Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Where can we find an awareness of the depth of Being?

If you know additional quotes that follow this spirit please share!

In the center of the castle of Brahman, our own body, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotus-flower, and within that can be found a small space. We should find who dwells there, and we should want to know him. And if anyone asks, "Who is he who dwells in a small shrine in the form of a lotus-flower in the center of the castle of Brahman? Whom should we want to find and know?" We can answer: "The little space within the heart is as great as this vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars; fire and lightning and winds are there; and all that now is and all that is not; for the whole universe is in Him and he dwells within our heart."
-passage from the Chandogya Upanishad, the oldest of the Upanishads (~1200 yrs B.C.E.)

The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which is a little space wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which he sees all things, and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen... In order to know the center of the heart where the Great Spirit dwells you must be pure and good... The man who is thus pure contains the Universe in the pocket of his heart.
-Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Lakota of the Sioux

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love... No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us... God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
-passage from 1 John 4:7-8,12,16

If your heart is truly open then all of life, nature and experience is the mystery of interconnection and opportunity for communion.
-Anonymous

3 comments:

  1. A noiseless patient spider,
    I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
    Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
    It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
    Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

    And you O my soul where you stand,
    Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
    Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
    Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold,
    Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

    - Walt Whitman

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  2. I think there is a poem called something like "Flower in the Crannied Wall" - maybe part of a larger collection of poems called The Princess? - by Tennyson that's about the idea that if you could really grasp the nature of the one little flower you'd apprehend the nature of reality or being itself.

    ReplyDelete

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