One
God Note #607. 2014/01/05.
Theophany, from the Ancient Greek (ἡ)
θεοφάνεια (theophaneia, meaning "appearance of god"), refers
to the appearance of a deity to a human or other being. This term has been used
to refer to appearances of the gods in the ancient Greek and Near Eastern
religions. While the Iliad is the earliest source for descriptions of theophanies in the Classical tradition (and they occur
throughout Greek mythology), probably the earliest description of a theophany is in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The term theophany has acquired a specific usage for
Christians and Jews with respect to the Bible: It refers to the manifestation
of God to man; the sensible sign by which the presence of God is revealed.
Retrieved
from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophany on 5 January 2014.
The love of God is blessedness, and that is joy, and to love God
is to be full of joy. Loving God and serving Him is done by imitating Him in
His incarnation as man, that is by being Christ-like,
and following Christ's example.
Thomas Merton, Run to the Mountain, P.62.
More on Thomas Merton
(1915-1968) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
One
God Note #608. 2014/01/12.
Consider how wool is turned into an elegantly
designed carpet by coming into contact with an intelligent person. See how dirt
can be turned into a fine palace by coming into contact with an intelligent
person. If association with the intelligent has such an effect on inanimate
objects, think what effect there will be when one seeker of God associates with
another ... God's saints have witnessed heavens beyond the heavens we know.
(...) The sheik is the root of spiritual joy. The oceans of joy are with him.
Rumi, Fihi Ma Fihi #63, quoted in: Helminski, Kabir (2000). The Rumi
Collection. P.123.
More on Rumi (1207-1273) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
One
God Note #609. 2014/01/19.
If you have weapons,
take them home; if you do not have them, please do not seek to get them. We
cannot solve this problem through retaliatory violence. We must meet violence
with nonviolence. Remember the words of Jesus: "He who lives by the sword
will perish by the sword." We must love our white brothers, no matter what
they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out
in words that echo across the centuries: "Love your enemies; bless them
that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you." This is what we
must live by. We must meet hate with love. Remember, if I am stopped, this
movement will not stop, because God is with the movement. Go home with this
glowing faith and this radiant assurance.
Martin Luther King's words after a bomb was thrown into his house in Alabama, on
30 January 1956, in Stride Toward Freedom (1958). Retrieved
from: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.
on 19 January 2014.
More on Martin Luther
King Jr. (1929-1968) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.
One
God Note #610. 2014/01/26.
In ancient times, people lived holistic lives.
(...) If you want to stop being confused, then emulate these ancient folk: join
your body, mind and spirit in all you do. Choose food, clothing and shelter
that accords with nature. Rely on your own body for transportation. Allow your
work and your recreation to be one and the same. Do exercise that develops your
whole being and not just your body. (...) Serve others and cultivate yourself
simultaneously. Understand that true growth comes from meeting and solving the
problems of life in a way that is harmonizing to yourself
and to others. If you can follow these simple old ways, you will be continually
renewed.
Hua Hu Ching 43, quoted after: Novak Philip, The World's Wisdom. P.171.
More on Hua Hu Ching
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huahujing
One
God Note #611. 2014/02/02.
The goddess awakens in
infinite forms and a thousand disguises. She is found where she is least
expected, appears out of nowhere and everywhere to illumine the open heart. She
is singing, crying, moaning, wailing, shrieking, crooning
to us, to be awake, to commit ourselves to life, to be a lover in the world and
of the world, to join our voices in the single song of constant change and
creation. For her law is to love all beings, and she is the
cup of the drink of life. The circle is ever open,
ever unbroken.
Starhawk, in a Bodhi Tree
Bookstore presentation (December 1999); retrieved from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goddess on 2 February 2014.
More on Starhawk can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starhawk
One
God Note #612. 2014/02/09.
subtle degrees
of domination and servitude
are what you know as love
but love is different
it arrives complete
just there
like the moon in the window
(...)
love is the sea of not being
and there intellect drowns
(...)
a million galaxies
are a little scum
on that shoreless sea
Rumi, Subtle Degrees, quoted in: Helminski,
Kabir (2000). The Rumi Collection. P.49-50.
More on Rumi can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi
One
God Note #613. 2014/02/17.
If I knew something
useful to me and harmful to my family, I should put it out of my mind. If I
knew something useful to my family and not to my country, I should try to
forget it. If I knew something useful to my country and harmful to Europe, or
useful to Europe and harmful to the human race, I should consider it a crime.
Charles de Montesquieu, as quoted by Robert John Loy, Montesquieu,
chapter 3, p. 122 (1968).
More on Charles de
Montesquieu (1689-1755) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Secondat,_Baron_de_Montesquieu
One
God Note #614. 2014/02/23.
The important thing in
the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life
is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered
but to have fought well. To spread these principles is to build up a strong and
more valiant and, above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.
Pierre de Coubertin
(1863-1937), founder of the International Olympic Committee, as quoted in: The
Olympian (1984) by Peter L. Dixon, p. 210
More on Pierre de
Coubertin can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_de_Coubertin
One
God Note #615. 2014/03/02.
O Lord and master of my
life! a spirit of idleness, despondency, ambition and
idle-talking, give me not.
But rather, a spirit of chastity, humble-mindedness, patience and charity,
bestow upon me Thy servant.
Yea, my king and Lord, grant me to see my own failings and refrain from judging
others: For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.
Saint
Ephraim’s prayer for the time of Great Fast. Quoted after: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fast
More on Great Fast can
be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fast
More on the Prayer of
Saint Ephraim can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_of_Saint_Ephrem
More on Saint Ephraim
the Syrian (306-373) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephrem_the_Syrian
One
God Note #616. 2014/03/09.
The
daily life is a life of action. Whether you like it or not, you must function.
Whatever you do for your own sake accumulates and becomes explosive; one day it
goes off and plays havoc with you and your world. When you deceive yourself
that you work for the good of all, it makes matters worse, for you should not
be guided by your own ideas of what is good for others. A man
who claims to know what is good for others, is dangerous. (…) (Work) Neither for yourself nor for the others, but for the work’s own
sake. A thing worth of doing is its own purpose and meaning. (…)
Nisargadatta Maharaj.
I am That. P.89-90.
More on Nisargadatta Maharaj can be found
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
More quotations from Nisargadatta can be found at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
One
God Note #617. 2014/03/16.
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Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.
Taras Shevchenko, 25 December 1845, Pereiaslav, Translated by John Weir, Toronto, 1961.
Retrieved from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Shevchenko on 16 March 2014.
|
|
More on Taras Shevchenko can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taras_Shevchenko
One
God Note #618. 2014/03/23.
|
The good man, though a slave, is free; the
wicked, though he reigns, is a slave, and not the slave of a single man, but
— what is worse — the slave of as many masters as he has vices.
Augustine of Hippo, The City of God
(early 400s), IV, 3
Retrieved from: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Slavery on 23 March
2014.
|
|
More on Saint Augustine
(354-430) can be found at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo
One
God Note #619. 2014/04/06.
|
Leave your thought quite naked, your affection
uninvolved, and your self simply as you are, so
that grace may touch and nourish you with the experimental knowledge of God
as He really is.
The Book of Privy Counseling, P.151.
|
|
More on The Book of
Privy Counseling can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing
One
God Note #620. 2014/04/13.
When a woman is about to
give birth, she is sad because her hour of suffering has come; but when a baby
is born, she forgets her suffering because she is happy that a baby has been
born into the world. That is how it is with you: now you are sad, but I will
see you again, and your hearts will be filled with gladness, the kind of
gladness that no one can take away from you.
More on Gospel of John
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_John
One
God Note #621. 2014/04/13.
Jesus said, "The heavens and the earth will
roll up in your presence, and whoever is living from the living one will not
see death (...)."
Gospel of Thomas, 111.
More on Gospel of Thomas
can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas
One
God Note #622. 2014/04/26.
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the
goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest
possible amount of hissing.
Attributed to Jean
Baptiste Colbert,
minister of finance to Louis XIV of France; and Cardinal Mazarin, under whom Colbert served. Reported
in Burton Stevenson, ed., The Home Book of Quotations (1967), 10th ed.,
p. 2300f, no. 5. Retrieved from: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Taxes
on 26 April 2014.
More on Jean Baptiste
Colbert can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Colbert
One God Note #623. 2014/05/04.
Naturally, the
common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America,
nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple
matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist
dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to
danger. It works the same way in any country.
Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg trials,
April 18, 1946. Retrieved
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War
on 4 May 2014.
More on the theories of war can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War
One God Note #624. 2014/05/11.
Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of
children.
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Volume II,
Chapter XII. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mothers on 11 May 2014.
More on William Makepeace Thackeray
can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Makepeace_Thackeray
One
God Note #625. 2014/05/19.
I am most anxious
to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked
folly of "Women's Rights," with all its attendant horrors... Were
women to "unsex" themselves by claiming equality with men, they would
become the most hateful, heathen, and disgusting of beings and would surely
perish without male protection.
Queen Victoria, in
an 1870 letter, quoted in All For Love: Seven
Centuries of Illicit Liaison by Val Horsler
(2006). Retrieved from https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victoria_of_the_United_Kingdom on
19 May 2014.
More on Queen
Victoria can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_of_the_United_Kingdom
One
God Note #626. 2014/05/25.
Then Jesus said, Do not cling to me thus (...). Return to my brethren, and
tell them this; I am going up to him who is my Father and your Father, who is
my God and your God.
Gospel of John
20:17. Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/bible/joh020.htm#vrs17 on
25 May 2014.
More on the concept of
ascension can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension
More on the ascension of Lord Jesus
Christ can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_of_Jesus
More on the
ascension of Prophet Muhammad can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi%27raj
More on the ascension of
Baha’u’llah can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27u%27ll%C3%A1h
One
God Note #627. 2014/06/01.
The renown Chinese
sage Lao Tzu promoted a concept and practice called wu wei, which means effortless being and doing. Effortless being means to be natural, unforced, and adaptive. Effortless doing means not applying undue energy of force to anything.
Most people struggle unnecessarily through life, battering walls instead of
finding the doorway. Many exhaust their energy by digging in dry, hard soil
instead of softening it with water beforehand. Keep these metaphors in mind and
translate them to daily life. (...) If you practice wu wei in your life, you will be rewarded with increased
joy, flow, health, and longevity.
Mao Shing Ni. (2006). Secrets of Longevity. Hundreds of Ways to Live to Be 100. San Francisco,
CA: Chronicle Books. P.291.
More on the
concept of wu wei can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei
One God Note #628. 2014/06/08.
One of the astonishing attributes of
Sabbath time is its unflinching uselessness. Nothing will get done, not a
single item will be checked off any list. Nothing of significance will be
accomplished, no goal realized. It is thoroughly without measurable value. Many
of us are reluctant to slow our pace because we feel a driving need to be
useful. (...) But Sabbath time offers the gift of deep balance; in Sabbath
time, we are valued not for what we have done or accomplished, but simply
because we have received the gentle blessing of being miraculously alive.
Wayne Muller,
Sabbath, PP.210-212.
More on the concept of Sabbath can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath
One God Note #629. 2014/08/10.
Gnani (the wise) is a
person, in whose presence people start to smile.
Pritam.
More on the concept of “gnani” can be found at: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nisargadatta_Maharaj
One God Note #630. 2014/08/17.
By following his
qualities of work, every man can become perfect. (...) It is better to
engage in one’s own occupation, even though one may perform it imperfectly,
than to accept another’s occupation and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed
according to one’s nature are never affected by sinful reactions. Every endeavor
is covered by some fault, just as fire is covered by smoke. Therefore one
should not give up the work born of his nature, O son of Kunti,
even if such work is full of fault.
Bhagavad Gita 18:45, 47-8. Retrieved from: http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/category/bhagavad-gita-chapter-18/page/5/
on 17 August 2014.
More on Bhagavad Gita
can
be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagvad_Gita
More on Lord Krishna can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna
One God Note #631. 2014/08/24.
In autumn dusk
at the wayside shrine for the Jizo image
I pour more votive oil
(haiku by Buson). Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksitigarbha
on 24 August 2014.
More on Ksitigarbha (Jizo)
can
be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksitigarbha
More on Buson
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosa_Buson
One God Note #632. 2014/08/31.
Learn to talk less and work more.
This is the field of spiritual practice. Karma is the highest way of
perfection. It is a great thing to take a human body. Whoever comes to the
earth must do work. (...) All who have taken birth must work to be successful.
(...) By working
hard, a man can achieve peace within himself and in the world around him. If
everyone works diligently and with love, there will be peace throughout the
world. (...) 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. Teachings of Babaji, PP.25, 33, 16.
More on Haidakhan Babaji can still be found
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidakhan_Babaji
More on Karma Yoga can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_yoga
One God Note #633. 2014/09/07.
The whole universe is ever in his
power. He is pure consciousness, the creator of time: all-powerful,
all-knowing. It is under his rule that the work of creation revolves in its
evolution, and we have earth, and water, and ether, and fire and air. His being
is the source of all being, the seed of all things that in this life have their
life. He is beyond time and space, and yet he is the God of infinite forms who
dwells in our inmost thoughts, and who is seen by those who love him.
Svetasvatara Upanishad.
More on Svetasvatara
Upanishad can still be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvetashvatara_Upanishad
One God Note #634. 2014/09/14.
After centuries of knowing God
through faith, we are now ready to understand divine intelligence directly. In
many ways this new knowledge reinforces what spiritual traditions have already
promised. God is invisible and yet performs all miracles. He is the source of
every impulse of love. Beauty and truth are both children of this God. In the
absence of knowing the infinite source of energy and creativity, life’s
miseries come into being. Getting close to God through a true knowing heals the
fear of death, confirms the existence of soul, and gives ultimate meaning to
life. (...) There are no known physical mechanisms that trigger it, yet feeling
close to God occurs in every age, among all people. We’re all capable of going
beyond our material bonds, yet we often fail to value this ability. (...)
Deepak Chopra. (2000).
How to know God. The Soul’s Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries. N.Y.: Harmony
Books. P. 2, 6.
More on Deepak Chopra can still be
found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra
One God Note #635. 2014/09/21.
Woman is the creator of the universe,
the universe is her form; woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true
form of the body.
In woman is the form of all things,
of all that lives and moves in the world. (…).
Shaktisangama Tantra. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti on 21 September
2014.
More on Navaratri
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navratri
More on the concept of Shakti, the primordial cosmic energy, can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakti
One God Note #636. 2014/09/28.
(…) The great and holy deeds done by
others are examples for us, since they show, in a concrete manner, what
greatness and holiness is, but they are not models which we should copy.
However small our achievements may be in comparison with those of our
forefathers, they have their real value in that we bring them about in our own
way and by our own efforts.
(…) Every person born into this world
represents something new, something that never existed before, something
original and unique. (…)
for if there had been someone like him, there would be no need for him to be in
the world. Every single man is a new thing in the world, and is called
upon to fulfill his particularity in this world. (…)
All men have access to God, but each
man has a different access. Mankind’s great chance lies precisely in the
unlikeness of men (…). God’s all inclusiveness manifests itself in the infinite
multiplicity of the ways that lead to him, each of which is open to one man.
(…) Any natural act, if hallowed,
leads to God, and nature needs man for what no angel can perform on it, namely,
its hallowing.
Martin Buber –
“Heart Searching and the Particular Way.” [In]: Garvey, J. (Ed.)(1985). Modern Spirituality: an Anthology. Springfield,IL: Templegate Publishers. P. 4-7.
More on Martin Buber (1878-1965) can
be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber
One God Note #637. 2014/10/05.
“I am ready to meet my Maker – but
whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another
matter.”
Winston Churchill. Quoted in: Enright, D. (Ed.)(2001). The Wicked Wit of Winston Churchill. London, UK:
Michael O’Mara Books Ltd. Cover.
More on Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
One God Note #638. 2014/10/13.
Three gifts in particular distinguish
the spiritual father. The first is insight
and discernment (diakrisis), the ability to
perceive intuitively the secrets of another’s heart, to understand the hidden
depths of which the other is unaware. The spiritual father penetrates beneath
the conventional gestures and attitudes whereby we conceal our true personality
from others and from ourselves; and, beyond all these trivialities,
he comes to grips with the unique person made in the image and likeness of God.
(…)
With this gift of insight there goes
the ability to use words with power. As each person comes before him, the starets knows – immediately and specifically – what it is
that the individual needs to hear. (…)
The second gift of the spiritual
father is the ability to love others and
to make others’ sufferings his own. Of Abba Poemen,
one of the greatest of the Egyptian gerontes, it is
briefly and simply recorded: “He possessed love, and many came to him.” (…)
A third gift of the spiritual father
is the power to transform the human
environment, both the material and the non-material. The gift of healing,
possessed by so many of the startsi, is one aspect of
this power. More generally, the starets helps his
disciples to perceive the world as God created it and as God desires it once
more to be.
Kallistos Ware – “The
Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity.” [In]: Garvey, J. (Ed.)(1985). Modern Spirituality: an Anthology. Springfield,IL: Templegate Publishers. P. 45-48.
More on Kallistos
Ware (b.1934) can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallistos_Ware
One God Note #639. 2014/10/19.
Preachings
of Bhagwan Mahavira.
· Every soul is independent.
None depends on another.
· All souls are alike. None is
superior or inferior.
· Every soul is in itself
absolutely omniscient and blissful. The bliss does not come from outside.
· Not only soul, but every
object of the universe also, is subject to change by itself, without any
external interference.
· All human beings are
miserable due to their own faults, and they can themselves by happy by
rectifying the same.
· The greatest mistake of a
soul is non-recognition of its real-self and it can only be rectified by
recognising itself.
· There is no separate existence
of God. Everybody can attain Godhood by making supreme efforts in the right
direction.
· ‘Know thyself, recognize
thyself, be immersed in thyself’ – you will attain Godhood.
· God is neither the
creator not the destructor of the universe. He is merely a silent observer and
omniscient.
· One, who, even after
knowing the whole universe, can remain unaffected and unattached, is God.
Quoted after: Hukamchand Bharill. (2001). Tirthankar Bhagwan Mahaveer. Bapu Nagar, Jaipur: Pandit Todarmal Sarak Trust.
More on Lord Mahavira
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavira
One God Note #640. 2014/10/26.
Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when spirits or fairies (the aos sí) could more
easily come into our world. (…) The belief that the souls of the dead return
home on one night or day of the year seems to have ancient origins and is found
in many cultures throughout the world (…) As at Beltane, bonfires were lit on hilltops at Samhain and there were rituals involving them. (…) It is suggested that the fires were
a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun, helping the
"powers of growth" and holding back the decay and darkness of winter.
(…) They may also have served to symbolically "burn up and destroy all
harmful influences". Accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries suggest
that the fires (as well as their smoke and ashes) were deemed to have
protective and cleansing powers. (…) In Moray, boys asked for bonfire fuel from
each house in the village. When the fire was lit, "one after another of
the youths laid himself down on the ground as near to
the fire as possible so as not to be burned, and in such a position as to let
the smoke roll over him. The others ran through the smoke and jumped over
him". When the bonfire burnt down, they scattered the ashes, vying with
each other who should scatter them most. (…) Sometimes, two
bonfires would be built side by side, and the people – sometimes with their
livestock – would walk between them as a cleansing ritual. The bones of
slaughtered cattle were said to have been cast upon bonfires. In the
pre-Christian Gaelic world, cattle were the main form of wealth and were the
center of agricultural and pastoral life.
People also took flames from the
bonfire back to their homes. In northeastern Scotland, they carried burning fir
around their fields to protect them, and on South Uist
they did likewise with burning turf. In some places, people doused their
hearth fires on Samhain night. Each family then
solemnly re-lit its hearth from the communal bonfire, thus bonding the families
of the village together. (…)
Over time, the night of 31 October
came to be called All Hallows' Eve (or All Hallows' Even). Samhain
influenced All Hallows' Eve and vice-versa, and the two eventually morphed into
the secular holiday known as Halloween.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain on 26 October
2014.
More on Samhain
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samhain
One God Note
#641. 2014/11/02.
O Kabir,
the soul is a particle of God; though it is in the body, it is never destroyed.
Adi Granth, Kabir. Quoted
after: Miriam Bokser Caravella,
The Holy Name. P.24.
More on Kabir
can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabir
More on Guru Nanak can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Nanak
More on Adi
Granth can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib
One God Note #642. 2014/11/09.
If there is one word that you find
coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bomb-shell upon
masses of ignorance, it is the word fearlessness. And the only religion that
ought to be taught is the religion of fearlessness. (...) It is fear that brings
misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.
Vivekananda, quoted in: Nikhilananda, Vivekananda, A Biography, P.191.
More on Vivekananda can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekananda
One God Note #643. 2014/11/16.
Stillness. The world is
chaotic. Everyone is busy. It can be difficult to find quiet time. But there is
something important in stillness. It is often when we stop; when we give
ourselves time (just with ourselves and our thoughts) that allow our inner most
desires and voices to be heard. This year we asked submitting artists, “Where
do you find stillness?” Is it … wandering in a field where old totems whisper
their ancient stories into gentle breezes? Or perhaps you find it in the beauty
of a grey sky as it opens and spills out its gift of first snow. (…)
Introduction to Multifaith Calendar 2015.
More on Multifaith Calendar can be found at: http://multifaithaction.jimdo.com/
To order, you may write: orders@mutlifaithaction.org or visit: http://www.edminterfaithcentre.ca/resources/multifaith-calendar/
One God Note #644. 2014/11/23.
More on Meister Eckhart can be found
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meister_Eckhart
One God Note #645. 2014/11/30.
I hereby accept the training rule of
avoiding all Killing.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Stealing.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Sexual Abuse.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Dishonesty.
I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Alcohol & Drugs.
As long as this life lasts, I am thus protected by these 5 precepts.
Fragment of the proclamation of the
Order of Nuns, established by Sanghamitta, in 3rd
Century BC.
More on Princess Sanghamitta
can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamitta
One God Note #646. 2014/12/07.
Why do we travel to remote locations?
To prove our adventurous spirit or to tell stories about
incredible things? We do it to be alone amongst friends and to find
ourselves in a land without man.
The Wildest Dream: The Biography of
George Mallory (2001), p. 53. Retrieved from: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Mallory
More on George Mallory can be found
at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory
One God Note #647. 2014/12/14.
For the Eternal God is God supreme,
the great, the mighty and the awesome God who shows no favour and takes no
bribe, but upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow and befriends the
stranger providing him with food and clothing. You
must too befriend the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19
More on the Book of Deuteronomy can
be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Deuteronomy
One God Note #648. 2014/12/21.
Great little One! Whose all-embracing
birth
Lifts Earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to Earth.
Richard Crashaw
Let us remember that the Christmas
heart is a giving heart, a wide–open–heart that thinks of others first. The
birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history,
because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love
which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... (…)
George Matthew Adams in "The
Christmas Heart".
No one can celebrate a genuine
Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who,
because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need ever
of God — for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those
who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone
is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no
abundance of God.
Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero, as quoted in Dionne,
E J (Dec. 24, 2004). Washington Post (Washington, DC):
p. A17.
Mankind is a great, an immense
family... This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.
Pope John XXIII
Best of all, Christmas means a spirit
of love, a time when the love of God and the love of our fellow men should
prevail over all hatred and bitterness, a time when our thoughts and deeds and
the spirit of our lives manifest the presence of God.
George F. McDougall
Christmas waves a magic wand over
this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale
All the quotations about Christmas
come from: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christmas
One God Note #649. 2014/12/28.
They eat,
they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674),
Book V, line 637. Retrieved from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eating
on 28 December 2014.
More on John Milton can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton
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