God Dwells in Human Heart.
Know the mirror of the heart in infinite.
Either the understanding falls silent,
or it leads you astray,
because the heart is with God,
or indeed the heart is He.
Rumi, Mathnawi I, 3488-3491, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.83.
When you see the world you see God. There is no seeing God, apart from the world. Beyond the world to see God is to be God. The light by which you see the world, which is God, is the tiny little spark: ‘I am,’ apparently so small, yet the first and the last in every act of knowing and loving. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.61-2.
In the presence of His Glory,
closely watch your heart
so your thoughts won't shame you.
For He sees guilt, opinion, and desire
as plainly as a hair in pure milk.
Rumi, Mathnawi I, 3144-3145, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.66.
The Lord dwells in every heart. So if you desire to win the Lord's pleasure, just do not cause hurt to any one's heart. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 21.
To realize the presence of the Divine Indweller should be the first desire of every heart. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.7.
(…) For God to live in your hearts, you must love. (…). Our Lady of Medjugorie, November 25, 1995. Words from Heaven, P.281.
For it is the heart of the disciple that the "King" inhabits. Sefer ha-Bahir. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.77.
The Lord dwells in an immaculate heart. The Lord takes over all responsibilities of the devotee thus liberating him from his worries. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 553.
The Lord dwells in a devotee's heart. So never hurt any devoted soul. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 941.
The great tao flows everywhere. (...) It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn't hold on to them. Since it merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble. Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great. It isn't aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great. Tao Te Ching 34, quoted after Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.148.
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. This little point of nothingness and of
absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His
name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our
sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing
with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could
see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the
face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life
vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only
given. But the gate of heaven
is everywhere. Merton, Thomas. Conjectures of a Guilty
Bystander. P. 142. Submitted to L-Center
Discussion Group by Gary Horn ghorn@uswest.com
One who has the Lord with him cannot be harmed by anyone as all powers become ineffective without His Will and Command. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1772.
If you consider the Lord as the real doer of all, He will dwell within you and all powers of Nature will be at your command. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1848.
Behold, there He is, wherever truth is relished. He is the most inward part of the heart (...). Sinners, return to your heart (Isaiah 46:8) and adhere to Him who made you. Stand with Him and you will stand indeed; rest in Him and you will be at rest. St. Augustine, Confessions, IV.12
Our Lord opened my spiritual eye and showed me my soul in the middle of my heart, and I saw the soul as wide as if it were an infinite world, and as if it were a blessed kingdom. Julian of Norwich. In: Buber, Ecstatic Confessions, P.94-95.
There are ten temples here at Herakhan. They are symbols. They show us that the body is a temple with ten senses, and we must install God in our hearts within this temple. This body is a moving temple of the Lord. He wants us to make this temple so beautiful that wherever it goes, people would like to worship, have great reverence for it, and try to gain knowledge from it. Teachings of Babaji, P.21.
I look for no happiness beyond my own interior where God dwells. I rejoice that God dwells within me; here I abide with Him unendingly; it is here that my greatest intimacy with Him exists; here I dwell with Him in safety; here is a place not probed by the human eye. (...) Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 454.
(...) God, who is Light itself, lives in a pure and humble heart, and all sufferings and adversities serve but to reveal the soul's holiness. (...). Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 573.
After Holy Communion, I heard the words: I am always in your heart; not only when you receive Me in Holy Communion, but always. Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 575.
I will tell you most when you converse with Me in the depths of your heart. Here, no one can disturb My actions. Here, I rest as in a garden enclosed. Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 581.
(...) Oh, if souls would only want to listen to My voice when I am speaking in the depths of their hearts, they would reach the peak of holiness in a short time. Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 584.
The Mother of God (...) said to me: My daughter, strive after silence and humility, so that Jesus, who dwells in your heart continuously, may be able to rest. Adore Him in your heart; do not go out from your inmost being. (....) Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 785.
(...) I am concerned about every beat of your heart. Every stirring of your love is reflected in My Heart. I thirst for your love. Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 1542.
After Holy Communion, I felt the beating of the heart of Jesus in my own heart. (...). Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 1821.
When, as a modern Christian, I yield to the attraction of journey to the center of my being, my faith tells me that this center is both my own human self, the image of God that I am, and the self of God, the Holy Spirit, (...). Without a pantheistic identifying of Creator and creature, without denying that the self-gift of God is totally gift, grace, I as a Christian affirm (...) this unfathomable mystery of the Holy Spirit dwelling within my spirit (...). This mystery means that my innate capacity as God's image to contain the whole of reality, created and uncreated, in knowledge and power, and hence to be unlimited center and circumference of an infinite sphere, has been restored and transfigured by being drawn within the divine center and centering. When I make the journey to the Center, then, I am where I can touch and be present to all that is, including God Himself. Thomas Clarke, Finding Grace at the Centre, P.52-53.
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. This little point of nothingness and of absolute
poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in
us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our
dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure
diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if
we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together
in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of
life vanish completely. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given.
But the gate of heaven is everywhere. Thomas Merton,
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, P. 142. Submitted by Gary Horn
<ghorn@uswest.com>
To use another of their diagrams, it is thanks to the existence within him of this immortal spark from the central fire, that man is implicitly a 'child of the infinite.' The mystic way must therefore be a life, a discipline, which will so alter the constituents of his mental life as to include this spark within the conscious field; bring it out of the hiddenness, from those deep levels where it sustains and guides his normal existence, and make it the dominant element round which his personality is arranged." Underhill, Evelyn. Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness. P. 55
Meister Eckhart wrote, "As thou art in church or cell, that same frame of mind carry out into the world, into its turmoil and its fitfulness." Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within that illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the human face. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all. Kelly, Thomas. The Light Within. A Testament of Devotion.
If a man obtains or accepts something from outside himself,
he is in this wrong. One should not accept or esteem God as being outside
oneself, but as one's own and as what is within one; nor should one serve or
labor for any recompense, not for God or for his honor or for anything that is
outside oneself, but only for that which one's own being and one's own life is
within one. Some simple people think that they will see God as if he were
standing there and he here. It is not so. God and I, we are one.
I accept God into me in knowing; I go into God in loving. (...) Working and becoming
are one. If a carpenter does not work, nothing becomes of the house. If
the axe is not doing anything, nothing is becoming anything. In this
working God and I are one; he is working and I am becoming. The fire
changes anything into itself that is put into it and this takes on fire's own
nature. The wood does not change the fire into itself, but the fire
changes the wood into itself. So are we changed into God, that we shall
know him as he is (1 Jn. 3:2). Saint Paul
says: So shall we come to know him, I knowing him just as he knows me (1 Co. 13:12), neither less or more, perfectly
equal. The just will live forever, and their reward is with God, perfectly equal. Light from Light:
An Anthology of Christian Mysticism. Chapter 9: Meister Eckhart
(c.1260-1329) P.159 Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn
mailto:ghorn@uswest.com
(...) A quick way of spotting desolation is to ask yourself the question, 'Where is the focus of my attention? Is it on me, or is it on God?' Our subjective feelings are not bad or good in themselves. There is nothing wrong, for example, in our experiencing our own weakness, although this may feel very unpleasant, or in feeling that we are separated from God, out of touch with ourselves and with other people, unloving and unloved. Rightness and wrongness are applicable, not to these inner states, but only to our reactions to them. It is in the judgments and decisions which follow from these moods that we can act either creatively, by acting against the mood, or destructively, by going along with it. Feelings of separation from God and from others will tend to make us focus our attention on ourselves to the exclusion of God and others, producing gloomy thoughts of hopelessness and despair. In consolation, when we experience an increase of faith, hope and love, our attention will be more focused on God's goodness, which will show up our sinfulness even more clearly, but in such a way that we shall know we are accepted by God, warts and all, giving hope and confidence." Gerald W. Hughes. God of Surprises. P. 97. Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Gary Horn mailto:ghorn@uswest.com
(...) 'The kingdom of God is within you' (Luke xvii. 21). Explaining this text, St. Makarios of Egypt writes: 'The heart is a small vessel, but all things are contained in it God is there the angels are there, and there also is life and the Kingdom, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace.'..." The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology, P.46 Submitted to L-Center Discussion Group by Ann Potschka: annpotschka@home.com
There is in the heart.'the peace of God that passeth all understanding,' a quietness and confidence which is the source of all strength, a sweet peace, 'which nothing can offend,' a deep rest which the world can neither give nor take away. There is in the center of the soul a chamber of peace where God dwells, and where, if we will only enter and hush every other sound, we will hear His still small voice." C.E. Cowman, Streams in the Desert. [in]: The Fire of Silence and Stillness: An Anthology of Quotations for the Spiritual Journey. P. 15.
For, though God be everywhere present, yet He is only present to thee in the deepest and most central part of thy soul. Thy natural sense cannot possess God or unite thee to him; nay, thy inward faculties of understanding, will, and memory, can only reach after God, but cannot be the place of his habitation in thee. (...) But there is a root or depth in thee from whence all these faculties come forth, as lines from a centre or as branches from the body of the tree. This depth is called the Centre, the Fund or Bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the eternity, I had almost said the infinity of thy soul; for it is so infinite that nothing can satisfy it or give it any rest but the infinity of God." The Fire of Silence and Stillness: An Anthology of Quotations for the Spiritual Journey. P. 14
The first manifestation of spiritual senses is the attraction for God.
It can be simply an attraction to be alone with him, silent, still. It is a certain dissatisfaction with thinking about God or just
talking to him. Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is close."
Translated into the Spiritual senses, this wisdom saying
points to the interior sense of God's presence. It dislodges the
monumental illusion that God is far away because we do not feel him. Thomas
Keating. Awakenings.PP 38 -39.
We are called to be contemplatives in the heart of the world by: seeking the face of God in everything, everyone, everywhere, all the time, and his hand in every happening, and especially, seeing and adoring the presence of Jesus in the lowly appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor, by praying the work, that is, by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, and to Jesus. Our life of contemplation shall retain the following characteristics: missionary: by going out physically or in spirit in search of souls all over the world, contemplative: by gathering the whole world at the very center of our hearts where the Lord abides, and allowing the pure water of divine grace to flow plentifully and unceasingly from the source itself, on the whole of his creation, universal: by praying and contemplating with all and for all, especially with and for the spiritually poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa. Total Surrender. PP.88-89.
(…) Dear children, great is the love of God. Do not close your eyes, do not close your ears while I repeat to you: Great is His Love! (…) Consecrate your hearts and make in it the home of the Lord. May He dwell in it forever. (…) Be of just and innocent heart, that I may lead you to your Father, for this, that I am here, is His great love. Thank you for being here! Our Lady of Medjugorie, March 18, 1996. Words from Heaven, P.197.
(…) God is winning in all your hearts. So let your hearts keep on being happy. (…) Our Lady of Medjugorie, December 27, 1984. Words from Heaven, P.213.
Meister Eckhart radically revised the whole notion of spiritual
programs. He says that there is no such thing as a spiritual journey.
If a little shocking, this is refreshing. If there were a spiritual
journey, it would be only a quarter inch long, though many miles deep. It
would be a swerve into rhythm with your deeper nature and presence. The
wisdom here is so
consoling. You do not have to go away outside yourself to come into real
conversation with your soul and with the mysteries of the spiritual
world. The eternal is at home--within you. O'Donohue,
John. Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom.
PP.89-90
Meister Eckhart wrote, "As thou art in church or cell, that same frame
of mind carry out into the world, into its turmoil and its fitfulness."
Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy
place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice, to which we may continually return.
Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with
intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself.
Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul,
utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It
is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a
Light Within that illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new
glories upon the human face. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke
it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in
the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become
the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all."
Kelly, Thomas. The Light Within: A Testament of Devotion.
Radiant in his light, yet invisible in the secret place of the heart, the Spirit is the supreme abode wherein dwells all that moves and breathes and sees. Know him as all that is, and all that is not, the end of love-longing beyond understanding, the highest in all beings. Katha Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.15.
There is a force within that gives you life - seek that. In your body there lies a priceless jewel - seek that. Oh, wandering Sufi, if you search of the greatest treasure, don't look outside. Look within, and seek That. Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), a Sufi, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.327.
All great teachers declare that within this body is the immortal soul, a spark of that which sustains all. He who knows his soul knows this truth: (...) I am the Life of all; I am the laughter within all hearts (...). Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.12.
The yogi learns to find God in the cave of his heart. Whenever he goes, he carries with him the blissful consciousness of God's Presence. (...) Everyone can be a yogi, right where he is now. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.18.
My greatest desire is to build temples of God in the souls of men, to see the smile of God on men's faces. The most important of all life's accomplishments is to establish a temple of God in one's own soul. And it can be easily done. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.20.
It is impossible to deceive the Lord because he is sitting right behind your thoughts, and knows what you are thinking and desiring. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.134.
Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for, lo, I come and I will dwell inside of thee, saith the Lord. Zechariah 2:14. Quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.23.
(God) did not make the heavens in his image, nor the moon, the sun, the beauty of the stars, nor anything else which you can see in the created universe. YOU ALONE are made in the likeness of that nature which surpasses all understanding; YOU ALONE are a similitude of eternal beauty, a receptacle of happiness, an image of the true light; and if YOU look up to him, you will become what he is, imitating him who shines within you, whose glory is reflected in your purity. Nothing in all creation can equal your grandeur. All the heavens can fit into the palm of God's hand; the earth and the sea are measured in the hollow of his hand. And though he is so great that he can grasp all creation in his palm, you can wholly embrace him; he dwells within you, nor is he cramped as he pervades your entire being (...) Gregory of Nyssa, Commentarius in Canticum Canticorum, Oratio 2, 807-8. Quoted in Jean Danielou S.J., From Glory to Glory, P.162-3, quoted in R.C. Zaehner, Evolution in Religion, pp.65-6.
Instead of materializing the spirit, i.e. dragging the spiritual to the material plane (...) convert matter into spirit - catch a glimpse at least, every day, of that world of infinite beauty and peace and purity, the spiritual, and try to live it day and night. (...) Let your soul ascend day and night like an unbroken string unto the feet of the Beloved, whose throne is in your own heart, and let the rest take care of themselves (...). Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.77.
The perfect bhakta no more goes to see God in temples and churches; he knows no place where he will not find Him. (...) because he has Him already seated in glory in his own heart as the one almighty, inextinguishable Light of Love, which is ever shining and eternally present. Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.194.
In the morning I look for you
My rock and my tower:
I lay my prayers before you
That day and night are in me.
Before your greatness I stand
And am unnerved
Because your eye will see
The thoughts that are in me. (...)
But I know you are pleased
With the songs that men make
And I shall praise you
While the divine soul is in me.
Penitential Prayer for Yom Kippur by Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1020-1057, Spain), quoted in: Michael Shire, The Jewish Prophet, P.60.
I seek you every evening and dawn,
my face and palms turned up to you;
with a thirsty spirit for you I moan,
like a beggar come to my door.
The heavens can't contain you,
and yet my thoughts somehow do:
haven't I hidden your name in my heart
until my love for you crossed my lips?
Therefore I'll praise the name of the Lord
so long as his breath in me lives.
Haven't I Hidden Your Name by Gabirol (11th Century). Quoted after: Cole, Peter (Trans.) (2001). Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press. P.112
If the heart is restored to health,
and purged of sensuality,
then The Merciful God is seated on the Throne.
After this, He guides the heart directly,
since the heart is with Him.
Rumi, Mathnawi I, 3655-3666, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.84.
Should Love's heart rejoice unless I burn?
For my heart is Love's dwelling.
(...)
From now on I will make burning my aim,
for I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter.
(...)
Rumi, Mathnawi VI, 617-623, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.150.
God is within you, and that which is within you is subject to self-realization. No one can show God to anyone else. One has to independently realize his real self; thereby he realizes the self of all, which is called God. In the state of ignorance, the student thinks that God is a particular being, and he wants to see that being exactly as he sees something in the external world. It never happens. But when he realizes that God is truth and practices truth in action and speech, then his ignorance about the nature of God disappears and self-realization dawns. Swami Rama (2001). Living with the Himalayan Masters, P.64.
If we take a more living and more Christian perspective we find in ourselves a simple affirmation which is not of ourselves. It simply is. In our being there is a primordial yes that is not our own; (...) it is not accessible to our inspection and understanding; we do not even fully experience it as real (...). And we have to admit that for most people this primordial "yes" is something they never advert to at all. It is in fact absolutely unconscious, totally forgotten. Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, P.266.
Make every effort to call God to mind, for He is looking at you, and whatever you are thinking in your heart is plainly visible to Him. Say to your soul, 'If you are afraid of sinners like yourself seeing your sins, how much more should you be afraid of God who notes everything?' As a result of this warning the fear of God will be revealed in your soul, and if you cleave to Him you will not be shaken by the passions; for it is written: 'They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion; he that dwells in Jerusalem shall never be shaken' (Ps. 125:1. LXX). Whatever you are doing, remember that God sees all your thoughts, and then you will never sin. To Him be glory through all the ages. Amen. St. Isaiah the Solitary (died in Gaza in 491 C.E.), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.28.
Never belittle the significance of your thoughts, for not one escapes God's notice. St. Mark the Ascetic (4th Century C.E.), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.116.
(...) just as coal engenders a flame, or a flame lights a candle, so will God, who from our baptism dwells in our heart, kindle our mind to contemplation when He finds it free from the winds of evil and protected by the guarding of the intellect. St. Hesyhios the Priest (8th or 9th Century), quoted in: The Philokalia, Vol. I., P.180.
We want to worship a living God. (...) Where shall we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being? (...) The living God is within you. and yet you are building churches and temples and believing all sorts of imaginary nonsense. The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. (...) The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him, that moment I am free from bondage. Everything that binds vanishes, and I am free. Vivekananda, quoted in: Harvey, Andrew (Ed). (2001). Teachings of the Hindu Mystics, P.107.
The essential part is to dwell in God, and this walking before God means that you live with the conviction ever before your consciousness that God is in you, as he is in everything: you live in the firm assurance that he sees all that is within you, knowing you better than you know yourself. This awareness of the eye of God looking in your inner being must not be accompanied by any visual concept, but must be confined to a simple conviction or feeling. Theophane the Recluse, quoted in: Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.63.
The Name of Jesus present in the human heart confers upon it the power of deification. Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.74.
In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel. Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist. Is there not a region of love where the sovereignty is illumined nothing, where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost, where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body? In my soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolve, that dissolve in God. Rabia (c.717-801), quoted in: Ladinsky Daniel (2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. P.11.
When God said, “My hands are yours,” I saw that I could heal any creature in this world; I saw that the divine beauty in each heart is the root of all time and space. (…) Until we know that God lives in us and we can see Him there, a great poverty we suffer. Rabia (c.717-801), quoted in: Ladinsky Daniel (2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. P.19.
A tool in your hand I am, dear God,
the sweetest instrument you have shaped my being into. What makes me now
complete – feeling the soul of every creature against my heart.
Does every creature have a soul? Surely they do; for anything God has touched
will have life forever, and all creatures He has held. St. Francis of
Assisi (1182-1226), quoted in: Ladinsky Daniel
(2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the
East and West. P.46.
(…) The Supreme is the easiest to reach for it is your very being. It is enough to stop thinking and desiring anything, but the Supreme. Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. P.66.
Last updated: 2013/06/03
See the related subjects: Human Love for God, Longing for God