
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22. Whoever submits himself wholly to God, and is a doer of good, has grasped the most trustworthy handle. With God rests the outcome of all events.
23. Whoever disbelieves—let not his disbelief sadden you. To Us is their return. Then We will inform them of what they did. God knows what lies within the hearts.
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25. And if you ask them, “Who created the heavens and the earth?” They will say, “God.” Say, “Praise be to God.” But most of them do not know.
26. to God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. God is the Rich, the Praised.
27. If all the trees on earth were pens, filled by the ocean, with seven more oceans besides, the Words of God would not run out. God is Majestic and Wise.
1.032 - Our Concept of God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
vara praidhnt v (I.23), is a sutra of Sage Patanjali. One of the methods of controlling the mind is surrender to God. According to many, it is perhaps the principal method of controlling the mind. This is a most positive approach, of the many that can be thought of. When our mind is absorbed in love for something 'absorbed' is the word, completely occupied with the thought of a particular thing there is no chance for the mind to think of anything else. The modifications of the mind, the vrittis in respect of objects, should cease spontaneously when they are all focused in the direction of love of God. There is no need for any struggle in the form of breathing exercises or any type of hardship in the control of the mind or its vrittis, if it is absorbed in a love which is all-consuming.
The extent of our love of God, the intensity of our feeling for God, will depend upon our idea of God, our concept of God. There are various concepts of the Creator, of God, the Absolute, etc., according to the various philosophical theories, doctrines, and religious traditions. One of the primitive forms of conceiving God is that He is the Creator of the world. We have a childish idea of a creator. A creator is one who makes things, and God is someone who has made this world. "God made this world" is an old saying which we often repeat. God made the world and, therefore, God is the Creator of the world. God is the Father of the world and, therefore, all His children should love Him as the Supreme Parent. The idea of creatorship that is in our minds is the conditioning factor of our love towards this Creator. We have seen in this world that if someone makes something, he is the efficient or sometimes the instrumental cause of that particular thing that he has made, and the thing that he has made is an effect that is produced by him, standing outside him. God can thus be regarded as extra-cosmic, which is the usual way in which we conceive God.
We cannot imagine God usually, normally speaking, in any other way than as someone standing outside the world. If a carpenter makes a table or a chair, we can call him the creator of the table or the chair; and the table stands outside him, so that there is no proper relationship between what he has made and his own existence. Hence, we have to cry to God in a loud tone so that our voices may reach Him in the transcendent paradise where He is seated. We have a concept of paradise in every religion. In the Hindu religion we call it Vaikuntha, or Brahmaloka, Kailasa, etc., but whatever term we use, it is a concept of heaven the highest heaven where God is seated which we have to reach. We love God as we love any other object in this world, because God Himself has become an object of the love of the individual.
Here I have to take a few moments to give some sort of an idea as to what love is, so that we may have an idea as to its relationship to the object of love. Most people have no idea of what it is and, therefore, it has been given many definitions. The most common definition of love is that it is a psychological emotion, a welling up of certain feelings in respect of an object. Love is the manner in which the mind arranges itself in respect of an object which it needs. Just as when one is on a battleground and there is a necessity to gird up one's loins for an immediate attack, one prepares oneself thoroughly, from head to foot, for the purpose of the task on hand or, a wrestler in the field prepares himself for the purpose for which he is there, and in this preparation he is worked up into a feeling of total concentration of his personality for the achievement of that purpose in a similar manner, the mind works itself up into a concentrated feeling in respect of the object which it needs for a particular purpose, at a particular time. This working up of the mind in sympathy with the object which it needs at a particular time is the love that the mind has for the object. Therefore, love may be regarded as a condition of the mind. It is a state of mind not a perpetual state, but a temporary state of the mind in respect of that particular object which is necessary at that particular moment.
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Secondly, the extra-cosmic concept of God makes Him an individual like other individuals, though He may be a vaster individual than others. Anything that is 'somewhere' is finite in its nature. If God is outside the world and the world is outside God, naturally the world would be finite, and God also would be finite in the same manner, because one would limit the other. The existence of the world would limit God, and the existence of God would limit the world, so both would become finite. Anything that is finite is subject to destruction, because every finite thing is seen to have a tendency to move towards something else in order that it may overcome its finitude. So God would be an imperfect being wishing to become more perfect, as any other individual would do, if He is regarded as extra-cosmic, conditioned, limited and finite. Also, there would be no means of approach to God, because an extraordinary perception, which would be necessary to come in contact with God, would be denied its need if the placement of God is extra-cosmic.
Anything that is outside us places itself in such a way that it cannot be possessed by us, in the true sense of the term. That which is outside us cannot be possessed by us, and we cannot do anything with that thing which is really outside us. We can have a tentative contact with things outside, but these contacts are conditional and subject to destruction and separation. Anything that comes in union with another thing is also subject to separation. Every union is subject to separation, because union has a beginning and an end. Because of this peculiar feature of contact with things, there is no such thing as permanent contact with anything in this world. If this is to be the nature of God, there would be no such thing as permanent contact with God. We would be separated from God in the same way as we are separated from other things in the world. Our aim, which is permanent union with God, will be an impossibility if He is an extra-cosmic individual.
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There is an internal dichotomy subtly pressing itself forward, even in the organic concept of God; and how can there be an unconditioned love of God, a perpetual feeling for God, when the relationship of oneself with God is not clear? "I don't understand you and, therefore, I cannot love you. So my love for you depends upon my understanding of you, and the more I understand you, the more I love you." Here, the understanding is nothing but an appreciation of the real connection that exists between oneself and the other. "I must know, first of all, what my relationship with you is, then I can tell you how much love I have for you. Are you my father? Are you my brother? Are you my boss? Are you my servant? Are you my friend? Are you my enemy? What are you? If you tell me what you are, I can tell you how much love I have for you, because your context in relation to my presence is what determines my feeling for you." Likewise, I may ask this question: "How am I related to God?" This question was completely brushed aside by certain schools of devotion. They never wanted to answer this question at all, and kept it aside in cold storage. "We shall love God as we love anything else in this world.
But wholly dedicating ourself for the sake of God these feelings for God, in a whole-souled fashion, though in a rarefied form of the ordinary loves in the world, are called the bhavas in bhakti yoga. A bhava is a feeling. Our feeling for God is called a bhava. Here, the basic difference that seems to be there between man and God is taken for granted, and it is not solved, because it cannot be solved so easily. If we go on trying to solve this question, our whole life will be spent in only answering this question. Therefore, the teachers of the path of devotion emphasised the necessity to love God, somehow or other, even if it be a magnified form of human love; and the answer to the difficulty as to whether human love is really divine love was that when human love gets magnified into infinity, it becomes divine love. There is a great point in this answer, because when the finite is lifted up into an unconditioned expanse to the extent possible for the mind, it loses the sting of finitude. The doctrine here is that when this human affection is expanded into the vastness of creation, though it may be true that in quality it has not changed, because of the fact that it has transformed itself into an utterly inconceivable magnitude of quantity, it will be free from the stigma of finitude of affection, and will be able to achieve certain miraculous results which finite love cannot.
These bhavas or feelings of love for God are, therefore, human affections diverted to God in an all-absorbing manner, so that the conditioning factors of human affection are removed as far as possible, and God is taken for granted as a permanent Being - not like an ordinary object in the world which can die one day or the other, but as a perpetually existent Being and the necessity for loving that permanent Being is emphasised. Here, the feeling for God is similar to the feeling we have towards human relationships. These bhavas of bhakti are the central features of one path of yoga, called bhakti yoga, where God can be loved as a father, for instance. This is called shanta bhava, where emotions are least present.
We do not have a lot of emotion in respect of our father. We have a reverence for our father, a respect and a feeling of awe, coupled with a sustained emotion of love not in the form of an ebullition of emotion, but as a controlled form of feeling which is designated as the peaceful attitude, or the shanta bhava. Most religions regard God as a father, and very few religions have any other attitude. He is the Supreme Father, and our relation to God is the relation that we have to a father, and we feel for God in the same way as we feel for our father. What is our feeling for our father? Fear is also a part of this love when God is regarded as a parent, because we fear our father not because we dislike him, but because he has certain regulating principles which may not always be commensurate with our whims and fancies of personality.
The juristic concept of God as a lawgiver, a lawmaker and a dispenser of justice is a pre-eminent feature in the concept of God in most religions. This feeling can be regarded as one of the channelising factors which can draw all the forces of the mind towards God. The teachers of bhakti tell us that if God is regarded as All-in-all, as the Supreme Maker and the All-powerful Being, even if He be the Creator in the sense of an ordinary maker of things, a day will come when this quantitative expanse of devotion will automatically bring about, in a subtle manner, a qualitative transformation also, so that human love can become divine love.
1.033 - The Confederates, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
15. Although they had made a pledge to God, in the past, that they will not turn their backs. A pledge to God is a responsibility.
16. Say, “Flight will not benefit you, if you flee from death or killing, even then you will be given only brief enjoyment.”
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23. Of the believers are men who are true to what they pledged to God. Some of them have fulfilled their vows; and some are still waiting, and never wavering.
24. That God may reward the truthful for their truthfulness; and punish the hypocrites, if He wills, or pardon them. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
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31. But whoever of you remains obedient to God and His Messenger, and acts righteously, We will give her a double reward; and We have prepared for her a generous provision.
32. O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other women, if you observe piety. So do not speak too softly, lest the sick at heart lusts after you, but speak in an appropriate manner.
1.034 - Sheba, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
1. Praise be to God, to Whom belongs everything in the heavens and the earth; and praise be to Him in the Hereafter. He is the Wise, the Expert.
2. He knows what penetrates into the earth, and what comes out of it, and what descends from the sky, and what ascends to it. He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.
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46. Say, “I offer you a single advice: devote yourselves to God, in pairs, or individually; and reflect. There is no madness in your friend. He is just a warner to you, before the advent of a severe punishment.”
47. Say, “Whatever compensation I have asked of you, is yours. My compensation comes only from God, and He is Witness over all things.”
1.035 - Originator, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
1. Praise be to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, Maker of the angels messengers with wings—double, triple, and quadruple. He adds to creation as He wills. God is Able to do all things.
2. Whatever mercy God unfolds for the people, none can withhold it. And if He withholds it, none can release it thereafter. He is the Exalted in Power, Full of Wisdom.
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4. If they reject you, messengers before you were also rejected. to God all matters are returned.
5. O people! The promise of God is true; so let not the lowly life seduce you, and let not the Tempter tempt you away from God.
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10. Whoever desires honor—all honor belongs to God. To Him ascends speech that is pure, and He elevates righteous conduct. As for those who plot evil, a terrible punishment awaits them, and the planning of these will fail.
11. God created you from dust, then from a small drop; then He made you pairs. No female conceives, or delivers, except with His knowledge. No living thing advances in years, or its life is shortened, except it be in a Record. That is surely easy for God.
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18. No burdened soul can carry the burden of another. Even if one weighted down calls for help with its burden, nothing can be lifted from it, even if they were related. You are to warn those who fear their Lord inwardly, and perform the prayer. He who purifies himself purifies himself for his own good. to God is the ultimate return.
19. Not equal are the blind and the seeing.
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43. Priding themselves on earth, and scheming evil. But evil scheming overwhelms none but its authors. Do they expect anything but the precedent of the ancients? You will not find any change in God’s practice, and you will not find any substitute to God’s practice.
44. Have they not journeyed in the land and observed the fate of those who preceded them? They were superior to them in strength. But nothing can defeat God in the heavens or on Earth. He is indeed Omniscient and Omnipotent.
1.037 - The Aligners, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
182. And praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
1.039 - Throngs, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
3. Is not to God that sincere faith is due? As for those who take guardians besides Him, “We only worship them that they may bring us nearer to God.” God will judge between them regarding their differences. God does not guide the lying blasphemer.
4. If God wanted to have a son, He could have selected from His creation at will. Glory be to Him. He is God, the One, the Prevailing.
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8. When some adversity touches the human being, he prays to his Lord, repenting to Him. But then, when He confers on him a grace of His, he forgets what he was praying for before, and he attributes rivals to God, in order to lead astray from His way. Say, “Enjoy your disbelief for a little while; you will be among the inmates of the Fire.”
9. Is he who worships devoutly during the watches of the night, prostrating himself and standing up, mindful of the Hereafter, and placing his hope in the mercy of his Lord? Say, “Are those who know and those who do not know equal?” Only those possessed of reason will remember.
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17. As for those who avoid the worship of idols, and devote themselves to God—theirs is the good news. So give good news to My servants.
18. Those who listen to the Word, and follow the best of it. These are they whom God has guided. These are they who possess intellect.
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29. God cites the example of a man shared by partners at odds, and a man belonging exclusively to one man. Are they equal in status? Praise be to God, but most of them do not know.
30. You will die, and they will die.
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44. Say, “All intercession is up to God. To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. Then to Him you will be returned.”
45. When God alone is mentioned, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with resentment. But when those other than Him are mentioned, they become filled with joy.
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56. So that a soul may not say, “How sorry I am, for having neglected my duty to God, and for having been of the scoffers.”
57. Or say, “Had God guided me; I would have been of the pious.”
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74. And they will say, “Praise be to God, who has fulfilled His promise to us, and made us inherit the land, enjoying Paradise as we please.” How excellent is the reward of the workers.
75. And you will see the angels hovering around the Throne, glorifying their Lord with praise. And it will be judged between them equitably, and it will be said, “Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.”
1.03 - Meeting the Master - Meeting with others, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
But ordinarily, we have not to do philanthropic work from the same motives. Philanthropy has an egoistic motive, however high it may be. We have to look beyond. For instance, we need not start schools for the Depressed Classes in order to serve humanity. We have to work as a sacrifice to God and we have therefore to go beyond mental ideals and constructions. When men begin work with these mental or ethical motives, they find them to be true and therefore they are not willing to leave them behind and go beyond. We have to take up the work from the yogic point of view. For example, it is necessary to spread our literature because it spreads the new thought. Some men may receive it correctly and some incorrectly. A movement is set up on the universal mental plane. So also in social work the whole frame is shaken by the new thought and in-as-much as it moves men out of the old groove it is useful. But we have to act from the inner motives.
9 AUGUST 1923
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Sri Aurobindo: They are also in the hands of the Shakti. She knows what fruit to give and what not. When that kind of desirelessness is established you have to go on offering all your actions as a sacrifice to God. You must realise that it is the Shakti that does the work in yourself and She offers the same as a sacrifice to the Lord. The more desirelessness in the action, the purer the offering.
The action and the fruit of action both belong to God, not to us. There should be no insistence on the fruit of good or unselfish action. When this is done then everything becomes easy.
G: How will a man act when he has no impulse of desire?
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He should, after giving up this practice, make his mind strong by Karma Yoga. It will require him to give up his desires and his ego. He can do his actions in the spirit of devotion, offering them all as a sacrifice to God. He can thus practise dedication of all his actions to God and try to see Him in all men and in all happenings. That would be his meditation.
At present he cannot take up this Yoga because this is a Yoga of self-surrender in which he has to open himself to a Higher Power. But as he has already opened himself to other spirits such a passive state would not be good for him. All sorts of spirits would come and try to take possession of his being. So it is not safe for him to take up this Yoga, apart from other considerations.
1.03 - Of some imperfections which some of these souls are apt to have, with respect to the second capital sin, which is avarice, in the spiritual sense, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
pleasure to God and in naught to give pleasure to themselves.
3. But neither from these imperfections nor from those others can the soul be
1.03 - On exile or pilgrimage, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
In hastening to solitude and exile, do not wait for world-loving souls, because the thief comes unexpectedly. In trying to save the careless and indolent along with themselves, many perish with them, because in course of time the fire goes out. As soon as the flame is burning within you, run; for you do not know when it will go out and leave you in darkness. Not all of us are required to save others. The divine Apostle says: Each one of us shall give account of himself to God.4 And again he
says: Thou therefore who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?1 This is like saying: I do not know whether we must all teach others; but teach yourselves at all costs.
1.03 - On Knowledge of the World., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Know, that this world is one stage of our life for eternity. For those who are journeying in the right way, it is the road of religion. It is a market opened in the wilderness, where those who are travelling on their way to God, may collect and prepare provisions for their journey, and depart thence to God, without sorrow or despondency.
Know, that the state previous to death is called the world, because mortality is close at hand. The state after death is called the future, because its rest is permanent. The purpose and design of the world, is to afford an opportunity [66] to make provision for the future, to acquire knowledge, and to worship God. Man as at first created, was destitute of works, and void of perfection : but he was made capable of reaching perfection and attaining felicity, so that while in a material world he could look forward to a spiritual world, understand whence he came, what are his duties, that he is soon to depart, and might be always ready. Man's felicity, which consists in the contemplation of the beauty of God, cannot be vouchsafed to him, until the eye of his judgment is opened. But the eye of judgment is opened by the contemplation of the works of God, and by understanding his almighty power. The contemplation of the works of God is by means of the senses, which become the key to all knowledge of God. The senses subsist by means of the body, and the body is composed of four different elements. Those therefore who are endowed with understanding, conscious of the frailty of their bodies should make all diligence to quit this kingdom of corruption and to enter permanently into the unchanging kingdom.
1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seed in to God.
Eckhart
1.03 - Questions and Answers, #Book of Certitude, #unset, #Zen
15. QUESTION: Concerning the remembrance of God in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar "at the hour of dawn". ANSWER: Although the words "at the hour of dawn" are used in the Book of God, it is acceptable to God at the earliest dawn of day, between dawn and sunrise, or even up to two hours after sunrise.
16. QUESTION: Is the ordinance that the body of the deceased should be carried no greater distance than one hour's journey applicable to transport by both land and sea?
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ANSWER: The ordinance of fasting is such as hath already been revealed. Should someone pledge himself, however, to offer up a fast to God, seeking in this way the fulfilment of a wish, or to realize some other aim, this is permissible, now as heretofore. Howbeit, it is God's wish, exalted be His glory, that vows and pledges be directed to such objectives as will profit mankind.
72. QUESTION: Again a question hath been asked concerning the residence and personal clothing: are these to revert, in the absence of male offspring, to the House of Justice, or are they to be distributed like the rest of the estate?
1.03 - Self-Surrender in Works - The Way of The Gita, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A simple rule in appearance, and yet how difficult to carry out with anything like an absolute sincerity and liberating entireness! In the greater part of our action we use the principle very little if at all, and then even mostly as a sort of counterpoise to the normal principle of desire and to mitigate the extreme action of that tyrant impulse. At best, we are satisfied if we arrive at a modified and disciplined egoism not too shocking to our moral sense, not too brutally offensive to others. And to our partial self-discipline we give various names and forms; we habituate ourselves by practice to the sense of duty, to a firm fidelity to principle, a stoical fortitude or a religious resignation, a quiet or an ecstatic submission to God's will. But it is not these things that the Gita intends, useful though they are in their place; it aims at something absolute, unmitigated, uncompromising, a turn, an attitude that will change the whole poise of the soul.
Not the mind's control of vital impulse is its rule, but the strong immobility of an immortal spirit.
1.03 - The Gate of Hell. The Inefficient or Indifferent. Pope Celestine V. The Shores of Acheron. Charon. The, #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
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Hateful to God and to his enemies.
These miscreants, who never were alive,
1.03 - THE ORPHAN, THE WIDOW, AND THE MOON, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Kether, the Crown, corresponds to the upward-growing root of the Tree of the Sefiroth.118 Yesod119 signifies the genital region of the Original Man, whose head is Kether. Malchuth, conforming to the archetypal pattern, is the underlying feminine principle.120 In this wicked world ruled by evil Tifereth is not united with Malchuth.121 But the coming Messiah will reunite the King with the Queen, and this mating will restore to God his original unity.122 The Cabala develops an elaborate hierosgamos fantasy which expatiates on the union of the soul with the Sefiroth of the worlds of light and darkness, for the desire of the upper world for the God-fearing man is as the loving desire of a man for his wife, when he woos her.123 Conversely, the Shekinah is present in the sexual act:
The absconditus sponsus enters into the body of the woman and is joined with the abscondita sponsa. This is true also on the reverse side of the process, so that two spirits are melted together and are interchanged constantly between body and body. . . . In the indistinguishable state which arises it may be said almost that the male is with the female, neither male nor female,124 at least they are both or either. So is man affirmed to be composed of the world above, which is male, and of the female world below. The same is true of woman.125
1.03 - VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Though they are rajasic, they are influenced by sattva. Compassion springs from sattva. Though work for the good of others belongs to rajas, yet this rajas has sattva for its basis, and is not harmful. Suka and other sages cherished compassion in their minds to give people religious instruction, to teach them about God. You are distributing food and learning. That is good too. If these activities are done in a selfless spirit they lead to God. But most people work for fame or to acquire merit. Their activities are not selfless. Besides, you are already a siddha."
VIDYASAGAR: "How is that, sir?"
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(To Vidyasagar) "The activities that you are engaged in are good. It is very good if you can perform them in a selfless spirit, renouncing egotism, giving up the idea that you are the doer. Through such action one develops love and devotion to God, and ultimately realizes Him.
"The more you come to love God, the less you will be inclined to perform action. When the daughter-in-law is with child, her mother-in-law gives her less work to do. As time goes by she is given less and less work. When the time of delivery nears, she is not allowed to do any work at all, lest it should hurt the child or cause difficulty at the time of birth.
1.040 - Forgiver, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
43. Without a doubt, what you call me to has no say in this world, or in the Hereafter; and our turning back is to God; and the transgressors are the inmates of the Fire.
44. You will remember what I am telling you, so I commit my case to God. God is Observant of the servants.”
45. So God protected him from the evils of their scheming, while a terrible torment besieged Pharaoh’s clan.
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65. He is the Living One. There is no god except He. So pray to Him, devoting your religion to Him. Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.
66. Say, “I was prohibited from worshiping those you invoke besides God, now that clear revelations have come to me from my Lord; and I was commanded to submit to the Lord of the Worlds.”
1.040 - Re-Educating the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It is possible to concentrate the mind on an object merely on the surface level, though at the bottom there may be a feeling of irreconcilability. That will not lead to success. We may be praying to God through an image in a temple, and yet have a suspicion in the mind that we are praying only to an idol made of stone. This suspicion will spoil all our devotion. "After all, I am praying to a small wooden image. How will this bring fulfilment of my wish or the satisfaction of my desires? I want to be a king, an emperor, and for that purpose I am praying to an idol which is unconscious, which cannot listen to anything that I say." This suspicion will shake the very foundation of devotion, and religion will become merely a pharisaical ritual.
This is what is happening, mostly our religion, our practice, our devotion becomes a kind of dead routine which has no life in it, and all the efforts of life seem then to bring nothing fruitful. We are neither scientific in our attitude, nor logical, nor really religious. There is, basically, a kind of hypocritical attitude which is covered under a camouflage of a necessity of practical life, which takes all our time, and we may spend our entire life in this attitude to things, ending in nothing, finally. But the inward tendency to repel things, on account of an intense egoism of nature, subsides by a proper understanding of the nature of things and by a forced imposition of universality upon the particular object upon which we are concentrating. In the beginning, it may be merely by power of will; later on, understanding will come and make it more alive. It is better to always couple understanding with the power of will, so that it may be a pleasant process rather than a hard discipline of an unpleasant character. Whatever it be, we cannot say which is more important and which comes first. Understanding and will should go together, and do go together.
1.041 - Detailed, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
33. And who is better in speech than someone who calls to God, and acts with integrity, and says, “I am of those who submit”?
34. Good and evil are not equal. Repel evil with good, and the person who was your enemy becomes like an intimate friend.
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37. And of His signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Do not bow down to the sun, nor to the moon, but bow down to God, Who created them both, if it is Him that you serve.
38. But if they are too proud—those in the presence of your Lord praise Him night and day, and without ever tiring.
1.042 - Consultation, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
49. to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates whatever He wills. He grants daughters to whomever He wills, and He grants sons to whomever He wills.
50. Or He combines them together, males and females; and He renders whomever He wills sterile. He is Knowledgeable and Capable.
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53. The path of God, to whom belongs everything in the heavens and everything on earth. Indeed, to God all matters revert.
1.045 - Kneeling, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
27. to God belongs the kingship of the heavens and the earth. On the Day when the Hour takes place, on that Day the falsifiers will lose.
28. You will see every community on its knees; every community will be called to its Book: “Today you are being repaid for what you used to do.
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36. Praise belongs to God; Lord of the heavens, Lord of the earth, Lord of humanity.
37. To Him belongs all supremacy in the heavens and the earth. He is the Majestic, the Wise.
1.046 - The Dunes, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
28. Why then did the idols, whom they worshiped as means of nearness to God, not help them? In fact, they abandoned them. It was their lie, a fabrication of their own making.
29. Recall when We dispatched towards you a number of jinn, to listen to the Quran. When they came in its presence, they said, “Pay attention!” Then, when it was concluded, they rushed to their people, warning them.
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31. O our people! Answer the caller to God, and believe in Him; and He will forgive you your sins, and will save you from a painful punishment.”
32. He who does not answer the caller to God will not escape on earth, and has no protectors besides Him. Those are in obvious error.
33. Do they not realize that God, who created the heavens and the earth, and was never tired by creating them, is Able to revive the dead? Yes indeed; He is Capable of everything.
1.047 - Muhammad, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
21. Obedience and upright speech. Then, when the matter is settled, being true to God would have been better for them.
22. If you turn away, you are likely to make mischief on earth, and sever your family ties.
1.048 - Victory, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
4. It is He who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers, to add faith to their faith. to God belong the forces of the heavens and the earth. God is Knowing and Wise.
5. He will admit the believers, male and female, into Gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein forever, and He will remit their sins. That, with God, is a great triumph.
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7. to God belong the troops of the heavens and the earth. God is Mighty and Wise.
8. We sent you as a witness, and a bearer of good news, and a warner.
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10. Those who pledge allegiance to you are pledging allegiance to God. The hand of God is over their hands. Whoever breaks his pledge breaks it to his own loss. And whoever fulfills his covenant with God, He will grant him a great reward.
11. The Desert-Arabs who remained behind will say to you, “Our belongings and our families have preoccupied us, so ask forgiveness for us.” They say with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say, “Who can avail you anything against God, if He desires loss for you, or desires gain for you?” In fact, God is Informed of what you do.
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14. to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He forgives whomever He wills, and He punishes whomever He wills. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
15. Those who lagged behind will say when you depart to collect the gains, “Let us follow you.” They want to change the Word of God. Say, “You will not follow us; God has said so before.” Then they will say, “But you are jealous of us.” In fact, they understand only a little.
1.04 - ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Gold is hidden within him. God dwells within us. If one knows that, one feels like giving up all activities and praying to God with a yearning soul."
So the Master talked with M. - now standing, now pacing up and down the long verandah.
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After fulfilling their desire, they again direct their minds to God and thus recover their former state of mind, fit for the practise of yoga.
"Have you ever seen the spring trap for fish, called the 'satka-kal'?"
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MASTER: "All, without exception, perform work. Even to chant the name and glories of God is work, as is the meditation of the non-dualist on 'I am He'. Breathing is also an activity. There is no way of renouncing work altogether. So do your work, but surrender the result to God."
God and worldly duties
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"If a drunkard takes too much liquor he cannot retain consciousness. If he takes only two or three glasses, he can go on with his work. As you advance nearer and nearer to God, He will reduce your activities little by little. Have no fear.
"Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace. When the mistress of the house goes to ba the after finishing her cooking and other household duties, she won't come back, however you may shout after her."
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"But one need not fear anything if one has received the grace of God. It is rather easy for a child to stumble if he holds his father's hand; but there can be no such fear if the father holds the child's hand. A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child."
"But why should God make us run about?" thought M
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Vidy begets devotion, kindness, wisdom, and love, which lead one to God. This avidy
must be propitiated, and that is the purpose of the rites of akti worship.
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"One day Jatindra came to the garden of Jadu Mallick. I was there too. I asked him: 'What is the duty of man? Isn't it our duty to think of God?' Jatindra replied: 'We are worldly people. How is it possible for us to achieve liberation? Even King Yudhisthira had to have a vision of hell.' This made me very angry. I said to him: 'What sort of man are you? Of all the incidents of Yudhisthira's life, you remember only his seeing hell. You don't remember his truthfulness, his forbearance, his patience, his discrimination, his dispassion, his devotion to God.' I was about to say many more things, when Hriday stopped my mouth. After a little while Jatindra left the place, saying he had some other business to attend to.
"Many days later I went with Captain to see Rj Sourindra Tagore. As soon as I met him, I said, 'I can't address you as "Rj", or by any such title, for I should be telling a lie.' He talked to me a few minutes, but even so our conversation was interrupted by the frequent visits of Europeans and others. A man of rajasic temperament, Sourindra was naturally busy with many things. Jatindra his eldest brother, had been told of my coming, but he sent word that he had a pain in his throat and couldn't go out.
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On another occasion the Master had said to M. privately: "Yes, there is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. But he has nothing to fear if he remains in the world after realizing God. Nor need a man have any fear whatever of the world if he attains sincere devotion by practising spiritual discipline now and then in solitude. Chaitanya had several householders among his devotees, but they were householders in name only, for they lived unattached to the world."
It was noon. The worship was over, and food offerings had been made in the temple.
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MASTER: "Haven't you observed his many virtues? He is not only well versed in music, vocal and instrumental, but he is also very learned. Besides, he has controlled his passions and declares he will lead a celibate life. He has been devoted to God since his very boyhood.
Meditation on God with form
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
St. Bernard speaks in what seems a similar strain. What I know of the divine sciences and Holy Scripture, I learnt in woods and fields. I have had no other masters than the beeches and the oaks. And in another of his letters he says: Listen to a man of experience: thou wilt learn more in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach thee more than thou canst acquire from the mouth of a magister. The phrases are similar; but their inner significance is very different. In Augustines language, God alone is to be enjoyed; creatures are not to be enjoyed but usedused with love and compassion and a wondering, detached appreciation, as means to the knowledge of that which may be enjoyed. Wordsworth, like almost all other literary Nature-worshippers, preaches the enjoyment of creatures rather than their use for the attainment of spiritual endsa use which, as we shall see, entails much self-discipline for the user. For Bernard it goes without saying that his correspondents are actively practising this self-discipline and that Nature, though loved and heeded as a teacher, is only being used as a means to God, not enjoyed as though she were God. The beauty of flowers and landscape is not merely to be relished as one wanders lonely as a cloud about the countryside, is not merely to be pleasurably remembered when one is lying in vacant or in pensive mood on the sofa in the library, after tea. The reaction must be a little more strenuous and purposeful. Here, my brothers, says an ancient Buddhist author, are the roots of trees, here are empty places; meditate. The truth is, of course, that the world is only for those who have deserved it; for, in Philos words, even though a man may be incapable of making himself worthy of the creator of the cosmos, yet he ought to try to make himself worthy of the cosmos. He ought to transform himself from being a man into the nature of the cosmos and become, if one may say so, a little cosmos. For those who have not deserved the world, either by making themselves worthy of its creator (that is to say, by non-attachment and a total self-naughting), or, less arduously, by making themselves worthy of the cosmos (by bringing order and a measure of unity to the manifold confusion of undisciplined human personality), the world is, spiritually speaking, a very dangerous place.
That Nirvana and Samsara are one is a fact about the nature of the universe; but it is a fact which cannot be fully realized or directly experienced, except by souls far advanced in spirituality. For ordinary, nice, unregenerate people to accept this truth by hearsay, and to act upon it in practice, is merely to court disaster. All the dismal story of antinomianism is there to warn us of what happens when men and women make practical applications of a merely intellectual and unrealized theory that all is God and God is all. And hardly less depressing than the spectacle of antinomianism is that of the earnestly respectable well-rounded life of good citizens who do their best to live sacramentally, but dont in fact have any direct acquaintance with that for which the sacramental activity really stands. Dr. Oman, in his The Natural and the Supernatural, writes at length on the theme that reconciliation to the evanescent is revelation of the eternal; and in a recent volume, Science, Religion and the Future, Canon Raven applauds Dr. Oman for having stated the principles of a theology, in which there could be no ultimate antithesis between nature and grace, science and religion, in which, indeed, the worlds of the scientist and the theologian are seen to be one and the same. All this is in full accord with Taoism and Zen Buddhism and with such Christian teachings as St. Augustines Ama et fac quod vis and Father Lallemants advice to theocentric contemplatives to go out and act in the world, since their actions are the only ones capable of doing any real good to the world. But what neither Dr. Oman nor Canon Raven makes sufficiently clear is that nature and grace, Samsara and Nirvana, perpetual perishing and eternity, are really and experientially one only to persons who have fulfilled certain conditions. Fac quod vis in the temporal world but only when you have learnt the infinitely difficult art of loving God with all your mind and heart and your neighbor as yourself. If you havent learnt this lesson, you will either be an antinomian eccentric or criminal or else a respectable well-rounded-lifer, who has left himself no time to understand either nature or grace. The Gospels are perfectly clear about the process by which, and by which alone, a man may gain the right to live in the world as though he were at home in it: he must make a total denial of selfhood, submit to a complete and absolute mortification. At one period of his career, Jesus himself seems to have undertaken austerities, not merely of the mind, but of the body. There is the record of his forty days fast and his statement, evidently drawn from personal experience, that some demons cannot be cast out except by those who have fasted much as well as prayed. (The Cur dArs, whose knowledge of miracles and corporal penance was based on personal experience, insists on the close correlation between severe bodily austerities and the power to get petitionary prayer answered in ways that are sometimes supernormal.) The Pharisees reproached Jesus because he came eating and drinking, and associated with publicans and sinners; they ignored, or were unaware of, the fact that this apparently worldly prophet had at one time rivalled the physical austerities of John the Baptist and was practising the spiritual mortifications which he consistently preached. The pattern of Jesus life is essentially similar to that of the ideal sage, whose career is traced in the Oxherding Pictures, so popular among Zen Buddhists. The wild ox, symbolizing the unregenerate self, is caught, made to change its direction, then tamed and gradually transformed from black to white. Regeneration goes so far that for a time the ox is completely lost, so that nothing remains to be pictured but the full-orbed moon, symbolizing Mind, Suchness, the Ground. But this is not the final stage. In the end, the herdsman comes back to the world of men, riding on the back of his ox. Because he now loves, loves to the extent of being identified with the divine object of his love, he can do what he likes; for what he likes is what the Nature of Things likes. He is found in company with wine-bibbers and butchers; he and they are all converted into Buddhas. For him, there is complete reconciliation to the evanescent and, through that reconciliation, revelation of the eternal. But for nice ordinary unregenerate people the only reconciliation to the evanescent is that of indulged passions, of distractions submitted to and enjoyed. To tell such persons that evanescence and eternity are the same, and not immediately to qualify the statement, is positively fatalfor, in practice, they are not the same except to the saint; and there is no record that anybody ever came to sanctity, who did not, at the outset of his or her career, behave as if evanescence and eternity, nature and grace, were profoundly different and in many respects incompatible. As always, the path of spirituality is a knife-edge between abysses. On one side is the danger of mere rejection and escape, on the other the danger of mere acceptance and the enjoyment of things which should only be used as instruments or symbols. The versified caption which accompanies the last of the Oxherding Pictures runs as follows.
1.04 - Of other imperfections which these beginners are apt to have with respect to the third sin, which is luxury., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
8. When the soul enters the dark night, it brings these kinds of love under control. It streng thens and purifies the one, namely that which is according to God; and the other it removes and brings to an end; and in the beginning it causes both to be lost sight of, as we shall say hereafter.
1.04 - On blessed and ever-memorable obedience, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
You who have decided to strip for the arena of this spiritual confession, you who wish to take on your neck the yoke of Christ, you who are therefore trying to lay your own burden on Anothers shoulders, you who are hastening to sign a pledge that you are voluntarily surrendering yourself to slavery, and in return want freedom written to your account, you who are being supported by the hands of others as you swim across this great seayou should know that you have decided to travel by a short but rough way, from which there is only one deflection, and it is called singularity.3 But he who has renounced this entirely, even in things that seem to be good and spiritual and pleasing to God, has reached the end before setting out on his journey. For obedience is distrust of oneself in everything, however good it may be, right up to the end of ones life.
When motives of humility and real longing for salvation decide us to bend our neck and entrust ourselves to another in the Lord, before entering upon this life, if there is any vice and pride in us, we ought first to question and examine, and even, so to speak, test our helmsman, so as not to mistake the sailor for the pilot, a sick man for a doctor, a passionate for a dispassionate man, the sea for a harbour, and so bring about the speedy shipwreck of our soul. But when once we have entered the arena of religion and obedience we must no longer judge our good manager4 in any way at all, even though we may perhaps see in him some slight failings, since he is only human. Otherwise, by sitting in judgment we shall get no profit from our subjection.
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fragrance. Then the great man allowed us to uncover the coffin in which he had been placed, and when this was done we all saw that fragrant myrrh was flowing like two fountains from his precious feet. Then that teacher said to all: Look! The sweat of his toils and labours have been offered as myrrh to God and truly accepted.
The fathers of that place told us of many triumphs of this most saintly Menas, and amongst others the following: Once the superior wanted to test his God-given patience. In the evening Menas came to the abbots cell, and having prostrated before the abbot, asked him as usual to give him instruction. But the abbot left him lying on the ground till the hour of the Office, and only then blessed him; and having rebuked him for being fond of self-display and for being impatient, he ordered him to get up. The holy man knew Menas would bear all this courageously, and therefore he made this scene for the edification of all. A disciple of Saint Menas confirmed what was told us about his director, and added: I was inquisitive to know whether sleep overcame him while he lay prostrate before the abbot. But he assured me that while lying on the ground he had recited by heart the whole psalter.
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One of those ever-memorable fathers who had great love for me according to God and was very outspoken, once said to me kindly: If, wise man, you have within you the power of him who said, I can do all things in Christ who streng thens me;1 if the Holy Spirit has descended upon you with the dew of purity, as upon the Holy Virgin; if the power of the Highest has over shadowed you with patience; then like the Man (Christ our God), gird your loins with the towel of obedience; and having risen from the supper of silence, wash the feet of the brethren in a spirit of contrition; or rather, roll yourself under the feet of the community in spiritual self-abasement. At the gate of your heart place strict and unsleeping guards. Control your wandering mind in your distracted body. Amidst the actions and movements of your limbs, practise mental quiet (hesychia). And, most paradoxical of all, in the midst of commotion be unmoved in soul. Curb your tongue which rages to leap into arguments. Seventy times seven in the day wrestle with this tyrant. Fix your mind to your soul as to the wood of a cross to be struck like an anvil with blow upon blow of the hammers, to be mocked, abused, ridiculed and wronged, without being in the least crushed or broken, but continuing to be quite calm and immovable. Shed your own will as a garment of shame, and thus stripped of it enter the practice ground. Array yourself in the rarely acquired breastplate of faith, not crushed or wounded by distrust towards your spiritual trainer. Check with the rein of temperance the sense of touch that leaps forward shamelessly. Bridle your eyes, which are ready to waste hour after hour looking at physical grandeur and beauty, by meditation on death. Gag your mind, overbusy with its private concerns, and thoughtlessly prone to criticize and condemn your brother, by the practical means of showing your neighbour all love and sympathy. By this will all men truly know, dearest father, that we are disciples of Christ, if, while living together, we have love one for another.2 Come, come, said this good friend, come and settle down with us and for living water drink derision at every hour. For David, having tried every pleasure under heaven, last of all said in bewilderment: Behold, what is good, or what is beautiful? Nothing else but that brethren should dwell together in unity.3 But if we have not yet been granted this good, that is, such patience and obedience, then it is best for us, having at least discovered our weakness, to live apart far from the athletic lists, and bless the combatants and pray they may be granted patience. I was won over to the good arguments of this most excellent father and teacher, who
1 Philippians iv, 13.
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Do not think that it is improper to make your confession to your helper, as to God, in a prostrate position. I have seen condemned criminals, by their sorry appearance and violent confession and entreaty, soften the severity of the judge and change his anger into mercy. That is why even John the Baptist required confession before baptism of those who came to him, not because he himself needed to know their sins, but so as to effect their salvation.
Let us not be surprised if even after confession we are still attacked; for it is better to struggle with thoughts than with conceit.
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It is impossible that the devil should act contrary to his own will. Let those living an easy-going life, whether persevering in one solitary place or in a community, convince you of this. Let the temptation to retire from our place be a proof for us that our life there is pleasing to God. For being warred against is a sign that we are making war.
1 Lit. a deacon or minister.
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Let us hear what a gift of discernment this holy man obtained by his utter obedience. When he was residing in the monastery of St. Sabba three young monks came to him wanting to become his disciples. He gladly received them and at once gave them kindly hospitality, wanting to refresh them after the labour of their journey. When three days had passed, the elder said to them: By nature, brothers, I am prone to fornication, and I cannot accept any of you. But they were not scandalized, for they knew the good work of the elder. Yet however much they asked him, they were quite unable to persuade him. Then they threw themselves at his feet and implored him at least to give them a rulehow and where they ought to live. So he yielded to their entreaties, and knowing that they would receive it with humility and obedience, the elder said to one: The Lord wants you, child, to live in a place of solitude in subjection to a father. And to the second he said: Go and sell your will and give it to God, and take up your cross and persevere in a community and monastery of brothers, and you will certainly have treasure in heaven. Then to the third he said: Take in with your very breath the word of Him who said: He who endures to the end will be saved.1 Go, and if possible choose for your trainer in the Lord the most strict and exacting person and with daily perseverance drink abuse and scorn as milk and honey. Then the brother said to the great John: But, Father, what if the trainer lives a lax life? The elder replied: Even if you see him committing fornication, do not leave him, but say to yourself: Friend, why are you here ?2 Then you will see all pride vanish from you, and lust wither.
Let all of us who wish to fear the Lord struggle with our whole might, so that in the school of virtue we do not acquire for ourselves malice and vice, cunning and craftiness, curiosity and anger. For it does happen, and no wonder! As long as a man is a private individual, or a seaman, or a tiller of the soil, the Kings enemies do not war so much against him. But when they see him taking the Kings colours,3 and the shield, and the dagger, and the sword, and the bow, and clad in soldiers garb, then they gnash at him with their teeth, and do all in their power to destroy him. And so, let us not slumber.
1.04 - On Knowledge of the Future World., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
This illustration of the enjoyments of Paradise has been made in very brief and comprehensive language, to serve as an example, but it is impossible by any similitude to give an idea of what it is to be separated from the contemplation of the beauty of the Lord. For whoever has but once experienced the delight of being near to God, and has enjoyed the vision of the beauty of the Lord, would perish if he should be for one moment separated from it. Even the last and least person who quits hell will receive a mansion from the Lord God which is equal to ten of these worlds. But we do not mean to say ten worlds in surface or in amount by number and weight, but ten worlds in value and in the beauty they display arid the pleasure they afford.
Having now become acquainted with the three kinds of spiritual torment, know, O student of the divine mysteries, that these spiritual fires of which we have been speaking, are more severe than the fires which burn the body. The body does not itself perceive pain, and until pain reaches from the body to the spirit, it does not make a trace or impression. If, then, the anguish that is occasioned to the spirit through the channel of the body is so agonizing, imagine how intense must burn the fire of that anguish which has its origin in the centre of the soul. The pain which any thing suffers is occasioned by the excess of something contrary to the nature and necessities of its constitution.
1.04 - The Core of the Teaching, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Undoubtedly, the Gita does, like the Upanishads, teach the equality which rises above sin and virtue, beyond good and evil, but only as a part of the Brahmic consciousness and for the man who is on the path and advanced enough to fulfil the supreme rule. It does not preach indifference to good and evil for the ordinary life of man, where such a doctrine would have the most pernicious consequences. On the contrary it affirms that the doers of evil shall not attain to God. Therefore if Arjuna simply seeks to fulfil in the best way the ordinary law of man's life, disinterested performance of what he feels to be a sin, a thing of Hell, will not help him, even though that sin be his duty as a soldier. He must refrain from what his conscience abhors though a thousand duties were shattered to pieces.
We must remember that duty is an idea which in practice rests upon social conceptions. We may extend the term beyond its proper connotation and talk of our duty to ourselves or we may, if we like, say in a transcendent sense that it was Buddha's duty to abandon all, or even that it is the ascetic's duty to sit motionless in a cave! But this is obviously to play with words.
1.04 - The Sacrifice the Triune Path and the Lord of the Sacrifice, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But the true essence of sacrifice is not self-immolation, it is self-giving; its object not self-effacement, but self-fulfilment; its method not self-mortification, but a greater life, not self-mutilation, but a transformation of our natural human parts into divine members, not self-torture, but a passage from a lesser satisfaction to a greater Ananda. There is only one thing painful in the beginning to a raw or turbid part of the surface nature; it is the indispensable discipline demanded, the denial necessary for the merging of the incomplete ego. But for that there can be a speedy and enormous compensation in the discovery of a real greater or ultimate completeness in others, in all things, in the cosmic oneness, in the freedom of the transcendent Self and Spirit, in the rapture of the touch of the Divine. Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.
Last, there is to be considered the recipient of the sacrifice and the manner of the sacrifice. The sacrifice may be offered to others or it may be offered to divine Powers; it may be offered to the cosmic All or it may be offered to the transcendent Supreme. The worship given may take any shape from the dedication of a leaf or flower, a cup of water, a handful of rice, a loaf of bread, to consecration of all that we possess and the submission of all that we are. Whoever the recipient, whatever the gift, it is the Supreme, the Eternal in things, who receives and accepts it, even if it be rejected or ignored by the immediate recipient. For the Supreme who transcends the universe, is yet here too, however veiled, in us and in the world and in its happenings; he is there as the omniscient Witness and Receiver of all our works and their secret Master. All our actions, all our efforts, even our sins and stumblings and sufferings and struggles are obscurely or consciously, known to us and seen or else unknown and in a disguise, governed in their last result by the One. All is turned towards him in his numberless forms and offered through them to the single Omnipresence. In whatever form and with whatever spirit we approach him, in that form and with that spirit he receives the sacrifice.
1.04 - THE STUDY (The Compact), #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
With all thy likeness to God, thou'lt yet be a sorry example!
(FAUST enters.)
1.053 - A Very Important Sadhana, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Nehbhikramanosti pratyavyo na vidyate (B.G.II.40), says the Bhagavadgita. Even a little good that we do in this direction has its own effect. Even if we credit one paisa (one-hundredth of an Indian rupee) to our account in the bank, it is a credit, though it is very little. It is only one paisa that we have put there, but still it is there. We cannot say it is not there. Likewise, even a little bit of sincere effort that is put forth in the direction of sense control and devotion to God is a great credit indeed accumulated by the soul. There should not be a doubt whether it will yield fruit. We should not expect fruit in the way we would dream in our mind, because the nature of the response that is generated by the practice depends upon the extent of obstacles that are already present and not eliminated. The peculiar impressions created inside by frustrated feelings will also act as an obstacle. The frustrated feelings are the subtle longings of the mind, deeper than the level of conscious activity, which create a sense of disquiet and displeasure in the mind.
We are always in a mood of unhappiness. We cannot know what has happened to us. We are not satisfied neither with people, nor with our sadhana, nor with anything in this world. This disquiet, peacelessness and displeasure which can manifest as a sustained mood in spiritual seekers is due to the presence of the impressions left by frustrated desires. We have not withdrawn our senses from objects wantonly or deliberately, but we have withdrawn them due a pressure from scriptures, Guru, atmosphere, monastery, or other conditions.
1.053 - The Star, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
25. to God belong the Last and the First.
26. How many an angel is there in the heavens whose intercession avails nothing, except after God gives permission to whomever He wills, and approves?
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31. to God belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth. He will repay those who do evil according to their deeds, and recompense those who do good with the best.
32. Those who avoid gross sins and indecencies—except for minor lapses—your Lord is of Vast Forgiveness. He knows you well, ever since He created you from the earth, and ever since you were embryos in your mothers’ wombs. So do not acclaim your own virtue; He is fully aware of the righteous.
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62. So bow down to God, and worship!
1.057 - Iron, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
5. To Him belongs the kingship of the heavens and the earth, and to God all matters are referred.
6. He merges the night into the day, and He merges the day into the night; and He knows what the hearts contains.
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10. And why is it that you do not spend in the cause of God, when to God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth? Not equal among you are those who contributed before the conquest, and fought. Those are higher in rank than those who contributed afterwards, and fought. But God promises both a good reward. God is Well Experienced in what you do.
11. Who is he who will lend God a loan of goodness, that He may double it for him, and will have a generous reward?
1.058 - The Argument, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
1. God has heard the statement of she who argued with you concerning her husband, as she complained to God. God heard your conversation. God is Hearing and Seeing.
2. Those of you who estrange their wives by equating them with their mothers—they are not their mothers. Their mothers are none else but those who gave birth to them. What they say is evil, and a blatant lie. But God is Pardoning and Forgiving.
1.059 - The Mobilization, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
7. Whatever God restored to His Messenger from the inhabitants of the villages belongs to God, and to the Messenger, and to the relatives, and to the orphans, and to the poor, and to the wayfarer; so that it may not circulate solely between the wealthy among you. Whatever the Messenger gives you, accept it; and whatever he forbids you, abstain from it. And fear God. God is severe in punishment.
8. To the poor refugees who were driven out of their homes and their possessions, as they sought the favor of God and His approval, and came to the aid of God and His Messenger. These are the sincere.
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23. He is God; besides Whom there is no god; the Sovereign, the Holy, the Peace-Giver, the Faith-Giver, the Overseer, the Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Overwhelming. Glory be to God, beyond what they associate.
24. He is God; the Creator, the Maker, the Designer. His are the Most Beautiful Names. Whatever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him. He is the Majestic, the Wise.
1.05 - BOOK THE FIFTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
All honours that to Goddesses are due.
Stop, stop, ye Muses, 'tis your friend who calls,
1.05 - CHARITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
It is plain that no distinct object whatever that pleases the will can be God; and, for that reason, if the will is to be united with Him, it must empty itself, cast away every disorderly affection of the desire, every satisfaction it may distinctly have, high and low, temporal and spiritual, so that, purified and cleansed from all unruly satisfactions, joys and desires, it may be wholly occupied, with all its affections, in loving God. For if the will can in any way comprehend God and be united with Him, it cannot be through any capacity of the desire, but only by love; and as all the delight, sweetness and joy, of which the will is sensible, is not love, it follows that none of these pleasing impressions can be the adequate means of uniting the will to God. These adequate means consist in an act of the will. And because an act of the will is quite distinct from feeling, it is by an act that the will is united with God and rests in Him; that act is love. This union is never wrought by feeling or exertion of the desire; for these remain in the soul as aims and ends. It is only as motives of love that feelings can be of service, if the will is bent on going onwards, and for nothing else.
He, then, is very unwise who, when sweetness and spiritual delight fail him, thinks for that reason that God has abandoned him; and when he finds them again, rejoices and is glad, thinking that he has in that way come to possess God.
1.05 - On painstaking and true repentance which constitute the life of the holy convicts; and about the prison., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Others stood in prayer with their hands tied behind their backs like criminals, their faces, darkened by sorrow, bent to the earth. They regarded themselves as unworthy to look up to heaven. Overwhelmed by the embarrassment of their thoughts and conscience they could not find anything to say or pray about to God, how or with what to begin their prayers. But as if filled with darkness and a blank despair, they offered to God nothing but a speechless soul and a voiceless mind.
Others sat on the ground in sackcloth and ashes, hiding their faces between their knees, and striking the earth with their foreheads.
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I saw there humble and contrite souls depressed by the weight of their burden. Their voices and outcries to God would have moved the very stones to compassion. For, casting their gaze to the earth they would say: We know, we know that in all justice we deserve every punishment and torment. For how could we make satisfaction for the multitude of our debts even if we were to summon the whole world to weep for us? But this is our only petition, this our prayer, this our supplication, that He may not rebuke us in anger, nor chasten us in His wrath.1 Punish, but spare! It is sufficient for us if Thou deliverest us from Thy great threat, from the unknown and hidden torments. For we dare not ask for complete forgivenesshow could we? For we have not kept our vow but have defiled it, even Thy past loving kindness and forgiveness.
And there, friends, the fulfilment of the words of David could be clearly seen, men enduring hardship and bowed down to the end of their life, going about with a sad countenance all day long, the wounds in their body stinking of rottenness,2 and they took no notice of them, and they forgot to eat their bread, and they mingled their drink of water with weeping; they ate dust and ashes with their bread, and their bones cleaved to their flesh, and were withered like grass.3 You could hear from them nothing but the words: Woe, woe! Alas, alas! It is just, it is just! Spare us, spare us O Lord. Some were saying: Have mercy, have mercy, and others still more plaintively: Forgive, O Lord; forgive if it is possible.
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Such were the unceasing utterances and cries to the Lord which they made. Some, striking themselves hard on the breast, as if standing before the gates of heaven would say to God: Open to us,
1 Psalm vi, 1.
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For I shall certainly not hide this most moving lowliness in these blessed men, and their contrite love for God and repentance. When one of these good inhabitants of the land of repentance was about to go to God and stand before the impartial tribunal, then as soon as he saw that his end was at hand, he would beg the great abbot through the superior set over them with adjurations not to give him human burial, but to fling him, like an irrational animal, into a river bed or to give him up to wild beasts in the fields. And this was often done by that lamp of discernment who would order the dead to be carried out without any psalmody or honour.
Most terrible and pitiful was the sight of their last hour. When his fellow-defaulters learnt that one of their number was ready to precede them by finishing his course, they gathered round him while his mind was still active and with thirst, with tears, with love, with a tender look and sad voice, shaking their heads, they would ask the dying man, and would say to him, burning with compassion: How are you, brother and fellow criminal? What will you say? What do you hope? What do you expect? Have you accomplished what you sought with such labour or not? Has the door been opened to you, or are you still under judgment? Have you attained your object, or not yet? Have you received any sort of assurance, or is your hope still uncertain? Have you obtained freedom, or is your thought clouded with doubt? Have you felt any enlightenment in your heart or is it still dark and ashamed? Has any inner voice said: Behold thou art made whole,1 or: Thy sins are forgiven thee, 2or: Thy faith has saved thee?3 Or, have you heard a voice like this: Let the sinners be turned into hell,4 and: Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness,5 and again: Let the wicked man be removed that he may not see the glory of the Lord?6 What, quite simply, can you say, brother? Tell us, we beg you, that we too may know in what state we shall be. For your time is already closed, and you will never find another opportunity. To this some of the dying would reply: Blessed is God who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me. 7Others again: Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us for a prey to their teeth.8 Others said dolefully: Will our soul pass through the impassable water9 of the spirits of the air?not having complete confidence, but looking to see what would happen in that rendering of accounts. Others still more dolefully would answer and say: Woe to the soul that has not kept its vow intact! In this hour, and in this only, it will know what is prepared for it.
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with works of penance, if only there is in it a remnant of a spark of love or fear of the Lord. Such, in truth, were these blessed men. For keeping these things in mind, and considering the height of virtue from which they had fallen, they would say: We remember the days of old1 and that fire of our zeal. Some would cry to God: Where are Thine ancient mercies, O Lord, such as Thou didst reveal to our soul in Thy truth? Remember the reproach and hardships of Thy servants.2 And another would say: O that I were reinstated as in times past, in the days of the months when God watched over me, when the lamp of His light shone over the head of my heart!3
How they would recall their former attainments! And be- wailing them as if they were children that had died, they would say: Where is my purity of prayer? Where is its boldness? Where the sweet tears instead of the bitter? Where is the hope of perfect chastity and purification? Where is the expectation of blessed dispassion? Where is my faith in the shepherd? Where is the effect of his prayer in us? All this is lost, and has slipped away as if it had never appeared, and has vanished as if it had never been.
1.05 - On the Love of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
But (and may God preserve us from such a doom!) if in a man's heart there has been growing up a love of what is opposed to God, the conditions of the next life will be altogether alien to him, and that which will cause joy to others will to him cause misery.
{p. 131}
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The second test of sincerity is that a man should be willing to sacrifice his will to God's, should cleave to what brings him nearer to God, and should shun what places him at a distance from God. The fact of a man's sinning is no proof that he does not love God at all, but it proves that he does not love Him with his whole heart. The saint Fudhail said to a certain man, "If any one asks you whether you love God, keep silent; for if you say, 'I do not love Him,' you are an infidel; and if you say, 'I do,' your deeds contradict you."
The third test is that the remembrance of God should always remain fresh in a man's heart without effort, for what a man loves he constantly remembers, and if his love is perfect he never forgets it. It is possible, however, that, while the love of God does not take the first place in a man's heart, the love of the love of God may, for love is one thing and the love of love another.
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A sixth test is that worship becomes easy. A certain saint said, "During one space of thirty years I performed my night-devotions with great difficulty, but during a second space of thirty years they became a delight." When love to God is complete no joy is equal to the joy of worship.
The seventh test is that lovers of God will love those who obey Him and hate the infidels and the disobedient, as the Koran says: "They are strenuous against the unbelievers and merciful to each other." The Prophet once asked God and said, "O Lord! who are Thy lovers?" and the answer came, "Those who cleave to Me
1.05 - Qualifications of the Aspirant and the Teacher, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Religion with such people becomes business; they think they can obtain it with their dollars. Would to God that religion could be obtained so easily! But unfortunately it cannot be.
Religion, which is the highest knowledge and the highest wisdom, cannot be bought, nor can it be acquired from books. You may thrust your head into all the corners of the world, you may explore the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Caucasus, you may sound the bottom of the sea and pry into every nook of Tibet and the desert of Gobi, you will not find it anywhere until your heart is ready for receiving it and your teacher has come. And when that divinely appointed teacher comes, serve him with childlike confidence and simplicity, freely open your heart to his influence, and see in him God manifested.
1.05 - The Ascent of the Sacrifice - The Psychic Being, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is natural from the point of view of the Yoga to divide into two categories the activities of the human mind in its pursuit of knowledge. There is the supreme supra-intellectual knowledge which concentrates itself on the discovery of the One and Infinite in its transcendence or tries to penetrate by intuition, contemplation, direct inner contact into the ultimate truths behind the appearances of Nature; there is the lower science which diffuses itself in an outward knowledge of phenomena, the disguises of the One and Infinite as it appears to us in and through the more exterior forms of the world-manifestation around us. These two, an upper and a lower hemisphere, in the form of them constructed or conceived by men within the mind's ignorant limits, have even there separated themselves, as they developed, with some sharpness.... Philosophy, sometimes spiritual or at least intuitive, sometimes abstract and intellectual, sometimes intellectualising spiritual experience or supporting with a logical apparatus the discoveries of the spirit, has claimed always to take the fixation of ultimate Truth as its province. But even when it did not separate itself on rarefied metaphysical heights from the knowledge that belongs to the practical world and the pursuit of ephemeral objects, intellectual Philosophy by its habit of abstraction has seldom been a power for life. It has been sometimes powerful for high speculation, pursuing mental Truth for its own sake without any ulterior utility or object, sometimes for a subtle gymnastic of the mind in a mistily bright cloud-land of words and ideas, but it has walked or acrobatised far from the more tangible realities of existence. Ancient Philosophy in Europe was more dynamic, but only for the few; in India in its more spiritualised forms, it strongly influenced but without transforming the life of the race.... Religion did not attempt, like Philosophy, to live alone on the heights; its aim was rather to take hold of man's parts of life even more than his parts of mind and draw them Godwards; it professed to build a bridge between spiritual Truth and the vital and material existence; it strove to subordinate and reconcile the lower to the higher, make life serviceable to God, Earth obedient to Heaven. It has to be admitted that too often this necessary effort had the opposite result of making Heaven a sanction for Earth's desires; for continually the religious idea has been turned into an excuse for the worship and service of the human ego. Religion, leaving constantly its little shining core of spiritual experience, has lost itself in the obscure mass of its ever extending ambiguous compromises with life: in attempting to satisfy the thinking mind, it more often succeeded in oppressing or fettering it with a mass of theological dogmas; while seeking to net the human heart, it fell itself into pits of pietistic emotionalism and sensationalism; in the act of annexing the vital nature of man to dominate it, it grew itself vitiated and fell a prey to all the fanaticism, homicidal fury, savage or harsh turn for oppression, pullulating falsehood, obstinate attachment to ignorance to which that vital nature is prone; its desire to draw the physical in man towards God betrayed it into chaining itself to ecclesiastic mechanism, hollow ceremony and lifeless ritual. The corruption of the best produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil. At the same time in a vain effort at self-defence against this downward gravitation. Religion was driven to cut existence into two by a division of knowledge, works, art, life itself into two opposite categories, the spiritual and the worldly, religious and mundane, sacred and profane; but this' defensive distinction itself became conventional and artificial and aggravated rather than healed the disease.... On the other side. Science and Art and the knowledge of life, although at first they served or lived in the shadow of Religion, ended by emancipating themselves, became estranged or hostile, or have even recoiled with indifference, contempt or scepticism from what seem to them the cold, barren and distant or unsubstantial and illusory heights of unreality to which metaphysical Philosophy and Religion aspire. For a time the divorce has been as complete as the one-sided intolerance of the human mind could make it and threatened even to end in a complete extinction of all attempt at a higher or a more spiritual knowledge. Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind's horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment. A sterile agnosticism awaits us above the brilliant phosphorescence of a half-knowledge that is still the Ignorance.
A Yoga turned towards an all-embracing realisation of the Supreme will not despise the works or even the dreams, if dreams they are, of the Cosmic Spirit or shrink from the splendid toil and many-sided victory which he has assigned to himself In the human creature. But its first condition for this liberality is that our works in the world too must be part of the sacrifice offered to the Highest and to none else, to the Divine shakti and to no other Power, in the right spirit and with the right knowledge, by the free soul and not by the hypnotised bondslave of material Nature. If a division of works has to be made, it is between those that are nearest to the heart of the sacred flame and those that are least touched or illumined by it because they are more at a distance, or between the fuel that burns strongly or brightly and the logs that if too thickly heaped on the altar may impede the ardour of the fire by their damp, heavy and diffused abundance. But otherwise, apart from this division, all activities of knowledge that seek after or express Truth are in themselves rightful materials for a complete offering; none ought necessarily to be excluded from the wide framework of the divine life. The mental and physical sciences which examine into the laws and forms and processes of things, those which concern the life of men and animals, the social, political, linguistic and historical and those which seek to know and control the labours and activities by which man subdues and utilises his world and environment, and the noble and beautiful Arts which are at once work and knowledge, -- for every well-made and significant poem, picture, statue or building is an act of creative knowledge, a living discovery of the consciousness, a figure of Truth, a dynamic form of mental and vital self-expression or world-expressions-all that seeks, all that finds, all that voices or figures is a realisation of something of the play of the Infinite and to that extent can be made a means of God-realisation or of divine formation. But the Yogin has to see that it is no longer done as part of an ignorant mental life; it can be accepted by him only if by the feeling, the remembrance, the dedication within it, it is turned into a movement of the spiritual consciousness and becomes a part of its vast grasp of comprehensive illuminating knowledge.
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
understood most profoundly in terms of his relationship to God as made in the image of God rather
than in light of his cognitive abilities, or his place in nature. The essence of this spirit identified with God
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The relation of evil to God has in the century of Auschwitz and Hiroshima once again become a center
of philosophical and theological discussion. The problem of evil can be stated simply: God is
1.05 - The Magical Control of the Weather, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
As thou goest, to God now pray:
O my God, upon the plain,
1.05 - THE MASTER AND KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Do your duty with one hand and with the other hold to God. After the duty is over, you will hold to God with both hands.
Bondage and liberation are of the mind
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MASTER: "Yes, you can perform them too, but only as much as you need for your livelihood. At the same time, you must pray to God in solitude, with tears in your eyes, that you may be able to perform those duties in an unselfish manner. You should say to Him: 'O God, make my worldly duties fewer and fewer; otherwise, O Lord, I find that I forget Thee when I am involved in too many activities. I may think I am doing unselfish work, but it turns out to be selfish.' People who carry to excess the giving of alms, or the distributing of food among the poor, fall victims to the desire of acquiring name and fame.
"Sambhu Mallick once talked about establishing hospitals, dispensaries, and schools, making roads, digging public reservoirs, and so forth. I said to him: 'Don't go out of your way to look for such works. Undertake only those works that present themselves to you and are of pressing necessity-and those also in a spirit of detachment.' It is not good to become involved in many activities. That makes one forget God. Coming to the Kalighat temple, some, perhaps, spend their whole time in giving alms to the poor. They have no time to see the Mother in the inner shrine! (Laughter.) First of all manage somehow to see the image of the Divine Mother, oven by pushing through the crowd.
1.05 - THE NEW SPIRIT, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
ourselves which we were required to make to God and to our
neighbor appeared to be something opposed to and destructive of
1.05 - War And Politics, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
"Looking at me she replied, 'That doesn't matter. Wherever people call the Divine in any form, I answer to their call. I shall tell you what happened one day. The Germans were bombing France heavily. Two children, sister and brother, had gone to school. When they returned, they could not find their house nor their parents: they were destroyed. The elder sister clasping the brother began to call her parents and the brother was trembling in fear like a leaf. Suddenly a cry to God reached me surging from the depth of the heart. I had to go immediately. Making some provision for them I returned.'"
Let us now sum up Sri Aurobindo's vision of Hitler. Long before anyone knew much about Hitler and his aim and purpose, the Mother and Sri Aurobindo were under no illusions about him. Of course, he had spoken openly about his aim in his Mem Kampf, but no one perhaps took it seriously. Sri Aurobindo not only understood it but saw the dark occult force behind that made Hitler its effective instrument. He gave us occasional hints in our letters about Hitler and his being possessed by that force. In a letter in 1935 I wrote to him, "Since the descent of the Supermind will quicken the process, why not retrench the whole staff? We shall all flock back after the descent!"
1.061 - Column, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
3. It is most hateful to God that you say what you do not do.
4. God loves those who fight in His cause, in ranks, as though they were a compact structure.
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7. And who is a greater wrongdoer than he who attributes falsehoods to God, when he is being invited to Islam? God does not guide the wrongdoing people.
8. They want to extinguish God’s Light with their mouths; but God will complete His Light, even though the disbelievers dislike it.
1.063 - The Hypocrites, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
7. It is they who say: “Do not spend anything on those who side with God’s Messenger, unless they have dispersed.” to God belong the treasures of the heavens and the earth, but the hypocrites do not understand.
8. They say, “If we return to the City, the more powerful therein will evict the weak.” But power belongs to God, and His Messenger, and the believers; but the hypocrites do not know.
9. O you who believe! Let neither your possessions nor your children distract you from the remembrance of God. Whoever does that—these are the losers.
1.066 - Prohibition, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
4. If you repent to God, then your hearts have listened. But if you band together against him, then God is his Ally, as is Gabriel, and the righteous believers. In addition, the angels will assist him.
5. Perhaps, if he divorces you, his Lord will give him in exchange wives better than you: submissive, believing, obedient, penitent, devout, fasting—previously married, or virgins.
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8. O you who believe! Repent to God with sincere repentance. Perhaps your Lord will remit your sins, and admit you into gardens beneath which rivers flow, on the Day when God will not disappoint the Prophet and those who believed with him. Their light streaming before them, and to their right, they will say, “Our Lord, complete our light for us, and forgive us; You are capable of all things.”
9. O prophet! Strive hard against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Their abode is Hell. What a miserable destination!
1.06 - Magicians as Kings, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
attain to Godhead, not merely after their death, but in their
lifetime, through the temporary or permanent possession of their
1.06 - MORTIFICATION, NON-ATTACHMENT, RIGHT LIVELIHOOD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
That the mortified are, in some respects, often much worse than the unmortified is a commonplace of history, fiction and descriptive psychology. Thus, the Puritan may practice all the cardinal virtuesprudence, fortitude, temperance and chastity and yet remain a thoroughly bad man; for, in all too many cases, these virtues of his are accompanied by, and indeed causally connected with, the sins of pride, envy, chronic anger and an uncharitableness pushed sometimes to the level of active cruelty. Mistaking the means for the end, the Puritan has fancied himself holy because he is stoically austere. But stoical austerity is merely the exaltation of the more creditable side of the ego at the expense of the less creditable. Holiness, on the contrary, is the total denial of the separative self, in its creditable no less than its discreditable aspects, and the abandonment of the will to God. To the extent that there is attachment to I, me, mine, there is no attachment to, and therefore no unitive knowledge of, the divine Ground. Mortification has to be carried to the pitch of non-attachment or (in the phrase of St. Franois de Sales) holy indifference; otherwise it merely transfers self-will from one channel to another, not merely without decrease in the total volume of that self-will, but sometimes with an actual increase. As usual, the corruption of the best is the worst. The difference between the mortified, but still proud and self-centred stoic and the unmortified hedonist consists in this: the latter, being flabby, shiftless and at heart rather ashamed of himself, lacks the energy and the motive to do much harm except to his own body, mind and spirit; the former, because he has all the secondary virtues and looks down on those who are not like himself, is morally equipped to wish and to be able to do harm on the very largest scale and with a perfectly untroubled conscience. These are obvious facts; and yet, in the current religious jargon of our day the word immoral is reserved almost exclusively for the carnally self-indulgent. The covetous and the ambitious, the respectable toughs and those who cloak their lust for power and place under the right sort of idealistic cant, are not merely unblamed; they are even held up as models of virtue and godliness. The representatives of the organized churches begin by putting haloes on the heads of the people who do most to make wars and revolutions, then go on, rather plaintively, to wonder why the world should be in such a mess.
Mortification is not, as many people seem to imagine, a matter, primarily, of severe physical austerities. It is possible that, for certain persons in certain circumstances, the practice of severe physical austerities may prove helpful in advance towards mans final end. In most cases, however, it would seem that what is gained by such austerities is not liberation, but something quite different the achievement of psychic powers. The ability to get petitionary prayer answered, the power to heal and work other miracles, the knack of looking into the future or into other peoples mindsthese, it would seem, are often related in some kind of causal connection with fasting, watching and the self-infliction of pain. Most of the great theocentric saints and spiritual teachers have admitted the existence of supernormal powers, only, however, to deplore them. To think that such Siddhis, as the Indians call them, have anything to do with liberation is, they say, a dangerous illusion. These things are either irrelevant to the main issue of life, or, if too much prized and attended to, an obstacle in the way of spiritual advance. Nor are these the only objections to physical austerities. Carried to extremes, they may be dangerous to health and without health the steady persistence of effort required by the spiritual life is very difficult of achievement. And being difficult, painful and generally conspicuous, physical austerities are a standing temptation to vanity and the competitive spirit of record breaking. When thou didst give thyself up to physical mortification, thou wast great, thou wast admired. So writes Suso of his own experiencesexperiences which led him, just as Gautama Buddha had been led many centuries before, to give up his course of bodily penance. And St. Teresa remarks how much easier it is to impose great penances upon oneself than to suffer in patience, charity and humbleness the ordinary everyday crosses of family life (which did not prevent her, incidentally, from practising, to the very day of her death, the most excruciating forms of self-torture. Whether these austerities really helped her to come to the unitive knowledge of God, or whether they were prized and persisted in because of the psychic powers they helped to develop, there is no means of determining).
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When the will, the moment it feels any joy in sensible things rises upwards in that joy to God, and when sensible things move it to pray, it should not neglect them, it should make use of them for so holy an exercise; because sensible things, in these conditions, subserve the end for which God created them, namely to be occasions for making Him better known and loved.
St. John of the Cross
He who is not conscious of liberty of spirit among the things of sense and sweetnessthings which should serve as motives to prayer and whose will rests and feeds upon them, ought to abstain from the use of them; for to him they are a hindrance on the road to God.
St. John of the Cross
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The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly. So the soul, held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God.
St. John of the Cross
There are some who are newly delivered from their sins and so, though they are resolved to love God, they are still novices and apprentices, soft and weak. They love a number of superfluous, vain and dangerous things at the same time as Our Lord. Though they love God above all things, they yet continue to take pleasure in many things which they do not love according to God, but besides Himthings such as slight inordinations in word, gesture, clothing, pastimes and frivolities.
St. Franois de Sales
There are souls who have made some progress in divine love, and have cut off all the love they had for dangerous things; yet they still have dangerous and superfluous loves, because they love what God wills them to love, but with excess and too tender and passionate a love. The love of our relations, friends and benefactors is itself according to God, but we may love them excessively; as also our vocations, however spiritual they be; and our devotional exercises (which we should yet love very greatly) may be loved inordinately, when we set them above obedience and the more general good, or care for them as an end, when they are only means.
St. Franois de Sales
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He knoweth nothing as he ought to know, who thinks he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity.
Thomas Traherne
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Happy is the man who, by continually effacing all images and through introversion and the lifting up of his mind to God, at last forgets and leaves behind all such hindrances. For by such means only, he operates inwardly, with his naked, pure, simple intellect and affections, about the most pure and simple object, God. Therefore see that thy whole exercise about God within thee may depend wholly and only on that naked intellect, affection and will. For indeed, this exercise cannot be discharged by any bodily organ, or by the external senses, but only by that which constitutes the essence of manunderstanding and love. If, therefore, thou desirest a safe stair and short path to arrive at the end of true bliss, then, with an intent mind, earnestly desire and aspire after continual cleanness of heart and purity of mind. Add to this a constant calm and tranquillity of the senses, and a recollecting of the affections of the heart, continually fixing them above. Work to simplify the heart, that being immovable and at peace from any invading vain phantasms, thou mayest always stand fast in the Lord within thee, to that degree as if thy soul had already entered the always present now of eternity that is, the state of the deity. To mount to God is to enter into oneself. For he who so mounts and enters and goes above and beyond himself, he truly mounts up to God. The mind must then raise itself above itself and say, He who above all I need is above all I know. And so carried into the darkness of the mind, gathering itself into that all-sufficient good, it learns to stay at home and with its whole affection it cleaves and becomes habitually fixed in the supreme good within. Thus continue, until thou becomest immutable and dost arrive at that true life which is God Himself, perpetually, without any vicissitude of space or time, reposing in that inward quiet and secret mansion of the deity.
Albertus Magnus (?)
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To be absorbed in the world around and never turn a thought within, as is the blind condition of some who are carried away by what is pleasant and tangible, is one extreme as opposed to simplicity. And to be self-absorbed in all matters, whether it be duty to God or man, is the other extreme, which makes a person wise in his own conceitreserved, self-conscious, uneasy at the least thing which disturbs his inward self-complacency. Such false wisdom, in spite of its solemnity, is hardly less vain and foolish than the folly of those who plunge headlong into worldly pleasures. The one is intoxicated by his outward surroundings, the other by what he believes himself to be doing inwardly; but both are in a state of intoxication, and the last is a worse state than the first, because it seems to be wise, though it is not really, and so people do not try to be cured. Real simplicity lies in a juste milieu equally free from thoughtlessness and affectation, in which the soul is not overwhelmed by externals, so as to be unable to reflect, nor yet given up to the endless refinements, which self-consciousness induces. That soul which looks where it is going without losing time arguing over every step, or looking back perpetually, possesses true simplicity. Such simplicity is indeed a great treasure. How shall we attain to it? I would give all I possess for it; it is the costly pearl of Holy Scripture.
The first step, then, is for the soul to put away outward things and look within so as to know its own real interest; so far all is right and natural; thus much is only a wise self-love, which seeks to avoid the intoxication of the world.
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As I did not understand this reply, he went on to say, Those who are bound by obedience are usually subject to one superior only. But those who are themselves superiors have a wider field for obedience, even while they command; for if they bear in mind that it is God who has placed them over other men, and gives them the rule they have, they will exercise it out of obedience to God, and thus, even while commanding, they will obey. Moreover there is no position so high but that it is subject to a spiritual superior in what concerns the conscience and the soul. But there is a yet higher point of obedience to which all superiors may aspire, even that to which St. Paul alludes, when he says, Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. It is by such universal obedience to everyone that we become all things to all men; and serving everyone for Our Lords sake, we esteem all to be our superiors.
In accordance with this rule, I have often observed how Franois de Sales treated everyone, even the most insignificant persons who approached him, as though he were the inferior, never repulsing anyone, never refusing to enter into conversation, to speak or to listen, never betraying the slightest sign of weariness, impatience and annoyance, however importunate or ill-timed the interruption. To those who asked him why he thus wasted his time his constant reply was, It is Gods will; it is what He requires of me; what more need I ask? While I am doing this, I am not required to do anything else. Gods Holy Will is the centre from which all we do must radiate; all else is mere weariness and excitement.
1.06 - Of imperfections with respect to spiritual gluttony., #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
2. These persons are most imperfect and unreasonable; for they set bodily penance before subjection and obedience, which is penance according to reason and discretion, and therefore a sacrifice more acceptable and pleasing to God than any other. But such one-sided penance is no more than the penance of beasts, to which they are attracted, exactly like beasts, by the desire and pleasure which they find therein. Inasmuch as all extremes are vicious, and as in behaving thus such persons41 are working their own will, they grow in vice rather than in virtue; for, to say the least, they are acquiring spiritual gluttony and pride in this way, through not walking in obedience. And many of these the devil assails, stirring up this gluttony in them through the pleasures and desires which he increases within them, to such an extent that, since they can no longer help themselves, they either change or vary or add to that which is commanded them, as any obedience in this respect is so bitter to them. To such an evil pass have some persons come that, simply because it is through obedience that they engage in these exercises, they lose the desire and devotion to perform them, their only desire and pleasure being to do what they themselves are inclined to do, so that it would probably be more profitable for them not to engage in these exercises at all.
3. You will find that many of these persons are very insistent with their spiritual masters to be granted that which they desire, extracting it from them almost by force; if they be refused it they become as peevish as children and go about in great displeasure, thinking that they are not serving God when they are not allowed to do that which they would. For they go about clinging to their own will and pleasure, which they treat as though it came from God;42 and immediately their directors43 take it from them, and try to subject them to the will of God, they become peevish, grow faint-hearted and fall away. These persons think that their own satisfaction and pleasure are the satisfaction and service of God.
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5. These persons, in communicating, strive with every nerve to obtain some kind of sensible sweetness and pleasure, instead of humbly doing reverence and giving praise within themselves to God. And in such wise do they devote themselves to this that, when they have received no pleasure or sweetness in the senses, they think that they have accomplished nothing at all. This is to judge God very unworthily; they have not realized that the least of the benefits which come from this Most Holy Sacrament is that which concerns the senses; and that the invisible part of the grace that it bestows is much greater; for, in order that they may look at it with the eyes of faith, God oftentimes withholds from them these other consolations and sweetnesses of sense. And thus they desire to feel and taste God as though He were comprehensible by them and accessible to them, not only in this, but likewise in other spiritual practices. All this is very great imperfection and completely opposed to the nature of God, since it is Impurity in faith.
6. These persons have the same defect as regards the practice of prayer, for they think that all the business of prayer consists in experiencing sensible pleasure and devotion and they strive to obtain this by great effort,47 wearying and fatiguing their faculties and their heads; and when they have not found this pleasure they become greatly discouraged, thinking that they have accomplished nothing.
1.06 - On Work, #The Prophet, #Kahlil Gibran, #Poetry
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
*****
1.06 - Raja Yoga, #Amrita Gita, #Swami Sivananda Saraswati, #Hinduism
7. Niyama is observance of five canons, viz., Saucha (internal and external purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (austerity), Svadhyaya (study of religious books and repetitions of Mantras), and Ishvarapranidhana (self-surrender to God, and His worship).
8. Ahimsa is perfect harmlessness and positive love also. This removes the brutal nature in man and streng thens the will.
1.06 - The Four Powers of the Mother, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
6:The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Naturebody and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to Godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother
7:Four great Aspects of the Mother four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. Another embodies her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact perfection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it is these powers that they bring with them into the world, manifest in a human disguise in their Vibhutis and shall found in the divine degree of their ascension in those who can open their earthly nature to the direct and living influence of the Mother To the four we give the four great names, Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati.
1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Worldly people's indifference to spiritual life MASTER: "Many people visit the temple garden at Dakshineswar. If I see some among the visitors indifferent to God, I say to them, 'You had better sit over there.' Or sometimes I say, 'Go and see the beautiful buildings.' (Laughter.) "Sometimes I find that the devotees of God are accompanied by worthless people. Their companions are immersed in gross worldliness and don't enjoy spiritual talk at all. Since the devotees keep on, for a long time, talking with me about God, the others become restless. Finding it impossible to sit there any longer, they whisper to their devotee friends: 'When shall we be going? How long will you stay here?' The devotees say: 'Wait a bit. We shall go after a little while.' Then the worldly people say in a disgusted tone: 'Well, then, you can talk. We shall wait for you in the boat.' (All laugh.) Power of God's name
"Worldly people will never listen to you if you ask them to renounce everything and devote themselves whole-heartedly to God. Therefore Chaitanya and Nitai, after some deliberation, made an arrangement to attract the worldly. They would say to such persons, 'Come, repeat the name of Hari, and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish and the embrace of a young woman.' Many people, attracted by the fish and the woman, would chant the name of God. After tasting a little of the nectar of God's hallowed name, they would soon realize that the 'fish soup' really meant the tears they shed for love of God, while the 'young woman' signified the earth. The embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture of divine love.
"Nitai would employ any means to make people repeat Hari's name. Chaitanya said: 'The name of God has very great sanctity. It may not produce an immediate result, but one day it must bear fruit. It is like a seed that has been left on the cornice of a building. After many days the house crumbles, and the seed falls on the earth, germinates, and at last bears fruit.'
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"Once a thief stole the jewels from the images in the temple of Radhakanta. Mathur Babu entered the temple and said to the Deity: 'What a shame, O God! You couldn't save Your own ornaments.' 'The idea!' I said to Mathur. 'Does He who has Lakshmi for His handmaid and attendant ever lack any splendour? Those jewels may be precious to you, but to God they are no better than lumps of clay. Shame on you! You shouldn't have spoken so meanly. 'What riches can you give to God to magnify His glory?'
"Therefore I say, a man seeks the person in whom he finds joy. What need has he to ask where that person lives, the number of his houses, gardens, relatives, and servants, or the amount of his wealth? I forget everything when I see Narendra. Never, even unwittingly, have I asked him where he lived, what his father's profession was, or the number of his brothers.
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The kathak recited the life of Prahlada from the Purana. Its substance was as follows: Hiranyakasipu, Prahlada's father, was king of the demons. He bore great malice toward God and put his own son through endless tortures for leading a religious life. Afflicted by his father, Prahlada prayed to God, "O God, please give my father holy inclinations."
At these words the Master wept. He went into an ecstatic mood. Afterwards he began to talk to the devotees.
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"But you must remember that nothing can be achieved except in its proper time. Some persons must pass through many experiences and perform many worldly duties before they can turn their attention to God; so they have to wait a long time. If an abscess is lanced before it is soft, the result is not good; the surgeon makes the opening when it is soft and has come to a head. Once a child said to its mother: 'Mother, I am going to sleep now. Please wake me up when I feel the call of nature.' 'My child,' said the mother, 'when it is time for that, you will wake up yourself. I shan't have to wake you.'
The Marwari devotees generally brought offerings of fruit, candy, and other sweets for the Master. But Sri Ramakrishna could hardly eat them. He would say: "They earn their money by falsehood. I can't eat their offerings." He said to the Marwaris: "You see, one can't strictly adhere to truth in business. There are ups and downs in business. Nanak once said, 'I was about to eat the food of unholy people, when I found it stained with blood.' A man should offer only pure things to holy men. He shouldn't give them food earned by dishonest means. God is realized by following the path of truth. One should always chant His name. Even while one is performing one's duties, the mind should be left with God. Suppose I have a carbuncle on my back. I perform my duties, but the mind is drawn to the carbuncle. It is good to repeat the name of Rama. 'The same Rama who was the son of King Dasaratha has created this world. Again, as Spirit, He pervades all beings. He is very near us; He is both within and without.' "
1.06 - The Three Schools of Magick 1, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
* [AC14] This doctrine of the Three Schools is of extreme interest. Roughly, it may be said that the White is the Pure Mystic, whose attitude to God is one of reverence. The Yellow School conceals the Mysteries indeed, but examines them as it goes along. The Black School is that of pure Scepticism.[9]
* [AC15] It is interesting to note that the three greatest influences in the world today are those of Teutonic Hebrews: Marx, Hertz, and Freud.
1.075 - Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
object:1.075 - Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God
author class:Swami Krishnananda
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Chapter 75: Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God
The purification of the mind that gradually takes place brings a natural satisfaction which will become a permanent asset a satisfaction which one will not be dispossessed of at any time, inasmuch as it has not been caused by temporary factors. A satisfaction that comes by causes that can cease to exist one day or the other will also cease to exist when the causes thereof cease. But here is a spontaneous joy on account of sattva suddhi, which is the basic reason behind ones being happy at all. It has been reiterated that happiness is not due to any kind of movement of causes from outside. It arises on account of a condition that manifests inside; and if this condition is perpetuated, and if it does not stand in need of being stimulated by external causes, then this satisfaction will be permanent. But if we need a goad at every time so that the mind may stir itself up into a condition of sattva for satisfaction, then when the goad is withdrawn, the joy also goes. Sattva suddhi is a purification of the mind that brings about saumanasya, or serenity, which is a perpetual, permanent, unceasing character of ones total being. There will be serenity in the face, contentment in the expression of the person, which will be part and parcel of ones permanent behaviour and conduct. Here, the conduct or the behaviour is an expression of a permanent mood that has arisen inside. Therefore, the expression will be permanent.
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Samdhisiddhi varapraidhnt (II.45): The mind gets inclined to samadhi by the love of God. There is an inclination of our entire being to self-absorption, due to the daily adoration of God. Inasmuch as God is universal omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent a surrender of oneself to God, a daily adoration of God, a worship of God, and a daily thought and feeling and will directed to God will naturally compel the mind to adopt characters which are of the nature of this ideal. There will be, therefore, a mood generated in the mind to sink into itself, rather than move out of itself. Distractions will cease. The contemplation on the nature of the All-pervading Being is supposed to be the best form of meditation, inclusive of every other means. All objects of meditation are comprehended here, included here. This is the ocean of all things.
If only we can direct the mind to All-Being, the supreme nature of the Almighty, there would be no need of searching for objects of meditation. Everything is here. The result that follows is a resting of the mind in itself, inasmuch as the omnipresence of God prevents the mind from going to objects of sense. That is the first stroke which the contemplation of universality deals to the cravings of sense. The deep feeling for God, Who is everywhere, is an antidote to the restlessness of the senses which ask for things outside. A daily hammering into the mind of the idea of all-existence, omnipresence, will not only withdraw the senses from their objects, energise them and bring joy to them, but will also turn the mind inward and make it visualise the cause of its activities, the purpose of its movements, and its ultimate intentions. Thus, the yoga sutra tells us that Isvara pranidhana, or surrender of oneself to God, is an ultimate method and, finally, it must be regarded as the best of all methods of concentration, meditation and Self-absorption.
These practices are practically the be-all and end-all of the preliminaries of yoga. Though they are usually called preliminaries, they are such essentials that without them it would be impossible to imagine any success in yoga, because yoga is not merely sitting in a posture, restraining the breath, and so on, as one may imagine in ones enthusiasm. Though it is true that meditation proper starts with the direct practices commencing from asana, etc., these higher stages will be impossible of approach, and success will be far from oneself, if there is a pull permanently exerted on oneself from behind. Whatever be our ardour for a movement forward, that will be prevented by the pull that is exerted by certain forces from behind us; and if this pull is not stopped by adoption of proper means, there will be no movement.
1.07 - BOOK THE SEVENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Be more than mortal, and to Gods ally'd.
They talk of hazards I must first sustain,
1.07 - Incarnate Human Gods, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
that he who had thus ascended to God and been absorbed in his
beatific essence, actually formed part of the Godhead, was the Son
1.07 - On mourning which causes joy., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Mourning, according to God, is sadness of soul, and the disposition of a sorrowing heart, which ever madly seeks that for which it thirsts; and when it fails in its quest, it painfully pursues it, and follows in its wake grievously lamenting. Or thus: mourning is a golden spur in a soul which is stripped of all attachment and of all ties, fixed by holy sorrow to watch over the heart.
Compunction is a perennial testing of the conscience which brings about the cooling of the fire of the heart through spiritual confession. And confession is a forgetfulness of nature, if anyone because of this really forgot to eat his bread.1
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He who mourns when he wishes has not attained the beauty of mourning, but rather he who mourns on the subjects of his choice, and not even on these, but on what God wants. The ugly tears of vainglory are often interwoven with mourning which is pleasing to God. Acting devoutly, we shall find this out by experiment when we see ourselves mourning and still doing evil.
Genuine compunction is pain of soul shorn of all elation,2 in which it gives itself no relief but hourly imagines only its dissolution; and it awaits, like cool water, the comfort of God who comforts humble monks.
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When we see anger and pride in those who seem to be mourning in a way pleasing to God, then their tears are to be regarded as a repugnant to God. For what fellowship has light with darkness?3
The fruit of morbid compunction is self-esteem, and the fruit of meritorious compunction is consolation.
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No one will dispute that all our tears according to God are profitable. But we shall only know at the time of our death what the profit is.
He who wends his way in constant mourning according to God does not cease to feast daily; but eternal weeping awaits him who does not cease to feast bodily.
Convicts in prison have no joy or delight, and true monks have no feast on earth. Perhaps that is why that excellent mourner, sighing, said: Bring my soul out of prison4 that it may rejoice henceforward in Thy ineffable light.
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When our soul leaves this world we shall not be blamed for not having worked miracles, or for not having been theologians or contemplatives. But we shall certainly have to give an account to God of why we have not unceasingly mourned.
1 St. Luke xiv, 35.
1.07 - The Ego and the Dualities, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
16:We have then the manifestation of the divine Conscious Being in the totality of physical Nature as the foundation of human existence in the material universe. We have the emergence of that Conscious Being in an involved and inevitably evolving Life, Mind and Supermind as the condition of our activities; for it is this evolution which has enabled man to appear in Matter and it is this evolution which will enable him progressively to manifest God in the body, - the universal Incarnation. We have in egoistic formation the intermediate and decisive factor which allows the One to emerge as the conscious Many out of that indeterminate totality general, obscure and formless which we call the subconscient, - hr.dya samudra, the ocean heart in things of the Rig Veda. We have the dualities of life and death, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, truth and error, good and evil as the first formations of egoistic consciousness, the natural and inevitable outcome of its attempt to realise unity in an artificial construction of itself exclusive of the total truth, good, life and delight of being in the universe. We have the dissolution of this egoistic construction by the self-opening of the individual to the universe and to God as the means of that supreme fulfilment to which egoistic life is only a prelude even as animal life was only a prelude to the human. We have the realisation of the All in the individual by the transformation of the limited ego into a conscious centre of the divine unity and freedom as the term at which the fulfilment arrives. And we have the outflowing of the infinite and absolute Existence, Truth, Good and Delight of being on the Many in the world as the divine result towards which the cycles of our evolution move. This is the supreme birth which maternal Nature holds in herself; of this she strives to be delivered.
1.07 - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
No, that question arises from a self that knows too much, sees too much, feels too much. The consolations are gone; the skull will grin in at the banquet; it can no longer tranquilize itself with the trivial. From the depths, it cries out to Gods no longer there, searches for a meaning not yet disclosed, still to be incarnated. Its very agony is worth a million happy magics and a thousand believing myths, and yet its only consolation is its unrelenting pain-a pain, a dread, an emptiness that feels beyond the comforts and distractions of the body, the persona, the ego, looks bravely into the face of the Void, and can no longer explain away either the Mystery or the Terror. It is a soul that is much too awake. It is a soul on the brink of the transpersonal.
THE TRANSPERSONAL DOMAINS
1.07 - The Ideal Law of Social Development, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Individual man belongs not only to humanity in general, his nature is not only a variation of human nature in general, but he belongs also to his race-type, his class-type, his mental, vital, physical, spiritual type in which he resembles some, differs from others. According to these affinities he tends to group himself in Churches, sects, communities, classes, coteries, associations whose life he helps, and by them he enriches the life of the large economic, social and political group or society to which he belongs. In modern times this society is the nation. By his enrichment of the national life, though not in that way only, he helps the total life of humanity. But it must be noted that he is not limited and cannot be limited by any of these groupings; he is not merely the noble, merchant, warrior, priest, scholar, artist, cultivator or artisan, not merely the religionist or the worldling or the politician. Nor can he be limited by his nationality; he is not merely the Englishman or the Frenchman, the Japanese or the Indian; if by a part of himself he belongs to the nation, by another he exceeds it and belongs to humanity. And even there is a part of him, the greatest, which is not limited by humanity; he belongs by it to God and to the world of all beings and to the godheads of the future. He has indeed the tendency of self-limitation and subjection to his environment and group, but he has also the equally necessary tendency of expansion and transcendence of environment and groupings. The individual animal is dominated entirely by his type, subordinated to his group when he does group himself; individual man has already begun to share something of the infinity, complexity, free variation of the Self we see manifested in the world. Or at least he has it in possibility even if there be as yet no sign of it in his organised surface nature. There is here no principle of a mere shapeless fluidity; it is the tendency to enrich himself with the largest possible material constantly brought in, constantly assimilated and changed by the law of his individual nature into stuff of his growth and divine expansion.
Thus the community stands as a mid-term and intermediary value between the individual and humanity and it exists not merely for itself, but for the one and the other and to help them to fulfil each other. The individual has to live in humanity as well as humanity in the individual; but mankind is or has been too large an aggregate to make this mutuality a thing intimate and powerfully felt in the ordinary mind of the race, and even if humanity becomes a manageable unit of life, intermediate groups and aggregates must still exist for the purpose of mass-differentiation and the concentration and combination of varying tendencies in the total human aggregate. Therefore the community has to stand for a time to the individual for humanity even at the cost of standing between him and it and limiting the reach of his universality and the wideness of his sympathies. Still the absolute claim of the community, the society or the nation to make its growth, perfection, greatness the sole object of human life or to exist for itself alone as against the individual and the rest of humanity, to take arbitrary possession of the one and make the hostile assertion of itself against the other, whether defensive or offensive, the law of its action in the world and not, as it unfortunately is, a temporary necessity,this attitude of societies, races, religions, communities, nations, empires is evidently an aberration of the human reason, quite as much as the claim of the individual to live for himself egoistically is an aberration and the deformation of a truth.
1.07 - The Mantra - OM - Word and Wisdom, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
And as the Sphota, being the finer side of the manifested universe, is nearer to God and is indeed that first manifestation of divine wisdom this Om is truly symbolic of God. Again, just as the "One only" Brahman, the Akhanda-Sachchidnanda, the undivided Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, can be conceived by imperfect human souls only from particular standpoints and associated with particular qualities, so this universe, His body, has also to be thought of along the line of the thinker's mind.
This direction of the worshipper's mind is guided by its prevailing elements or Tattvas. The result is that the same God will be seen in various manifestations as the possessor of various predominant qualities, and the same universe will appear as full of manifold forms. Even as in the case of the least differentiated and the most universal symbol Om, thought and sound-symbol are seen to be inseparably associated with each other, so also this law of their inseparable association applies to the many differentiated views of God and the universe: each of them therefore must have a particular wordsymbol to express it. These word-symbols, evolved out of the deepest spiritual perception of sages, symbolise and express, as nearly as possible the particular view of God and the universe they stand for.
1.07 - THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Again, the worldly man is like a snake trying to swallow a mole. The snake can neither swallow the mole nor give it up. The bound soul may have realized that there is no substance to the world-that the world is like a hog plum, only stone and skin-but still he cannot give it up and turn his mind to God.
"I once met a relative of Keshab Sen, fifty years old. He was playing cards. As if the time had not yet come for him to think of God!
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"Devotion to God may be said to be 'green' so long as it doesn't grow into love of God; but it becomes 'ripe' when it has grown into such love.
"A man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but one with 'ripe' bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate covered with black film5
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"The police sergeant goes his rounds in the dark of night with a lantern6 in his hand. No one sees his face; but with the help of that light the sergeant sees everybody's face, and others, too, can see one another. If you want to see the sergeant, however, you must pray to him: 'Sir, please turn the light on your own face. Let me see you.' In the same way one must pray to God: 'O Lord, be gracious and turn the light of knowledge on Thyself, that I may see Thy face.'
"A house without light indicates poverty. So one must light the lamp of Knowledge in one's heart. As it is said in a song:
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"The nearer you come to God, the more you feel peace. Peace, peace, peace-supreme peace! The nearer you come to the Ganges, the more you feel its coolness. You will feel completely soothed when you plunge into the river.
"But the universe and its created beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles, all exist because God exists. Nothing remains if God is eliminated. The number increases if you put many zeros after the figure one; but the zeros don't have any value if the one is not there."
1.07 - The Three Schools of Magick 2, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
At last you surely come to God.
There is thus in this School no attempt to deny that Nature is, as Zoroaster said, "a fatal and evil force"; but Nature is, so to speak, "the First Matter of the Work", which is to be transmuted into gold. The joy is a function of our own part in this alchemy. For this reason we find the boldest and most skillful adepts deliberately seeking out the most repugnant elements of Nature that their triumph may be the greater. The formula is evidently one of dauntless courage. It expresses the idea of vitality and manhood in its most dynamic sense.
1.07 - TRUTH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
She said, moreover, that if one would attain to purity of mind it was necessary to abstain altogether from any judgment on ones neighbour and from all empty talk about his conduct. In creatures one should always seek only for the will of God. With great force she said: For no reason whatever should one judge the actions of creatures or their motives. Even when we see that it is an actual sin, we ought not to pass judgment on it, but have holy and sincere compassion and offer it up to God with humble and devout prayer.
From the Testament of
1.08 - Introduction to Patanjalis Yoga Aphorisms, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
On other and practical grounds we see that the theory of eternal progression is untenable, for destruction is the goal of everything earthly. All our struggles and hopes and fears and joys, what will they lead to? We shall all end in death. Nothing is so certain as this. Where, then, is this motion in a straight line this infinite progression? It is only going out to a distance, and coming back to the centre from which it started. See how, from nebulae, the sun, moon, and stars are produced; then they dissolve and go back to nebulae. The same is being done everywhere. The plant takes material from the earth, dissolves, and gives it back. Every form in this world is taken out of surrounding atoms and goes back to these atoms. It cannot be that the same law acts differently in different places. Law is uniform. Nothing is more certain than that. If this is the law of nature, it also applies to thought. Thought will dissolve and go back to its origin. Whether we will it or not, we shall have to return to our origin which is called God or Absolute. We all came from God, and we are all bound to go back to God. Call that by any name you like, God, Absolute, or Nature, the fact remains the same. "From whom all this universe comes out, in whom all that is born lives, and to whom all returns." This is one fact that is certain. Nature works on the same plan; what is being worked out in one sphere is repeated in millions of spheres. What you see with the planets, the same will it be with this earth, with men, and with all. The huge wave is a mighty compound of small waves, it may be of millions; the life of the whole world is a compound of millions of little lives, and the death of the whole world is the compound of the deaths of these millions of little beings.
Now the question arises: Is going back to God the higher state, or not? The philosophers of the Yoga school emphatically answer that it is. They say that man's present state is a degeneration. There is not one religion on the face of the earth which says that man is an improvement. The idea is that his beginning is perfect and pure, that he degenerates until he cannot degenerate further, and that there must come a time when he shoots upward again to complete the circle. The circle must be described. However low he may go, he must ultimately take the upward bend and go back to the original source, which is God. Man comes from God in the beginning, in the middle he becomes man, and in the end he goes back to God. This is the method of putting it in the dualistic form. The monistic form is that man is God, and goes back to Him again. If our present state is the higher one, then why is there so much horror and misery, and why is there an end to it? If this is the higher state, why does it end? That which corrupts and degenerates cannot be the highest state. Why should it be so diabolical, so unsatisfying? It is only excusable, inasmuch as through it we are taking a higher groove; we have to pass through it in order to become regenerate again. Put a seed into the ground and it disintegrates, dissolves after a time, and out of that dissolution comes the splendid tree. Every soul must disintegrate to become God. So it follows that the sooner we get out of this state we call "man" the better for us. Is it by committing suicide that we get out of this state? Not at all. That will be making it worse. Torturing ourselves, or condemning the world, is not the way to get out. We have to pass through the Slough of Despond, and the sooner we are through, the better. It must always be remembered that man-state is not the highest state.
The really difficult part to understand is that this state, the Absolute, which has been called the highest, is not, as some fear, that of the zoophyte or of the stone. According to them, there are only two states of existence, one of the stone, and the other of thought. What right have they to limit existence to these two? Is there not something infinitely superior to thought? The vibrations of light, when they are very low, we do not see; when they become a little more intense, they become light to us; when they become still more intense, we do not see them it is dark to us. Is the darkness in the end the same darkness as in the beginning? Certainly not; they are different as the two poles. Is the thoughtlessness of the stone the same as the thoughtlessness of God? Certainly not. God does not think; He does not reason. Why should He? Is anything unknown to Him, that He should reason? The stone cannot reason; God does not. Such is the difference. These philosophers think it is awful if we go beyond thought; they find nothing beyond thought.
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
Like Eckhart, Sri Ramana Maharshi, India's greatest modern sage, begins by merely giving us some verbal pointers and information about the Self and its relation to God (and Godhead). But he will soon, we will see, go beyond mere chatter and point directly to the unknown and unknowing Source. So here he speaks in "positive" terms, before drawing us into Divine Ignorance.
The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. The Being is the Self. "I am" is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement I AM THAT I AM. The Absolute Being is what is-It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact, God is none other than the Self.50
1.08 - The Gods of the Veda - The Secret of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Father created of old these peoples with sacrifice as their companion birth; By this he said, ye shall bring forth; let this be your milker of all chosen desires. Nourish the gods in their being with this; let the gods nourish you in your being. Thus nourishing each other ye shall gain the highest good. We see, nat the same time, the Vedic origin of the central idea in the Gita, the offering of our lives & actions in a perfect sacrifice to God.
Greatly has this short passage helped us. It has shown us the true physiognomy of Saraswati as the goddess of inspiration & inspired knowledge & the true nature of the Vedic Yajna; it has fixed the great Vedic terms, vja, dh & ketu; but above all it has given us a firm foundation for a religious & spiritual interpretation of Veda, a brilliant starting point for an inquiry into its truth & its ancient secret. We can now hope to be delivered from the obscuration of Veda by the ritualists & its modern degradation into the document of a primitive & barbarous religion. Its higher & truer sense shows itself in this brief passage like the dim line of land seen on the far horizon.
1.08 - THE MASTERS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"These, then, are the two means: practice and passionate attachment to God, that is to say, restlessness of the soul to see Him."
Sri Ramakrishna began his midday meal with the devotees. It was about one o'clock. A devotee sang in the courtyard below:
--
"Those who lead a householder's life should practise spiritual discipline; they should pray eagerly to God in solitude. (To Mr. Choudhury) God cannot be realized through scholarship. Who, indeed, can understand the things of the Spirit through reason? No, all should strive for devotion to the Lotus Feet of God.
"Infinite are the glories of God! How little can you fathom them! Can you ever find out the meaning of God's ways?
--
MASTER: "Satchidananda Himself is the Guru. At the end of the Shavasadhana, just when the vision of the Ishta is about to take place, the guru appears before the aspirant and says to him, 'Behold! There is your Ishta.' Saying this, the guru merges in the Ishta. He who is the guru is also the Ishta. The guru is the thread that leads to God.
Women perform a ritualistic worship known as the 'Ananta-vrata', the object of worship being the Infinite. But actually the Deity worshipped is Vishnu. In Him are the 'infinite'
--
"The sannyasi must observe very strict discipline. He must not look even at the picture of a woman. But this rule doesn't apply to householders. An aspirant should not associate with a woman, even though she is very much devoted to God. A sannyasi, even though he may have subdued his passions, should follow this discipline to set an example to householders.
"Worldly people learn renunciation by seeing the complete renunciation of a monk; otherwise they sink more and more. A sannyasi is a world teacher."
--
Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion. You get clear water if you drink from the surface of a pool. Put your hand deeper and stir the water, and it becomes muddy. Therefore pray to God for devotion.
"Behind Dhruva's devotion there was desire. He practised austerities to gain his father's kingdom. But Prahlada's love for God was motiveless-a love that sought no return."
--
"Therefore I say, chant the name of God, and with it pray to Him that you may have love for Him. Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less every day.
Dogmatism condemned
--
"The constant company of holy men is necessary. The holy man introduces one to God."
KEDR: "Yes, sir. The great soul is born in the world for the redemption of humanity.
He leads others to God, just as a locomotive engine takes along with it a long train of carriages. Or again, he is like a river or lake that quenches the thirst of many people."
The devotees were ready to return home. One by one they saluted the Master. At the sight of Bhavanath Sri Ramakrishna said: "Don't go away today. The very sight of you inspires me." Bhavanath had not yet entered into worldly life. A youth of twenty, he had a fair complexion and handsome features. He shed tears of joy on hearing the name of God. The Master looked on him as the embodiment of Narayana.
--
(To Amrita and Trailokya) "Youngsters like Narendra and Rakhal are everperfect. Every time they are born they are devoted to God. An ordinary man acquires a little devotion after austerities and a hard struggle. But these boys have love of God from the very moment of their birth. They are like the natural image of iva, which springs forth from the earth and is not set up by human hands.
Nature of the everperfect
--
"Ordinary people practise spiritual discipline and cultivate devotion to God; but they also become attached to the world and are caught in the glamour of 'woman and gold'. They are like flies, which sit on a flower or a sweetmeat and light on filth as well.
"But the everperfect are like bees, which light only on flowers and sip the honey. The everperfect drink only the Nectar of Divine Bliss. They are never inclined to worldly pleasures.
1.09 - ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Keshab enjoys the world and practises yoga as well. Living in the world, he directs his mind to God."
A devotee described the Convocation of Calcutta University, saying that the meeting looked like a forest of human heads.
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MASTER: "Pray to God with a yearning heart that you may take delight in His name. He will certainly fulfil your heart's desire."
So saying, the Master sang a song in his sweet voice, pleading with the Divine Mother to show Her grace to suffering men:
--
Then the Master said: " 'Even for Thy holy name I have no taste.' A typhoid patient has very little chance of recovery if he loses all taste for food; but his life need not be despaired of if he enjoys food even a little. That is why one should cultivate a taste for God's name. Any name will do-Durga, Krishna, or iva. Then if, through the chanting of the name, one's attachment to God grows day by day, and joy fills the soul, one has nothing to fear. The delirium will certainly disappear; the grace of God will certainly descend.
Parable of the two friends
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You must fight him with the weapon of God's holy name. God alone is the Doer. I say: 'O Lord, I do as Thou doest through me. I speak as Thou speakest through me. I am the machine and Thou art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the engine and Thou art the Engineer.' Give your power of attorney to God. One doesn't come to grief through letting a good man assume one's responsibilities. Let His will be done.
"But isn't your grief for your son only natural? The son is one's own self reborn.
--
"True sannyasis, those who are able to devote their minds constantly to God, are like bees, which light only on flowers and sip their honey. Those who live in the world, in the midst of 'woman and gold', may direct their attention to God; but sometimes their minds dwell also on 'woman and gold'. They are like common flies, which light on a piece of candy, then on a sore or filth.
"Always keep your mind fixed on God. In the beginning you must struggle a little; later on you will enjoy your pension."
1.09 - The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
original opposition to God takes a back seat, and the monster is
now in conflict either with itself or with an equivalent monster
1.09 - The Chosen Ideal, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
On the other hand, intensely narrow sectaries, whilst displaying a very commendable love of their own ideals, are seen to have acquired every particle of that love by hating every one who is not of exactly the same opinions as themselves. Would to God that this world was full of men who were as intense in their love as worldwide in their sympathies! But such are only few and far between. Yet we know that it is practicable to educate large numbers of human beings into the ideal of a wonderful blending of both the width and the intensity of love; and the way to do that is by this path of the Istha-Nishtha or "steadfast devotion to the chosen ideal". Every sect of every religion presents only one ideal of its own to mankind, but the eternal Vedantic religion opens to mankind an infinite number of doors for ingress into the inner shrine of divinity, and places before humanity an almost inexhaustible array of ideals, there being in each of them a manifestation of the Eternal One. With the kindest solicitude, the Vedanta points out to aspiring men and women the numerous roads, hewn out of the solid rock of the realities of human life, by the glorious sons, or human manifestations, of God, in the past and in the present, and stands with outstretched arms to welcome all to welcome even those that are yet to be to that Home of Truth and that Ocean of Bliss, wherein the human soul, liberated from the net of My, may transport itself with perfect freedom and with eternal joy.
Bhakti-Yoga, therefore, lays on us the imperative comm and not to hate or deny any one of the various paths that lead to salvation. Yet the growing plant must be hedged round to protect it until it has grown into a tree. The tender plant of spirituality will die if exposed too early to the action of a constant change of ideas and ideals. Many people, in the name of what may be called religious liberalism, may be seen feeding their idle curiosity with a continuous succession of different ideals. With them, hearing new things grows into a kind of disease, a sort of religious drink-mania. They want to hear new things just by way of getting a temporary nervous excitement, and when one such exciting influence has had its effect on them, they are ready for another. Religion is with these people a sort of intellectual opiumeating, and there it ends. "There is another sort of man", says Bhagavan Ramakrishna, "who is like the pearl-oyster of the story. The pearl-oyster leaves its bed at the bottom of the sea, and comes up to the surface to catch the rain-water when the star Svti is in the ascendant. It floats about on the surface of the sea with its shell wide open, until it has succeeded in catching a drop of the rain-water, and then it dives deep down to its sea-bed, and there rests until it has succeeded in fashioning a beautiful pearl out of that rain-drop."
11.01 - The Eternal Day The Souls Choice and the Supreme Consummation, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
I know that I can lift man's soul to God,
I know that he can bring the Immortal down.
--
To raise the world to God in deathless Light,
To bring God down to the world on earth we came,
--
He is the soul of man climbing to God
In Nature's surge out of earth's ignorance.
--
Pointing to the souls of men the routes to God.
While the dim light from the veiled Spirit's peak
11.04 - The Triple Cord, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Sunahshepa, the human creature, says the Vedic Rishi, is bound to the stake with three cords: one on the top, the second in the middle and the third below. Sunahshepa cries out to God Varuna to be freed from the triple bondage. The God is pleased and cuts the topmost cord and throws it upward, he cuts the middle cord and throws it on either side, he cuts the downmost cord and throws it downward. Thus Sunahshepa is freed through the Grace of King Varuna.
The three cords are the three limitations of being and consciousness in the normal human creature. There is a wall or barrier up in the mind which shuts out the higher levels of consciousness that are beyond the mind the worlds of vision and revelation, of the Truth and the Vast. The middle knot shuts out the world around and abroad and limits the being to the ego, prevents the individual person from communicating with the Universal Being and Consciousness. It is the well known knot of the hearthdayagranthi the crux and kernel of the egoistic consciousness. It centres the whole being on itself, limits it to itself, does not let it go out of itself to belong to the world-being. It is also the pull that prevents the being from diving down into its true personality, the psychic, and finding its union with the inner Divine. This ego-centred knot has to be cut through and the thread to be scattered into the infinity of the deepest and of the widest being. The last barrier at the base of the human consciousness is the hard crust of the physical and the material being. It is closed to the regions behind, the occult sources of all external movements. This too
1.10 - Concentration - Its Practice, #Raja-Yoga, #Swami Vivkenanda, #unset
1. Mortification, study, and surrendering fruits of work to God are called Kriy-yoga.
Those Samdhis with which we ended our last chapter are very difficult to attain; so we must take them up slowly. The first step, the preliminary step, is called Kriya-yoga. Literally this means work, working towards Yoga. The organs are the horses, the mind is the rein, the intellect is the charioteer, the soul is the rider, and the body is the chariot. The master of the household, the King, the Self of man, is sitting in this chariot. If the horses are very strong and do not obey the rein, if the charioteer, the intellect, does not know how to control the horses, then the chariot will come to grief. But if the organs, the horses, are well controlled, and if the rein, the mind, is well held in the hands of the charioteer, the intellect, the chariot reaches the goal. What is meant, therefore, by this mortification? Holding the rein firmly while guiding the body and the organs; not letting them do anything they like, but keeping them both under proper control. Study. What is meant by study in this case? No study of novels or story books, but study of those works which teach the liberation of the Soul. Then again this study does not mean controversial studies at all. The Yogi is supposed to have finished his period of controversy. He has had enough of that, and has become satisfied. He only studies to intensify his convictions. Vda and Siddhnta these are the two sorts of scriptural knowledge Vada (the argumentative) and Siddhanta (the decisive). When a man is entirely ignorant he takes up the first of these, the argumentative fighting, and reasoning pro and con; and when he has finished that he takes up the Siddhanta, the decisive, arriving at a conclusion. Simply arriving at this conclusion will not do. It must be intensified. Books are infinite in number, and time is short; therefore the secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it. There is an old Indian legend that if you place a cup of milk and water before a Rja-Hamsa (swan), he will take all the milk and leave the water. In that way we should take what is of value in knowledge, and leave the dross. Intellectual gymnastics are necessary at first. We must not go blindly into anything. The Yogi has passed the argumentative state, and has come to a conclusion, which is, like the rocks, immovable. The only thing he now seeks to do is to intensify that conclusion. Do not argue, he says; if one forces arguments upon you, be silent. Do not answer any argument, but go away calmly, because arguments only disturb the mind. The only thing necessary is to train the intellect, what is the use of disturbing it for nothing? The intellect is but a weak instrument, and can give us only knowledge limited by the senses. The Yogi wants to go beyond the senses, therefore intellect is of no use to him. He is certain of this and, therefore, is silent, and does not argue. Every argument throws his mind out of balance, creates a disturbance in the Chitta, and a disturbance is a drawback. Argumentations and searchings of the reason are only by the way. There are much higher things beyond them. The whole of life is not for schoolboy fights and debating societies. "Surrendering the fruits of work to God" is to take to ourselves neither credit nor blame, but to give up both to the Lord and be at peace.
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1.10 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II), #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Attachment to God, or, in other words, love for Him. And secondly, prayer."
BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Which one is the way-love or prayer?"
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MASTER: "As there are women endowed with vidyaakti, so also there are women with avidyaakti. A woman endowed with spiritual attributes leads a man to God, but a woman who is the embodiment of delusion makes him forget God and drowns him in the ocean of worldliness.
"This universe is created by the Mahamaya of God. Mahamaya contains both Vidy-
--
"Under the spell of God's maya man forgets his true nature. He forgets that he is heir to the infinite glories of his Father. This divine maya is made up of three gunas. And all three are robbers; for they rob man of all his treasures and make him forget his true nature. The three gunas are sattva, rajas, and tamas. Of these, sattva alone points the way to God. But even sattva cannot take a man to God.
Parable of the three robbers
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"Now, the first robber, who said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive? Kill him', is tamas. It destroys. The second robber is rajas, which binds a man to the world and entangles him in a variety of activities. Rajas makes him forget God. Sattva alone shows the way to God. It produces virtues like compassion, righteousness, and devotion. Again, sattva is like the last step of the stairs. Next to it is the roof. The Supreme Brahman is man's own abode. One cannot attain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one transcends the three gunas."
PREACHER: "You have given us a fine talk, sir."
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MASTER: "Direct the six passions to God. The impulse of lust should be turned into the desire to have intercourse with tman. Feel angry at those who stand in your way to God. Feel greedy for Him. If you must have the feeling of I and Mine, then associate it with God. Say, for instance, 'My Rama, my Krishna.' If you must have pride, then feel like Bibhishana, who said, 'I have touched the feet of Rama with my head; I will not bow this head before anyone else.'"
Responsibility for sins
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"If people feel sincere longing, they will find that all paths lead to God. But one should have nishtha, single-minded devotion. It is also described as chaste and unswerving devotion to God. It is like a tree with only one trunk shooting straight up. Promiscuous devotion is like a tree with five branches.
Such was the single-minded devotion of the gopis to Krishna that they didn't care to look at anyone but the Krishna they had seen at Vrindvan-the Shepherd Krishna, bedecked with a garl and of yellow wild-flowers and wearing a peacock feather on His crest. At the sight of Krishna at Mathura with a turban on His head and dressed in royal robes, the gopis pulled down their veils. They would not look at His face. 'Who is this man?' they said. 'Should we violate our chaste love for Krishna by talking to him?'
--
"Listen to a story. Once three friends were going through a forest, when a tiger suddenly appeared before them. 'Brothers,' one of them exclaimed, 'we are lost!' 'Why should you say that?' said the second friend. 'Why should we be lost? Come, let us pray to God.' The third friend said: 'No. Why should we trouble God about it? Come, let us climb this tree.'
"The friend who said, 'We are lost!' did not know that there is a God who is our Protector. The friend who asked the others to pray to God was a jnani. He was aware that God is the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the world. The third friend, who didn't want to trouble God with prayers and suggested climbing the tree, had ecstatic love of God. It is the very nature of such love that it makes a man think himself stronger than his Beloved. He is always alert lest his Beloved should suffer. The one desire of his life is to keep his Beloved from even being pricked in the foot by a thorn."
Ram served the Master and the devotees with delicious sweets.
1.10 - Theodicy - Nature Makes No Mistakes, #Preparing for the Miraculous, #George Van Vrekhem, #Integral Yoga
This adjective, with its ethical associations, applied to God has caused
enormous confusion in all subsequent philosophy and theology refer-
1.10 - The Three Modes of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
O TRANSCEND the natural action of the lower Prakriti is indispensable to the soul, if it is to be free in its self and free in its works. Harmonious subjection to this actual universal Nature, a condition of good and perfect work for the natural instruments, is not an ideal for the soul, which should rather be subject to God and his Shakti, but master of its own nature. As agent or as channel of the Supreme Will it must determine by its vision and sanction or refusal the use that shall be made of the storage of energy, the conditions of environment, the rhythm of combined movement which are provided by Prakriti for the labour of the natural instruments, mind, life and body. But this inferior Nature can only be mastered if she is surmounted and used from above. And this can only be done by a transcendence of her forces, qualities and modes of action; otherwise we are subject to her conditions and helplessly dominated by her, not free in the spirit.
The idea of the three essential modes of Nature is a creation of the ancient Indian thinkers and its truth is not at once obvious, because it was the result of long psychological experiment and profound internal experience. Therefore without a long inner experience, without intimate self-observation and intuitive perception of the Nature-forces it is difficult to grasp accurately or firmly utilise. Still certain broad indications may help the seeker on the Way of Works to understand, analyse and control by his assent or refusal the combinations of his own nature.
1.11 - GOOD AND EVIL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
People should think less about what they ought to do and more about what they ought to be. If only their being were good, their works would shine forth brightly. Do not imagine that you can ground your salvation upon actions; it must rest on what you are. The ground upon which good character rests is the very same ground from which mans work derives its value, namely a mind wholly turned to God. Verily, if you were so minded, you might tread on a stone and it would be a more pious work than if you, simply for your own profit, were to receive the Body of the Lord and were wanting in spiritual detachment.
Eckhart
1.11 - Higher Laws, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure. The other day I picked up the lower jaw of a hog, with white and sound teeth and tusks, which suggested that there was an animal health and vigor distinct from the spiritual. This creature succeeded by other means than temperance and purity. That in which men differ from brute beasts, says Mencius, is a thing very inconsiderable; the common herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully. Who knows what sort of life would result if we had attained to purity? If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith. A comm and over our passions, and over the external senses of the body, and good acts, are declared by the Ved to be indispensable in the minds approximation to God. Yet the spirit can for the time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it. Man flows at once to God when the channel of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires and our impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is assured that the animal is dying out in him day by day, and the divine being established. Perhaps there is none but has cause for shame on account of the inferior and brutish nature to which he is allied. I fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the divine allied to beasts, the creatures of appetite, and that, to some extent, our very life is our disgrace.
How happys he who hath due place assigned
1.11 - On talkativeness and silence., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
The friend of silence draws near to God, and by secretly conversing with Him, is enlightened by God.
The silence of Jesus put Pilate to shame, and by a mans stillness vainglory is vanquished.
1.11 - The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbour can we
Use force; I say on them and on their things,
1.11 - The Three Purushas, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The first step in self-liberation is to get rid of the illusion of agency, to realise that Nature acts, not the soul. The second is to remove the siege of phenomenal associations by surrendering lordship to God, leaving Him alone to uphold and sanction by the abdication of ones own independent use of these powers, offering up the privilege of the enjoyer to Him. All that is then left is the attitude of the akara purua, the free, blissful self existence, watching the action of Prakriti, but outside it. The kara withdraws into the akara. When the sk or witness withdraws in to God Himself, that is the utter liberation.
***
1.11 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Then Sri Ramakrishna sat up on his bed and told Manilal about Bhavanath's devotion to God.
MASTER: "Ah, what an exalted state he is in! He has hardly begun to sing about God before his eyes fill with tears. The very sight of Harish made him ecstatic. He said that Harish was very lucky. He made the remark because Harish was spending a few days here, now and then, away from his home."
--
"Knowledge and love-both are paths leading to God. Those who follow the path of love have to observe a little more outer purity. But the violation of this by a man following the path of knowledge cannot injure him. It is destroyed in the fire of knowledge. Even a banana tree is burnt up when it is thrown into a roaring fire.
"The jnanis follow the path of discrimination. Sometimes it happens that, discriminating between the Real and the unreal, a man loses his faith in the existence of God. But a devotee who sincerely yearns for God does not give up his meditation even though he is invaded by atheistic ideas. A man whose father and. grandfa ther have been farmers continues his farming even though he doesn't get any crop in a year of drought."
--
"There are certain signs by which you can know a true devotee of God. His mind becomes quiet as he listens to his teacher's instruction, just as the poisonous snake is quieted by the music of the charmer. I don't mean the cobra. There is another sign. A real devotee develops the power of assimilating instruction. An image cannot be impressed on bare glass, but only on glass stained with a black solution, as in photography. The black solution is devotion to God. There is a third sign of a true devotee. The true devotee has controlled his senses. He has subdued his lust. The gopis were free from lust.
"You are talking about your leading a householder's life. Suppose you are a householder. It rather helps in the practice of spiritual discipline. It is like fighting from inside a fort. The Tantriks sometimes use a corpse in their religious rites. Now and then the dead body frightens them by opening its mouth. That is why they keep fried rice and grams near them, and from time to time they throw some of the grains into the corpse's mouth. Thus pacifying the corpse, they repeat the name of the Deity without any worry. Likewise, the householder should pacify his wife and the other members of his family. He should provide them with food and other necessities. Thus he removes the obstacles to his practice of spiritual discipline.
"Those who still have a few worldly experiences to enjoy should lead a householder's life and pray to God. That is why Nityananda allowed the worldly to enjoy catfish soup and the warm embrace of a young woman while repeating God's name.
"But it is quite different with genuine sannyasis. A bee lights on flowers and on nothing else. To the chatak all water except rain is tasteless. It will drink no other water, but looks up agape for the rain that falls when the star Svati is in the ascendant. It drinks only that water. A real sannyasi will not enjoy any kind of bliss except the Bliss of God.
--
Attachment to 'woman' diverts one from the way leading to God. Man doesn't know what it is that causes his downfall. Once, while going to the Fort, I couldn't see at all that I was driving down a sloping road; but when the carriage went inside the Fort, I realized how far down I had come. Alas! Women keep men deluded. Captain says, 'My wife is full of wisdom.' The man possessed by a ghost does not realize it. He says, 'Why, I am all right!' "
The devotees listened to these words in deep silence.
--
MASTER: "Why should that be so? I have heard of a deputy magistrate named Pratap Singh. He is a great man. He has many virtues: compassion and devotion to God. He meditates on God. Once he sent for me. Certainly there are people like him.
"The practice of discipline is absolutely necessary. Why shouldn't a man succeed if he practises sadhana? But he doesn't have to work hard if he has real faith-faith in his guru's words. Once Vyasa was about to cross the Jamuna, when the gopis also arrived there, wishing to go to the other side. But no ferryboat was in sight. They said to Vyasa, 'Revered sir, what shall we do now?' 'Don't worry', said Vyasa. 'I will take you across. But I am very hungry. Have you anything for me to eat?' The gopis had plenty of milk, cream, and butter with them. Vyasa ate it all. Then the gopis asked, 'Well, sir, what about crossing the river?' Vyasa stood on the bank of the Jamuna and said, 'O
1.12 - On lying., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
Let no one with right principles suppose that the sin of lying is a small matter, for the All-Holy Spirit pronounced the most awful sentence of all against it above all sins. If Thou wilt destroy all who tell lies, as David says to God, what will they suffer who stitch an oath on to a lie?
I have seen some who, priding themselves on their skill in lying, and exciting laughter by their jests and twaddle, have pitiably destroyed in their hearers the habit of mourning.
1.12 - THE FESTIVAL AT PNIHTI, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "No, that is not so. One should pray to God with a longing heart. God certainly listens to prayer if it is sincere. There is no doubt about it."
A DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir. There is this 'I-consciousness' in us; therefore we must pray."
--
M: "I haven't much faith in rebirth and inherited tendencies. Will that in any way injure my devotion to God?"
Everything is possible for God
--
ADHAR: "You haven't been here for a long time. I prayed to God today that you might come. I even shed tears"
The Master was pleased and said with a smile, "You don't mean that!"
--
After a time he said to Jadu: "I now understand your nature. It is half warm and half cold. You are devoted to God and also to the world."
The Master and his devotees were served by Jadu with sweets and fruit, and then the party left for the home of Khelat Ghosh.
--
Opinions are but paths. Each religion is only a path leading to God, as rivers come from different directions and ultimately become one in the one ocean.
Oneness of God
--
MASTER: "Vidyasagar has both scholarship and charity, but he lacks inner vision. Gold lies hidden within him. Had he but found it out, his activities would have been reduced; finally they would have stopped altogether. Had he but known that God resides in his heart, his mind would have been directed to God in thought and meditation. Some persons must perform selfless work a long time before they can practise dispassion and direct their minds to the spiritual ideal and at last be absorbed in God.
Charity and attachment
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Similarly, the sky looks blue from a distance. But look at the atmosphere near you; it has no colour. The nearer you come to God, the more you will realize that He has neither name nor form. If you move away from the Divine Mother, you will find Her blue, like the grass-flower. Is Syama male or female? A man once saw the image of the Divine Mother wearing a sacred thread. He said to the worshipper: 'What? You have put the sacred thread on the Mother's neck!' The worshipper said: 'Brother, I see that you have truly known the Mother. But I have not yet been able to find out whether She is male or female; that is why I have put the sacred thread on Her image.'
"That which is Syama is also Brahman. That which has form, again, is without form.
1.12 - TIME AND ETERNITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Time is what keeps the light from reaching us. There is no greater obstacle to God than time. And not only time but temporalities, not only temporal things but temporal affections; not only temporal affections but the very taint and smell of time.
Eckhart
--
Selfishness and partiality are very inhuman and base qualities even in the things of this world; but in the doctrines of religion they are of a baser nature. Now, this is the greatest evil that the division of the church has brought forth; it raises in every communion a selfish, partial orthodoxy, which consists in courageously defending all that it has, and condemning all that it has not. And thus every champion is trained up in defense of their own truth, their own learning and their own church, and he has the most merit, the most honour, who likes everything, defends everything, among themselves, and leaves nothing uncensored in those that are of a different communion. Now, how can truth and goodness and union and religion be more struck at than by such defenders of it? If you ask why the great Bishop of Meaux wrote so many learned books against all parts of the Reformation, it is because he was born in France and bred up in the bosom of Mother Church. Had he been born in England, had Oxford or Cambridge been his Alma Mater, he might have rivalled our great Bishop Stillingfleet, and would have wrote as many learned folios against the Church of Rome as he has done. And yet I will venture to say that if each Church could produce but one man apiece that had the piety of an apostle and the impartial love of the first Christians in the first Church at Jerusalem, that a Protestant and a Papist of this stamp would not want half a sheet of paper to hold their articles of union, nor be half an hour before they were of one religion. If, therefore, it should be said that churches are divided, estranged and made unfriendly to one another by a learning, a logic, a history, a criticism in the hands of partiality, it would be saying that which each particular church too much proves to be true. Ask why even the best amongst the Catholics are very shy of owning the validity of the orders of our Church; it is because they are afraid of removing any odium from the Reformation. Ask why no Protestants anywhere touch upon the benefit or necessity of celibacy in those who are separated from worldly business to preach the gospel; it is because that would be seeming to lessen the Roman error of not suffering marriage in her clergy. Ask why even the most worthy and pious among the clergy of the Established Church are afraid to assert the sufficiency of the Divine Light, the necessity of seeking only the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit; it is because the Quakers, who have broke off from the church, have made this doctrine their corner-stone. If we loved truth as such, if we sought for it for its own sake, if we loved our neighbour as ourselves, if we desired nothing by our religion but to be acceptable to God, if we equally desired the salvation of all men, if we were afraid of error only because of its harmful nature to us and our fellow-creatures, then nothing of this spirit could have any place in us.
There is therefore a catholic spirit, a communion of saints in the love of God and all goodness, which no one can learn from that which is called orthodoxy in particular churches, but is only to be had by a total dying to all worldly views, by a pure love of God, and by such an unction from above as delivers the mind from all selfishness and makes it love truth and goodness with an equality of affection in every man, whether he is Christian, Jew or Gentile. He that would obtain this divine and catholic spirit in this disordered, divided state of things, and live in a divided part of the church without partaking of its division, must have these three truths deeply fixed in his mind. First, that universal love, which gives the whole strength of the heart to God, and makes us love every man as we love ourselves, is the noblest, the most divine, the Godlike state of the soul, and is the utmost perfection to which the most perfect religion can raise us; and that no religion does any man any good but so far as it brings this perfection of love into him. This truth will show us that true orthodoxy can nowhere be found but in a pure disinterested love of God and our neighbour. Second, that in this present divided state of the church, truth itself is torn and divided asunder; and that, therefore, he can be the only true catholic who has more of truth and less of error than is hedged in by any divided part. This truth will enable us to live in a divided part unhurt by its division, and keep us in a true liberty and fitness to be edified and assisted by all the good that we hear or see in any other part of the church. Thirdly, he must always have in mind this great truth, that it is the glory of the Divine Justice to have no respect of parties or persons, but to stand equally disposed to that which is right and wrong as well in the Jew as in the Gentile. He therefore that would like as God likes, and condemn as God condemns, must have neither the eyes of the Papist nor the Protestant; he must like no truth the less because Ignatius Loyola or John Bunyan were very zealous for it, nor have the less aversion to any error, because Dr. Trapp or George Fox had brought it forth.
William Law
1.13 - Gnostic Symbols of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
is a prerogative exclusive to God.
195
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reAetos correctly only when it refers to God. But when it applies
to a man, who in addition is in need of rebirth, it can at most
1.13 - Reason and Religion, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The deepest heart, the inmost essence of religion, apart from its outward machinery of creed, cult, ceremony and symbol, is the search for God and the finding of God. Its aspiration is to discover the Infinite, the Absolute, the One, the Divine, who is all these things and yet no abstraction but a Being. Its work is a sincere living out of the true and intimate relations between man and God, relations of unity, relations of difference, relations of an illuminated knowledge, an ecstatic love and delight, an absolute surrender and service, a casting of every part of our existence out of its normal status into an uprush of man towards the Divine and a descent of the Divine into man. All this has nothing to do with the realm of reason or its normal activities; its aim, its sphere, its process is suprarational. The knowledge of God is not to be gained by weighing the feeble arguments of reason for or against his existence: it is to be gained only by a self-transcending and absolute consecration, aspiration and experience. Nor does that experience proceed by anything like rational scientific experiment or rational philosophic thinking. Even in those parts of religious discipline which seem most to resemble scientific experiment, the method is a verification of things which exceed the reason and its timid scope. Even in those parts of religious knowledge which seem most to resemble intellectual operations, the illuminating faculties are not imagination, logic and rational judgment, but revelations, inspirations, intuitions, intuitive discernments that leap down to us from a plane of suprarational light. The love of God is an infinite and absolute feeling which does not admit of any rational limitation and does not use a language of rational worship and adoration; the delight in God is that peace and bliss which passes all understanding. The surrender to God is the surrender of the whole being to a suprarational light, will, power and love and his service takes no account of the compromises with life which the practical reason of man uses as the best part of its method in the ordinary conduct of mundane existence. Wherever religion really finds itself, wherever it opens itself to its own spirit,there is plenty of that sort of religious practice which is halting, imperfect, half-sincere, only half-sure of itself and in which reason can get in a word,its way is absolute and its fruits are ineffable.
Reason has indeed a part to play in relation to this highest field of our religious being and experience, but that part is quite secondary and subordinate. It cannot lay down the law for the religious life, it cannot determine in its own right the system of divine knowledge; it cannot school and lesson the divine love and delight; it cannot set bounds to spiritual experience or lay its yoke upon the action of the spiritual man. Its sole legitimate sphere is to explain as best it can, in its own language and to the rational and intellectual parts of man, the truths, the experiences, the laws of our suprarational and spiritual existence. That has been the work of spiritual philosophy in the East andmuch more crudely and imperfectly doneof theology in the West, a work of great importance at moments like the present when the intellect of mankind after a long wandering is again turning towards the search for the Divine. Here there must inevitably enter a part of those operations proper to the intellect, logical reasoning, inferences from the data given by rational experience, analogies drawn from our knowledge of the apparent facts of existence, appeals even to the physical truths of science, all the apparatus of the intelligent mind in its ordinary workings. But this is the weakest part of spiritual philosophy. It convinces the rational mind only where the intellect is already predisposed to belief, and even if it convinces, it cannot give the true knowledge. Reason is safest when it is content to take the profound truths and experiences of the spiritual being and the spiritual life, just as they are given to it, and throw them into such form, order and language as will make them the most intelligible or the least unintelligible to the reasoning mind. Even then it is not quite safe, for it is apt to harden the order into an intellectual system and to present the form as if it were the essence. And, at best, it has to use a language which is not the very tongue of the suprarational truth but its inadequate translation and, since it is not the ordinary tongue either of the rational intelligence, it is open to non-understanding or misunderstanding by the ordinary reason of mankind. It is well-known to the experience of the spiritual seeker that even the highest philosophising cannot give a true inner knowledge, is not the spiritual light, does not open the gates of experience. All it can do is to address the consciousness of man through his intellect and, when it has done, to say, I have tried to give you the truth in a form and system which will make it intelligible and possible to you; if you are intellectually convinced or attracted, you can now seek the real knowledge, but you must seek it by other means which are beyond my province.
1.13 - The Lord of the Sacrifice, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
E HAVE, before we can proceed further, to gather up all that has been said in its main principles. The whole of the Gita's gospel of works rests upon its idea of sacrifice and contains in fact the eternal connecting truth of God and the world and works. The human mind seizes ordinarily only fragmentary notions and standpoints of a manysided eternal truth of existence and builds upon them its various theories of life and ethics and religion, stressing this or that sign or appearance, but to some entirety of it it must always tend to reawaken whenever it returns in an age of large enlightenment to any entire and synthetic relation of its world-knowledge with its God-knowledge and self-knowledge. The gospel of the Gita reposes upon this fundamental Vedantic truth that all being is the one Brahman and all existence the wheel of Brahman, a divine movement opening out from God and returning to God.
All is the expressive activity of Nature and Nature a power of the Divine which works out the consciousness and will of the divine Soul master of her works and inhabitant of her forms. It is for his satisfaction that she descends into the absorption of the forms of things and the works of life and mind and returns again through mind and self-knowledge to the conscious possession of the Soul that dwells within her. There is first an involving of self and all it is or means in an evolution of phenomena; there is afterwards an evolution of self, a revelation of all it is and means, all that is hidden and yet suggested by the phenomenal creation. This cycle of Nature could not be what it is but for the
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Will on the world it has manifested in its being, the proof that with sacrifice as their eternal companion the Lord of creatures has created all these existences. The universal law of sacrifice is the sign that the world is of God and belongs to God and that life is his dominion and house of worship and not a field for the self-satisfaction of the independent ego; not the fulfilment of the ego, - that is only our crude and obscure beginning, - but the discovery of God, the worship and seeking of the Divine and the
Infinite through a constantly enlarging sacrifice culminating in a perfect self-giving founded on a perfect self-knowledge, is that to which the experience of life is at last intended to lead.
1.13 - THE MASTER AND M., #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "As Radha advanced toward Krishna, she could smell more and more of the sweet fragrance of His body. The nearer you approach to God, the more you feel His love. As the river approaches the ocean it increasingly feels the flow of the tides.
Ideals of Jnni and bhakta
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MASTER: "Do you know the nature of a good man? He never troubles others. He doesn't harass people. The nature of some people is such that when they go to a feast they want special seats. A man who has true devotion to God never makes a false step, never gives others trouble for nothing.
"It is not good to live in the company of bad people. A man should stay away from them and thus protect himself. (To M.) Isn't that so?"
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MASTER: "The other day I went to Calcutta. As I drove along the streets in the carriage, I observed that everyone's attention was fixed on low things. Everyone was brooding over his stomach and running after nothing but food. Everyone's mind was turned to 'woman and gold'. I saw only one or two with their attention fixed on higher things, with their minds turned to God."
M: "The present age has aggravated this stomach-worry. Trying to imitate the English, people have turned their attention to more luxuries; therefore their wants have also increased."
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ISHAN (with a smile): "A boy once heard that God is our Creator. So he wrote a letter to God, setting forth his prayers, and posted it. The address he put on the envelope was 'Heaven'."
MASTER (with a smile): "Did you hear that story? One succeeds in spiritual life when one develops a faith like that boy's. (To Ishan) Tell us about the renunciation of activities."
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"There is no harm in chewing betel-leaf, eating fish, smoking, or rubbing the body with oil. What will one achieve by renouncing only these things? The one thing needful is the renunciation of 'woman and gold'. That renunciation is the real and supreme renunciation. Householders should go into solitude now and then, to practise spiritual discipline in order to cultivate devotion to God; they should renounce mentally. But the sannyasi should renounce both mentally and physically.
"I once said to Keshab, 'How can a typhoid patient be cured if he remains in a room where a pitcher of water and a jar of pickles are kept?' Now and then one should live in solitude ".
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MASTER: "Say to God with a guileless heart, 'O God, reveal Thyself to
me.' And weep. Pray to God, 'O God, keep my mind away from "woman, and gold".' And dive deep. Can a man get pearls by floating or swimming on the surface? He must dive deep.
Faith in the guru
1.14 - FOREST AND CAVERN, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
Thyself to Godhood haughtily inflating;
To grub with yearning force through Earth's dark marrow,
1.14 - IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
There is a general agreement, East and West, that life in a body provides uniquely good opportunities for achieving salvation or deliverance. Catholic and Mahayana Buddhist doctrine is alike in insisting that the soul in its disembodied state after death cannot acquire merit, but merely suffers in purgatory the consequences of its past acts. But whereas Catholic orthodoxy declares that there is no possibility of progress in the next world, and that the degree of the souls beatitude is determined solely by what it has done and thought in its earthly life, the eschatologists of the Orient affirm that there are certain posthumous conditions in which meritorious souls are capable of advancing from a heaven of happy personal survival to genuine immortality in union with the timeless, eternal Godhead. And, of course, there is also the possibility (indeed, for. most individuals, the necessity) of returning to some form of embodied life, in which the advance towards complete beatification, or deliverance through enlightenment, can be continued. Meanwhile, the fact that one has been born in a human body is one of the things for which, says Shankara, one should daily give thanks to God.
The spiritual creature which we are has need of a body, without which it could nowise attain that knowledge which it obtains as the only approach to those things, by knowledge of which it is made blessed.
1.14 - INSTRUCTION TO VAISHNAVS AND BRHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Unwavering devotion to God
MASTER: "But again, there is a thing called nishtha, single-minded devotion. When the gopis went to Mathura they saw Krishna with a turban on His head. At this they pulled down their veils and said, 'Who is this man? Where is our Krishna with the peacock feather on His crest and the yellow cloth on His body?' Hanuman also had that unswerving devotion. He came to Dwaraka in the cycle of Dwapara. Krishna said to Rukmini, His queen, 'Hanuman will not be satisfied unless he sees the form of Rm.'
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Truthfulness leads to God
MASTER: "I feel very happy when I see Shivanath. He always seems to be absorbed in the bliss of bhakti. Further, a man who is respected by so many surely possesses some divine power. But he has one great defect: he doesn't keep his word. Once he said to me that, he would come to Dakshineswar, but he neither came nor sent me word. That is not good. It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth. After my vision of the Divine Mother, I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: 'Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness, and here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.' I mentioned all these, but I could not say: 'Mother, here is Thy truth and here is Thy falsehood. Take them both.' I gave up everything at Her feet but could not bring myself to give up truth."
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The Master said to Vijay: "Surrender yourself completely to God, and set aside all such things as fear and shame. Give up such feelings as, 'What will people think of me if I dance in the ecstasy of God's holy name?' The saying, 'One cannot have the vision of God as long as one has these three-shame, hatred, and fear', is very true. Shame, hatred, fear, caste, pride, secretiveness, and the like are so many bonds. Man is free when he is liberated from all these.
"When bound by ties one is jiva, and when free from ties one is iva. Prema, ecstatic love of God, is a rare thing.
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"First of all one acquires bhakti. Bhakti is single-minded devotion to God, like the devotion a wife feels for her husband. It is very difficult to have unalloyed devotion to God. Through such devotion one's mind and soul merge in Him.
"Then comes bhava, intense love. Through bhava a man becomes speechless. His nerve currents are stilled. Kumbhaka comes by itself. It is like the case of a man whose breath and speech stop when he fires a gun.
1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
not Trinity, but Quaternity to God, that is to say, three Persons, and that common
Something as a fourth). (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215. Decrees, Cap. 2; Denzinger
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intelligence to God, where in a perfect cycle is found the begin-
ning and the consummation." 112 That Kircher should choose
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cause, and unfolding out of itself, but brought back to God
again through the activity of human understanding, so that the
1.15 - LAST VISIT TO KESHAB, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"Hazra is not to blame. During the period of struggle one should follow the method of discrimination-'Not this, not this'-and direct the whole mind to God. But the state of perfection is quite different. After reaching God one reaffirms what formerly one denied. To extract butter you must separate it from the buttermilk. Then you discover that butter and buttermilk are intrinsically related to one another. They belong to the same stuff. The butter is not essentially different from the buttermilk, nor the buttermilk essentially different from the butter. After realizing God one knows definitely that it is He who has become everything. In some objects He is manifested more clearly, and in others less clearly.
"When a flood comes from the ocean, all the land is deep under water. Before the flood, the boat could have reached the ocean only by following the winding course of the river.
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Mathur Babu and I went to the temple to see what was the matter. Addressing the image, Mathur said bitterly: 'What a shame, Lord! You are so worthless! The thief took all the ornaments from Your body, and You couldn't do a thing about it.' Thereupon I said to Mathur: 'Shame on you! How improper your words are! to God, the jewels you talk so much about are only lumps of clay. Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune, is His Consort. Do you mean to say that He should spend sleepless nights because a thief has taken your few rupees? You mustn't say such things.'
"Can one ever bring God under control through wealth? He can be tamed only through love. What does He want? Certainly not wealth! He wants from His devotees love, devotion, feeling, discrimination, and renunciation.
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A NEIGHBOUR: "Why, sir, should one hold to God with one hand and to the world with the other? Why should one even stretch out one hand to hold to the world, if it is impermanent?"
MASTER: "The world is not impermanent if one lives there after knowing God. Listen to another song:
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Surrender yourself to God and you will achieve everything.
This is the stoutest hedge of all,
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"But still there is a way out. One should pray to God, going now and then into solitude, and make efforts to realize Him."
NEIGHBOUR: "Must one leave home then?"
--
MASTER: "He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to God is surely a holy man. He who has renounced 'woman and gold' is surely a holy man. He is a holy man who does not regard woman with the eyes of a worldly person. He never forgets to look upon a woman as his mother, and to offer her his worship if he happens to be near her. The holy man constantly thinks of God and does not indulge in any talk except about spiritual things. Furthermore, he serves all beings, knowing that God resides in everybody's heart. These, in general, are the signs of a holy man."
NEIGHBOUR: "Must one always live in solitude?"
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"By turning the mind within oneself one acquires discrimination, and through discrimination one thinks of Truth. Then the mind feels the desire to go for a walk to Kli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. Reaching that Tree, that is to say, going near to God, you can without any effort gather four fruits, namely, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.
Yes, after realizing God, one can also get, if one so desires, dharma, artha, and kama, which are necessary for leading the worldly life."
1.15 - On incorruptible purity and chastity to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
1 Cf. P.G., 88; col. 912, Scholion 26: Heresy is a deviation of the mind from the truth and a sin of the mouth or tongue, whereas fornication is a sin of the whole body, which damages and depraves all the feelings and powers of body and soul, darkens the image and likeness of God in man, and is therefore called a fall. Heresy comes from presumption, while fornication comes from bodily comfort. Therefore heretics are corrected by humiliation, and sensualists by suffering. We add the gist of a Greek note in K. A. Vretoss edition of the Ladder (Constantinople, 1883, p. 91): Obviously heresy is the greatest of sins. But since the passion of fornication has a tyrannical power due to pleasure and attracts attention, it often causes men to fall after repentance. Therefore, the fornicator is debarred for periods from the Holy Mysteries, that he may not return to his vomit and jeopardize his salvation. It also serves to put fear in all, and make them struggle against their passions and use the grace of the Holy Spirit. Heresy is a mental passion that springs from error and ignorance, or from ambition and vainglory. But when the evil is removed, it no longer causes conflict or trouble. Further, spiritual education aims at cutting out evil by the root. By the practice of a strict life, fornicators are trained to forget the pleasure of lust. For whereas the evil of heresy lies only in the mind, the passion of fornication also affects the body with corruption. The man who repents of heresy is at once cleansed by turning to God with his whole personality. But one who returns to God from fornication usually needs time and tears and fasting to get rid of the pleasure and heal the wound in his flesh and stabilize his mind. If, however, both remain unrepentant, they will certainly have the same condemnation.
2 I.e. his body.
1.16 - Advantages and Disadvantages of Evocational Magic, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
If a magician with a high degree of perfection and relationship to God would bring about such a procedure he would by his creative power, be able to build up, with the undine, the same kind of harmony of the elements as it possesses any human being.
He would be able to create a new human being whose spirit would be as immortal as the spirit of any other human creature.
1.16 - PRAYER, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Psychologically, it is all but impossible for a human being to practise contemplation without preparing for it by some kind of adoration and without feeling the need to revert at more or less frequent intervals to intercession and some form at least of petition. On the other hand, it is both possible and easy to practise petition apart not only from contemplation, but also from adoration and, in rare cases of extreme and unmitigated egotism, even from intercession. Petitionary and intercessory prayer may be used and used, what is more, with what would ordinarily be regarded as successwithout any but the most perfunctory and superficial reference to God in any of his aspects. To acquire the knack of getting his petitions answered, a man does not have to know or love God, or even to know or love the image of God in his own mind. All that he requires is a burning sense of the importance of his own ego and its desires, coupled with a firm conviction that there exists, out there in the universe, something not himself which can be wheedled or dragooned into satisfying those desires. If I repeat My will be done, with the necessary degree of faith and persistency, the chances are that, sooner or later and somehow or other, I shall get what I want. Whether my will coincides with the will of God, and whether in getting what I want I shall get what is spiritually, morally or even materially good for me are questions which I cannot answer in advance. Only time and eternity will show. Meanwhile we shall be well advised to heed the warnings of folk-lore. Those anonymous realists who wrote the worlds fairy stories knew a great deal about wishes and their fulfilment. They knew, first of all, that in certain circumstances petitions actually get themselves answered; but they also knew that God is not the only answerer and that if one asks for something in the wrong spirit, it may in effect be given but given with a vengeance and not by a divine Giver. Getting what one wants by means of self-regarding petition is a form of hubris, which invites its condign and appropriate nemesis. Thus, the folk-lore of the North American Indian is full of stories about people who fast and pray egotistically, in order to get more than a reasonable man ought to have, and who, receiving what they ask for, thereby bring about their own downfall. From the other side of the world come all the tales of the men and women who make use of some kind of magic to get their petitions answeredalways with farcical or catastrophic consequence. Hardly ever do the Three Wishes of our traditional fairy lore lead to anything but a bad end for the successful wisher.
Picture God as saying to you, My son, why is it that day by day you rise and pray, and genuflect, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay, sometimes even shed tears, while you say to me: My Father, my God, give me wealth! If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy you had gained something very great. Because you asked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Before you had it you were humble; now that you have begun to be rich you despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse? For worse you are, since you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not; hence you asked it of Me. I gave it you and I proved you; you have found and you are found out! Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these-Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself.
--
By prayer I do not understand petition or supplication which, according to the doctrines of the schools, is exercised principally by the understanding, being a signification of what the person desires to receive from God. But prayer here specially meant is an offering and giving to God whatsoever He may justly require from us.
Now prayer, in its general notion, may be defined to be an elevation of the mind to God, or more largely and expressly thus: prayer is an actuation of an intellective soul towards God, expressing, or at least implying, an entire dependence on Him as the author and fountain of all good, a will and readiness to give Him his due, which is no less than all love, all obedience, adoration, glory and worship, by humbling and annihilating the self and all creatures in His presence; and lastly, a desire and intention to aspire to an union of spirit with Him.
Hence it appears that prayer is the most perfect and most divine action that a rational soul is capable of. It is of all actions and duties the most indispensably necessary.
--
To pretend to devotion without great humility and renunciation of all worldly tempers is to pretend to impossibilities. He that would be devout must first be humble, have a full sense of his own miseries and wants and the vanity of the world, and then his soul will be full of desire after God. A proud, or vain, or worldly-minded man may use a manual of prayers, but he cannot be devout, because devotion is the application of an humble heart to God as its only happiness.
William Law
The spirit, in order to work, must have all sensible images, both good and bad, removed. The beginner in a spiritual course commences with the use of good sensible images, and it is impossible to begin in a good spiritual course with the exercises of the spirit. Those souls who have not a propensity to the interior must abide always in the exercises, in which sensible images are used, and these souls will find the sensible exercises very profitable to themselves and to others, and pleasing to God. And this is the way of the active life. But others, who have the propensity to the interior, do not always remain in the exercises of the senses, but after a time these will give place to the exercises of the spirit, which are independent of the senses and the imagination and consist simply in the elevation of the will of the intellective soul to God. The soul elevates her will towards God, apprehended by the understanding as a spirit, and not as an imaginary thing, the human spirit in this way aspiring to a union with the Divine Spirit.
Augustine Baker
You tell me you do nothing in prayer. But what do you want to do in prayer except what you are doing, which is, presenting and representing your nothingness and misery to God? When beggars expose their ulcers and their necessities to our sight, that is the best appeal they can make. But from what you tell me, you sometimes do nothing of this, but lie there like a shadow or a statue. They put statues in palaces simply to please the princes eyes. Be content to be that in the presence of God: He will bring the statue to life when He pleases.
St. Franois de Sales
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I order you to remain simply either in God or close to God, without trying to do anything there, and without asking anything of Him, unless He urges it.
St. Franois de Sales
1.16 - WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
An intense restlessness is needed. Through it the whole mind goes to God.
"A man had a daughter who became a widow when she was very young. She had never known her husband: She noticed the husbands of other girls and said one day to her father, 'Where is my husband?' The father replied: 'Govinda is your husband. He will come to you if you call Him.' At these words the girl went to her room, closed the door, and cried to Govinda, saying: 'O Govinda, corne to me! Show Yourself to me! Why don't You come?' God could not resist the girl's piteous cry and appeared before her.
--
"The first stage is that of the beginner. He studies and hears. Second is the stage of the struggling aspirant. He prays to God, meditates on Him, and sings His name and glories. The third stage is that of the perfect soul. He has seen God, realized Him directly and immediately in his inner Consciousness. Last is the stage of the supremely perfect, like Chaitanya. Such a devotee establishes a definite relationship with God, looking on Him as his Son or Beloved."
M., Rkhl, Jogin, Ltu, and the other devotees were entranced by these words of divine realization.
1.17 - M. AT DAKSHINEWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"The worldly man always has some desire or other, though at times he shows much devotion to God. Once Mathur Babu was entangled in a lawsuit. He said to me in the shrine of Kli, 'Sir, please offer this flower to the Divine Mother.' I offered it unsuspectingly, but he firmly believed that he would attain his objective if I offered the flower.
"What devotion Rati's mother had! How often she used to come here and how much she served me! She was a Vaishnava. One day she noticed that I ate the food offered at the Kli temple, and that stopped her coming. Her devotion to God was one-sided. It isn't possible to understand a person right away."
It was a winter morning, and the Master was sitting near the east door of his room, wrapped in his moleskin shawl. He looked at the sun and suddenly went into samdhi.
--
He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. Following the path of devotion, one realizes everything through His grace both Knowledge and Supreme Wisdom.
"God sports in this world. He is under the control of His devotee. 'Syama, the Divine Mother, is Herself tied by the cord of the love of Her devotee.'
1.17 - On poverty (that hastens heavenwards)., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
2. A poor monk is lord of the world. He has entrusted his cares to God and by faith has obtained all men as his slaves. He will not tell his need to man, and he receives what comes to him, as from the hand of the Lord.
3. The poor ascetic is a son of detachment and thinks of what he has as if it were nothing. When he becomes a solitary, he regards everything as refuse. But if he worries about something, he has not yet become poor.
1.17 - Religion as the Law of Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The whole root of the historic insufficiency of religion as a guide and control of human society lies there. Churches and creeds have, for example, stood violently in the way of philosophy and science, burned a Giordano Bruno, imprisoned a Galileo, and so generally misconducted themselves in this matter that philosophy and science had in self-defence to turn upon Religion and rend her to pieces in order to get a free field for their legitimate development; and this because men in the passion and darkness of their vital nature had chosen to think that religion was bound up with certain fixed intellectual conceptions about God and the world which could not stand scrutiny, and therefore scrutiny had to be put down by fire and sword; scientific and philosophical truth had to be denied in order that religious error might survive. We see too that a narrow religious spirit often oppresses and impoverishes the joy and beauty of life, either from an intolerant asceticism or, as the Puritans attempted it, because they could not see that religious austerity is not the whole of religion, though it may be an important side of it, is not the sole ethico-religious approach to God, since love, charity, gentleness, tolerance, kindliness are also and even more divine, and they forgot or never knew that God is love and beauty as well as purity. In politics religion has often thrown itself on the side of power and resisted the coming of larger political ideals, because it was itself, in the form of a Church, supported by power and because it confused religion with the Church, or because it stood for a false theocracy, forgetting that true theocracy is the kingdom of God in man and not the kingdom of a Pope, a priesthood or a sacerdotal class. So too it has often supported a rigid and outworn social system, because it thought its own life bound up with social forms with which it happened to have been associated during a long portion of its own history and erroneously concluded that even a necessary change there would be a violation of religion and a danger to its existence. As if so mighty and inward a power as the religious spirit in man could be destroyed by anything so small as the change of a social form or so outward as a social readjustment! This error in its many shapes has been the great weakness of religion as practised in the past and the opportunity and justification for the revolt of the intelligence, the aesthetic sense, the social and political idealism, even the ethical spirit of the human being against what should have been its own highest tendency and law.
Here then lies one secret of the divergence between the ancient and the modern, the Eastern and Western ideal, and here also one clue to their reconciliation. Both rest upon a certain strong justification and their quarrel is due to a misunderstanding. It is true in a sense that religion should be the dominant thing in life, its light and law, but religion as it should be and is in its inner nature, its fundamental law of being, a seeking after God, the cult of spirituality, the opening of the deepest life of the soul to the indwelling Godhead, the eternal Omnipresence. On the other hand, it is true that religion when it identifies itself only with a creed, a cult, a Church, a system of ceremonial forms, may well become a retarding force and there may therefore arise a necessity for the human spirit to reject its control over the varied activities of life. There are two aspects of religion, true religion and religionism. True religion is spiritual religion, that which seeks to live in the spirit, in what is beyond the intellect, beyond the aesthetic and ethical and practical being of man, and to inform and govern these members of our being by the higher light and law of the spirit. Religionism, on the contrary, entrenches itself in some narrow pietistic exaltation of the lower members or lays exclusive stress on intellectual dogmas, forms and ceremonies, on some fixed and rigid moral code, on some religio-political or religio-social system. Not that these things are altogether negligible or that they must be unworthy or unnecessary or that a spiritual religion need disdain the aid of forms, ceremonies, creeds or systems. On the contrary, they are needed by man because the lower members have to be exalted and raised before they can be fully spiritualised, before they can directly feel the spirit and obey its law. An intellectual formula is often needed by the thinking and reasoning mind, a form or ceremony by the aesthetic temperament or other parts of the infrarational being, a set moral code by mans vital nature in their turn towards the inner life. But these things are aids and supports, not the essence; precisely because they belong to the rational and infrarational parts, they can be nothing more and, if too blindly insisted on, may even hamper the suprarational light. Such as they are, they have to be offered to man and used by him, but not to be imposed on him as his sole law by a forced and inflexible domination. In the use of them toleration and free permission of variation is the first rule which should be observed. The spiritual essence of religion is alone the one thing supremely needful, the thing to which we have always to hold and subordinate to it every other element or motive.
1.17 - SUFFERING, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The idea of vicarious suffering has too often been formulated in crudely juridical and commercial terms. A has committed an offence for which the law decrees a certain punishment; B voluntarily undergoes the punishment; justice and the lawgivers honour are satisfied; consequently A may go free. Or else it is all a matter of debts and repayments. A owes C a sum which he cannot pay; B steps in with the cash and so prevents C from foreclosing on the mortgage. Applied to the facts of mans suffering and his relations to the divine Ground, these conceptions are neither enlightening nor edifying. The orthodox doctrine of the Atonement attributes to God characteristics that would be discreditable even to a human potentate, and its model of the universe is not the product of spiritual insight rationalized by philosophic reflection, but rather the projection of a lawyers phantasy. But in spite of these deplorable crudities in their formulation, the idea of vicarious suffering and the other, closely related idea of the transferability of merit are based upon genuine facts of experience. The selfless and God-filled person can and does act as a channel through which grace is able to pass into the unfortunate being who has made himself impervious to the divine by the habitual craving for intensifications of his own separateness and selfhood. It is because of this that the saints are able to exercise authority, all the greater for being entirely non-compulsive, over their fellow beings. They transfer merit to those who are in need of it; but that which converts the victims of self-will and puts them on the path of liberation is not the merit of the saintly individuala merit that consists in his having made himself capable of eternal Reality, as a pipe, by being cleaned out, is made capable of water; it is rather the divine charge he carries, the eternal Reality for which he has become the conduit. And similarly, in vicarious suffering, it is not the actual pains experienced by the saint which are redemptive for to believe that God is angry at sin and that His anger cannot be propitiated except by the offer of a certain sum of pain is to blaspheme against the divine Nature. No, what saves is the gift from beyond the temporal order, brought to those imprisoned in selfhood by these selfless and God-filled persons, who have been ready to accept suffering, in order to help their fellows. The Bodhisattvas vow is a promise to forgo the immediate fruits of enlightenment and to accept rebirth and its inevitable concomitants, pain and death, again and again, until such time as, thanks to his labours and the graces of which, being selfless, he is the channel, all sentient beings shall have come to final and complete deliverance.
I saw a mass of matter of a dull gloomy colour between the North and the East, and was informed that this mass was human beings, in as great misery as they could be, and live; and that I was mixed up with them and henceforth I must not consider myself as a distinct or separate being.
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Why must the righteous and the innocent endure undeserved suffering? For anyone who conceives of human individuals as Hume conceived of events and things, as loose and separate, the question admits of no acceptable answer. But, in fact, human individuals are not loose and separate, and the only reason why we think they are is our own wrongly interpreted self-interest. We want to do what we damned well like, to have a good time and no responsibilities. Consequently, we find it convenient to be misled by the inadequacies of language and to believe (not always, of course, but just when it suits us) that things, persons and events are as completely distinct and separate one from another as the words, by means of which we think about them. The truth is, of course, that we are all organically related to God, to Nature and to our fellow men. If every human being were constantly and consciously in a proper relationship with his divine, natural and social environments there would be only so much suffering as Creation makes inevitable. But actually most human beings are chronically in an improper relation to God, Nature and some at least of their fellows. The results of these wrong relationships are manifest on the social level as wars, revolutions, exploitation and disorder; on the natural level, as waste and exhaustion of irreplaceable resources; on the biological level, as degenerative diseases and the deterioration of racial stocks; on the moral level, as an overweening bumptiousness; and on the spiritual level, as blindness to divine Reality and complete ignorance of the reason and purpose of human existence. In such circumstances it would be extraordinary if the innocent and righteous did not sufferjust as it would be extraordinary if the innocent kidneys and the righteous heart were not to suffer for the sins of a licorous palate and overloaded stomach, sins, we may add, imposed upon those organs by the will of the gluttonous individual to whom they belong, as he himself belongs to a society which other individuals, his contemporaries and predecessors, have built up into a vast and enduring incarnation of disorder, inflicting suffering upon its members and infecting them with its own ignorance and wickedness. The righteous man can escape suffering only by accepting it and passing beyond it; and he can accomplish this only by being converted from righteousness to total selflessness and God-centredness, by ceasing to be just a Pharisee, or good citizen, and becoming perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The difficulties in the way of such a transfiguration are, obviously, enormous. But of those who speak with authority, who has ever said that the road to complete deliverance was easy or the gate anything but strait and narrow?
next chapter: 1.18 - FAITH
1.18 - Evocation, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
Before a magician starts with the evocation of beings he must have the whole procedure precisely entered into the book of formulae and should, if possible, know it by heart, so that he is not delayed during his operations by any looking up. It is possible that difficulties will arise at the beginning of the magician's practice, but soon the repeated evocation of beings will increase his self-confidence. Besides that, he will realize that an evocation is not just the calling of a being, but a regular ritual, composed of a whole number of magical operations. The magician must make sure that no hiatus exists in this rite, for each hiatus would be a disturbance not only to the magician, but also to the being evoked. A faultless operation is that which the grimoires call the complete circle. This expression does not refer to the circle that is drawn by the magician for his protection, and as a symbol of the microcosm and macrocosm, which is of the relationship to God, but it refers to the total coherent magical operation. The purpose of the evocation, too, must be laid down in writing before its beginning, for during the evocation no additional questions may be raised.
As one can guess from the whole procedure of preparation, a cautiously prepared and precisely completed magical evocation requires much time. If, by repeated intercourse with one and the same being, the magician has established a good connection, so that the being pays him absolute obedience and thereby completely acknowledges his magical authority, the magician may, to save time, arrange a different way to contact the being either by an abbreviated individual rite, or even just a word for the evocation of the being and by getting the being's approval for this, or he may cause the being to choose an abridged method to which the being itself and its servants are bound to react at any time. This abridged method, too, has to be written into the book of furmulae conscientiously, so that during its practical application no mistakes occur. This is especially important should the magician have entered into a number of connections with beings.
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For the actual evocation of beings no spells or similar nonsense is necessary. Since, during the whole time of the evocation, the magician is in an elevated state, in a true relationship with God, he places himself with his consciousness into the sphere of the chosen being and, after having called out its name, asks the being to appear to him. The being hears the magician, at once reacts to his call, and quite willingly comes near him. A true magician will never be obliged to threaten a being or do anything of that sort in order to make the being obedient to his will. This may only happen with stubborn demons to whom the magician demonstrates the power of his relationship to God. In the case of a true relationship to God, hardly any being, no matter what rank it may have, will ever dare to place itself in opposition to the divinity, for the divinity is the power by which the being was created, and therefore it must be respected.
Since, for the magician, the saying is true that the stars influence, but do not force, it is left to the magician to fix the time for the evocation according to astrological rules, provided that he has a fundamental knowledge of astrology and is therefore able to fix the favourable planetary moments in respect of the relevant beings.
1.18 - FAITH, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
The core and spiritual heart of all the higher religions is the Perennial Philosophy; and the Perennial Philosophy can be assented to and acted upon without resort to the kind of faith, about which Luther was writing in the foregoing passages. There must, of course, be faith as trust for confidence in ones fellows is the beginning of charity towards men, and confidence not only in the material, but also the moral and spiritual reliability of the universe, is the beginning of charity or love-knowledge in relation to God. There must also be faith in authority the authority of those whose selflessness has qualified them to know the spiritual Ground of all being by direct acquaintance as well as by report. And finally there must be faith in such propositions about Reality as are enunciated by philosophers in the light of genuine revelationpropositions which the believer knows that he can, if he is prepared to fulfil the necessary conditions, verify for himself. But, so long as the Perennial Philosophy is accepted in its essential simplicity, there is no need of willed assent to propositions known in advance to be unverifiable. Here it is necessary to add that such unverifiable propositions may become verifiable to the extent that intense faith affects the psychic substratum and so creates an existence, whose derived objectivity can actually be discovered out there. Let us, however, remember that an existence which derives its objectivity from the mental activity of those who intensely believe in it cannot possibly be the spiritual Ground of the world, and that a mind busily engaged in the voluntary and intellectual activity, which is religious faith cannot possibly be in the state of selflessness and alert passivity which is the necessary condition of the unitive knowledge of the Ground. That is why the Buddhists affirm that loving faith leads to heaven; but obedience to the Dharma leads to Nirvana. Faith in the existence and power of any supernatural entity which is less than ultimate spiritual Reality, and in any form of worship that falls short of self-naughting, will certainly, if the object of faith is intrinsically good, result in improvement of character, and probably in posthumous survival of the improved personality under heavenly conditions. But this personal survival within what is still the temporal order is not the eternal life of timeless union with the Spirit. This eternal life stands in the knowledge of the Godhead, not in faith in anything less than the Godhead.
The immortality attained through the acquisition of any objective condition (e.g., the conditionmerited through good works, which have been inspired by love of, and faith in, something less than the supreme Godheadof being united in act to what is worshipped) is liable to end; for it is distinctly stated in the Scriptures that karma is never the cause of emancipation.
1.18 - M. AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Why so? What about the yoga of practice? At Kamarpukur I have seen the women of the carpenter families selling flattened rice. Let me tell you how alert they are while doing their business. The pestle of the husking-machine that flattens the paddy constantly falls into the hole of the mortar. The woman turns the paddy in the hole with one hand and with the other holds her baby on her lap as she nurses it. In the mean time customers arrive. The machine goes on pounding the paddy, and she carries on her bargains with the customers'. She says to them, 'Pay the few pennies you owe me before you take anything more.' You see, she has all these things to do at the same time-nurse the baby, turn the paddy as the pestle pounds it, take the flattened rice out of the hole, and talk to the buyers. This is called the yoga of practice. Fifteen parts of her mind out of sixteen are fixed on the pestle of the husking-machine, lest it should pound her hand. With only one part of her mind she nurses the baby and talks to the buyers. Likewise, he who leads the life of a householder should devote fifteen parts of his mind to God; otherwise he will face ruin and fall into the clutches of Death. He should perform the duties of the world with only one part of his mind.
"A man may lead the life of a householder after attaining Knowledge. But he must attain Knowledge first. If the milk of the mind is kept in the water of the world, they get mixed. Therefore he should turn the milk into curd and extract butter from it by churning it in solitude; then he may keep the butter in the water of the world.
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MASTER: "That God exists may be known by looking at the universe. But it is one thing to hear of God, another thing to see God, and still another thing to talk to God. Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, and some, again, have tasted it. You feel happy when you see milk; you are nourished and streng thened when you drink it. You will get peace of mind only when you have seen God. You will enjoy bliss and gain strength only when you have talked to Him."
SHRISH: "We do not have time to pray to God."
MASTER (with a smile): "That is true. Nothing comes to pass except at the right time.
--
Self-surrender to God
(To Shrish): "Surrender everything at the feet of God. What else can you do? Give Him the power of attorney. Let Him do whatever He thinks best. If you rely on a great man, he will never injure you.
--
"It is no doubt necessary to practise spiritual discipline; but there are two kinds of aspirants. The nature of the one kind is like that of the young monkey, and the nature of the other kind is like that of the kitten. The young monkey, with great exertion, somehow clings to its mother. Likewise, there are some aspirants who think that in order to realize God they must repeat His name a certain number of times, meditate on Him for a certain period, and practise a certain amount of austerity. An aspirant of this kind makes his own efforts to catch hold of God. But the kitten, of itself, cannot cling to its mother. It lies on the ground and cries, 'Mew, mew!' It leaves everything to its mother. The mother cat sometimes puts it on a bed, sometimes on the roof behind a pile of wood. She carries the kitten in her mouth hither and thither. The kitten doesn't know how to cling to the mother. Likewise, there are some aspirants who cannot practise spiritual discipline by calculating about japa or the period of meditation. All that they do is cry to God with yearning hearts. God hears their cry and cannot keep Himself away. He reveals Himself to them."
At noon the host wished to feed the Master and the devotees. Sri Ramakrishna was smilingly pacing the room. Now and then he exchanged a few words with the musician.
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Unswerving devotion to God
MASTER: "You should undoubtedly bow before all views. But there is a thing called unswerving devotion to one ideal. True, you should salute everyone. But you must love one ideal with your whole soul. That is unswerving devotion.
--
"The thing is that one must love God. Through intense love one attains the vision of Him. The attraction of the husb and for the chaste wife, the attraction of the child for its mother, the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man-when a man can blend these three into one, and direct it all to God, then he gets the vision of God."
Jaygopal was a man of the world. Was this why the Master gave instruction suited to him?
--
"Therefore, like Valmiki, one should at first renounce everything and cry to God in solitude with a longing heart. The first thing necessary is the vision of God; then comes reasoning-about the scriptures and the world.
(To M.) "That is why I have been telling you not to reason any more. I came from the pine-grove to say that to you. Through too much reasoning your spiritual life will be injured; you will at last become like Hazra. I used to roam at night in the streets, all alone, and cry to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, blight with Thy thunderbolt my desire to reason!' Tell me that you won't reason any more."
--
"One must pray to God without any selfish desire. But selfish worship, if practised with perseverance, is gradually turned into selfless worship. Dhruva practised tapasya to obtain his kingdom, but at last he realized God. He said, 'Why should a man give up gold if he gets it while searching for glass beads?'
Master and philanthropy
--
"The great souls, deeply affected by the sufferings of men, show them the way to God.
Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach mankind. The gift of knowledge and devotion is far superior to the gift of food. Therefore Chaitanyadeva distributed bhakti to all, including the outcaste. Happiness and suffering are the inevitable characteristics of the body. You have come to eat mangoes. Fulfil that desire. The one thing needful is jnna and bhakti. God alone is Substance; all else is illusory.
1.19 - NIGHT, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
Commend your soul to God for pardon,
That you your heart with slander harden!
--
I go to God as a soldier brave.
(Dies.)
1.19 - On sleep, prayer, and psalm-singing in chapel., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
A praiseworthy workhe who makes it his own draws near to God and expels demons.
1.19 - THE MASTER AND HIS INJURED ARM, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
There is nothing like discrimination and renunciation. The worldly man's devotion to God is momentarylike a drop of water on a redhot frying-pan. Perchance he looks at a flower and exclaims, 'Ah, what a wonderful creation of God!'
Yearning for God
--
MASTER: "Those who have the time must meditate and worship. But those who cannot possibly do so must bow down whole-heartedly to God twice a day. He abides in the hearts of all; He knows that worldly people have many things to do. What else is possible for them? You don't have time to pray to God; therefore give Him the power of attorney. But all is in vain unless you attain God and see Him."
ANOTHER DEVOTEE: "Sir, to see you is the same as to see God."
1.19 - The Practice of Magical Evocation, #The Practice of Magical Evocation, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
Finally you put round your head your magus-band or put on the magic headgear with a feeling of true relationship to God, and that not you as a magician, but that God is actually carrying through the whole operation. You must unite yourself with the divine principle inside you in such a way that you have the feeling that you are the deity itself. Having done all this, you are able to go a further step in your operation. You light the magic lamp, which, in our case, must fill the room with a lightgreen light. Set the magic lamp in a place round which you will be able to draw the magic circle or hang it up in the centre of the room. This does not mean that the lamp must be exactly in the centre of the room though it would have the advantage that the whole room gets an equal light. Your next task will be the setting up and impregnation of the magic mirror, if you like, of two magic mirrors. In this example instructions are given for the use of two mirrors. One mirror is to bring about the materialization of Hagiel in the physical world, the other is to keep off unwanted influences. Being conscious of the fact that not you, but the deity is carrying out the procedure, you create, by the help of the imagination, a great sea of light in a wonderful emerald colour, which, also by imagination, you accumulate from the whole universe into the mirror in a manner that the whole surface of the mirror is taken up by this colour. The power of illumination of the condensed green light must be so strong as to illuminate completely the room in which you work. At that moment you must have the imaginative impression that this accumulated light is actually a power matrix, a fluid, which can almost be seen by the physical eye. In any case you must have the permanent impression that you are moving about in the room in an oscillation of green light. This is the way to prepare, magically, the room for the being to be evoked, and in a room like this there will be no more obstacles for the being and it will feel the atmosphere of its own sphere. Already at the moment you accumulate the light you concentrate on the idea that the purpose of this accumulation is to condense the evoked spirit being in a manner that you can see it with your physical eyes and hear it with your physical ears. The stronger your imagination, belief, will and conviction, the better condensed and truer Hagiel will appear to you. When impregnating the room, do not forget to include that you wish the accumulated planetary light-power to remain in the mirror and in the room until you dissolve it again by force of your imagination.
Similar examples are given in "Initiation into Hermetics" in the chapter dealing with room-impregnation and here you find the evidence that all the exercises and magic operations of that first work have their special purpose. You will also see that when carrying out further magical operations you will not be able to do without any of these practices. If you have not actively gone through the exercises of the first book you are unable to get into conscious contact with any spirit being outside you, or of materialising such a being.
--
Moreover you must concentrate on the idea that this intelligence is allied to the sign and will react to it at any time and be always willing to perform that which you, the magician, want it to perform. You must be aware of the fact that it is not you who draws the afore-mentioned sign, but God, and that therefore the intelligence will render absolute obedience to God. With this meditative attitude in mind, a failure is quite impossible. Your
* With regard to the various spheres the blotting paper must have the following shapes: for the sphere of Saturn a triangle of Jupiter a quadrangle of Mars a pentagon of the Sun a hexagon of Venus a heptagon of Mercury an octagon of the Moon a nonagon
1.2.03 - Purity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
X pretends to be pure and surrendered to the will of God. How can he be pure when his whole trouble has come from the indulgence of impure desires? He pretends to act according to God's will, but his actions are moved by three things, desire, vanity and self-will. The devil makes suggestions supported by one or another of these three motives and persuades him that it is the will of God.
Ignorance is not a state of innocence or purity; that is an old blunder. Only a consciousness full of light can be pure. For instance, when you are conscious, your mind is clear and you have the right ideas about things and people; your mind is pure of ignorance. But when the mind is clouded by some impurity,
1.20 - Equality and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
submissive forbearance. In the Gita this element takes the more ample form of an entire surrender of the whole being to God. It is not merely a passive submission, but an active self-giving; not only a seeing and an accepting of the divine Will in all things, but a giving up of one's own will to be the instrument of the Master of works, and this not with the lesser idea of being a servant of
God, but, eventually at least, of such a complete renunciation both of the consciousness and the works to him that our being becomes one with his being and the impersonalised nature only an instrument and nothing else. All result good or bad, pleasing or unpleasing, fortunate or unfortunate, is accepted as belonging to the Master of our actions, so that finally not only are grief and suffering borne, but they are banished: a perfect equality of the emotional mind is established. There is no assumption of personal will in the instrument; it is seen that all is already worked out in the omniscient prescience and omnipotent effective power of the universal Divine and that the egoism of men cannot alter the workings of that Will. Therefore, the final attitude is that enjoined on Arjuna in a later chapter, "All has been already done by Me in my divine will and foresight; become only the occasion, O Arjuna," nimitta-matram bhava savyasacin. This attitude must lead finally to an absolute union of the personal with the Divine Will and, with the growth of knowledge, bring about a faultless response of the instrument to the divine Power and Knowledge. A perfect, an absolute equality of self-surrender, the mentality a passive channel of the divine Light and Power, the active being a mightily effective instrument for its work in the world, will be the poise of this supreme union of the
1.20 - RULES FOR HOUSEHOLDERS AND MONKS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"In order to be able to renounce, one must pray to God for the will power to do so. One must immediately renounce what one feels to be unreal. The rishis had this will-power.
Through it they controlled the sense-organs. If the tortoise once tucks in its limbs, you cannot make it bring them out even by cutting it into four pieces.
--
"Vaishnavcharan said to me, 'If a person looks on his beloved as his Ishta, he finds it very easy to direct his mind to God.' The men and women of a particular sect at Syambazar, near Kamarpukur, say to each other, 'Whom do you love?' 'I love so-and-so.' 'Then know him to be your God.' When I heard this, I said to them: 'That is not my way. I look on all women as my mother.' I found out that they talked big but led immoral lives. The women then asked me if they would have salvation. 'Yes,' I said, 'if you are absolutely faithful to one man and look on him as your God. But you cannot be liberated if you live with five men.' "
RAM: "I understand that Kedr Babu has recently visited the Kartabhajas' place."
--
DADA: "I have come here to visit you. I pray to God. But why do I suffer now and then from worries? For a few days I feel very happy. Why do I feel restless afterwards?"
MASTER: "I see. Things have not been fitted quite exactly. The machine works smoothly if the mechanic fits the cogs of the wheels correctly. In your case there is an obstruction somewhere."
--
Mahima and the other devotees remained silent. After a time Mahima said, "Please pray to God for us that we may acquire the necessary strength."
MASTER: "Be on your guard even now. It is difficult, no doubt, to check the torrent in the rainy season. But a great deal of water has gone out. If you build the embankment now it will stand.
1.20 - TANTUM RELIGIO POTUIT SUADERE MALORUM, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Would you know whence it is that so many false spirits have appeared in the world, who have deceived themselves and others with false fire and false light, laying claim to information, illumination and openings of the divine Life, particularly to do wonders under extraordinary calls from God? It is this: they have turned to God without turning from themselves; would be alive to God before they are dead to their own nature. Now religion in the hands of self, or corrupt nature, serves only to discover vices of a worse kind than in nature left to itself. Hence are all the disorderly passions of religious men, which burn in a worse flame than passions only employed about worldly matters; pride, self-exaltation, hatred and persecution, under a cloak of religious zeal, will sanctify actions which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own.
William Law
Turning to God without turning from self"the formula is absurdly simple; and yet, simple as it is, it explains all the follies and iniquities committed in the name of religion. Those who turn to God without turning from themselves are tempted to evil in several characteristic and easily recognizable ways. They are tempted, first of all, to practice magical rites, by means of which they hope to compel God to answer their petitions and, in general, to serve their private or collective ends. All the ugly business of sacrifice, incantation and what Jesus called vain repetition is a product of this wish to treat God as a means to indefinite self-aggrandisement, rather than as an end to be reached through total self-denial. Next, they are tempted to use the name of God to justify what they do in pursuit of place, power and wealth. And because they believe themselves to have divine justification for their actions, they proceed, with a good conscience, to perpetrate abominations, which nature, left to itself, would be ashamed to own. Throughout recorded history, an incredible sum of mischief has been done by ambitious idealists, self-deluded by their own verbiage and a lust for power, into a conviction that they were acting for the highest good of their fellow men. In the past, the justification for such wickedness was God or the Church, or the True Faith"; today idealists kill and torture and exploit in the name of the Revolution, the New Order, the World of the Common Man, or simply the Future. Finally there are the temptations which arise, when the falsely religious begin to acquire the powers which are the fruit of their pious and magical practices. For, let there be no mistake, sacrifice, incantation and vain repetition actually do produce fruits, especially when practised in conjunction with physical austerities. Men who turn towards God without turning away from themselves do not, of course, reach God; but if they devote themselves energetically enough to their pseudo-religion, they will get results. Some of these results are doubtless the product of auto-suggestion. (It was through vain repetition that Cou got his patients to cure themselves of their diseases.) Others are due, apparently, to that something not ourselves in the psychic medium that something which makes, not necessarily for righteousness, but always for power. Whether this something is a piece of secondh and objectivity, projected into the medium by the individual worshipper and his fellows and predecessors; whether it is a piece of first-hand objectivity, corresponding, on the psychic level, to the data of the material universe; or whether it is a combination of both these things, it is impossible to determine. All that need be said in this place is that people who turn towards God without turning from themselves often seem to acquire a knack of getting their petitions answered and sometimes develop considerable supernormal powers, such as those of psychic healing and extra-sensory perception. But, it may be asked: Is it necessarily a good thing to be able to get ones petitions answered in the way one wants them to be? And how far is it spiritually profitable to be possessed of these miraculous powers? These are questions which were considered in the section on Prayer and will be further discussed in the chapter on The Miraculous.
The Grand Augur, in his ceremonial robes, approached the shambles and thus addressed the pigs. How can you object to the? I shall fatten you for three months. I shall discipline myself for ten days and fast for three. I shall strew fine grass and place you bodily upon a carved sacrificial dish. Does not this satisfy you?
--
The extract that follows is a moving protest against the crimes and follies perpetrated in the name of religion by those sixteenth-century Reformers who had turned to God without turning away from themselves and who were therefore far more keenly interested in the temporal aspects of historic Christianity the ecclesiastical organization, the logic-chopping, the letter of Scripturethan in the Spirit who must be worshipped in spirit, the eternal Reality in the selfless knowledge of whom stands mans eternal life. Its author was Sebastian Castellio, who was at one time Calvins favourite disciple, but who parted company with his master when the latter burned Servetus for heresy against his own heresy. Fortunately Castellio was living in Basel when he made his plea for charity and common decency; penned in Geneva, it would have earned him torture and death.
If you, illustrious Prince (the words were addressed to the Duke of Wurtemberg) had informed your subjects that you were coming to visit them at an unnamed time, and had requested them to be prepared in white garments to meet you at your coming, what would you do if on arrival you should find that, instead of robing themselves in white, they had spent their time in violent debate about your personsome insisting that you were in France, others that you were in Spain; some declaring that you would come on horseback, others that you would come by chariot; some holding that you would come with great pomp and others that you would come without any train or following? And what especially would you say if they debated not only with words, but with blows of fist and sword strokes, and if some succeeded in killing and destroying others who differed from them? He will come on horseback. No, he will not; it will be by chariot. You lie. I do not; you are the liar. Take thata blow with the fist. Take that a sword-thrust through the body. Prince, what would you think of such citizens? Christ asked us to put on the white robes of a pure and holy life; but what occupies our thoughts? We dispute not only of the way to Christ, but of his relation to God the Father, of the Trinity, of predestination, of free will, of the nature of God, of the angels, of the condition of the soul after deathof a multitude of matters that are not essential to salvation; matters, moreover, which can never be known until our hearts are pure; for they are things which must be spiritually perceived.
Sebastian Castellio
1.21 - On unmanly and puerile cowardice., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
He who has conquered cowardice has clearly dedicated his life and soul to God.
1.22 - ADVICE TO AN ACTOR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Passions should be directed to God
"One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like.
Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. If you must be conceited and egotistic, then feel conceited and egotistic thinking that you are the servant of God, the child of God.
"A man cannot see God unless he gives his whole mind to Him. The mind is wasted on 'woman and gold'. Take your own case. You have children and are occupied with the theatre. The mind cannot be united with God on account of these different activities.
--
ACTOR: "Revered sir, what you have just said about enjoyment is very true. One ultimately courts disaster if one prays to God for enjoyment. Various desires come to the mind and by no means all of them are good. God is the Kalpataru, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. A man gets whatever he asks of God. Suppose it comes to his mind: 'God is the Kalpataru. Well, let me see if a tiger will appear before me.' Because he thinks of the tiger, it really appears and devours him."
MASTER: "Yes, you must remember that the tiger comes. What more shall I tell you?
--
MASTER (to the ladies): "Worship iva. This worship is described in a book called the Nityakarma. Learn the rituals from it. In order to perform the worship of God you will be preoccupied for a longtime with such religious duties as plucking flowers, making sandal-paste, polishing the utensils of worship, and arranging offerings. As you perform these duties your mind will naturally be directed to God. You will get rid of meanness, anger, jealousy, and so forth. When you two sisters talk to each other, always talk about spiritual matters.
"The thing is somehow to unite the mind with God. You must not forget Him, not even once. Your thought of Him should be like the flow of oil, without any interruption. If you worship with love even a brick or stone as God, then through His grace you can see Him.
--
"The three gunassattva, rajas, and tamashave men under their control. They are like three brothers: As long as sattva exists, it calls on rajas for help; and rajas can get help from tamas. The three gunas are so many robbers. Tamas kills and rajas binds. Sattva no doubt releases man from his bondage, but it cannot take him to God."
VIJAY (smiling): "It is because sattva, too, is a robber."
MASTER (smiling): "True. Sattva cannot take man to God, but it shows him the way."
BHAVANATH: "These are wonderful words indeed."
--
"Do your worldly duties with a part of your mind and direct most of it to God. A sdhu should think of God with three quarters of his mind and with one quarter should do his other duties. He should be very alert about spiritual things. The snake is very sensitive in its tail. Its whole body reacts when it is hurt there. Similarly, the whole life of a sdhu is affected when his spirituality is touched."
Sri Ramakrishna was going to the pine-grove and asked Gopal of Sinthi to take his umbrella to his room. Arrangements had been made in the Panchavati for the kirtan.
1.22 - On the many forms of vainglory., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
This is the twenty-second step. He who is not caught by vain-glory will never fall into that mad pride which is so hateful to God.
1.22 - THE END OF THE SPECIES, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
tion the yes or no as an answer to God, pronounced individually
by beings in each one of whom the sense of human freedom and
1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
M: "He is very old now. I saw him at Kalna. It was night. He lay on a carpet and a devotee fed him with food that had been offered to God. He can hear only if one speaks loudly into his ear.
Hearing me mention your name he said, 'You have nothing to worry about.'"
--
The Master was conversing with Mahimacharan. He asked him: "Isn't feeding people a kind of service to God? God exists in all beings as fire. To feed people is to offer oblations to that Indwelling Spirit. But then one shouldn't feed the wicked, I mean people who are entangled in gross worldliness or who have committed heinous crimes like adultery. Even the ground where such people sit becomes impure to a depth of seven cubits. Once Hriday fed a number of people at his native place. A good many of them were wicked. I said to Hriday: 'Look here. If you feed such people I shall leave your house at once.' (To Mahima) I hear that you used to feed people; but now you don't give any such feasts. Is it because your expenses have gone up?" (Laughter.) The meal was to be served on the south verandah of the house. Leaf-plates were being placed on the floor. The Master said to Mahimacharan: "Please go there and see what they are doing. You may help them a little in serving the food. But I shouldn't ask you."
Mahimacharan said: "Let them bring in the food. I shall see." Hemming and hawing, he went toward the kitchen, but presently he came back.
--
"Therefore I say that, whatever you may do, you will find better and better things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of japa, but don't conclude from this that you have achieved everything in spiritual life. Work is by no means the goal of life. Go forward, and then you will be able to perform unselfish work. But again I say that it is most difficult to perform unselfish work. Therefore with love and longing in your heart pray to God: 'O God, grant me devotion at Thy Lotus Feet and reduce my worldly duties. Please grant me the boon that the few duties I must do may be done in a detached spirit.' If you go still farther you will realize God.
You will see Him. In time you will converse with Him."
--
(To Pratap) "Let me tell you something. You are a learned and intelligent and serious-minded soul. Keshab and you were like the two brothers, Gaur and Nitai. You have had enough of lectures, arguments, quarrels,discussions, and dissensions. Can such things interest you any more? Now gather your whole mind and direct it to God. Plunge deep in to God."
PRATAP: "Yes, sir, you are right. That is surely my only duty now. But I am doing all these things only to perpetuate Keshab's name."
--
(To Pratap): "You don't have to perpetuate Keshab's name. Remember that he achieved all his success through the will of God. Through the divine will his work was established, and through the divine will it is disintegrating. What can you do about it? Now it is your bounden duty to give your entire mind to God, to plunge deep into the Ocean of His Love."
Saying these words the Master sang in his sweet voice: Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend to the uttermost depths,
1.23 - On mad price, and, in the same Step, on unclean and blasphemous thoughts., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
52. One careful monk who was troubled by this demon wore out his flesh for twenty years by fasts and vigils. But as he felt no benefit, he wrote his temptation on a card and went to a certain holy man and gave him the card and bowed his face to the earth, not daring to look up. As soon as the elder had read it he smiled and, raising the brother, he said to him: Lay your hand on my neck, son. And when the brother had done that, the great man said: On my neck, brother, be this sin, for as many years as it may or may not be active in you; only after this, ignore it. And this monk assured me that even before he had left the elders cell, his infirmity had gone. The man who had been tempted in this way told me this himself, offering thanksgiving to God.
1 St. Matthew iv, 9.
1.23 - THE MIRACULOUS, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Revelations are the aberration of faith; they are an amusement that spoils simplicity in relation to God, that embarrasses the soul and makes it swerve from its directness in relation to God. They distract the soul and occupy it with other things than God. Special illuminations, auditions, prophecies and the rest are marks of weakness in a soul that cannot support the assaults of temptation or of anxiety about the future and Gods judgment upon it. Prophecies are also marks of creaturely curiosity in a soul to whom God is indulgent and to whom, as a father to his importunate child, he gives a few trifling sweet-meats to satisfy its appetite.
J. J. Olier
1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: If one is surrendered to God, God will look to it.
D.: This being God's dispensation, how does God undo it?
1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: If one is surrendered to God, God will look to it.
D.: This being Gods dispensation, how does God undo it?
--
M.: Do actions without caring for the result. Do not think that you are the doer. Dedicate the work to God. That is the skill and also the way to gain it.
D.: Samatvam yoga uchyate (Equanimity is yoga). What is that equanimity?
--
Or if you make prapatti (surrender yourself) to God, you have made yourself over to Him and you are His and no longer yours. If He is in need of a body let Him look out for Himself. You need not say He is the owner of a body.
17th January, 1937
--
M.: The sastras say: By karma, bhakti and so on. My attendant asked the same question once before. He was told, By karma dedicated to God. It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing the karma, but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Then alone will the mind become pure.
The attendant applies it to himself and says, It is not enough that I serve
--
M.: Why then devotion to God?
D.: How can sleep be destroyed?
--
Self to be formless by your jnana, should you not concede the same amount of jnana to God and understand Him to be formless?
D.: But there is the world for God.
--
Devotion to Gods, who have themselves their origin and end, can result in fruits similarly with origin and end. In order to be in Bliss everlasting our devotion must be directed to its source, namely the
Feet of the ever blissful Lord. (83)
1.24 - Describes how vocal prayer may be practised with perfection and how closely allied it is to mental prayer, #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
but for our edification. It has already been said that it is impossible to speak to God and to the world
at the same time; yet this is just what we are trying to do when we are saying our prayers and at
--
careful guard over themselves and know that they must not speak to God and to the world at the
same time. What we can do ourselves is to try to be alone-and God grant that this may suffice,
1.24 - PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER (to M.): "There is no substance whatsoever in the worldly life. The members of Ishan's family are good; so he has some peace here. Suppose his sons had been lewd, disobedient, and addicted to drink and other vices. Then there would have been no end to his troubles. One very seldom comes across such a religious family, in which all the members are devoted to God. I have seen only two or three such families. Generally one finds quarrels, misunderstanding, jealousy, and friction. Besides, there are disease, grief, and poverty in the world. Seeing this condition, I prayed to the Divine Mother, 'O
Mother, turn my mind at once from the world to God.'
"Look at Narendra's troubles. His father is dead and the members of his family are starving. He has been trying his utmost to secure a position, but he has not yet found one. Just see how unsettled his mind is!
--
Three yogas explained by Master "Innumerable are the ways that lead to God. There are the paths of jnna, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karma yoga, and bhaktiyoga.
"What is jnanayoga? The Jnni seeks to realize Brahman. He discriminates, saying, 'Not this, not this'. He discriminates, saying, 'Brahman is real and the universe illusory.' He discriminates between the Real and the unreal. As he comes to the end of discrimination, he goes into samdhi and attains the Knowledge of Brahman.
"What is karmayoga? Its aim is to fix one's mind on God by means of work. That is what you are teaching. It consists of breath-control, concentration, meditation, and so on, done in a spirit of detachment. If a householder performs his duties in the world in a spirit of detachment, surrendering the results to God and with devotion to God in his heart, he too may be said to practise karmayoga. Further, if a person performs worship, japa, and other forms of devotion, surrendering the results to God, he may be said to practise karmayoga. Attainment of God alone is the aim of karmayoga.
"What is bhaktiyoga? It is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name and glories.
--
"Therefore bhaktiyoga is prescribed for this age. By following this path one comes to God more easily than by following the others. One can undoubtedly, reach God by following the paths of jnna and karma, but they are very difficult paths.
God fulfils all desires of His devotees
--
Devotee's prayer to God
"A lover of God prays to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I am very much afraid of selfish actions. Such actions have desires behind them, and if I perform them I shall have to reap their fruit. But it is very difficult to work in a detached spirit. I shall certainly forget Thee, O Mother, if I involve myself in selfish actions. Therefore I have no use for them.
--
"The teacher should judge the fitness of the student before giving him instruction. But you don't discriminate in your instruction. When a young man comes to me for instruction, first of all I ask him about his relatives at home. Suppose he has lost his father; suppose his father has left some debts for him. How can such a person direct his mind to God? Are you listening to me?"
PUNDIT: "Yes, sir. I am paying attention to every word."
MASTER: "One day some Sikh soldiers came to the temple garden at Dakshineswar. I met them in front of the Kli temple. One of them referred to God as very compassionate. 'Indeed!' I said. 'Is that true? But how do you know?' He answered, 'Because, sir, God gives us food and takes every care of us.' I said: 'Why should that surprise you? God is the Father of us all. Who will look after the child if the father doesn't? Do you mean to say that the people of the neighbouring village should look after the child?"
NARENDRA: "Then shouldn't we call God kind?"
1.24 - RITUAL, SYMBOL, SACRAMENT, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Precisely similar teachings are found in Christian writers, who recommend that persons and even things should be regarded as temples of the Holy Ghost and that everything done or suffered should be constantly offered to God.
It is hardly necessary to add that this process of conscious sacramentalization can be applied only to such actions as are not intrinsically evil. Somewhat unfortunately, the Gita was not originally published as an independent work, but as a theological digression within an epic poem; and since, like most epics, the Mahabharata is largely concerned with the exploits of warriors, it is primarily in relation to warfare that the Gitas advice to act with non-attachment and for Gods sake only is given. Now, war is accompanied and followed, among other things, by a widespread dissemination of anger and hatred, pride, cruelty and fear. But, it may be asked, is it possible (the Nature of Things being what it is) to sacramentalize actions, whose psychological by-products are so completely God-eclipsing as are these passions? The Buddha of the Pali scriptures would certainly have answered this question in the negative. So would the Lao Tzu of the Tao Teh King. So would the Christ of the Synoptic Gospels. The Krishna of the Gita (who is also, by a kind of literary accident, the Krishna of the Mahabharata) gives an affirmative answer. But this affirmative answer, it should be remembered, is hedged around with limiting conditions. Non-attached slaughter is recommended only to those, who are warriors by caste, and to whom warfare is a duty and vocation. But what is duty or dharma for the Kshatriya is adharma and forbidden to the Brahman; nor is it any part of the normal vocation or caste duty of the mercantile and labouring classes. Any confusion of castes, any assumption by one man of another mans vocation and duties of state, is always, say the Hindus, a moral evil and a menace to social stability. Thus, it is the business of the Brahmans to fit themselves to be seers, so that they may be able to explain to their fellow men the nature of the universe, of mans last end and of the way to liberation. When solthers or administrators, or usurers, or manufacturers or workers usurp the functions of the Brahmans and formulate a philosophy of life in accordance with their variously distorted notions of the universe, then society is thrown into confusion. Similarly, confusion reigns when the Brahman, the man of non-coercive spiritual authority, assumes the coercive power of the Kshatriya, or when the Kshatriyas job of ruling is usurped by bankers and stock jobbers, or finally when the warrior castes dharma of fighting is imposed, by conscription, on Brahman, Vaisya and Sudra alike. The history of Europe during the later Middle Ages and Renaissance is largely a history of the social confusions that arises when large numbers of those who should be seers abandon spiritual authority in favour of money and political power. And contemporary history is the hideous record of what happens when political bosses, businessmen or class-conscious proletarians assume the Brahmans function of formulating a philosophy of life; when usurers dictate policy and debate the issues of war and peace; and when the warriors caste duty is imposed on all and sundry, regardless of psycho-physical make-up and vocation.
1.24 - The Killing of the Divine King, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
an invention which held out to Gods as well as to men a reasonable
hope of immortality. Every province then had the tomb and mummy of
1.25 - ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Pray to God. He is full of compassion. Will He not listen to the words of His devotee? He is the Kalpataru. You will get whatever you desire from Him."
PUNDIT: "I haven't thought deeply about these things before. But now I understand."
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MANI MALLICK: "Only then can one feel attached to God."
MASTER: "For many days I cherished the feeling that I was a companion of the Divine Mother. I used to say: 'I am the handmaid of Brahmamayi, the Blissful Mother. O
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"Then there are devotees who are beyond the three gunas. They are eternally devoted to God, like Nrada. These devotees behold Krishna as Chinmaya, all Spirit, His Abode as Chinmaya, His devotee as Chinmaya. To them God is eternal, His Abode is eternal, His devotee is eternal.
"Those who reason and speculate following the process of 'Neti, neti' do not accept the Incarnation of God. Hazra says well that Divine Incarnation is only for the bhakta, and not for the Jnni, because the Jnni is quite contented with his ideal, 'I am He'."
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"Sattvic bhakti is known to God alone. It makes no outward display. A man with such devotion loves privacy. Perhaps he meditates inside the mosquito net, where nobody sees him. When this kind of devotion is awakened, one hasn't long to wait for the vision of God. The appearance of the dawn in the east shows that the sun will rise before long.
"A man with rajasic bhakti feels like making a display of his devotion before others. He worships the Deity with 'sixteen ingredients', enters the temple wearing a silk cloth, and puts around his neck a string of rudrksha beads interspersed here and there with beads of gold and ruby.
1.25 - On the destroyer of the passions, most sublime humility, which is rooted in spiritual feeling., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
53. For those of us who do not wish to humble ourselves the Lord has arranged in His providence that no one can see his faults as well as his neighbour does. So we are bound to give thanks for our healing not to ourselves but to our neighbour and to God.
54. The man of humble mind always loathes his own will as wayward, and in his requests to the Lord he studies with unwavering faith to learn and to obey. He does not direct his attention to the life of his masters but casts his care upon God who used an ass to teach Balaam his duty. A worker of this kind, although he does everything and thinks and speaks according to the will of God, yet he never trusts himself. Self-confidence for the humble is just as much a weight and a burden as another mans choice is for the proud.
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60. I find that Manasseh sinned as no other man has sinned by defiling the temple of God with idols and contaminating all the divine worship. If the whole world had undertaken a fast for him it could have made no reparation for this. But humility had power to remedy even what was incurable in him. If Thou hadst desired sacrifice I would have given it, says David to God; but Thou wilt not be pleased with holocausts, that is, with bodies consumed by fasting. The sacrifice for Godand everyone knows what follows.6
1 1 Corinthians iv, 4.
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61. I have sinned against the Lord, blessed humility once cried to God after committing adultery and murder; and he soon heard: The Lord has put away thy sin.1
62. The ever-memorable Fathers laid down that the way to humility and its foundations is bodily toil. And I would say obedience and honesty of heart, because they are naturally opposed to self-esteem.
1.25 - SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
For my part, the only perfection I know of is a hearty love of God, and to love ones neighbour as oneself. Charity is the only virtue which rightly unites us to God and man. Such union is our final aim and end, and all the rest is mere delusion.
Jean Pierre Camus
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Probably all persons, even the most saintly, suffer to some extent from distractions. But it is obvious that the distractions of one who, in the intervals of mental prayer, leads a dispersed, unrecollected, self-centred life will have more and worse distractions to contend with than a person who lives one-pointedly, never forgetting who he is and how related to the universe and its divine Ground. Some of the most profitable spiritual exercises actually make use of distractions, in such a way that these impediments to self-abandonment, mental silence and passivity in relation to God are transformed into means of progress.
But first, by way of preface to the description of these exercises, it should be remarked that all teachers of the art of mental prayer concur in advising their pupils never to use violent efforts of the surface will against the distractions which arise in the mind during periods of recollection. The reason for this has been succinctly stated by Benet of Canfield in his Rule of Perfection. The more a man operates, the more he is and exists. And the more he is and exists, the less of God is and exists within him. Every enhancement of the separate personal self produces a corresponding diminution of that selfs awareness of divine Reality. But any violent reaction of the surface will against distractions automatically enhances the separate, personal self and therefore reduces the individuals chances of coming to the knowledge and love of God. In the process of trying forcibly to abolish our God-eclipsing day-dreams, we merely deepen the darkness of our native ignorance. This being so, we must give up the attempt to fight distractions and find ways either of circumventing them, or of somehow making use of them. For example, if we have already achieved a certain degree of alert passivity in relation to Reality and distractions intervene, we can simply look over the shoulder of the malicious and concupiscent imbecile who stands between us and the object of our simple regard. The distractions now appear in the foreground of consciousness; we take notice of their presence, then, lightly and gently, without any straining of the will, we shift the focus of attention to Reality which we glimpse, or divine, or (by past experience or an act of faith) merely know about, in the background. In many cases, this effortless shift of attention will cause the distractions to lose their obsessive thereness and, for a time at least, to disappear.
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When thou feelest that thou mayest in no wise put them (distractions) down, cower then down under them as a caitiff and a coward overcome in battle, and think it is but folly to strive any longer with them, and therefore thou yieldest thyself to God in the hands of thine enemies And surely, I think, if this device be truly conceived, it is nought else but a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art, a wretch and a filthy thing, far worse than nought; the which knowing and feeling is meekness (humility). And this meekness meriteth to have God mightily descending to venge thee on thine enemies, so as to take thee up and cherishingly dry thy ghostly eyes, as the father doth to the child that is at the point to perish under the mouths of wild swine and mad biting bears.
The Cloud of Unknowing
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Consider that your life is a perpetual perishing, and lift up your mind to God above all whenever the clock strikes, saying, God, I adore your eternal being; I am happy that my being should perish every moment, so that at every moment it may render homage to your eternity.
J.J.Olier
When you are walking alone, or elsewhere, glance at the general will of God, by which He wills all the works of his mercy and justice in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and approve, praise and then love that sovereign will, all holy, all just, all beautiful. Glance next at the special will of God, by which He loves his own, and works in them in divers ways, by consolation and tribulation. And then you should ponder a little, considering the variety of consolations, but especially of tribulations, that the good suffer; and then with great humility approve, praise and love all this will. Consider that will in your own person, in all the good or ill that happens to you and may happen to you, except sin; then approve, praise and love all that, protesting that you will ever cherish, honour and adore that sovereign will, and submitting to Gods pleasure and giving Him all who are yours, amongst whom am I. End in a great confidence in that will, that it will work all good for us and our happiness. I add that, when you have performed this exercise two or three times in this way, you can shorten it, vary it and arrange it, as you find best, for it should often be thrust into your heart as an aspiration.
St. Franois de Sales
1.26 - Continues the description of a method for recollecting the thoughts. Describes means of doing this. This chapter is very profitable for those who are beginning prayer., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
to people on earth, why should they do so when you talk to God? Do not imagine that they will-I
shall certainly not believe that they have done so if you once form the habit. For when you never
1.26 - FESTIVAL AT ADHARS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"How can a devotee attain such love? First, the company of holy men. That awakens raddh, faith in God. Then comes nishtha, single-minded devotion to the Ideal. In that stage the devotee does not like to hear anything but talk about God. He performs only those acts that please God. After nishtha comes bhakti, devotion to God; then comes bhava. Next mahabhava, then prema, and last of all the attainment of God Himself.
Only for Isvarakotis, such as the Incarnations, is it possible to have mahabhava or prema.
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"T he important thing is somehow to cultivate devotion to God and love for Him. What is the use of knowing many things? It is enough to cultivate love of God by following any of the paths. When you have this love, you are sure to attain God. Afterwards, if it is necessary, God will explain everything to you and tell you about the other paths as well.
It is enough for you to develop love of God. You have no need of many opinions and discussions. You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Enjoy them to your heart's content. You don't need to count the branches and leaves on the trees. It is wise to follow the attitude of Hanuman: 'I do not know the day of the week, the phase of the moon, or the position of the stars; I only contemplate Rma.' "
M: "I now desire that my activities may be much reduced and that I may devote myself greatly to God."
MASTER: "Ah! Certainly your desire will be fulfilled. But a Jnni can live unattached in the world."
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MASTER: "That is also true. But perhaps you wanted the worldly life. Krishna had been enshrined in Radha's heart; but Radha wanted to sport with Him in human form. Hence all the episodes of Vrindvan. Now you should pray to God that your worldly duties may be reduced. And you will achieve the goal if you renounce mentally."
M: "But mental renunciation is prescribed for those who cannot give up the world outwardly. For superior devotees total renunciation is enjoined-both outer and inner."
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MASTER: "You are right. You no doubt need money for your worldly life; but don't worry too much about it. The wise course is to accept what comes of its own accord. Don't take too much trouble to save money. Those who surrender their hearts and souls to God, those who are devoted to Him and have taken refuge in Him, do not worry much about money. As they earn, so they spend. The money comes in one way and goes out the other. This is what the Git describes as 'accepting what comes of its own accord'."
The Master referred to Haripada and said, "He came here the other day."
1.26 - On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues, #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
It is difficult to overcome former bad habits; and those who keep on adding further new ones to them either fall into despair or get no benefit at all from obedience. But I know that to God all things are possible, and to Him nothing is impossible.1
Certain people asked me a question difficult to solve and which is beyond the powers of anyone like me, and is not to be found in any of the books that have reached me. For they said: What are the particular offspring of the eight deadly sins? Or which of the three chief sins is the father of the other five (minor sins)? But by pleading praiseworthy ignorance as regards this difficulty, I learnt from the holy men the following: The mother of lust is gluttony, and the mother of despondency is vainglory; sorrow and also anger are the offspring of those three (i.e. cupidity, sensuality, ambition); and the mother of pride is vainglory.
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It is impossible for all to become dispassionate, but it is not impossible for all to be saved and reconciled to God.
Take care that you are not mastered by foreigners, those thoughts which urge you to be inquisitive about the ineffable judgments of Divine Providence or the visions that people have which secretly suggest that the Lord is partial. For they are the offspring of self-esteem, and are known as such.
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In all your undertakings and in every way of life, whether you are living in obedience, or are not submitting your work to anyone, whether in outward or in spiritual matters, let this be your rule and practice, to ask yourself: Am I really doing this in accordance with Gods will? For example, when we, I mean beginners, carry out some task and the humility acquired from this action is not added to our soul, then in my opinion, be the matter great or small, we are not doing it according to God. For in us who are still young in the spiritual life, growth in humility is the fulfilment of the Lords will; and for those who have reached a middle state perhaps the test is the cessation of inner conflicts; and for the perfect, an increase and abundance of the divine light.
Even a small thing can be not small to the great; but to the small, even great things are not altogether perfect.
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Those who wish to learn the will of the Lord must first mortify their own will. Then, having prayed to God with faith and honest simplicity, and having asked the fathers or even the brothers with humility of heart and no thought of doubt, they should accept their advice as from the mouth of God, even if their advice be contrary to their own view, and even if those consulted are not very spiritual. For God is not unjust, and will not lead astray souls who with faith and innocence humbly submit to the advice and judgment of their neighbour. Even if those who were asked were brute beasts, yet He who speaks is the Immaterial and Invisible One. Those who allow themselves to be guided by this rule without having any doubts are filled with great humility. For if someone expounded his problems on a harp,7 how much better, do you think, can a rational mind and reasonable soul teach than an inanimate object.
On account of self-will many have not accepted the perfect and easy blessing mentioned above, and having tried to discover what was pleasing to the Lord of themselves and in themselves, have handed on to us many and various judgments concerning this matter.
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Others, on the contrary, recognized that their action was pleasing to God from its unexpected success, declaring: God co-operates with everyone who deliberately chooses to do good.
He who has obtained God within him through illumination, both in actions requiring haste and in actions allowing of delay, is assured of His will by the second way, only without a definite period of time.
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We can take as an example two places in which mundane things are cleaned. Let us picture to ourselves by analogy two sublime institutions for those who set their mind on things above;2 a monastic community such as is pleasing to God is like the laundry in which uncleanness, grossness and deformity of soul are scoured out; and the dye-works will be the solitary life for those who have already laid aside lust, remembrance of wrongs and anger, and who are now passing from the monastery to solitude.
Some say that we fall into the same sins because we have been unable to correct our former sins through the inadequacy of our repentance. But it may be asked: Have all those who have not fallen into the same kind of sin really repented as they should? Some fall into the same sins either because they have sunk into a deep forgetfulness of their former sins, or because they imagine in their own pleasure-loving way that God is merciful, or they have lost all hope of their own salvation. I do not know whether anyone will blame me if I say that their trouble arises because they have not been strong enough to bind the foe who is dominating them through the tyranny of habit.
1.27 - AT DAKSHINESWAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Different paths leading to God
"You see how many opinions there are about God. Each opinion is a path. There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God."
BHAVANATH: "Then what should we do?"
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"But you must regard other views as so many paths leading to God. You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.
"Well, to what path do I belong? Keshab Sen used to say to me: 'You belong to our path.
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"A man should do his worldly duties with only twenty-five percent of his mind, devoting the rest to God."
Referring to Pundit Shashadhar, the Master said to the devotees, "I found him monotonousengaged in the dry discussion of philosophy.
1.27 - CONTEMPLATION, ACTION AND SOCIAL UTILITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
A question now, quite naturally, presents itself: Who is called to that highest form of prayer which is contemplation? The answer is unequivocally plain. All are called to contemplation, because all are called to achieve deliverance, which is nothing else but the knowledge that unites the knower with what is known, namely the eternal Ground or Godhead. The oriental exponents of the Perennial Philosophy would probably deny that everyone is called here and now; in this particular life, they would say, it may be to all intents and purposes impossible for a given individual to achieve more than a partial deliverance, such as personal survival in some kind of heaven, from which there may be either an advance towards total liberation or else a return to those material conditions which, as all the masters of the spiritual life agree, are so uniquely propitious for taking the cosmic intelligence test that results in enlightenment. In orthodox Christianity it is denied that the individual soul can have more than one incarnation, or that it can make any progress in its posthumous existence. If it goes to hell, it stays there. If it goes to purgatory, it merely expiates past evil doing, so as to become capable of the beatific vision. And when it gets to heaven, it has just so much of the beatific vision as its conduct during its one brief life on earth made it capable of, and everlastingly no more. Granted these postulates, it follows that, if all are called to contemplation, they are called to it from that particular position in the hierarchy of being, to which nature, nurture, free will and grace have conspired to assign them. In the words of an eminent contemporary theologian, Father Garigou-Lagrange, all souls receive a general remote call to the mystical life, and if all were faithful in avoiding, as they should, not only mortal but venial sins, if they were, each according to his condition, generally docile to the Holy Ghost, and if they lived long enough, a day would come when they would receive the proximate and efficacious vocation to a high perfection and to the mystical life properly so called. This view that the life of mystical contemplation is the proper and normal development of the interior life of recollectedness and devotion to Godis then justified by the following considerations. First, the principle of the two lives is the same. Second, it is only in the life of mystical contemplation that the interior life finds its consummation. Third, their end, which is eternal life, is the same; moreover only the life of mystical contemplation prepares imme thately and perfectly for that end.
There are few contemplatives, because few souls are perfectly humble.
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At this point it is worth remarking parenthetically that God is by no means the only possible object of contemplation. There have been and still are many philosophic, aesthetic and scientific contemplatives. One-pointed concentration on that which is not the highest may become a dangerous form of idolatry. In a letter to Hooker, Darwin wrote that it is a cursed evil to any man to become so absorbed in any subject as I am in mine. It is an evil because such one-pointedness may result in the more or less total atrophy of all but one side of the mind Darwin himself records that in later life he was unable to take the smallest interest in poetry, art or religion. Professionally, in relation to his chosen specialty, a man may be completely mature. Spiritually and sometimes even ethically, in relation to God and his neighbours, he may be hardly more than a foetus.
In cases where the one-pointed contemplation is of God there is also a risk that the minds unemployed capacities may atrophy. The hermits of Tibet and the Thebad were certainly one-pointed, but with a one-pointedness of exclusion and mutilation. It may be, however, that if they had been more truly docile to the Holy Ghost, they would have come to understand that the one-pointedness of exclusion is at best a preparation for the one-pointedness of inclusion the realization of God in the fulness of cosmic being as well as in the interior height of the individual soul. Like the Taoist sage, they would at last have turned back into the world riding on their tamed and regenerate individuality; they would have come eating and drinking, would have associated with publicans and sinners or their Buddhist equivalents, wine-bibbers and butchers. For the fully enlightened, totally liberated person, samsara and nirvana, time and eternity, the phenomenal and the Real, are essentially one. His whole life is an unsleeping and one-pointed contemplation of the Godhead in and through the things, lives, minds and events of the world of becoming. There is here no mutilation of the soul, no atrophy of any of its powers and capacities. Rather, there is a general enhancement and intensification of consciousness, and at the same time an extension and transfiguration. No saint has ever complained that absorption in God was a cursed evil.
1.27 - On holy solitude of body and soul., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
53. He who wishes to present his mind pure to God, and is agitated by cares, is like a man who has tied his legs tight together and then expects to walk briskly.
54. Those who are thoroughly versed in secular philosophy are indeed rare; but I affirm that those who have a divine knowledge of the philosophy of true solitude are still more rare.
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67. I will expound, says someone, my proposition and my will on the harp,1 according to my still imperfect judgment. As for me, I shall offer my will to God in prayer, and from Him I shall receive assurance.
68. Faith is the wing of prayer; without it, my prayer will return again to my bosom. Faith is the unshaken firmness of the soul, unmoved by any adversity. A believer is not one who thinks that God can do everything, but one who believes that he will obtain all things. Faith paves the way for what seems impossible; and the thief proved this for himself.2 The mother of faith is hardship and an honest heart; the latter makes faith constant, and the former builds it up. Faith is the mother of the solitary; for if he does not believe, how can he practise solitude?
1.28 - On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
5. Let your prayer be completely simple. For both the publican and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single phrase.
6. The attitude of prayer is one and the same for all, but there are many kinds of prayer and many different prayers. Some converse with God as with a friend and master, interceding with praise and petition not for themselves but for others. Some strive for more (spiritual) riches and glory and for confidence in prayer. Others ask for complete deliverance from their adversary.1 Some beg to receive some kind of rank; others for complete forgiveness of debts. Some ask to be released from prison; others for remission of accusations.
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25. Rise from love of the world and love of pleasure, lay aside cares, strip your mind, renounce your body; because prayer is nothing other than estrangement from the world, visible and invisible. For what have I in heaven? Nothing. And what have I desired on earth beside Thee? Nothing, but to cling continually to Thee in prayer without distraction. To some, wealth is pleasant, to others, glory, to others, possessions, but my wish is to cling to God, and to put the hope5 of my dispassion in Him.
26. Faith gives wings to prayer, and without it we cannot fly up to heaven.
1.29 - Continues to describe methods for achieving this Prayer of Recollection. Says what little account we should make of being favoured by our superiors., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
backs upon Him; for that, it seems to me, is what we are doing when we talk to God and yet think
of all kinds of vanity. The whole mischief comes from our not really grasping the fact that He is
1.300 - 1.400 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: Do actions without caring for the result. Do not think that you are the doer. Dedicate the work to God. That is the skill and also the way to gain it.
D.: Samatvam yoga uchyate (Equanimity is yoga). What is that equanimity?
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Or if you make prapatti (surrender yourself) to God, you have made yourself over to Him and you are His and no longer yours. If He is in need of a body let Him look out for Himself. You need not say He is the owner of a body.
305
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M.: The sastras say: "By karma, bhakti and so on". My attendant asked the same question once before. He was told, "By karma dedicated to God". It is not enough that one thinks of God while doing the karma, but one must continually and unceasingly think of Him. Then alone will the mind become pure.
The attendant applies it to himself and says, "It is not enough that I serve
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M.: Why then devotion to God?
D.: How can sleep be destroyed?
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Self to be formless by your jnana, should you not concede the same amount of jnana to God and understand Him to be formless?
D.: But there is the world for God.
1.30 - Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
7. Love, by reason of its nature, is a resemblance to God, as far as that is possible for mortals; in its activity it is inebriation of the soul; and by its distinctive property it is a fountain of faith, an abyss of patience, a sea of humility.
8. Love is essentially the banishment of every kind of contrary thought for love thinks no evil.1
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21. He who has perfectly united his feeling to God is mystically led by Him to an understanding of His words. But without this union it is difficult to speak about God.
22. The engrafted Word5 perfects purity, and slays death by His presence; and after the slaying of death, the disciple of divine knowledge is illumined.
1.31 - Continues the same subject. Explains what is meant by the Prayer of Quiet. Gives several counsels to those who experience it. This chapter is very noteworthy., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
of the Paternoster. They are so close to God that they know they can make themselves understood
by signs. They are in the palace, near to their King, and they see that He is already beginning to
1.33 - Treats of our great need that the Lord should give us what we ask in these words of the Paternoster Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
Jesus knew what He had given for us and how important it was for us to give this to God, and yet
how difficult it would be for us to do so, as has been said, because of our natural inclination to base
1.3.4.01 - The Beginning and the End, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
When the word goes back into the silence is it extinct for ever or does it dwell in the eternal harmony? When a soul goes back to God is it blotted out from existence or does it know and enjoy that into which it enters?
Does universe ever end? Does it not exist eternally in God's total idea of His own being?
1.34 - Continues the same subject. This is very suitable for reading after the reception of the Most Holy Sacrament., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
As for that other bread, have no anxiety about it if you have truly resigned yourselves to God's
will. I mean that at these hours of prayer you are dealing with more important matters and there is
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promised and to resign yourselves to God's will. I assure you, daughters, that, if I myself were to
fail in this, because of my wickedness, as I have often done in the past, I would not beg Him to give
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If, then, you are really surrendering yourselves to God, as you say, cease to be anxious for
yourselves, for He bears your anxiety, and will bear it always. It is as though a servant had gone
1.37 - Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many ways in which we shall find consolation in it., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
contemplatives, who no longer desire earthly things, and persons greatly devoted to God, can ask
for the heavenly favours which, through the great goodness of God, may be given to us on earth.
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It must be realized, however, that these two things- surrendering our will to God and forgiving
others-apply to all. True, some practise them more and some less, as has been said: those who
1.38 - Treats of the great need which we have to beseech the Eternal Father to grant us what we ask in these words: Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Explains certain temptations. This chapter is noteworthy., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
themselves to be unworthy of such favours, they will never cease to give thanks to God and will
feel the greater obligation to serve Him; further, they will strive to prepare themselves for more
1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Devotion to Gods, who have themselves their origin and end, can result in fruits similarly with origin and end. In order to be in Bliss everlasting our devotion must be directed to its source, namely the
Feet of the ever blissful Lord. (83)
--
Another visitor asked: Please tell me which is the most efficacious of all the methods, e.g., prayer to God, Guru anugraha, i.e., master's grace, concentration of mind, etc.
M.: The one is the consequence of the other. Each of them leads to the next stage. They form a continuous whole. God, Guru, and the
--
She kept her ears close to his lips and heard the word 'Rama' repeated continually as in japa. She was delighted and the next day ordered the minister to hold a feast. The king having partaken of the feast asked his wife for an explanation. She related the whole occurrence and said that the feast was in gratitude to God for the fulfilment of her long cherished wish. The king was however annoyed that his devotion should have been found out. Some say that having thus betrayed God he considered himself unworthy of God and so committed suicide. It means that one should not openly display one's piety. We may take it that the king told the queen not to make a fuss over his piety and they then lived happily together.
II. THONDARADIPODI (Bhaktanghrirenu) ALWAR: One who delights in the dust of the feet of devotees. A devotee (of this name) was keeping a plot of land in which he grew tulasi, the sacred basil, made garlands of it, and supplied the same to the God in the temple.
1.41 - Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
will not help you to get nearer to God. Be most careful, in all that you do, to bend your will to it;
139
--
not pleasing to God. Much care is needed if this fear of God is to be thoroughly impressed upon
the soul; though, if one has true love, it is quickly acquired. Even when the soul has that firm inward
--
as giving offence to God. I really do not know the reason for this but I do know that it very commonly
happens. Do not be too strict with yourselves, then, for, if your spirit begins to quail, it will do great
--
good in herself, will not lead many souls to God if they see that she is so strict and timorous. Human
nature is such that these characteristics will frighten and oppress it and lead people to avoid the
1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Another visitor asked: Please tell me which is the most efficacious of all the methods, e.g., prayer to God, Guru anugraha, i.e., masters grace, concentration of mind, etc.
M.: The one is the consequence of the other. Each of them leads to the next stage. They form a continuous whole. God, Guru, and the
--
She kept her ears close to his lips and heard the word Rama repeated continually as in japa. She was delighted and the next day ordered the minister to hold a feast. The king having partaken of the feast asked his wife for an explanation. She related the whole occurrence and said that the feast was in gratitude to God for the fulfilment of her long cherished wish. The king was however annoyed that his devotion should have been found out. Some say that having thus betrayed God he considered himself unworthy of God and so committed suicide. It means that one should not openly display ones piety. We may take it that the king told the queen not to make a fuss over his piety and they then lived happily together.
II. THONDARADIPODI (Bhaktanghrirenu) ALWAR: One who delights in the dust of the feet of devotees. A devotee (of this name) was keeping a plot of land in which he grew tulasi, the sacred basil, made garlands of it, and supplied the same to the God in the temple.
--
D.: How is the questioner satisfied then? The only alternative left is association with the wise or devotion to God (satsanga or Isvara bhakti).
M.: Smiled and said, Yes.
--
A Cochin Brahmin, Professor in the Ernakulam College, had an interesting conversation with Sri Bhagavan. Sri Bhagavan advised surrender to God.
The visitor gave a glimpse of an ICS Officer. The gentleman while a student was an atheist or an agnostic. He is very pious now and the change has surprised everyone who had known him before.
--
D.: These are difficult to follow in practice. I will hold on to God and surrender.
M.: That is the best.
--
M.: If he has surrendered himself to God or to Guru the Power to which he had surrendered will take him on the right course. The worker need no longer concern himself about the rectitude or otherwise of the course. The doubt will arise only if he fails to obey the Master in all details.
D.: Is there not any Power on earth which can bestow Grace on Its devotees so that they may grow strong to work for the country and gain swaraj? (Sri Maharshi remained silent. This, He later said, signified that such was the case).
--
M.: Bhakti (devotion to God).
D.: Non-resistance seems to be the only remedy for all kinds of evil such as slander.
--
D.: Is it proper that one prays to God or Guru when one is afflicted by worldly ills?
M.: Undoubtedly.
--
A visitor asked Sri Bhagavan: People give some names to God and say that the name is sacred and repetitions of the name bestow merit on the individual. Can it be true?
M.: Why not? You bear a name to which you answer. But your body was not born with that name written on it, nor did it say to anyone that it bore such and such a name. And yet a name is given to you and you answer to that name, because you have identified yourself
--
Finally Sri Bhagavan said: One cannot know about another nor can confer bondage or release on another. Each one desires to become famous in the world. It is natural for man. But that desire alone does not bring about the end in view. He who is not accepted by God is certainly humiliated. He who has surrendered himself, body and mind, to God becomes famous all over the world.
Talk 545.
--
He fought against them. He fasted three days and prayed to God so that he might be free from such thoughts. Finally, he decided to ask
Sri Bhagavan about it.
--
Sri Bhagavan often speaks of namaskar (prostration) in the following strain: This namaskar was originally meant by the ancient sages to serve as a means of surrender to God. The act still prevails but not the spirit behind it. The doer of namaskar intends to deceive the object of worship by his act. It is mostly insincere and deceitful. It is meant to cover up innumerable sins. Can God be deceived? The man thinks that God accepts his namaskar and that he himself is free to continue his old life. They need not come to me. I am not pleased with these namaskars. The people should keep their minds clean; instead of that they bend themselves or lie prostrate before me. I am not deceived by such acts.
Talk 550.
--
Being to save him. Thus are born faith and devotion to the Lord. How to worship Him? The creature is powerless and the Creator is Allpowerful. How to approach Him? To entrust oneself to His care is the only thing left for him; total surrender is the only way. Therefore he surrenders himself to God. Surrender consists in giving up oneself and ones possessions to the Lord of Mercy. Then what is left over for the man? Nothing - neither himself nor his possessions. The body liable to be born and to die having been made over to the Lord, the man need
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi no longer worry about it. Then birth and death cannot strike terror. The cause of fear was the body; it is no longer his; why should he fear now?
--
D.: How shall I pray to God?
M.: There-must be I who prays to God. I is certainly immediate and intimate, whereas God is not thought so. Find out that which is more intimate and then the other may be ascertained and prayed to if necessary.
19th November, 1938
--
If the individual Self merges into the universal Self, how can one pray to God for the uplift of humanity? The question seems to be common among the thinkers of the West.
Sri Bhagavan said: They pray to God and finish with Thy Will be done! If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the
Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God.
--
M.: Certainly. Help yourself and that is itself according to Gods Will.
Every action is prompted by Him only. As for prayer for the sake of others, it looks so unselfish on the surface of it. But analyse the feeling and you will detect selfishness there also. You desire others happiness so that you may be happy. Or you want the credit for having interceded on others behalf. God does not require an intermediary. Mind your business and all will be well.
--
His very presence is the consummation of happiness for all. So long as you think that there are others different from you, you pray for them. But the sense of separateness is ignorance. This ignorance is again the cause of feeling helplessness. You know that you are weak and helpless. How then can you help others? If you say, By prayer to God, God knows His business and does not require your intercession for others.
Help yourself so that you may become strong. That is done by complete surrender. That means you offer yourself to Him. So you cannot retain your individuality after surrender. You then abide by
--
M.: It is according to ones samskaras (predispositions). One man will practise hatha yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.
A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition
--
that God alone can make one happy. He prays to God and worships
Him. God hears his prayers, and responds by appearing in human
--
an obstacle to Gods guidance. So it is the natural state. Though
natural, yet how difficult to realise. They say that sadhanas are
1.43 - The Holy Guardian Angel is not the Higher Self but an Objective Individual, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
The answer is that it depends on the Angel for the purposes of this letter I propose to use the word "angel" to include all sorts of disembodied beings, from demons to Gods in all cases, they are objective; a subjective "angel" is different from a dream only in non-essentials.
Now, some angels are actually emanations of the elements, planets, or signs to which they are attributed. They are partial beings in very much the same way as are animals. They are not microcosms as are men and women. They are almost entirely composed of the planet (or what- ever it is) to which they are attri buted. The other components of their being I take to be almost accidental. For example, the Archangel Ratziel is lord of a company of angels called Auphanim; and one must not imagine that all these angels are identical with one another, or there would not seem to be much sense in it. They have some sort of composition, some sort of individuality; and the character and appearance of the Angel can be determined by its name.
--
Let me say in particular in regard to Gods, that the God Jupiter whom you invoke is not necessarily the same as he whom I invoke. It is clear in any case that the revelation of himself to you is modified in many ways by your own particular sensitiveness; just as in ordinary life, your idea of a friend may be very different from my own conception of the same individual. Suppose, for example, he happens to be a musician, there will be an entire side of his character to which I am practically insensitive. You could talk to him for hours, and I would understand little or nothing of what was said. Similarly, if he were a mountaineer, it would be your turn to be odd man out.
Love is the law, love under will.
1.450 - 1.500 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: How is the questioner satisfied then? The only alternative left is association with the wise or devotion to God (satsanga or Isvara bhakti).
M.: Smiled and said, "Yes."
--
A Cochin Brahmin, Professor in the Ernakulam College, had an interesting conversation with Sri Bhagavan. Sri Bhagavan advised surrender to God.
The visitor gave a glimpse of an ICS Officer. The gentleman while a student was an atheist or an agnostic. He is very pious now and the change has surprised everyone who had known him before.
--
D.: These are difficult to follow in practice. I will hold on to God and surrender.
M.: That is the best.
15.07 - Souls Freedom, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to Godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of he sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.2
Rigveda, V, 2.4.
1.50 - Eating the God, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
the family prays to God for health and strength, and likewise for
milk, and everybody present repeats the words of the prayer after
1.550 - 1.600 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Being to save him. Thus are born faith and devotion to the Lord. How to worship Him? The creature is powerless and the Creator is Allpowerful. How to approach Him? To entrust oneself to His care is the only thing left for him; total surrender is the only way. Therefore he surrenders himself to God. Surrender consists in giving up oneself and one's possessions to the Lord of Mercy. Then what is left over for the man? Nothing - neither himself nor his possessions. The body liable to be born and to die having been made over to the Lord, the man need
544
--
D.: How shall I pray to God?
M.: There-must be 'I' who prays to God. 'I' is certainly immediate and intimate, whereas God is not thought so. Find out that which is more intimate and then the other may be ascertained and prayed to if necessary.
19th November, 1938
--
"If the individual Self merges into the universal Self, how can one pray to God for the uplift of humanity?" The question seems to be common among the thinkers of the West.
Sri Bhagavan said: They pray to God and finish with "Thy Will be done!" If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the
Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God.
--
M.: Certainly. Help yourself and that is itself according to God's Will.
Every action is prompted by Him only. As for prayer for the sake of others, it looks so unselfish on the surface of it. But analyse the feeling and you will detect selfishness there also. You desire others' happiness so that you may be happy. Or you want the credit for having interceded on others' behalf. God does not require an intermediary. Mind your business and all will be well.
--
His very presence is the consummation of happiness for all. So long as you think that there are others different from you, you pray for them. But the sense of separateness is ignorance. This ignorance is again the cause of feeling helplessness. You know that you are weak and helpless. How then can you help others? If you say, "By prayer to God", God knows His business and does not require your intercession for others.
566
--
M.: It is according to one's samskaras (predispositions). One man will practise hatha yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.
A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition
1.55 - The Transference of Evil, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
not their flight to God's pure feet.' As he closes, the whole
assembly chants aloud 'Stay not their flight.' Again the performer
1929-04-14 - Dangers of Yoga - Two paths, tapasya and surrender - Impulses, desires and Yoga - Difficulties - Unification around the psychic being - Ambition, undoing of many Yogis - Powers, misuse and right use of - How to recognise the Divine Will - Accept things that come from Divine - Vital devotion - Need of strong body and nerves - Inner being, invariable, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, I want union with you and in your heart meaning I want powers and enjoyments? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficultiesdifficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
1929-04-21 - Visions, seeing and interpretation - Dreams and dreaml and - Dreamless sleep - Visions and formulation - Surrender, passive and of the will - Meditation and progress - Entering the spiritual life, a plunge into the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are some who, when they are sitting in meditation, get into a state which they think very fine and delightful. They sit self-complacent in it and forget the world; but if they are disturbed, they come out of it angry and restless, because their meditation was interrupted. This is not a sign of spiritual progress or discipline. There are some people who act and seem to feel as if their meditation were a debt they have to pay to the Divine; they are like men who go to church once a week and think they have paid what they owe to God.
If you need to make an effort to go into meditation, you are still very far from being able to live the spiritual life. When it takes an effort to come out of it, then indeed your meditation can be an indication that you are in the spiritual life.
1951-04-07 - Origin of Evil - Misery- its cause, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At a certain time, the great Teresa had to face many calamities. She complained to God, saying, Why do these things happen to me, who am full of goodwill? Then, it seems, God replied, It is thus that I treat my friends. It is for this reason that we have so little!
Now we touch the source of the difficulty. I dont know if you have understood it, but there is a central fault in the question of that lady; she makes God or the Divine a personality quite independent of his creation. She should have said, Someone who, having the power of creation, has created a world like this, truly, he must be sadistic, and she would have been right, wouldnt she?.. The question is badly put, because the Divine spoken about here is not the true Divine, it is the Divine of religion and of a certain kind of religion but it is not the Divine as He is at all.
1951-04-19 - Demands and needs - human nature - Abolishing the ego - Food- tamas, consecration - Changing the nature- the vital and the mind - The yoga of the body - cellular consciousness, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Physically, we depend upon food to liveunfortunately. For with food, we daily and constantly take in a formidable amount of inconscience, of tamas, heaviness, stupidity. One cant do otherwiseunless constantly, without a break, we remain completely aware and, as soon as an element is introduced into our body, we immediately work upon it to extract from it only the light and reject all that may darken our consciousness. This is the origin and rational explanation of the religious practice of consecrating ones food to God before taking it. When eating one aspires that this food may not be taken for the little human ego but as an offering to the divine consciousness within oneself. In all yogas, all religions, this is encouraged. This is the origin of that practice, of contacting the consciousness behind, precisely to diminish as much as possible the absorption of an inconscience which increases daily, constantly, without ones being aware of it.
Vitally, it is the same thing. You live vitally in the vital world with all the currents of vital force entering, going out, joining and opposing each other, quarrelling and intermingling in your consciousness, and even if you have made a personal effort to purify your vital consciousness, to master in it the desire-being and the little human ego, you are constantly under a sort of obligation to absorb all the contrary vibrations which come from those with whom you live. One cant shut oneself up in an ivory tower, it is yet more difficult vitally than physically, and one takes in all sorts of things; and unless one is constantly wide awake, constantly on ones guard, and has quite an efficient control over all that enters, so as not to admit in ones consciousness unwanted elements, one catches the constant contagion of all desires, all the lower movements, all the small obscure reactions, all the unwanted vibrations which come to us from those around us.
1953-07-01, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are teachings which are not like that. There are religions which are not like that. But still one can, in a poetic, picturesque, descriptive manner speak of a paradise; because this paradise means a wonderful place where there is utmost joy and happiness and comfort. And yet that depends upon the religion to which you belong. For there are heavens where you pass your time singing praises to God, you do nothing else but in the end that must be somewhat wearisome; however, there you pass your time playing music and singing the praises of God. There are other heavens, on the contrary, where you enjoy all possible pleasures, all that you desired to have during your life, you have in heaven. There are heavens where you are constantly in blissful meditation but for people who are not keen on meditating, that must be rather tiresome. However, that depends, you know: they have invented all kinds of things so that people may really want to be wise and obey the laws given to them.
And mans imagination is so creative, such a form-maker, that there really are in the world places like these heavens. There are places also like these hells and there are places like these purgatories. Man creates out of nothing the things he imagines. If your consciousness is enlightened, then you can be pulled out of these places; otherwise you are shut up, imprisoned there by the very belief you had when alive. You will tell me that it is equal to a life, but it is an altogether illusory and extremely limited existence. It is real only for those who think like that. As soon as you think differently, it does not exist for you any longer; you can come out of it. You can pull a person out of these places, and immediately he perceives that he was imprisoned in his own formation.
1953-07-15, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now, there are other instances, as for example a large number of religious rules which are founded solely on hygienic principles, on medical knowledge, and have been raised into religious principles, for that was the only way to make people observe them. If you are not told that God wants that you should do this or that, you would not do it, the majority of men ordinarily do not do it. For instance, that very simple thingwashing your hands before eating; in countries where the civilisation is not quite scientific, some people discovered that in truth it was probably more hygienic to wash the hands first! If they had not made a religious rule, if they hadnt said that God wanted that a man wash his hands before eating, otherwise it would be an offence against Him, people would have said: Oh, why? No, not today, tomorrow. I have no time, I am in a hurry! But in this way there is that constant fear at the back of their minds that something bad will happen to them due to Gods anger. This too is a superstition, a big superstition.
They do things because they are told to do them. There is an entire class of religion for instance the Chaldean religionwhich forbids the eating of pork. They say it is altogether impure and that you will become impure if you eat it. The truth is that in these countries (for they are hot countries), pigs flesh is full of little worms which one takes in with the meat, even if it is cooked. It has to be cooked over an extremely long time to kill the worms. And so the little worms resist ordinary cooking and settle in your stomach or intestines, and then there they flourish and at times even end up by killing you or, in any case, by making you ill. These worms breed specially in this kind of meat. Now, if all this is explained to people, they do not understand; they havent any medical, scientific or hygienic ideas and this does not at all interest them: Ah, but this meat is not expensive, it is sold cheap! Well see what happens. What will happen is that after a while they will have terrible pains in their intestines, and then they will grow thinner and thinner and eat more and more, quite uselessly; they will not know what has happened; they will be simply eaten up by the worms. But if they are told: Dont do this, God will be furious and will punish you, that is enough. They wont do it.
1953-07-29, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What I would like to bring home to you is that the problem is extremely complicated and subtle, and that at times the direction of the movement can be altered a little; at other times, the movement can be reversed; and at still others just the consequences and the inner attitude with regard to the movement alone can be changed. And naturally men see all these things in a too simplified way and translate all this by their prayer to God: they say, in one case, God has given me what I asked from him, in another case, He has refused me. And so, thats that. That is how they understand and it is sheer stupidity. To know how it happens, you must have a general, collective consciousness, at least as wide as the earth. That is the minimum. To understand truly one must have a universal consciousness. Then you can understand. For, I have said it somewhere in what I was reading today; I have said that all things are interdependent and there is neither any beginning nor any end. Where do you put the beginning?1 To understand that, you have to go beyond the earth-bound consciousness, you have to enter a universal consciousness. Then you will be able to understand.
But we are compelled I am repeating what I said at the beginningwe are compelled to say things one after another. We say: When the universe began When the creation began it begins in that way. This happened and then that happened and then this took place and then that took place. We say one thing after another, and to say the truth, it is not really like that at all! From a certain point of view, it is foolishness, but we cannot do otherwise. I cannot say all the words at the same time. So it is the state of our consciousness and the means at our disposal for expressing ourselves which make us say things that are stupid from the point of view of the absolute knowledge. But it is an approximation. Our stupidity is an approximation and becomes less stupid when we become aware that it happens only because we cannot express ourselves otherwise. We are obliged to say things in succession, but they are a single whole.
1953-11-25, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day God decided to exteriorise himself, objectivise himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail. So, first of all, he emanated his consciousness (that is to say, he manifested his consciousness) by ordering this consciousness to realise a universe. This consciousness began by emanating four beings, four individualities which were indeed altogether very high beings, of the highest Reality. They were the being of consciousness, the being of love (of Ananda rather), the being of life and the being of light and knowledge but consciousness and light are the same thing. There we are then: consciousness, love and Ananda, life and truthtruth, thats the exact word. And naturally, they were supremely powerful beings, you understand. They were what are called in that tradition the first emanations, that is, the first formations. And each one became very conscious of its qualities, its power, its capacities, its possibilities, and, suddenly forgot each in its own way that it was only an emanation and an incarnation of the Supreme. And so this is what happened: when light or Consciousness separated from the divine Consciousness, that is, when it began to think it was the divine Consciousness and that there was nothing other than itself, it suddenly became obscurity and inconscience. And when Life thought that all life was in itself and that there was nothing else but its life and that it did not depend at all upon the Supreme, then its life became death. And when Truth thought that it contained all truth, and that there was no other truth than itself, this Truth became falsehood. And when love or Ananda was convinced that it was the supreme Ananda and that there was no other than itself and its felicity, it became suffering. And that is how the world, which was to have been so beautiful, became so ugly. Now, that consciousness (if you like to call it the Divine Mother, the Supreme Consciousness), when she saw this she was very disturbed, you may be sure, she said to herself: This has really not succeeded. So she turned back to the Divine, to God, the Supreme, and she asked him to come to her aid. She said to him: This is what has happened. Now what is to be done? He said: Begin again, but try to manage in such a way that the beings do not become so independent! They must remain in contact with you, and through you with me. And it was thus that she created the gods, who were quite docile and not so proud, and who began the creation of the world. But as the others had come before them, at every step the gods met the others. And it was in this way that the world changed into a battlefield, a place of war, strife, suffering, darkness and all the rest, and for each new creation the gods had to fight with the others who had gone ahead: they had preceded them, they had plunged headlong into matter; and they had created all this disorder and the gods had to put straight all this confusion. That is where the gods came from. They are the second emanations.
Mother, the first four who changed, was it by chance or was it deliberately?
1954-06-30 - Occultism - Religion and vital beings - Mothers knowledge of what happens in the Ashram - Asking questions to Mother - Drawing on Mother, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In all religious monuments, in monuments considered the most well, as belonging to the highest religion, whether in France or any other country or Japanit was never the same temples or churches nor the same gods, and yet my experience was everywhere almost the same, with very small differences I saw that whatever concentrated force there was in the church depended exclusively upon the faithful, the faith of the devotees. And there was still a difference between the force as it really was and the force as they felt it. For instance, I saw in one of the most beautiful cathedrals of France, which, from the artistic point of view, is one of the most magnificent monuments imaginablein the most sacred spot I saw an enormous black, vital spider which had made its web and spread it over the whole place, and was catching in it and then absorbing all the forces emanating from peoples devotion, their prayers and all that. It was not a very cheering sight; the people who were there and were praying, felt a divine touch, they received all kinds of boo from their prayers, and yet what was there was this, this thing. But they had their faith which could change that evil thing into something good in them; they had their faith. So, truly, if I had gone and told them, Do you think you are praying to God? It is an enormous vital spider thats feeding upon all your forces!, that would really not have been very charitable. And thats how it is most of the time, almost everywhere; it is a vital force which is there, for these vital entities feed upon the vibration of human emotions, and very few people, very few, an insignificant number, go to church or temple with a true religious feeling, that is, not to pray and beg for something from God but to offer themselves, give thanks, aspire, give themselves. There is hardly one in a million who does that. So they do not have the power of changing the atmosphere. Perhaps when they are there, they manage to get across, break through and go somewhere and touch something divine. But the large majority of people who go only because of superstition, egoism and self-interest, create an atmosphere of this kind, and that is what you brea the in when you go to a church or temple. Only, as you go there with a very good feeling, you tell yourself, Oh, what a quiet place for meditation!
I am sorry, but thats how it is. I tell you I have deliberately tried this experiment a little everywhere. Maybe I found some very tiny places, like a tiny village church at times, where there was a very quiet little spot for meditation, very still, very silent, where there was some aspiration; but this was so rare! I have seen the beautiful churches of Italy, magnificent places; they were full of these vital beings and full of terror. I remember painting in a basilica of Venice, and while I was working, in the confessional a priest was hearing the confession of a poor woman. Well, it was truly a frightful sight! I dont know what the priest was like, what his character was, he could not be seenyou know, dont you, that they are not seen. They are shut up in a box and receive the confession through a grille. There was such a dark and sucking power over him, and that poor woman was in such a state of fearful terror that it was truly painful to see it. And all these people believe this is something holy! But it is a web of the hostile vital forces which use all this to feed upon. Besides, in the invisible world hardly any beings love to be worshipped, except those of the vital. These, as I said, are quite pleased by it. And then, it gives them importance. They are puffed up with pride and feel very happy, and when they can get a herd of people to worship them they are quite satisfied.
1955-12-14 - Rejection of life as illusion in the old Yogas - Fighting the adverse forces - Universal and individual being - Three stages in Integral Yoga - How to feel the Divine Presence constantly, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The powers of this world and their actual activities, it is felt, either do not belong to God at all or are for some obscure and puzzling cause, Maya or another, a dark contradiction of the divine Truth.
It is a certain attitude which produces this. He says it earlier, doesnt he? He explains it. There is an attitude in which all material things appear to be not only not the expression of the Divine but incapable of becoming that and essentially opposed to the spiritual life. And so there is only one solutionit was that of the old Yogas, you know the total rejection of life as not being able to participate in the spiritual life at all, the rejection of material life. This is what he explains. He says that with this attitude, thats how one looks at life. He does not say that it is like that; he says that one looks at it, considers it like that; that it is the attitude of those who have completely separated life from the spirit, and who say that life is an illusion, a falsification, and that it is incapable of expressing the Divine.
1957-04-03 - Different religions and spirituality, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Each religion has helped mankind. Paganism increased in man the light of beauty, the largeness and height of his life, his aim at a many-sided perfection; Christianity gave him some vision of divine love and charity; Buddhism has shown him a noble way to be wiser, gentler, purer; Judaism and Islam how to be religiously faithful in action and zealously devoted to God; Hinduism has opened to him the largest and profoundest spiritual possibilities. A great thing would be done if all these God-visions could embrace and cast themselves into each other; but intellectual dogma and cult-egoism stand in the way.
All religions have saved a number of souls, but none yet has been able to spiritualise mankind. For that there is needed not cult and creed, but a sustained and all-comprehending effort at spiritual self-evolution.
1960 05 18, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ordinary men, on the contrary, always ask God to give them an easy, pleasant and successful life. In every personal satisfaction they see a sign of divine mercy; but if on the contrary they meet with unhappiness and misfortune in life, they complain and say to God, You do not love me.
In opposition to this crude and ignorant attitude, Sri Aurobindo says to the divine Beloved, Strike, strike hard, let me feel the intensity of Thy love for me.
1961 04 26 - 59, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How can one give a satisfactory beating to God?
Religion always tends to make God in the image of man, a magnified and aggrandised image, but in the end it is always a god with human qualities. This is what makes it possible for people to treat him as they would treat a human enemy. In some countries, when their god does not do what they want, they take him and throw him into the river!
1961 05 22?, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is to widen the outlook of certain moralists who attribute definite qualities to God and will not permit Him to be otherwise.
Strength as we see it and weakness as we see it are both an equally distorted expression of the Divine Truth which is secretly present behind all physical manifestations.
--
People are so deeply imbued with the Christian idea of God the Creator the creation on one side and God on the other. When you think about it you reject it, but it has penetrated into the sensations and feelings; so, spontaneously, instinctively, almost subconsciously, you attri bute to God everything you consider to be best and most beautiful and, above all, everything you want to attain, to realise. Naturally, each one changes the content of his God according to his own consciousness, but it is always what he considers to be best. And that is also why instinctively and spontaneously, subconsciously, you are shocked by the idea that God can be things that you do not like, that you do not approve of or do not think best.
I put that rather childishly, on purpose, so that you can understand it properly. But it is like that I am sure, because I observed it in myself for a very long time, because of the subconscious formation of childhood, environment, education, etc. You must be able to press into this body the consciousness of Oneness, the absolute exclusive Oneness of the Divineexclusive in the sense that nothing exists except in this Oneness, even the things we find most repulsive.
1969 08 07, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
129O son of Immortality, live not thou according to Nature, but according to God; and compel her also to live according to the deity within thee.
What does Sri Aurobindo mean here by the nature which exceeds the body?
1969 10 30, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
188Virtue and vice were made for thy souls struggle and progress; but for results they belong to God, who fulfils himself beyond vice and virtue.
Vice and virtue are inventions of human thought for the needs of evolution and progress but in the Divine Consciousness, vice and virtue do not exist.
1969 11 16, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
201Mediaeval Christianity said to the race, Man, thou art in thy earthly life an evil thing and a worm before God; renounce then egoism, live for a future state and submit thyself to God and His priest. The results were not over-good for humanity. Modern knowledge says to the race, Man, thou art an ephemeral animal and no more to Nature than the ant and the earthworm, a transitory speck only in the universe. Live then for the State and submit thyself antlike to the trained administrator and the scientific expert. Will this gospel succeed any better than the other?
202Vedanta says rather, Man, thou art of one nature and substance with God, one soul with thy fellow-men. Awake and progress then to thy utter divinity, live for God in thyself and in others. This gospel which was given only to the few, must now be offered to all mankind for its deliverance.
1969 11 26, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
207That thou shouldst have pity on creatures is well, but not well, if thou art a slave to thy pity. Be a slave to nothing except to God, not even to His most luminous angels.
For those who want to live according to Truth, the only way is to become conscious of the Divine Presence and to live exclusively according to Its Will.
1969 12 22, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
246If you leave it to God to purify, He will exhaust the evil in you subjectively; but if you insist on guiding yourself, you will fall into much outward sin and suffering.
247Call not everything evil which men call evil, but only that reject which God has rejected; call not everything good which men call good, but accept only what God has accepted.
1969 12 23, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
248Men in the world have two lights, duty and principle; but he who has passed over to God, has done with both and replaced them by Gods will. If men abuse thee for this, care not, O divine instrument, but go on thy way like the wind or the sun fostering and destroying.
249Not to cull the praises of men has God made thee His own, but to do fearlessly His bidding.
1970 01 29, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
311Fix not the time and the way in which the ideal shall be fulfilled. Work and leave time and way to God all-knowing.
312Work as if the ideal had to be fulfilled swiftly and in thy lifetime; persevere as if thou knewest it not to be unless purchased by a thousand years yet of labour. That which thou darest not expect till the fifth millennium, may bloom out with tomorrows dawning and that which thou hopest and lustest after now, may have been fixed for thee in thy hundredth advent.
1970 02 09, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
328The individual cannot be perfect until he has surrendered all he now calls himself to the divine Being. So also, until mankind gives all it has to God, never shall there be a perfected society.
Sri Aurobindo writes here in a clear and definite way what I tried to express before: no perfection can be attained so long as the government of the Supreme Lord is not recognised and admitted everywhere and in all things.
1970 03 03, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
363Limit not sacrifice to the giving up of earthly goods or the denial of some desires and yearnings, but let every thought and every work and every enjoyment be an offering to God within thee. Let thy steps walk in thy Lord, let thy sleep and waking be a sacrifice to Krishna.
364This is not according to my Shastra1 or my Science, say the men of rule, formalists. Fool! is God then only a book that there should be nothing true and good except what is written?
--
367Act according to the Shastra rather than thy self-will and desire; so shalt thou grow stronger to control the ravener in thee; but act according to God rather than the Shastra; so shalt thou reach to His highest which is far above rule and limit.
368The Law is for the bound and those whose eyes are sealed; if they walk not by it, they will stumble; but thou who art free in Krishna or hast seen his living light, walk holding the hand of thy Friend and by the lamp of eternal Veda.
1970 03 05, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
373This is the wonder of the way of works that even enmity to God can be made an agency of salvation. Sometimes God draws and attaches us most swiftly to Him by wrestling with us as our fierce, invincible and irreconcilable enemy.
In short, the divine grace is so marvellous that, whatever you do, it will lead you more or less quickly towards the Divine Goal.
1970 04 07, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
458No doubt, when the priest curses, he is crying to God; but it is the God of anger and darkness to whom he devotes himself along with his enemy; for as he approaches God, so shall God receive him.
459I was much plagued by Satan, until I found that it was God who was tempting me; then the anguish of him passed out of my soul for ever.
1970 04 15, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
476Discipleship to God the Teacher, sonship to God the Father, tenderness of God the Mother, clasp of the hand of the divine Friend, laughter and sport with our Comrade and boy Playfellow, blissful servitude to God the Master, rapturous love of our divine Paramour, these are the seven beatitudes of life in the human body. Canst thou unite all these in a single supreme and rainbow-hued relation? Then hast thou no need of any heaven and thou exceedest the emancipation of the Adwaitin.
There is nothing to add. It is a perfect programme.
1970 05 13?, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
514After all, when thou countest up thy long service to God, thou wilt find thy supreme work was the flawed and little good thou didst in love for humanity.
That is why, rather than to serve, it is better to belong totally, absolutely to the Divine.
1970 05 15, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
515There are two works that are perfectly pleasing to God in his servant; to sweep in silent adoration His temple-floors and to fight in the worlds battlefield for His divine consummation in humanity.
516He who has done even a little good to human beings, though he be the worst of sinners, is accepted by God in the ranks of His lovers and servants. He shall look upon the face of the Eternal.
1.A - ANTHROPOLOGY, THE SOUL, #Philosophy of Mind, #unset, #Zen
mere ideas and images. The latter are in the main only externally conjoined, in an unintelligent way, by the laws of the so-called Association of Ideas; though here and there of course logical principles may also be operative. But in the waking state man behaves essentially as a concrete ego, an intelligence: and because of this intelligence his sense-perception stands before him as a concrete totality of features in which each member, each point, takes up its place as at the same time determined through and with all the rest. Thus the facts embodied in his sensation are au thenticated, not by his mere subjective representation and distinction of the facts as something external from the person, but by virtue of the concrete interconnection in which each part stands with all parts of this complex. The waking state is the concrete consciousness of this mutual corroboration of each single factor of its content by all the others in the picture as perceived. The consciousness of this interdependence need not be explicit and distinct. Still this general setting to all sensations is implicitly present in the concrete feeling of self. In order to see the difference between dreaming and waking we need only keep in view the Kantian distinction between subjectivity and objectivity of mental representation (the latter depending upon determination through categories): remembering, as already noted, that what is actually present in mind need not be therefore explicitly realized in consciousness, just as little as the exaltation of the intellectual sense to God need stand before consciousness in the shape of proofs of God's existence, although, as before explained, these proofs only serve to express the net worth and content of that feeling.
(c) Sensibility[3]
1.ac - The Rose and the Cross, #Crowley - Poems, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
I lifted up my heart to God and called:
How shall I pluck this dream of my desire?
1.ac - The Wizard Way, #Crowley - Poems, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
I follow the wizard way to God.
Wherever he leads my foot shall follow;
1.ac - Ut, #Crowley - Poems, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Og God to God that clung
Dissolved his being to a nameless naught,
1.anon - The Poem of Antar, #Anonymous - Poems, #unset, #Zen
would to God that she was not unlawful.
So, I sent my female slave, and said to her,
1.dd - As many as are the waves of the sea, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by K. N. Upadhyaya As many as are the waves of the sea, so many are the desires of the mind. Stilling them all, one sits with contentment holding the thought of the One in his self. As in the presence of a magnet the iron is drawn, So do thou attach thy senses, mind and dispositions to the One alone. When one discovers the true seat of the mind, then all regions come to his sight. When he brings back all five senses to that one point, then the secrets of the holy scriptures are revealed to him. The fickle mind wanders in the four directions. Bind it with the instructions of the Master, And bring it into the company of the Saint, then will it be united with the Supreme Lord, O Dadu. Making millions of efforts, many were consumed by death, but the mind continued to run in all ten directions. Only with God's Name as the barrier will it stop; no other way is there. Let the mind be the horse, the vigilant aspirant the rider, and one-pointed attention the bridle; Using the Word as a whip, some wise, holy aspirant will reach the goal. Vanquish the mind by means of the Name; discipline it through the teachings of the Saints. Remove whatever duality is there, then will there be bliss within, O Dadu. Once the mind is attached to God, how can it go anywhere else? Like salt dissolves in water, it enters into the Lord, O Dadu. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Dadu: The Compassionate Mystic, Translated by K. N. Upadhyaya
1f.lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
see themand I hope to God we may be the last.
If the sculptured maps and pictures in that pre-human city had told
1f.lovecraft - Medusas Coil, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
with him so far off. Would to God I hadnt! I thought he was the safest
kind of a boy to be in Paris. He had a room in the Rue St.
1f.lovecraft - The Ghost-Eater, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
darkness. Eager only for shelter, I hastened toward itwould to God I
had turned and fled!
1f.lovecraft - The Last Test, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
wish to God I had been honest enough to say that Id failed. Dont let
my old talk of science deceive you, JamesI found no antitoxin and was
1f.lovecraft - The Lurking Fear, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
did not want them then. Would to God I had let them share the search,
that I might not have had to bear the secret alone so long; to bear it
1f.lovecraft - The Shadow over Innsmouth, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
told em hed knowed of folks as prayed to Gods that give somethin ye
reely need, an says ef a good bunch o men ud stand by him, he cud
1.fs - The Fight With The Dragon, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
And gave my spirit to God's care."
"Soon as I reached the level plain,
1.fs - The Fortune-Favored, #Schiller - Poems, #Friedrich Schiller, #Poetry
The god inspires the mortalbut to God,
In turn, the mortal lifts thee from the sod.
1.fua - The Pupil asks- the Master answers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Raficq Abdulla Original Language Persian/Farsi 'Why was Adam driven from the garden?' The pupil asked his master. 'His heart was hardened With images, a hundred bonds that clutter the earth Chained Adam to the cycle of death following birth. He was blind to this equation, living for something other Than God and so out of paradise he was driven With his mortal body's cover his soul was shriven. Noblest of God's creatures, Adam fell with blame, Like a moth shriveled by the candle's flame, Into history which taught mankind shame. Since Adam had not given up his heart to God's attachment, there was no part For Adam in paradise where the only friend Is God; His will is not for Adam to imagine and bend.' [1490.jpg] -- from The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid ud-Din Attar, Translated by Raficq Abdulla <
1.hs - A Golden Compass, #Hafiz - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Does point to God.
1.hs - Naked in the Bee-House, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Coleman Barks Original Language Persian/Farsi Being humble is right for you now. Don't thrash around showing your strength. You're naked in the bee-house! It doesn't matter how powerful your arms and legs are. to God, that is more of a lie than your weakness is. In his doorway your prestige and your physical energy are just dust on your face. Be helpless and completely poor. And don't try to meet his eye! That's like signing a paper that honors yourself. If you can take care of things, do so! But when you're living at home with God, you neither sew the world together with desires nor tear it apart with disappointments. In that place existence itself is illusion. All that is, is one. Lost in that, your personal form becomes a vast, empty mosque. When you hold on to yourself, you're a fire-worshipping temple. Dissolve, and let everything get done. When you don't, you're an untrained colt, full of erratic loving and biting. Loyal sometimes, then treacherous. Be more like the servant who owns nothing and is neither hungry nor satisfied, who has no hopes for anything, and no fear of anyone. An owl living near the king's palace is considered a bird of misfortune, ragged and ominous. But off in the woods, sitting alone, its feathers grow splendid and sleek like the Phoenix restored. Musk should not be kept near water or heat. The dampness and the dryness spoil its fragrance. But when the musk is at home in the musk bladder, fire and wetness mean nothing. In God's doorway your guilt and your virtue don't count. Whether you're Muslim, or Christian, or fire-worshipper, the categories disappear. You're seeking, and God is what is sought, the essence beyond any cause. External theological learning moves like a moon and fades when the sun of experience rises. We are here for a week, or less. We arrive and leave almost simultaneously. To be is not to be. The Qur'an says, "They go hastening, with the Light running on before them." Clear the way! Muhammed says, "How fine!" A sigh goes out, and there is union. Forget how you came to this gate, your history. Let that be as if it had not been. Do you think the day plans its course by what the rooster says? God does not depend on any of his creatures. Your existence or non-existence is insignificant. Many like you have come here before. When the fountain of light is pouring, there's no need to urge it on! That's like a handful of straw trying to help the sun. "This way! Please, let this light through!" The sun doesn't need an announcer. The lamp you carry is your self-reliance. The sun is something else! Half a sneeze might extinguish your lantern, whereas all a winter's windiness cannot put That out. The road you must take has no particular name. It's the one composed of your own sighing and giving up. What you've been doing is not devotion. Your hoping and worrying are like donkeys wandering loose, sometimes docile, or suddenly mean. Your face looks wise at times, and ashamed at others. There is another way, a pure blankness where those are one expression. Omar once saw a group of boys on the road challenging each other to wrestle. They were all claiming to be champions, but when Omar, the fierce and accomplished warrior, came near, they scattered. All but one, Abdullah Zubair. Omar asked, "Why didn't you run?" "Why should I? You are not a tyrant, and I am not guilty." When someone knows his own inner value, he doesn't care about being accepted or rejected by anyone else. The prince here is strong and just. Stand wondering in his presence. There is nothing but That. [1841.jpg] -- from The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia, with Lectures by Inayat Khan, Translated by Coleman Barks <
Wikipedia - A Hymn to God the Father -- Poem by John Donne
Wikipedia - Animal tithe -- Tithe of kosher grazing animals (cattle, sheep, and goats) to God, to be sacrificed as a Korban
Wikipedia - Back to Godhead -- Main magazine of the Hare Krishna Movement
Wikipedia - Back to God Ministries International -- Electronic media ministry of the Christian Reformed Church
Wikipedia - Back to God's Country (1919 film) -- 1919 film
Wikipedia - Back to God's Country (1927 film) -- 1927 film by Irvin Willat
Wikipedia - Back to God -- 2017 single by Reba McEntire
Wikipedia - Bhakti movement -- Period of common people's devotion to God in the Medieval Indian Subcontinent
Wikipedia - Cherub -- One of the heavenly beings who directly attend to God according to Abrahamic religions
Wikipedia - Christian universalism -- Christian belief that all will be reconciled to God
Wikipedia - Constitutional references to God -- Invocations of God in national constitutions
Wikipedia - Devekut -- Jewish concept referring to closeness to God
Wikipedia - Fire and brimstone -- idiomatic expression referring to God's wrath in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament
Wikipedia - Honest to God -- 1963 book by John Robinson
Wikipedia - Ninigi-no-Mikoto -- Shinto god
Wikipedia - Nirankar -- Attribute associated to God in Sikhism
Wikipedia - Omoikane (Shinto) -- Shinto god of wisdom
Wikipedia - Pray to God (song) -- 2015 single by Calvin Harris
Wikipedia - Subordinationism -- Assertion that the Son and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to God the Father in nature and being
Wikipedia - The Path to God -- 1924 film
Wikipedia - Tushlaba -- Hebrew acronym meaning "Finished and Complete, Praise be to God, Creator of the Universe
Wikipedia - Waheguru -- Waheguru refers to God (Almighty creature) in Sikhism
Wikipedia - Yama-no-Kami -- Shinto god
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19097434-honest-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19266493-but-don-t-all-religions-lead-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20662636-malachi-s-message-to-god-s-church-today
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20933408-but-don-t-all-religions-lead-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21440659-how-blasphemy-sounds-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/217156.From_Science_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23113429-unwind-your-mind-back-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24896403-growing-into-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25858583-can-faith-in-god-become-insult-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27509055-message-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28003209-a-danger-to-god-himself
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29252.Paths_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29638047-rebellion-to-tyrants-is-obedience-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29638047.Rebellion_to_Tyrants_is_Obedience_to_God_The_Role_of_Christianity_in_the_American_Revolution
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30149325-listening-to-god---fuel-for-ministry
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/312806.But_Don_t_All_Religions_Lead_to_God_
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32604889-listening-to-god---fuel-for-ministry
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32667082-devoted-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3497667-faithfulness---the-road-to-divine-promotion---obedience-to-god-creates-a
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36471849-glory-to-god-in-the-highest
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3708070-exploration-into-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38589865-when-rap-spoke-straight-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39768.Hush_Don_t_Say_Anything_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/402827.Swear_to_God_The_Promise_and_Power_of_the_Sacraments
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/406827.How_to_Listen_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40783639-bound-to-gods
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/409671.What_Happens_When_Women_Say_Yes_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41561583-your-work-matters-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4219958-the-paradoxical-ascent-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/591263.The_Zoo_Where_You_re_Fed_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6469352-the-hummingbird-s-journey-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7765687-near-unto-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7975102-from-girl-to-goddess
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/804974.To_Be_Near_Unto_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8326231-your-work-matters-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/855673.Can_We_Talk_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/863245.Your_Work_Matters_to_God
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9510022-opening-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9632852-love-letters-to-god
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9699322-on-cleaving-to-god
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Book_of_Prayers/Occasional_Prayers#Short_Recommendation_to_God.
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Buddhahood#The_Buddha_as_compared_to_God
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Did_Mohammed_talk_to_God
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Render_unto_Caesar...#Devote_your_life_to_God
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/JLAActOfGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/TomGodwin
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Laconic/TopGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreatorGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarriageToAGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TopGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoExamples/TopGod
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FightOfGods
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Tropers/AMereServantOfGod
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/File:Job_Confessing_His_Presumption_to_God_Who_Answers_from_the_Whirlwind,_object_1_(Butlin_461).jpg
Dear God(1996) - When letters written to God start getting results, and replies, people everywhere are amazed. The Post Office however is annoyed.
My Man Godfrey (1936) ::: 8.0/10 -- Not Rated | 1h 34min | Comedy, Drama, Romance | 6 September 1936 (USA) -- A scatterbrained socialite hires a vagrant as a family butler - but there's more to Godfrey than meets the eye. Director: Gregory La Cava Writers: Morrie Ryskind (screen play), Eric Hatch (screen play) | 1 more
https://characters.fandom.com/wiki/Message_Wall:The_real,_actual,_honest-to-God_Blaze_the_Cat.
https://comics.fandom.com/wiki/True_Story,_Swear_To_God
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Lois_&_Clark:_The_New_Adventures_of_Superman_(TV_Series)_Episode:_Swear_to_God,_This_Time_We're_Not_Kidding
https://lois-and-clark-the-new-adventures-of-superman.fandom.com/wiki/Swear_to_God,_This_Time_We're_Not_Kidding
https://onepiecefanfiction.fandom.com/wiki/Guide_to_Godmodding
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mission_to_Godo
God Eater 3 -- -- ufotable -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Game Music -- God Eater 3 God Eater 3 -- The opening promotional animation to Bandai Namco's God Eater 3. The game is slated to be released next month for PS4 and the following year for PC. The story is a sequel to God Eater 2 Rage Burst, just like Resonant Ops. There was a disaster of tremendous proportions, referred to as "Ash Area" that devoured Fenrir, and is apparently still ongoing. -- ONA - Nov 13, 2018 -- 4,138 6.44
God Eater Reso Nantoka Gekijou: Nagerareta Shokupan -- -- Creators in Pack, Passione -- 1 ep -- Game -- Fantasy Military Parody Sci-Fi -- God Eater Reso Nantoka Gekijou: Nagerareta Shokupan God Eater Reso Nantoka Gekijou: Nagerareta Shokupan -- Short anime inspired by the iOS and Android mobile game God Eater Resonant Ops. -- -- Introduces the characters through their first day of school. Resonant Ops continues the story of God Eater 2 Rage Burst, which in turn is a sequel to God Eater Burst, and is set 4 years after the latter's story, moving the setting "at long last" toward the Fenrir Headquarters in the year 2078. -- Special - Mar 24, 2018 -- 5,166 5.81
God Eater Resonant Ops -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Game -- Fantasy Game Military Music Sci-Fi -- God Eater Resonant Ops God Eater Resonant Ops -- The opening movie to God Eater Resonant Ops, the iOS/Android game. The animation was streamed on Bandai Namco's official YouTube channel and was promoting the game's release slated for the following month. A second version of the video was posted on April 4, 2018 but contains no change in animation. Only the watermark and the still image at the end were changed. -- ONA - Mar 24, 2018 -- 2,629 5.98
Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei -- -- Polygon Pictures -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Adventure Sci-Fi -- Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei Godzilla 1: Kaijuu Wakusei -- Twenty thousand years after the fall of humanity, Earth succumbed to legions of ravenous creatures who now freely roam the planet. Far away in the depths of space, the last surviving members of humanity float aimlessly in the same ship they escaped Earth with so many years ago. With the spacecraft running dangerously low on resources, the survivors’ leading council must decide on their path forward: should they continue to gamble on finding another Earth-like planet to inhabit, or take to heart an anonymous essay theorizing what may be the only weakness of the"Godzilla," who forced the last remnants of humanity off their home world? -- -- The author of the controversial essay is Haruo, a man who witnessed the death of his parents to Godzilla at a young age, which has led him to harbor an obsessive hatred for the monster. Now, he spearheads the operation aimed at reclaiming humanity's birthright from the King of monsters and slay him once and for all. But, alongside humanity, Earth has undergone drastic change since their departure; Godzilla and its numerous spawns may pale in comparison to the darkness lurking within the hearts of this close-knit community of survivors. -- -- Movie - Nov 17, 2017 -- 49,615 6.50
Godzilla 2: Kessen Kidou Zoushoku Toshi -- -- Polygon Pictures -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Adventure Sci-Fi -- Godzilla 2: Kessen Kidou Zoushoku Toshi Godzilla 2: Kessen Kidou Zoushoku Toshi -- By the advent of the 21st century, much of humanity was dead, having been trampled over by a new master, Godzilla. A select few among mankind took to the stars in a spacefaring vessel called the Aratrum in search of "the promised land," the planet Tau-e that could sustain human life. But the migration plan fails, and the remnants of the human race decide to return to Earth. But the distortions in space-time and the distance traveled means that mankind is returning to a completely changed Earth some 20,000 years later. The returnees, led by hero Haruo, prepare to take the fight to Godzilla based on a strategy that has been 20 years in the making. Carried out with the help of two alien species, the Exif and the Bilusaludo, the humans succeed in defeating Godzilla in a costly battle to the death. -- -- But the victory is short-lived. Rising from the depths of the planet is a new breed of monster, dubbed "Godzilla Earth." Evolving for 20,000 years, the creature stands 300 meters high, weighs over 100,000 tons and wields such overwhelmingly destructive power that Haruo and company have no choice but to run for their lives. -- -- Coming to Haruo's rescue, however, is Miana, a member of an aboriginal tribe called the Houtua. They are the first humanoid people the returnees have encountered. Could they descend from humans? "Our tribal god was destroyed by Godzilla. All that we have left are these eggs. Anyone who has tried to fight or resist him has been drowned in fire," the tribespeople say to Haruo, who responds with: "This is our last hope of recovering our home." -- -- Meanwhile, Bilusaludo commander, Galu-gu is elated to discover that the Houtua tribe's arrowheads are made of a nanometal or a self-sustaining metal. It had been developed in the 21st century as an "anti-Godzilla" killer weapon deployed at their decisive battle fought at the foot of Mt. Fuji, but had been destroyed before it could be activated in the form of a "Mecha-Godzilla." The nanometal was its base substance, and proof that the manufacturing plant can still be used. -- -- (Source: Official site) -- Movie - May 18, 2018 -- 30,710 6.64
Godzilla 3: Hoshi wo Kuu Mono -- -- Polygon Pictures -- 1 ep -- Original -- Action Adventure Sci-Fi -- Godzilla 3: Hoshi wo Kuu Mono Godzilla 3: Hoshi wo Kuu Mono -- A door opens, and a golden seal shatters a star. -- -- It is the early 21st century. Mankind has lost the battle for planet Earth to Godzilla, and has taken to the stars in search of a new home. But the search ends in vain, forcing them and their alien allies back to Earth. But 20,000 years have passed in their absence, and the Earth is a wholly different place. -- -- The planet's flora and fauna now embody and serve Godzilla. Earth is a monster's planet, ruled by the largest Godzilla ever at 300 meters in height. Godzilla Earth. -- -- Human protagonist, Captain Haruo, yearns to defeat Godzilla and retake the planet for mankind. There, he meets aboriginal descendants of the human race, the Houtua tribe. The Houtua twin sisters, Maina and Miana, lead him to the skeletal remains of Mecha-Godzilla, an old anti-Godzilla weapon, which to everyone's surprise is still alive in the form of self-generating nanometal. Taken from the Mecha-Godzilla carcass, the nanometals have gradually been rebuilding a "Mecha-Godzilla City," a potential weapon capable of destroying Godzilla Earth. -- -- As the strategy develops, a rift forms between the humans and the Bilusaludo, one of several alien races that had joined the humans on their exodus from Earth. Their leader, Galu-gu, believes that the secret to defeating Godzilla lies in the use of superhuman powers – namely, the nanometal integration – but Haruo resists, fearing that in defeating monsters, they must not become monsters themselves. Haruo ultimately uses his means for defeating Godzilla Earth to destroy the Mecha-Godzilla city so as to prevent nanometal assimilation, killing Galu-gu. However, his childhood friend, Yuuko, has been absorbed by the nanometal integration and has fallen into a brain dead coma. -- -- The human race, once again, is lost. Metphies, commander of the priestly alien race, Exif, marvels at the miraculous survival of Haruo, he begins to attract a following. The Exif has secretly harbored this outcome as their "ultimate goal." Miana and Maina issue warnings against Metphies, while Haruo begins to question mankind's next move. -- -- With no means for defeating Godzilla Earth, mankind watches as King Ghidorah, clad in a golden light, descends on the planet. The earth shakes once again with as war moves to a higher dimension. -- -- What is Godzilla exactly? Does mankind stand a chance? Is there a future vision in Haruo's eyes? Find out in the finale. -- -- (Source: Official site) -- Movie - Nov 9, 2018 -- 23,950 6.26
Kindan no Mokushiroku: Crystal Triangle -- -- animate Film -- 1 ep -- Original -- Adventure Military Demons Mystery -- Kindan no Mokushiroku: Crystal Triangle Kindan no Mokushiroku: Crystal Triangle -- In times of olde, God gave mankind the ten commandments, and a message that has been lost to the centuries. In the present, Koichiro Kamishiro is a modern day Indiana Jones who scours (and often destroys) ruins for hints of the past, until one day he runs across a box filled with two crystal triangles. Having inadvertently run across the key to God's lost message, Kamishiro suddenly has a lot to deal with including assassination attempts by the KGB and the CIA, aliens hell-bent on destroying the Earth and the love of several women! -- -- Licensor: -- Central Park Media -- OVA - Jul 22, 1987 -- 1,914 4.56
Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer - Zetsubou no Yoake -- -- Anima, Dynamo Pictures -- 1 ep -- Game -- Action Game Fantasy -- Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer - Zetsubou no Yoake Monster Strike the Movie: Lucifer - Zetsubou no Yoake -- (No synopsis yet.) -- Movie - Nov 6, 2020 -- 2,692 N/A -- -- God Eater Resonant Ops -- -- - -- 1 ep -- Game -- Fantasy Game Military Music Sci-Fi -- God Eater Resonant Ops God Eater Resonant Ops -- The opening movie to God Eater Resonant Ops, the iOS/Android game. The animation was streamed on Bandai Namco's official YouTube channel and was promoting the game's release slated for the following month. A second version of the video was posted on April 4, 2018 but contains no change in animation. Only the watermark and the still image at the end were changed. -- ONA - Mar 24, 2018 -- 2,629 5.98
Noragami -- -- Bones -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Adventure Comedy Supernatural Shounen -- Noragami Noragami -- In times of need, if you look in the right place, you just may see a strange telephone number scrawled in red. If you call this number, you will hear a young man introduce himself as the Yato God. -- -- Yato is a minor deity and a self-proclaimed "Delivery God," who dreams of having millions of worshippers. Without a single shrine dedicated to his name, however, his goals are far from being realized. He spends his days doing odd jobs for five yen apiece, until his weapon partner becomes fed up with her useless master and deserts him. -- -- Just as things seem to be looking grim for the god, his fortune changes when a middle school girl, Hiyori Iki, supposedly saves Yato from a car accident, taking the hit for him. Remarkably, she survives, but the event has caused her soul to become loose and hence able to leave her body. Hiyori demands that Yato return her to normal, but upon learning that he needs a new partner to do so, reluctantly agrees to help him find one. And with Hiyori's help, Yato's luck may finally be turning around. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 1,621,251 8.00
Tenchi Souzou Design-bu -- -- Asahi Production -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Slice of Life Comedy Fantasy Seinen -- Tenchi Souzou Design-bu Tenchi Souzou Design-bu -- In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He also sought after a wide variety of animals to populate the planet. However, he felt that it was too tiresome to think of new ideas within his criteria. To address this problem, God appointed an organization—the Heaven's Design Team—to do the work instead! -- -- Shimoda is a newly-hired angel who serves as the mediator between God and the design team. As he steps into his role, he witnesses his coworkers conceive interesting ideas for many unique life forms according to God's desires. From giraffes and snakes to birds, anteaters, and everything in between, the possibilities for different animal species are endless! -- -- 48,634 7.16
A Hymn to God the Father
Back to God
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Benedicto Godoy Vizaga
Constitutional references to God
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My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)
Note to God
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Tongod District, Malaysia
Visit to Godenholm
When the President Talks to God
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