Spirit

Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.— Meister Eckhart

The most infallible sign of God's presence is joy -- Leon Bloy

Why do people keep asking to see
God’s identity papers?
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?

-- Mary Oliver, I Wake Close to Morning

I am the fiery life of the essence of God;

I am the flame above the beauty in the fields;

I shine in the waters;

I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars.

And with the airy wind,

I quicken all things vitally

by an unseen, all-sustaining life.”
― Hildegard of Bingen

In Aramaic Heaven means light and sound shining through all Creation.-- Neil Douglas-Klotz

There are two ways of spreading light:

To be the candle

or the mirror that reflects it.

— Edith Wharton

If God told you

EXACTLY

what it was you were to do,

you would be happy doing it

no matter what it was.

What you're doing now

what God wants you to do.

(Be happy!)

-- Werner Erhard

Beethoven's Ode to Joy

Ludwig van Beethoven was completely deaf by the time he wrote "Ode to Joy", the fourth and final movement of his Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824 in Vienna.

In 2012 the Sabadell Bank (Barcelona, Spain) organized this flash mob performance.

Wisdom is

doing the next thing,

with your whole heart,

and finding delight

in doing it

-- Meister Eckhart

Pied Beauty -- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—

fold, fallow, and plough;

And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Celebrate with gratitude

the seemingly insignificant instances

as the day to day threads

that weave your life’s tapestry

with golden illumination.

— Sibyl Dana Reynolds,

The Way of Belle Couer

Praying -- by Mary Oliver

It doesn’t have to be

the blue iris, it could be

weeds in a vacant lot, or a few

small stones; just

pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try

to make them elaborate, this isn’t

a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which

another voice may speak.

Everything in the Universe breathes for God...

It does not matter what Name is given to this Presence

-- Paula D'Archy

Do we suppose that God made the entire world just for human beings;

or that God is interested in only one

of the millions of species that inhabit God’s good earth.

— Desmond Tutu

Why are we so reluctant to let animals into our stingy heaven? -- John Muir

Vows of the Bodhisattva

Countless are the living beings;

I vow to save them all.

Infinite are the causes of suffering;

I vow to eliminate them all.

Countless are the gateless gates;

I vow to enter them all.

Endless is the path of awakening;

I vow to realize it fully.

Wisdom decreases complaints, but not suffering. -- Kosma Petrovich Prutov

The best place to practice is a place you don’t want to be,

using time you think you don’t have.

-- Karen Maezen Miller

If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice? -- Maha Ghosananda

And if I could pray or do this any other way,

I would have done it long ago.

The only way out is through,

and the only way through is in ...

Wherever you are

is the entry point.

-- Kabir

It is just like building a fire;

at first it's smoky and your eyes water...

Thus we light the divine fire in ourselves

with tears and effort.

-- Amma Syncletica (Desert Mother)

Even if you push God out of the house, God goes no further than the door and will wait there no matter how long it takes you to open it again.

-- Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness & Light (Jon Sweeney & Mark Burrows)

Summoned or not, God will be there.

— motto carved above the door of Carl Jung’s house near Zurich

The function of prayer

is not to influence God,

but to change the nature of the one who prays.

--Soren Kierkegaard

The Master steps out of the way,

and lets the Tao speak for itself.

--Tao te Ching 45 (Stephen Mitchell)

Express yourself completely, then keep quiet.
Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through...

-- Tao te Ching 23 (Stephen Mitchell)

What do you say when you pray?
Mother Teresa: I don't say anything.

I listen.

And what does God say to you?
Mother Teresa: He doesn't say anything.

He listens.

And if you don't understand that,

I can't explain it to you

-- Interview with Dan Rather

I have nothing to add to what doesn’t need to be said.

-- Karen Maezen Miller

Into your hands O God,
I place these fragments of my life,
spend them however you want.
— Rainer Maria Rilke

It pleased the King to raise

a small feather from the ground

and he commanded it to fly.

The feather flew,

not because of anything in itself,

but because the air bore it along.

Thus am I a feather on the breath of God.

— St Hildegard de Bingen

Everything that books

and spiritual directors

have to tell you

can be condensed

into one short word:

fiat

— Father P.J. de Caussade

From Latin, fiat literally means

“let it be done”

Do you think I know what I’m doing?

As much as a pen knows what it’s writing

Or the ball can guess where it’s going next.

— Rumi

What is a good man, but a bad man's teacher?

What is a bad man, but a good man's job?

If you don't understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

-- Tao te Ching 27 (Stephen Mitchell)

The Master… is good to people who are good.
She is also good to people who aren't good.
This is true goodness.

She trusts people who are trustworthy.
She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy.
This is true trust...

-- Tao te Ching 49 (Stephen Mitchell)

Do I know any knot

in the thread of my life

that will hold

when I am pulled through

this dark cloth of death?...

– Douglas V. Steere

When one man dies,

a chapter is not torn

out of the book,

but translated…

and His hand shall bind up

all our scattered leaves again,

for that library where every book

shall lie open to one another.

— John Donne

I walk through the remaining hours of this day

as I would walk through the last pages of a much loved book…

Look deep into your twilight soul and remember that this is the hour of reality.

This is the hour of truth. All things are passing.

— macrina wiederkehr

In the end, only three things matter:

how much you loved,

how gently you lived,

and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.