spirit
|
The spirit is an inward flame;
a lamp the
world blows upon
but never puts out.
Margot Asquith |
|
|
The
higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a
wealth
of information,
but to face sacred moments.
Abraham Heschel
|
|
|
There is one spectacle grander than the
sea,
That is the sky;
There is one spectacle grander than the sky,
That is the interior of the soul.
Victor Hugo
|
|
Zen does not confuse spirituality with
thinking
about God while one is peeling potatoes.
Zen
spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
Alan Watts
Why
do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye,
while
if something affects your soul you postpone the cure
until next year?
Horace
|
|
Sometimes people get the mistaken notion
that spirituality is a separate
department
of
life, the
penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood,
it is a vital
awareness that
pervades all realms of our
being. Someone
will say, "I come alive
when I
listen to music,"
or "I come to life
when I
garden," or "I come alive when I
play
golf." Wherever we
come alive, that is the area
in which we are spiritual. And
then we
can say,
"I know at
least how one is spiritual in that
area." To be
vital,
awake, aware, in all areas
of our lives, is the task that
is never accomplished,
but
it remains the goal.
David Steindl-Rast
|
|
|
When we expand our awareness, strengthen
our center, clarify our
purpose, transform our inner
demons, develop our will and
make conscious choices, we
are moving toward
deeper connection with our spiritual
self.
Molly Young Brown |
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
|
|
Real spirituality is not up in the
clouds--it is down on earth,
here and now. Deep
spirituality is seeing God every day in the common
things,
and showing God your appreciation by doing common tasks.
Fred Van Amburgh |
|
Do not go looking for problems to feed your
soul. Just let
life be your
teacher. It will
nourish you with its inevitable difficulties. How
will you
know whether you are letting life teach you and
nourish you? If your
physical senses become more
sensitive
to the beauty you see, the words
of love you
hear, and the life
you feel touching your body and soul,
then
you know you
have discovered the great value of
misfortune.
Bernie Siegel |
|
Our rushing and our busyness create a fog
layer that
encloses us,
surrounding us with thicker and
thicker
layers externally and building
denser and denser
fog
layers within. Pretty soon, we have lost
touch
with
that which guides our lives. We need contact
with
our spirituality to be the people we would like to
be.
Anne Wilson Schaef |
|
You
are all spirits. It is not that you "have"
a spirit. To have a spirit implies
that you are spirit and that you are also something
else. Human beings
are spirits. Being a human being is one of
the ways of being a spirit.
Da Free John
The Fire Gospel |
|
The
essence of who I am--my spiritual identity--never changes.
I am wise, healthy, flexible, and free through the spirit
of God within me. I do not have to conform to trends
and
fads--not the real person who I am. And the real me
never
shrinks from learning new things. An awareness of my
spirituality
is such a confidence booster that I live and learn
while
remaining ever true to my spiritual
identity.
The real me is a free, spiritual being!
unattributed
|
|
Spiritual
beings do not sweat life's small stuff. They also
know that most of what drives us crazy in life is small
stuff.
The only thing that isn't small stuff is the reason you're
on
earth in the first place: to find that portion of
the world's lost
heart that only you can ransom with your love and
authentic
gifts and then return it, so that all of us can experience
Wholeness.
Sarah Ban
Breathnach |
|
|
|
Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be
something that you are fully aware of
right now.
Something you are already looking at right now. As I
was receiving these teachings,
I thought of the old
puzzles
in the Sunday supplement section of the newspaper,
where there
is a landscape and the caption says, "The
faces of twenty famous
people are hidden in this
landscape. Can you spot them?" The
faces
were maybe
Walter Cronkite, John Kennedy, that kind of
thing. The point is that you are
looking right at
the faces. You don't need to
see anything more in
order to be
looking at the faces. They are
completely entering your visual field already, you
just
don't
recognize them. If you still can't find them,
then somebody
comes along
and simply points them out. It's the same way with Spirit, I
thought.
We are all already looking
directly at
Spirit, we just don't recognize it.
We have all the
necessary cognition, but not the recognition.
Ken Wilber |
|
|
|
But
if we are to expand our souls, we need to pay attention
to the life all around us--the people and things and light
and
dark and wind and sun. If you believe that you have
a soul,
it's probably more important for us to focus on developing
our souls--which are immortal--than it is for us to gather
more information and develop our brains. A balance
would
be nice, but most of us don't work at all on our souls,
except for an occasional prayer or book on a religious
topic.
Much of our work on our souls can be accomplished by
working on our abilities to listen--not just hear, to see
and
understand--not just see, to feel in our depths--not just
feel.
tom
walsh |
|
At
some point, sometimes in our twenties, sometimes our
thirties, most
often the forties. . . we begin at last to let the soul
lead. The power shifts
away from brickabrack and
frick-frack to soulfulness. And though the
soul does not assume the lead by killing off the ego, the
ego is demoted,
one might say, and given a different assignment in the
psyche,
which is essentially to submit to the concerns of the
soul.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés
|
|
When you do things from your soul you
feel a river
moving in you, a joy. When action come from
another section, the feeling disappears.
Jalal ad-Din Rumi
|
|
|
spirit
|
One
certainly has a soul; but how it came to allow itself to
be
enclosed in a body is more than I can imagine. I
only know
if once mine gets out, I'll have a bit of a tussle before
I let it get in again to that of any other.
Lord
Byron
|
|
A
spiritual retreat is medicine for soul starvation.
Through
silence, solitary practice, and simple living, we begin to
fill
the empty reservoir. This lifts the veils, dissolves
the masks,
and creates space within for the feelings of forgiveness,
compassion, and loving kindness that are so often blocked.
David
A. Cooper |
|
Say
not, "I have found the truth," but rather,
"I have
found a truth."
Say not, "I have
found the path of
the soul." Say rather, "I have met
the
soul walking
upon my path." For the soul walks upon all
paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow
like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself,
like a lotus of countless petals.
Khalil
Gibran |
|
|
|
One
of them asked Rabbi Scheersohn starkly, "What are you
good for?"
And the Rabbi said, "I'm not talking about myself,
I'm talking
about what my Master was for me. He was for me the
geologist of the soul. There are great treasures in
the soul:
there's faith, there's love, there's awe, there's wisdom,
all these treasures you can dig, but if you don't know
where to dig, you dig up mud.
But if you want to get to the gold, which is
the awe before God,
and the silver, which is the love, and the diamonds, which
are
the faith, then you have to find the geologist of the soul
who tells
you where to dig. . . . but the digging you have to do
yourself."
Rodger
Kamenetz
|
|
God sees the inner spirit stripped of
flesh, skin, and all debris. For
his own mind only touches the spirit that he has allowed
to flow
from himself into our bodies.
And if you can act the same way, you will rid
yourself of all suffering.
For surely if you are not preoccupied with the body that
encloses you,
you will not trouble yourself about clothes, houses, fame,
and other showy trappings.
Marcus Aurelius
|
|
We
may speak of love and humility as the true flowers
of spiritual growth; and they give off a wonderful scent,
which benefits all those who come near.
Teresa
of Avila
|
|
|
|
|
|
My
spiritual life is not something specialised and intense; a
fenced-off
devotional patch rather difficult to cultivate, and
needing to be sheltered
from the cold winds of the outer world. Nor is it an
alternative to my
outward, practical life. On the contrary, it is the
very source of that
quality and purpose which makes my practical life worth
while.
Many people seem to think that the spiritual
life necessarily requires a definite and exacting plan of
study; it
does not. But it does require a definite plan of
life; and courage
in sticking to the plan, not merely for days or weeks, but
for years. . . .
This is something which cannot be hurried; but, unless we
take it seriously,
can be infinitely delayed. Many people suggest by
their behaviour that
God is of far less importance than their bath, morning
paper, or early cup of tea.
Evelyn Underhill
The Spiritual Life |
|
I
believe the appearance that we're separate from God leads
us
to think that we can control our life.
In truth, because our life is
the life of God, It can manage itself.
But we resist letting God
manifest through us because some part of us wants to stay
the
same. Rather
than change ourselves, we want to change the world
and other people. But
spiritual growth is just the opposite.
It's
about letting go of opinion, false thought, and erroneous
perceptions so this other dimension can emerge.
Michael
Beckwith
|
|
The
spiritual life does not remove us from the world
but leads us deeper into it.
Henri Nouwen |
|
|
|
Spirituality
is a flower with a thousand petals: every act, every
thought,
every talk, every movement of our heart is a part of it.
Robert Muller |
|
I've
found that what's true in nature is true for all humans in
understanding ourselves. Just as the blossoms on a fruit tree
fall away as the
fruit grows, so does our need
for a bouquet
of rationalizations vanish as the Divine
produces the authentic
self. The more we allow ourselves to be guided by the principals
that identify us as
spiritual, the less we have any desire or
inclination to
use excuses. As Carl Jung
put it: "Our most
important problems cannot be
solved; they must be outgrown."
Wayne Dyer
|
|
There
are numerous sidetracks which lead to a distorted
ego-centered
version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into
thinking we
are developing
spiritually when instead we are strengthening
our
egocentricity through spiritual techniques.
Chogyam Trungpa |
|
|
|
We
stumble and fall constantly, even when we are most
enlightened. But when
we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know
that we have fallen.
Thomas Merton |
|
I
am learning to follow the spirit within me, wherever it
wants to take
me. Every time I check in, feeling the energy inside
me and letting it
direct me, I find this a wonderful way to live. When
I do this, I
experience joy, power, love, peace, and excitement.
Shakti
Gawain |
|
We
are essentially spiritual beings. Our world is
essentially a spiritual
world, and the underlying controlling forces may be
identified as spiritual
laws. When we "fall in love" with this
spiritual essence or establish our
spiritual unity with it, when we begin to recognize that
this is a good
world and that the people in it have innate goodness
within, then perhaps
we may be seeing with the "eyes of
spirit." We can see goodness in all
people, and we can draw goodness from them.
John
Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life
|
|
|
We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction! |
|
|
The
future requires openness to all spiritual
knowledge. You may prefer one religion, but
there are many paths to the center and we need all
the help we can get.
People who believe there is only one path limit
themselves. They find safety in spiritual
rigidity. They memorize phrases and
mindlessly repeat them, confusing faith with
obedience. They threaten damnation, they
hurl insults in the name of God. They cannot
feel the love of the prophets they quote.
They preach limits in the realm of the unlimited.
The message of the spirit throughout the world is
the same. It is a message of love,
tolerance, compassion, respect, optimism, and a
profound understanding of the meaning of
community.
Jennifer
James
Success Is the Quality of Your Journey |
|
|
For
the journey of spiritual growth requires courage and
initiative and
independence of thought and action. While the words
of the prophets
and the assistance of grace are available, the journey
still must be traveled
alone. No teacher can carry you there. There
are no preset formulas.
Rituals are only learning aids, they are not the
learning. Eating organic
food, saying five Hail Marys before breakfast, praying
facing east or
west, or going to church on Sunday will not take you to
your destination.
No words can be said, no teaching can be taught that will
relieve
spiritual travelers from the necessity of picking their
own ways, working
out with effort and anxiety their own paths through the
unique circumstances
of their own lives toward the identification of their
individual selves with God.
M. Scott
Peck |
|
You become spiritually rich when you discover the
riches
of the kingdom within:
when you have a consciousness of
the oneness of all
life; when you experience kinship with nature;
when you
are open to the buoyant spiritual lift of being in tune
with the Infinite; when you know the power of meditation
and prayer.
Wilferd A. Peterson |
|
If
we want to support each other's inner lives, we must
remember
a simple truth: the human soul does not want to be
fixed, it wants
simply to be seen and heard. If we want to see and
hear a person's
soul, there is another truth we must remember: the
soul is like a
wild animal--tough, resilient, and yet shy. When we
go crashing
through the woods shouting for it to come out so we can
help it,
the soul will stay in hiding. But if we are willing
to sit quietly and
wait for a while, the soul may show itself.
Parker J. Palmer
The Courage to Teach |
spirit
|
Most
of the people I know who have what I want--which is to
say,
purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy--are people with a
deep sense
of spirituality. . . . They follow a brighter light than
the glimmer of their
own candle; they are part of something beautiful. I
saw something
once. . . that said, "A human life is like a single
letter of the alphabet.
It can be meaningless. Or it can be a part of a
great meaning."
Anne Lamott
Traveling Mercies
|
|
Living
in a society that undervalues the spirit, we who embrace
it are tempted
to apologize for our interest. We must stop
apologizing, for no subject is more
important. It is, after all, love's retrieval.
It is the answer to global hatred. To
invalidate the spiritual life is to shoot at the fireman
who is putting out the fire.
Marianne
Williamson
Illuminata
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
If we
have not developed a reservoir of spiritual wealth, no
amount of money
is likely to make us happy. Spiritual wealth
provides faith. It gives us love.
It brings and expands wisdom. Spiritual wealth leads
to happiness
because it guides us into useful or loving relationships.
John
Marks Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life |
|
This
is the real gift: we have been given the breath of
life, designed with a
unique, one-of-a-kind soul that exists forever--whether we
live it as a burden
or a joy or with indifference doesn't change the fact that
we've been
given the gift of being now and forever.
Wendy More |
|
While everyone has
a different experience of what is soulful, these
experiences do have similar beginnings. We start by
giving ourselves
permission to be soulful, to take seriously this aspect of
ourselves,
our soul and our soul needs.
Jean Shinoda Bolen
Handbook for the Soul |
|
Soul
loss can be observed today as a psychological phenomenon
in
the everyday life of the human beings around us.
Loss of soul appears
in the form of a sudden onset of apathy and listlessness;
the joy has gone
out of life, initiative is crippled, one feels empty,
everything seems pointless.
Marie-Louise von Franz |
|
Care of the soul is quite different in
scope from most modern notions of
psychology and psychotherapy. It isn't about curing,
fixing, changing,
adjusting, or making healthy, and it isn't about some idea
of perfection or
even improvement. It doesn't look to the future for
an ideal, trouble-free
existence. Rather, it remains patiently in the
present, close to life as it
presents itself day by day, and yet at the same time
mindful
of religion and spirituality.
Thomas Moore
Care of the Soul |
|
|
|
|