Word

Here is a woefully erratic and incomplete lists of inspiring or challenging quotes that is missing so many worthy entries it is practically a fraud. That's because it occurred to me  to put this together years after starting the blog. They are restricted to those specifically referring to lessons on the spiritual path:

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

–Albert Einstein

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First of all, although men have a common destiny, each individual also has to work out his own personal salvation for himself in fear and trembling. We can help one another to find the meaning of life no doubt. But in the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence. You cannot tell me who I am and I cannot tell you who you are. If you do not know your own identity, who is going to identify you?

–Thomas Merton

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Every one of us is a mystic. We may or may not realize it, we may not even like it. But whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, mystical experience is always there, inviting us on a journey of ultimate discovery. We have been given the gift of life in this perplexing world to become who we ultimately are: creatures of boundless love, caring compassion, and wisdom. Existence is a summons to the eternal journey of the sage - the sage we all are, if only we could see. [...]

For thousands of years before the dawn of the world religions as social organisms working their way through history, the mystical life thrived. This mystical tradition, which underpins all genuine faith, is the living source of religion itself. It is the attempt to possess the inner reality of the spiritual life, with its mystical, or direct, access to the divine. Each great religion has a similar origin: the spiritual awakening of its founders to God, the divine, the absolute, the spirit, Tao, boundless awareness. We find it in the experience of the rishis in India; the Buddha in his experience of enlightenment; in Moses, the patriarchs, the prophets, and other holy souls of the biblical tradition. It is no less present in Jesus' inner realization of his relationship with his Father, who is also our Father. And it is clear in the Prophet Mohammed's revelation experience of Allah through the mediation of the Archangel Gabriel. [...]

Spirituality is a way of life that affects and includes every moment of existence. It is at once a contemplative attitude, a disposition to a life of depth, and the search for ultimate meaning, direction, and belonging...

  –Brother Wayne Teasdale in The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions

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In Pali (the language of the original Buddhist texts), the word for faith is saddha. While sometimes translated as "confidence" or "trust," the literal meaning of saddha is "to place your heart upon." When we give our hearts over to spiritual practice, it is a sign of faith or confidence in that practice. Faith opens us up to what is beyond our usual, limited, self-centered concerns. In the Buddhist psychology, it is called the gateway to all good things, because faith sparks our initial inspiration to practice meditation, and also sustains our ongoing efforts.

The concept of faith can be difficult for some people. Faith might be associated with mindless belief, or it might imply the need to proclaim allegiance to a creed or doctrine and then fear of being judged, by oneself or others, for one's degree of compliance. When we use faith in a Buddhist context it is quite different from this.

To "place the heart upon" does not at all mean rigidly believing in something and thus being defensive about opening to new ideas. It doesn't mean using that which we have faith in as a way of feeling separate from and superior to others. When we talk about saddha, we are talking about a heartfelt confidence in the possibility of our own awakening.

–Sharon Salzberg from "A Heartfelt Faith", reprinted at Beliefnet.

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We have blood ancestors but we also have spiritual ancestors.  If you were born in the West there is a big chance you are a child of Jesus and that you have Jesus as you ancestor.  Jesus is one of the many spiritual ancestors of Europeans.  You may not consider yourself a Christian, but that does not prevent Jesus from being one of your spiritual ancestors because your great-grandfather might have been a good Christian. He has transmitted to you the seed, the  energy, the love, and the insight of Jesus. If you do well, you will be able to help this energy to manifest within yourself.  There are those who think that they don’t have anything to do with Christianity. They hate Christianity. They want to leave Christianity behind, but in the body and spirit of these people Jesus may be very present and very real. The energy, the insight, and the love of Jesus may be hiding in them.

A Buddhist is someone who considers the Buddha as one of his spiritual ancestors. You can say that the Buddha is an enlightened one, a great Bodhisattva, a teacher, and the founder of Buddhism. You can say that the Buddha is your spiritual ancestor. To me the Buddha is very real. I can touch him at any time I want. I can profit from his energy and insight any time I want. It is very real. [...] The Buddha as a spiritual ancestor is manifest in  you. You are able to allow the Holy Spirit to be in you, to guide you, to shine on you like a lamp. Jesus is then alive in you that very moment. It is possible to know the Buddha and at the same time know Jesus.

–Thich Nhat Hanh in Going Home -- Jesus and Buddha as Brothers

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Panikkar did not confuse or conflate historical contingency with spiritual truth. In Hinduism and Buddhism Panikkar found other languages, in addition to Biblical Hebrew, Greek philosophy, and Latin Christianity, to express the core convictions (the kerygma) of the Christian tradition.

Christ and his teaching are not, so Panikkar argues, the monopoly or exclusive property of Christianity seen as a historical religion. Rather, Christ is the universal symbol of divine-human unity, the human face of God. Christianity approaches Christ in a particular and unique way, informed by its own history and spiritual evolution. But Christ vastly transcends Christianity. Panikkar calls the name "Christ" the "Supername," in line with St. Paul's "name above every name" (Phil 2:9), because it is a name that can and must assume other names, like Rama or Krishna or Ishvara.

In his words, "To the third Christian millennium is reserved the task of overcoming a tribal Christology by a Christophany which allows Christians to see the work of Christ everywhere, without assuming that they have a better grasp or a monopoly of that Mystery, which has been revealed to them in a unique way."

–Joseph Prabhu on the life and work of theologian Raimon Panikkar

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Someone may say, "Yes, I believe in Jesus." That's fine, but what is the point? Someone else may say, "Mohammed is the final prophet." That's fine, but what's the point? Share it with me! Someone else may say, "I follow the Buddha." Yeah, that's fine, you have the freedom to follow anything, but what is the point? What is the bottom line? What is the Buddha teaching us?

People are getting tired and disgusted with religion. One reason this is happening is because religion becomes very exclusive. People talk about loving thy neighbor but practice only loving their friends; they bitterly criticize others with beliefs differing from theirs. But if people would look at themselves and consider What can I do with my life? then followers of each religion could live up to the principles of their religion. Each religion has beautiful principles to share with others.

–Rev. Koshin Ogui in Zen Shin Talks