One God Notes Archives
2009
#376. 2009/01/04.
Perfect Masters are universal; they have come at all times, in different nations, cultures, religions, and social classes. Their teachings apply to everyone and do not depend on race, country, creed, time, caste, or religion. But when they die, we arrest their teachings into narrow compartments and forget their universal essence.
Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.197.
#377. 2009/01/11.
All desires are bad, but some are worse than others. Pursue any desire, it will always give you trouble. Why desire at all?  Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free.  Nothing can set you free, because you are free.  See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all.
"When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two."
Nisargadatta Maharaj, "I Am That."
More information on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#378. 2009/01/18.
(...). He asked me what ecumenism meant for me. I told him that I saw it as an outreach of love to all fellow Christians, as affirming all that we have so mercifully received from the Lord and share in common, and as trying to be one as much as we can in response to Christ's prayer, and above all as trying to stand together before the Lord in complete openness so he can lead us all into oneness in the possession of the one faith.  P.126.

The ecumenical path is surely, by human vision, a long, difficult one, stretching far into the future. But with God, all things are possible. (…) And the most important thing is prayer, with fasting and humbling ourselves before God and men. God will only hear prayer from a sincere heart, one that really shares the concern of Christ’s heart for all his flock. Without this concern our prayer for union is only words. (…).  P.185.

Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos.
More on Basil Pennington can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Pennington
More on Mount Athos can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Athos
#379. 2009/01/25.
Presently, you are to be identified with the vital breath. Then you will realize, like the sweetness in sugar cane, that this touch of "I-am-ness," which is dwelling in the vital breath, will open up. (...) as long as the vital breath is flowing through you, abide in that. If the vital breath is there, you are there and so is Ishwara (the Lord -P.R.).

Powell, Robert (Ed). (1994). The Ultimate Medicine: as prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: dialogues with a Realized Master. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. P.199.

More information on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#380. 2009/02/01.

 

To know itself the self must be faced with its opposite - the not-self. Desire leads to experience. Experience leads to discrimination, detachment, self-knowledge –liberation. And what is liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream. Enquiry also wakes you up. You need not wait for suffering; enquiry into happiness is better, for the mind is in harmony and peace.

 

Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press. P.68.
More information on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#381. 2009/02/08.

 

Gandhi is dead, yet his mind pervades the earth. The thought of a gnani (the knower - P.R.) pervades humanity and works ceaselessly for good. Being anonymous, coming from within, it is more powerful and compelling. That is how the world improves - the inner aiding and blessing the outer. When gnani dies, he is no more, in the same sense in which a river is no more when it merges in the sea; the name, the shape, are no more, but the water remains and becomes one with the ocean. When a gnani joins the universal mind, all his goodness and wisdom become the heritage of humanity and uplift every human being.

 

Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press. P.89.
More information on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#382. 2009/02/16.
"The world now is in the state of turmoil. It is suffering from three kinds of pain - physical, mental, spiritual - and there is only one way of being cured from these. We have to root out inhumanity and replace it with humanity. (...) There are people in this world who, when they see someone else's house is burning, are happy. There are people who want to live in comfort at the expense of the labour of others. There is only one God, who created all men in His image. This is why we have to re-establish humanity." (1983-09-23)
Haidakhan Babaji (1970-1984). The Teachings of Babaji. (P.92)
More information on Haidakhan Bababji can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
#383. 2009/02/22.
"The universe is God's creative and romantic playground. The Source not only creates and shares its power, wisdom, knowledge, love and life with us; It enables us to participate as well. The whole cosmos along with its many intricate facets, including our planetary life experiences is a source of divine revelation. By way of Its creation, the Source uses us to exemplify Its wisdom, love, knowledge, unity, power, and harmony. (...)"
John Kloster (2008). My Brother, Jesus, the Prophet. Pulling the Creator-God Out of Retirement.  (P.5)
#384. 2009/03/01.
The pleasures and pains of life are not your lot alone. Even kings, emperors and saints have suffered. If you look carefully around, you will see that no one has escaped them. For attaining spiritual enlightenment, one has to pass through both pains and pleasures. In moments of pleasure, do not forget the Lord, the abode of happiness and in pain do not lose your heart, because pains are the harbingers of pleasures to follow.
Shri Anandpur. (1992). Treasures of Spiritual Peace, No. 579.
#385. 2009/03/08.
I think I can say I have experienced levels of loneliness that most people do not allow themselves consciously to admit.  From a certain point of view I can say bluntly that to exist as a man without relating to one particular woman-and-person who is "my love," is quite simply a kind of death.  But I have enough experience of human love to realize, too, that even within the best of relationships between man and woman this loneliness and death are also terribly present.  There are moments in human love in which loneliness is completely transcended, but these are brief and deceptive, and they can point only to the further and more difficult place where, ultimately, two lonely and helpless persons elect to save one another from absurdity by being absurd together - and for life.  This implies, of course, a fantastic amount of honesty and courage, and a readiness to admit all that is humiliating, unpleasant, small, petty, undesirable, even nasty in each other - and to learn in a very hard way that freedom and acceptance of human limitations are more important than captivity to the need to seek someone else, somewhere else, or something else, some other condition, some impossible perfection.
   In other words, agape is better than eros.  It is only by freely accepting a pathetically limited condition that we can rise above ourselves and be fully human.  To reject our limitation in a quest for some imaginary godlikeness or some sublime fulfillment (in which there would be no limitation and no problem), simply is to lie to ourselves.
Thomas Merton, in an interview in Motive magazine, 1967. Submitted to Merton-L Discussion Group by Gary Horn.
More on Thomas Merton can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
386. 2009/03/15.
"There are some forms of religion that are bad, just as there's bad cooking or bad art or bad sex, you have bad religion too."
 
"And sometimes it's the very otherness of a stranger, someone who doesn't belong to our ethnic or ideological or religious group, an otherness that can repel us initially, but which can jerk us out of our habitual selfishness, and give us intonations of that sacred otherness, which is God."
 
"I say that religion isn’t about believing things. It's about what you do. It’s ethical alchemy. It’s about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness."
Karen Armstrong, quoted from: http://www.squidoo.com/karenarmstrong#module9672571 and from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong
More on Karen Armstrong can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong
#387. 2009/03/22.

He (gnani - the knower, P.R.) suffers with those who suffer. The event (of death - P.R.) itself is of little importance, but he is full of compassion for the suffering being, whether alive or dead, in the body or out of it. After all, love and compassion are his very nature. He is one with all that lives and love is that oneness in action. (…) The gnani is afraid of nothing. But he pities the man who is afraid. After all, to be born, to live and to die is natural. To be afraid is not. (…). 

 

(…) As it is natural for the incense stick to burn out, so it is natural for the body to die. Really, it is a matter of very little importance. What matters is that I am neither the body nor the mind. I am.

Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press. P.183, 184.
More information on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#388. 2009/04/12.
"(...) Let us try to grasp the significance of the Word made flesh.  The Greek New Testament word for flesh is sarx.  Sarx means the human condition - the incomplete, unevolved, immature levels of human consciousness.  It means human nature in its subjection to sinfulness. Jesus did not merely assume a human body and soul;  he assumed the actual human condition in its entirety, including the instinctual needs of human nature and the cultural conditioning of his time.........It is the human condition committed to biological survival for its own sake or for the sake of the clan, tribe, nation or race.......'The Word was made flesh' signifies that by taking the human condition upon himself with all its consequences, Jesus introduced into the entire human family the principle of transcendence, giving the evolutionary process a decisive thrust toward God-consciousness."  
Keating, Thomas.  The Mystery of Christ:  The Liturgy As Spiritual Experience. PP.25-26.
More information on Thomas Keating can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keating
#389. 2009/04/19.
In his mercy 'the Lord supports all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down' (Ps. 145:14).
St. Thalassios the Libyan (VI-VII Century C.E.), quoted in: (1981). The Philokalia. Vol. II., P.310.
More information on Philokalia can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia
#390. 2009/04/26.
It is a man-making religion that we want. It is a man-making education all round that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. And here is the test of truth: anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating. Give up these weakening mysticisms and be strong. The greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your existence.
Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.120.
More information on Vivekananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekanand
#391. 2009/05/03.
Enlightenment lies beyond the conditions of our phenomenal universe: the realm of time and space, life and death, this and that. To become enlightened is, therefore, to go beyond everyday mind, to see the totality from which all these conditions arise, and to realize our essential oneness with it.
Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.77.
More information on Buddha can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha
More information on Wesak can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesak
392. 2009/05/10.
There are three ways of being of the Mother of which you can become aware when you enter into touch of oneness with the Conscious Force that upholds us and the universe. Transcendent, the original supreme Shakti, she stands above the worlds and links the creation to the ever unmanifest mystery of the Supreme. Universal, the cosmic Mahashakti, she creates all these beings and contains and enters, supports and conducts all these million processes and forces. Individual, she embodies the power of these two vaster ways of her existence, makes them living and near to us, and mediates between the human personality and the divine Nature.
Sri Aurobindo, quoted in: Harvey, Andrew (Ed). (2001). Teachings of the Hindu Mystics, P.121.
More information on Sri Aurobindo can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurobindo
#393. 2009/05/17.

As long as you are a beginner certain formalized meditations, or prayers may be good for you. But for a seeker for reality there is only one meditation – the rigorous refusal to harbour thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation. (…) You begin by letting thoughts flow and watching them. The very observation slows down the mind till it stops altogether. Once the mind is quiet, keep it quiet. Don’t get bored with peace, be in it, go deeper into it. (…) Experiment anew, don’t go by past experience. Watch your thoughts and watch yourself watching your thoughts. The state of freedom from thoughts will happen suddenly and by bliss of it you shall recognize it. 

Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press. P.224.
More information on Sri Nisargadatta can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#394. 2009/05/24.
If you study Torah in order to learn and do God's will (...) the whole world is indebted to you. You will be cherished as a friend, a lover of God and people. (Torah study) clothes you with humility and reverence (and) you benefit humanity with counsel and knowledge, wisdom and strength.
Talmud, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.214.
More information on Torah can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah More information about Talmud can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud
#395. 2009/05/31.
It is difficult indeed to conceive of a consciousness that is aware of everything that has ever happened. Yet to fathom the nature of Spirit is the greatest adventure in this universe.
Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.60.
More information on Paramahansa Yogananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda 
#396. 2009/06/07.
The Tao is like a well: used but never used up. It is like the eternal void: filled with infinite possibilities. It is hidden but always present. I don't know who gave birth to it. It is older than God.
Tao Te Ching 2, quoted after Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.147.
 
The Tao is called the Great Mother: empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds. It is always present within you. You can use it any way you want.
Tao Te Ching 4, quoted after Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom, P.147.
More information on Tao Te Ching can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching
#397. 2009/06/14.
Meditate, meditate, meditate peace is obtained, Worry and anguish is expelled from the body.
Remembering God, you’re not reborn. Remembering God, the fear of death is dispelled.
Remembering God, death is eliminated. Remembering God, your enemies are repelled.
Remembering God, no obstacles are met. Remembering God, night and day you’re fully awake.
Remembering God, fear cannot touch you. Remembering God, you don’t suffer with sorrow.
Remembrance of God, in the Company of Saints. All treasures, O Nanak, are by Lord’s Blessing. ||2||
 
More information on Guru Arjan Dev JI can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjan_Dev
More information on Guru Granth Sahib can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib
#398. 2009/06/21.
 
But we know that our differences need never be misrepresented as an inevitable source of friction or tension either between ourselves or in society at large. Rather, they provide a wonderful opportunity for people of different religions to live together in profound respect, esteem and appreciation, encouraging one another in the ways of God. Prompted by the Almighty and enlightened by his truth, may you continue to step forward with courage, respecting all that differentiates us and promoting all that unites us as creatures blessed with the desire to bring hope to our communities and world. May God guide us along this path!
 
Pope Benedict XVI in the address to the Religious Leaders Council in Israel on May 14, 2009.
More information on Benedict XVI can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_XVI
#399. 2009/06/28.

All this makes me appreciate more and more, on a very existential level, the value of that freedom of passionlessness, freedom from curiosity, from possessiveness, the freedom of the true adorer who can see each thing in its God Presence and go on adoring without distraction. With such God consciousness, unity consciousness, all is peaceful, unending, deepening prayer.

Pennington, Basil. (1978). O Holy Mountain! Journal of a Retreat on Mount Athos. P.187-8.
More information on Basil Pennington can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Pennington
#400. 2009/07/05.

 

(…) As long as you are pleased with the lesser, you cannot have the highest. Whatever pleases you, keeps you back. Until you realize the unsatisfactoriness of everything, its transiency and limitation, and collect your energies in one great longing, even the first step is not made. On the other hand, the integrity of the desire for the Supreme is by itself a call from the Supreme. Nothing, physical or mental, can give you freedom. You are free once you understand that your bondage is of your own making and cease forging the chains that bind you. P.304.
 
Sri Maharaj Nisargadatta. (2005). I am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press. P.304.
More information on Sri Nisargadatta can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
#401. 2009/07/12.
If you want a customer who will pay in gold,
could there be a better customer than God, O my heart?
He buys our dirty bag of goods,
and in return gives us an inner light
lent from His splendor.
He receives the dissolving ice of this mortal body
and gives a kingdom beyond imagining.
He takes a few teardrops,
and gives a spiritual spring so delicious
sugar is jealous of its sweetness.
 
Rumi, Mathnawi VI, 879-882, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.167.
More information on Rumi can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
#402. 2009/07/19.
I warn you that a person who fails in vigilance and control of his thoughts, even though they are not sinful in their first moments, will eventually grow careless about small sins. It is impossible to avoid all faults and failings in this life, but carelessness about deliberate small sins is intolerable to the true seeker of perfection. For usually negligence about slight sins opens the door to the likelihood of deadly sin.
The Cloud of Unknowing, P.63.
More information on The Cloud of Unknowing can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_of_Unknowing
#403. 2009/08/02.

(…) When I returned from Rome, all said, “Tell us the great news," and with great excitement I did: “A flower in a field whistled, and at night the sky untied her hair and I fell asleep clutching a sacred tress…”

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), quoted in: Ladinsky Daniel (2002). Love Poems from God. Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West. P.32.
More information on St. Francis of Assisi can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_of_Assisi
More information on Daniel Ladinsky can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ladinsky
#404. 2009/08/09.
When suddenly you are clear, and a great joy and rejoicing arises in you and your whole being, every fiber of your body, mind and soul dances and you say, "Ah, this! Alleluia!" - a great shout of joy arises in your being - that is enlightenment. Suddenly stars come down from the rafters. You become part of the eternal dance of existence.
Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic, P.161.
More information on Osho can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osho_(Bhagwan_Shree_Rajneesh)
#405. 2009/08/30.
The holy words in Guru Granth Saheb are great mantras. By correctly performing the worship and recitation of these mantras a being achieves righteousness, riches, pleasures, salvation and fulfillment of all other desires during his life. The soul begins to swim in the waves of bliss and the mire of the world disappears from the eyes. (...) Guru Granth Saheb is a holy Indian cult scripture, in which the essence of all the Vedas and other scriptures are given. After testing the sweetness of their own experiences, the great Gurudevs have written of these experiences for the benefit of the world, and kept it like a treasure trove for the coming generations.
Haidakhan Babaji. Teachings of Babaji, P.23-24.
More information on Adi Granth or Guru Granth Sahib can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib
More on Haidakhan Babaji can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
#406. 2009/09/06.
(...) You must generate energy in order to exist. Everyone must always be working hard. You should never cultivate inaction here. There is no use to be dead weight to the Earth. Whatever wars were fought during the past centuries were only to relieve the world of the dead weight of idleness. You must be hard workers.

If you are engaged in doing good deeds and go on doing good acts, you will have good sleep, good appetite and bad thoughts will not cross your mind. Otherwise, you will always be criticizing others. In inaction, your minds will always be engaged in thinking critically of others. Karma - activity - is the only thing which can drive out all evils. 

Haidakhan Babaji. Teachings of Babaji, P.104.
More on Haidakhan Babaji can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
The Teachings of Babaji can be found at: http://www.babaji.net/teachings-pdf.htm
#407. 2009/09/13.
Hungry, you're a dog, angry and bad-natured.
Having eaten your fill, you become a carcass;
you lie down like a wall, senseless.
At one time a dog, at another time a carcass,
how will you run with lions, or follow the saints?

Your thinking is like a camel driver,
and you are the camel:
it drives you in every direction under its bitter control.

 
Rumi, Mathnawi I, 2873-2875, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.19.
More on Rumi can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
More on Mathnavi can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathnawi
#408. 2009/09/20.
Accept the truth from whatever source it comes.
Moses Maimonides, a Jewish scholar, philosopher, physician and mystic, (1135-1204). Introduction to the Shemonah Peraqim, as quoted in Truth and Compassion: Essays on Judaism and Religion in Memory of Rabbi Dr. Solomon Frank (1983) Edited by Howard Joseph, Jack Nathan Lightstone, and Michael D. Oppenheim, p. 168. Retrieved from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maimonides on 20 September 2009.
More on Moses Maimonides can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides
#409. 2009/09/27.
Evil does not exist by nature, nor is any man naturally evil, for God made nothing that was not good. When in the desire of his heart someone conceives and gives form to what in reality has no existence, then what he desires begins to exist. We should therefore turn our attention away from the inclination to evil and concentrate it on the remembrance of God; for good, which exists by nature, is more powerful than our inclination to evil. The one has existence while the other has not, except when we give it existence through our actions.
St. Diadochos of Photiki (circa 400-486 CE), quoted in Philokalia, Vol. I., P.253.
More on St. Diadochos of Photiki can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadochos_of_Photiki
#410. 2009/10/04.
(...) all the time that I had was in the courts and palaces of the kings, engaged in their service. I had no leisure for study and looked at no book, but spent days in vanity and my years in trouble in getting riches and honour; and now those very riches have perished by evil adventure and the glory is departed from Israel. It was only after I had become a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, from one kingdom to another, and without money, that I sought out the book of God ...
Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508, Spain), quoted in: Michael Shire, The Jewish Prophet, P.69.
More on Isaac Abravanel can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Abravanel
#411. 2009/10/11.
If in deep meditation you penetrate the darkness behind the closed eyes, you behold the Light from which all creation emerges. (...) God has given you the opportunity to observe in your own consciousness the operation of the same laws that govern the universe.
Paramahansa Yogananda, Man's Eternal Quest, P.167.
More on Paramahansa Yogananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramahansa_Yogananda
#412. 2009/10/18.
ੴ ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਨਿਰਭਉ ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ ਅਜੂਨੀ ਸੈਭੰ ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥

Ika ōaṅkāra sati nāmu karatā purakhu nirabha'u niravairu akāla mūrati ajūnī saibhaṃ gura prasādi

(There is only) One God, Creator of the Universe, (His) Name is Truth, (He is) Creator not knowing Fear or Hatred, the Timeless One, Beyond Birth, Self-Existent, Bestower of Grace.

Mul Mantra, the first verses of Japji Sahib, which is the first book of the Guru Granth Sahib (Adi Granth), the sacred scripture of Sikhism.
More on Mul (Mool) Mantra can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mool_Mantra
More on Japji Sahib can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japji_Sahib
More on Guru Granth Sahib can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib
#413. 2009/10/25.
The fear of death is born with man, though this is the only thing he knows is certain to happen to him. Attachment to material things makes man cling to life. When you chant the Name of the Divine, when you are one with the divine, you accept death. While you are attached to life and afraid of death, you die with that fear and that weight clinging to you. If you have attained liberation you are free from death (you accept inevitable). You die without fear and by remembering the Name of God, your soul leaves the body free of that fear and attachment. If you are reborn, your soul is still free from that fear. If you die in 'unity', you are free from rebirth, unless you will it.
Haidakhan Babaji (1970-1984).Teachings of Babaji, P.41.
More on Shri Haidkhan Babaji can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
#414. 2009/11/01.
Cool as sandalwood, serene as the moon are Saints; serene as the moon, the feverish heat of the world do they cool. Their sweet words soothe the wordly people all aflame. Infinite is their patience, boundless their love and compassion. Kind, tender, and merciful, their sweet and loving words melt even stones. The way they live, the way they smile, lends fragrance to their knowledge sublime. The maladies physical, mental, and spiritual, all the three flee when the eye beholds a Saint. Even the fire of hunger, O Paltu, is quenched in no time. Cool as sandalwood, serene as the moon are Saints.
Ascribed to Paltu, quoted after: Miriam Bokser Caravella, The Holy Name. P.192.
More on Paltu Sahib can be found at: http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/IDJ182/
#415. 2009/11/08.
 
 

It is not for him to pride himself
who loveth his own country,
but rather for him who loveth the whole world.
The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.


 

Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings from the Writings. Retrieved from: http://www.san.beck.org/GPJ17-Bahaullah.html
More on Bahá'u'lláh can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h
#416. 2009/11/15.
Whoever honors his own sect and condemns other sects... injures his own more gravely. So concord is good: Let all listen and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others.

Ashoka (304-232 BC), Mauryan emperor, quoted in: Jack Maguire. (2001). Essential Buddhism. P.33.

Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought "Let me glorify my own religion," only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others.

Slightly different translation of this famous statement as retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_the_Great
More on Ashoka the Great can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_the_Great
#417. 2009/11/22.
Through the faculty of meditation man attains to eternal life; through it he receives the breath of the Holy Spirit - the bestowal of the Spirit is given in reflection and meditation. Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries... This faculty of meditation frees man from the animal nature, discerns the reality of things, puts man in touch with God.
Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921).
More on Abdul-Baha can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%60Abdu'l-Bah%C3%A1
418. 2009/11/29.
Joy comes from God. (...) for from Joy all beings have come, by Joy they all live, and unto Joy they all return.
Taittiriya Upanishad, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World Wisdom, P.20-21.
More on Taittriya Upanishad can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taittiriya_Upanishad
More on St. Nicholas can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas
#419. 2009/12/06.
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
John Muir (1838-1914), Scottish-American naturalist and preservationist, co-founder of the Sierra Club.
More on John Muir can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir
#420. 2009/12/20.
(...) To everyone who received him, he gave power to become the children of God, that is, to know their divine Source. This is the Mystery of the Word made flesh. Flesh does not merely mean skin and bones; it means the wordly values of the self-centered programs for happiness held firmly in place by conscious or unconscious habits or by overidentification with one's family, tribe or nation. Christ, by joining the human family, has subjected himself to the consequences of the flesh and at the same time introduced into it the principle of redemption from all pre-rational levels of consciousness. Our own development into higher states of consciousness is the cutting edge of the corporate personality of 'the Christ,' the gradual unfolding in time of the new Adam. Every act that is motivated by that vision - every healing of body, soul or social ill - is contributing to the growth of the Body of Christ and hence to the pleroma. This will occur when enough individuals have entered into Christ-consciousness and made it their own. 
Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience.
More on Thomas Keating can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keating
#421. 2009/12/27.
What our country (India) now wants is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic will, which nothing can resist, which will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it means going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. That is what we want, and that can only be created, established, and strengthened by understanding and realizing the ideal of Advaita, that ideal of oneness of all. Faith, faith, faith in ourselves! (...) Why is it that the three hundred and thirty millions of people have been ruled for the last thousand years by any and every handful of foreigners? Because they had faith in themselves and we had not. (...)
Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.119.
More on Vivekananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekananda
More on Advaita can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta
More on Nikhilananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikhilananda

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