(..) I have always said that misfortune will come if the world does not convert itself. Call the world to conversion. Everything depends on your conversion. Our Lady of Medjugorie, December 15, 1983. Words from Heaven, P.357.
(...) There is only one way for mankind to be saved and that is by changing the hearts of all people. (...) As long as there is no change of heart, humanity is in great danger. Teachings of Babaji, P.99.
#188. 2005/01/09.
Whatever alms you give shall rebound to your own advantage, provided that you give them for the love of God. And whatever alms you give shall be paid back to you in full: you shall not be wronged. Medinan Sura 2, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.286.
#189. 2005/01/16.
If you saturate with devotion a thought of God, and by your concentration impress that thought deep within you, then in the temple of superconsciousness the Lord of the universe will come to receive that loving thought.
Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.184.
(...) I do not mean to deter you from external expressions of love. God forbid that I should separate body and spirit when God has made them a unity. Indeed, we owe God the homage of our whole person, body and spirit together. And fittingly enough he will glorify our whole person, body and spirit, in eternity. In anticipation of this eternal glory, God will sometimes inflame the senses of his devout friends with unspeakable delight and consolation even here in this life. And not just once or twice, but perhaps very often as he judges best. This delight, however, does not originate outside the person, entering through the windows of his faculties, but wells up from an excess of spiritual joy and true devotion of spirit. The Cloud of Unknowing. (1973). (Johnston, W., Ed.). NY: Doubleday Image Books.
#191. 2005/01/30
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his commands; seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the Lord's wrath. (...) For I will leave in the midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord (...).Zephaniah 2:3, 3:12.
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. Tao Te Ching 67, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom. P.164.
#193. 2005/02/13
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves
alone - we find it in another. We do not discover the secret of our lives
merely by study and calculation in our own isolated meditations. The meaning
of our life is a secret that has to be revealed to us in love, by the one we
love. And if this love is unreal, the secret will not be found, the meaning
will never reveal itself, the message will never be decoded. At best, we will
receive a scrambled and partial message, one that will deceive and confuse
us. We will never be fully real until we let ourselves fall in love - either
with another human person or with God. Thomas Merton, Love and Living.
#194. 2005/02/19
Without Love's jewel inside me,
let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour wine
into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces (...)
give me a glass from Your bottle, (...).
Rumi, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi
Collection. P.XXI.
It is natural for a father to put his resources at the disposal of his son. If you think of Him and His gifts as something extraordinary, you can never be intimate with Him, you cannot draw near to Him. Do not think of Him as if He were away from you. Think of Him as your nearest! Then He will reveal Himself to you (...).
Ramakrishna, quoted in: Rolland, Romain. (1994). The Life of Ramakrishna. P.160.#196. 2005/03/06
The real sadhana cannot commence until the mind is rendered quiet and free from disturbances incident on a sense of identity with the body. The mind being at rest, the Divine Bliss and an experience of Pure Infinite Glory dawn on the soul which is awakened from its age-long slumber. The sense of duality disappears in the serene Light of Undifferentiated Unity. (...)
When a yogi returns from the illumined state of Samadhi to the normal plane of phenomenal experience, the deep impression of his Samadhi-experience exercises a wonderful enlightening influence upon his normal mind and intellect and behavior. The enlightened Yogis become free from all kinds of dogmatism and bigotry and narrow outlook. They look upon all men and all affairs of the world from a spiritual point of view and live in the world as embodiments of the highest wisdom and universal love and compassion. (...)
Akshaya Kumar Banerjee.(1999). Philosophy of Gorakhnath. Delhi.: Motilal Banrsidass Publ. PP.xvi, xxiii.
Suniye Sat Santokh Gian
Suniye Athsath Ka Ishnan
Suniye Par Par Pave Maan
Suniye Lage Sahaj Dhyan
Nanak Bhagtan Sada Vigaas
Suniye Dookh Paap Ka Naas
By associating with the Word
one understands Truth, becomes Content and Wise
one earns merits of spiritual baths at the sixty-eight holy places
one gets honored by hearing and reading the Word
Meditation comes naturally with the Word
Says Nanak, with the Word pervading always in the devotee
All miseries and sins are annihilated.
Japuji Sahib, Pauri 10 - quoted after: http://www.boloji.com/sikhism/japujisahib/js01.htm
#198. 2005/03/20
(...) but emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being
found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the
name that is above every name (...).Phillipians 2: 7-9
#200. 2005/04/03
#201. 2005/04/09
#202. 2005/04/17
Rumi, quoted in: Johnson, Will. (2003). Rumi. Gazing at the beloved. The radical Practice of Beholding the Divine. Rochester, VE: Inner Traditions, P.35.
#203. 2005/04/24
#204. 2005/05/02
#205. 2005/05/08
#206. 2005/05/15
(...) As the wind, though one, takes new forms in whatever it enters, the Spirit, though one, takes new forms in all things that live. He is within all, and is also outside. As the sun that beholds the world is untouched by earthly impurities, so the Spirit that is in all things is untouched by external sufferings. There is one Ruler, the Spirit that is in all things, who transforms his own form into many. (...) He is the Eternal among things that pass away, pure Consciousness of conscious beings, the One who fullfills the prayers of the many.
Katha Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.14.
Your suffering is my suffering and your happiness is my happiness
. Teachings of Buddha, p.28 The fetters of ignorance and bad habits keep you bound. It is because you are determined to follow your wrong habits that you suffer. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.9.The harshness isn't toward you,
but toward the harmful qualities within you.
When someone beats a rug,
the blows are not against the rug,
but against the dust in it.
Rumi, Mathnawi III, 4012, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.119.
The root cause of all suffering is lack of faith in the Lord and unsteadiness of the mind. Shanti Vachan Bhandar, 1621.Only the body suffers. When mind is united to God, it can feel no pain. (...) Ramakrishna, quoted in: Rolland, Romain. (1994). The Life of Ramakrishna. P.273.
I hope the affliction which God has sent him will prove a wholesome remedy to him, and make him enter into himself. It is an accident which should engage him to put all his trust in Him who accompanies him everywhere. Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God, P.41. (…) For sufferings are really great gifts from God. They are sources of great graces for you and for others. When you are sick, many of you only pray and repeat, 'Heal me, heal me.' No, dear children, this is not correct because your hearts are not open; you shut your hearts through your sickness. You cannot be open to the will of God nor to the graces He wants to give you. Pray this way: 'Lord, Thy will be done in me.' Then only can God communicate His graces to you, according to your real needs that He knows better than you. It can be healing, new strength, new joy, new peace - only open your hearts. Our Lady of Medjugorie, November, 1991. Words from Heaven, P.191.When you feel contraction,
traveler,
it's for your own good. Don't burn with grief.
In the state of expansion and delight
you are spending something, and that spending
needs the income of pain.
Rumi, Mahnawi III, 3700 ..., quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.191.
#208. 2005/05/29.
Those who exist only to "eat, drink, and be merry," and to sleep, have no idea of the wonders of human life. Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.63.
#209. 2005/06/05.
The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from Him. If we get rid of that thought, our troubles will be greatly reduced. We fail to believe that we are always with God and that He is part of every reality. The present moment, every object we see, our inmost nature are all rooted in Him. But we hesitate to believe this until personal experience gives us confidence to believe in it. This involves gradual development of intimacy with God. God constantly speaks to us through each other as well as from within. The interior experience of God's presence activates our capacity to perceive Him in everything else - in people, in events, in nature. (...). Keating, Thomas. (2002). Foundation for Centering Prayer and the Christian Contemplative Life. N.Y., London: Continuum, P.41.
#210. 2005/06/12.
If we keep our desires and aversions dried out by not watering them with commentaries or acting them out, they wither like weeds in the desert. (...)
True ascetism is not the rejection of the world, but the acceptance of everything that is good, beautiful, and true. It is learning how to use our faculties and the good things of this world as God's gifts rather than expressions of selfishness. (...)
Keating, Thomas. (2002). Foundation for Centering Prayer and the Christian Contemplative Life. N.Y., London: Continuum, P.150, 163.
Whoever goes to the Lord for safety, whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty, can say to him, "You are my God; in you I trust." He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases. He will cover you with his wings; (...) God will put angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands to keep you from hurting your feet on the stone. You will trample down lions and snakes (...). God says, "I will save those who love me and will protect those who know me as Lord. When they call to me, I will answer them; when they are in trouble, I will be with them. I will rescue them and honour them. I will reward them with long life; I will save them." Psalm 91:1-4, 11-16.
Left to myself, I am but nothing, a mere mass of weakness; the moment you look upon me, I at once become strong and filled with fresh joy. Your raising me so speedily, embracing me so tenderly, overwhelms me with amazement, seeing that the weight of my own sinfulness is always dragging me downward. It is your love that brings this about, freely forestalling me and coming to my help in my countless needs, guarding me from grave dangers and snatching me away, as I am bound to confess, from evils past reckoning.
#213. 2005/07/02.
"If we think only of ourselves, forget about other people, then our minds occupy very small area. Inside that small area, even tiny problem appears very big. (...) When you have this sense of concern (for others - Pritam), your mind automatically widens. At this point, your own problems, even big problems, will not be so significant. The result? Big increase in peace of mind. (...) So this is what I think of as the compassionate effect: (...) when you think of others, you'll be the first to get maximum benefit.
#214. 2005/07/10.
"According to the Dalai Lama, we need to first achieve wisdom by seeing the world as it is. Wisdom implies clear vision. (...) Much of our unhappiness is caused by discrepancies between our perceptions and what is real. (...) the essence, the crux of reality, is the fundamental interconnectedness between people and people, and between people and things. (...). (...) interdependence rather than independence defines our lives and everything around. None of us is an island. The world is a vast web of intertwined events, people, and things."
#215. 2005/07/17.
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing make you afraid,
All things are passing,
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing.
God alone suffices.
Kirvan, John. (1996). Let Nothing Disturb You: A Journey to the Center of the Soul with Teresa of Avila.
.#219. 2005/08/15.
#222. 2005/09/04.
This is the Karma Yuga (the Age of Work). Only he who acts is considered to be alive; without action, one is like a dead person. (...) A new kingdom is coming very soon. When the new kingdom is established, only the person who does karma (i.e. works) will survive. (...) One should not lose courage; one should always be enterprising, trying to do something more than what he is doing. (...) A person might argue that when destruction is going to take place, why should I work? Why should I do any karma? But that is not right. One should work to his last breath. (...)
Haidakhan Babaji (1970-1984). "Teachings of Babaji," P.16.My heart has opened unto every form: it is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for monks, a temple for idols, the Ka'ba of the pilgrim, the tablets of the Torah and the book of the Qu'ran. I practice the religion of Love (...).
Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240), a Sufi mystic, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.325.All that we are is a result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wagon. (...) If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
Dhammapada, a collection of sayings attributed to Buddha, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.104History teaches that the popular and false notions about the Divine Being and character have originated in the human mind. As there is in reality but one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God must have originated in a false supposition, not in immortal Truth, and they are fading out. Mary Baker Eddy (1971, first published in 1875). Science and Health with Key to the Scripture, P.357.
A farmer held up an egg in his hand and mused, "I shall place this egg under a hen, I shall raise up the chick and it shall hatch other chicks. I will sell them and purchase a cow and ..." While planning thus, he squeezed the egg and it broke in his fingers. In the same fashion some people are satisfied in the sum of their holiness and knowledge they have attained and think constantly thet they are superior to others. But they do not perceive that by doing this they lose even the little they have attained. Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), quoted in: Michael Shire, The Jewish Prophet, P.82.
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces (...). It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; (...). This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Isaiah 25:6-10.
#228. 2005/10/16.
Moses said, "O Lord, are you close enough for me to whisper in your ear or so distant that I should shout?" And God said, "I am behind you, before you, at your right and your left. O Moses, I am sitting next to my servant whenever he remembers me, and I am with him when he calls me." Hadith, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.34.
(...) "Peace be upon you. Your Lord has decreed mercy as His attribute. Thus, if anyone falls in sin due to ignorance, then repents thereafter, and reforms, then God is forgiver, merciful." Quran 6:54
You shall resort to pardon, maintain compassion, and be tolerant of the ignorant. Quran 7:199
#230. 2005/10/30.
God is the Light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp - the lamp is a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star - kindled from a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil wellnigh would shine, even if no fire touched it; Light upon Light; God guides to His Light whom He wills.
Qu'ran, Sura 24.The fact is "PHURO!" Everything in this world is "PHURO" - transient. It has no reality. True reality is to proceed on the path of truth, to keep the company of saintly people, and to render service to men. The fact is "PHURO!" - this world is transient. Haidakhan Babaji (1970-1984). Teachings of Babaji, P.84.
If you think of evil, punishment, wars, you are on the road to meeting them. Your responsibility is to accept Divine peace, live it, and spread it.
Our Lady of Medjugorie, August 1984. Words from Heaven, P.378.May you always enjoy the undivided love of your husband, helping him in attaining all that is desirable in this life, and when you have seen your children's children, and the drama of life is nearing its end, may you help each other in reaching that infinite ocean of Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss, at the touch of whose waters all distinctions melt away and we all become One.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Fragments of the famous "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.226.
Come and be Love's willing slave,
for Love's slavery will save you.
Forsake the slavery of this world
and take up Love's sweet service.
The free, the world enslaves,
but to slaves Love grants freedom.
I crave release from this world
like a bird from its egg; (...)
Walk on with courage and bravery. Go on working to improve humankind and establish the Path of Truth. (...) Fight for truth! To face life you must have great courage every day. Haidakhan Babaji (1970-1984). Teachings of Babaji, P.46.
#237. 2005/12/18.