Only when we return to our hearts and look honestly at ourselves can we begin to recognize ourselves, as we were created to be and as we are. Only then can we learn to know and love ourselves, and to love others as we love ourselves.
Quotations
In Search of the Beyond
Let us keep this truth before us.
You say you have no faith?
Love--and faith will come.
You say you are sad?
Love--and joy will come.
You say you are alone?
Love--and you will break out of your solitude.
You say you are in hell?
Love--and you will find yourself in heaven.
Heaven is love.
Drink the wine of Love
and your life will change.
Instead of being a gatherer
of the Divine Light
you will be the shine.
It will be the end of you
and the beginning.
Love is not meant to be contained;
Love is meant to shine!
Mystics
A mystic is a person who is deeply aware of the powerful presence of the divine Spirit; someone who seeks, above all, the knowledge and love of God, and who experiences to an extraordinary degree the profoundly personal encounter with the energy of divine life. Mystics often perceive the presence of God throughout the world of nature and in all that is alive, leading to a transfiguration of the ordinary all around them. However, the touch of God is most strongly felt deep within their own hearts.
Deep in the Familiar
Fifty years of marriage is the essence of a journey that spans uphills and downhills, goals achieved; unexpected joys, and times of failure, disappointments, and offenses that sought forgiveness. The thirteenth chapter of Corinthians is a discipline and a constant for the days and years. Love is not arrogant or rude, love glories not in one-upman-ship or being right, love suffers and is kind, love hangs in there. And ultimately this delicate, gentle but tough bond supersedes all else and becomes the one imperishable gift we can have if we are humble enough to receive it.
I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity. I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not--more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving.
Love is the voice
under all the silences ...
Alone with God, we feel no need to perform, to do. The pressure is off. That good, refreshing feeling is nothing less than an experience of God's accepting love. It is the healing power of an eternal passion that is consummated in the reunion of creature and Creator. God is delighted by our act of will in which we love and place ourselves in the Presence. That divine delight is the lover who draws each of us back and forth between twin poles, the loving opportunities of solitude and solidarity.
... the visible quality of the divinity, of the energies of grace in which God is made known ... This light is a light which fills at the same time both intellect and senses, revealing itself to the whole individual, and not only to one faculty. The divine light, being given in mystical experience, surpasses at the same time both sense and intellect
May the Light that lighteneth Everyone
come into this world,
pierce the darkness of the age,
so that the tree of life
may survive
and bring forth new shoots!
You are the living light in every respect.
From You all light shines.
Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace
We cannot know that we are illuminated by a great light simply by looking up into the sky. But if we lower our heads and look down at our feet, we can clearly see the long, dark shadow that stretches out from us. We know that the darker and blacker that shadow is, the brighter is the light that shines upon us. Thus, we have been told to look at our own dark shadows [within].
Spiritual Power
Light is present everywhere, yet hidden and unused. It is covered over by the denseness of our desires and a collective unconscious that has little space for the divine. Working with the light of the soul will open us to a new level of interconnectedness, a knowing of our oneness. This knowing is necessary for the evolution of the planet. It contains the knowledge of the future, a knowledge that is based upon oneness rather than duality.
Intuition is a language of light through which
humanity and God intercommunicate.
Behold the Divine Light within
a place of giving
a place of gratitude
a place of Love.
May Divine Light fill our hearts
with Love
to be poured out
into the world ...
A Celtic Prayer
You are above me, O God
You are within.
You are in all things
yet contained by no thing.
Teach me to seek You in all that has life,
that I may see You as the Light of light.
Teach me to search for You in my own depths
that I may find You in every living soul.
I invented what I call the Invisible Art and Light technique. In normal light the painting appears one way, and when you turn on the black lamp, the beams of light emerge. It is also a brilliant metaphor. If we look with our physical eyes we see only the surface of the message. But when we look with our spiritual eyes we see so much more. We see the light that is given as a gift from Heaven. And isn't it interesting that a black light is used to see the whole picture? In the same way we must go into our own darkness, the things we hide because we are ashamed, in order to unleash the light within. It is only when we give our whole selves to God--the positive and the negative--that we are enlightened.
When you turn within you think you see a light. What you think is the light that you see in the inner world is the light that sees, not the light that can be seen. This is a different kind of light, not the kind of light that can be radiated from a source. This is the all-pervading light. Think of yourself as that light, then your aura will burn more brightly.
Silence
In the silence we feel the Light penetrating, recharging, purifying, blessing us. We identify with the Light. Words and thoughts opening from this depth will have life--the Life that will create and endow all things with good.
Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it,
and enter the Silence, your true home.
The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.
Mantle of Roses
Crying was my most constant companion. One day, while walking on the beach, I saw the reflection of the sun on the water. Inexplicably, I felt a sense of a Presence larger than life itself after seeing a patch of light differently than ever before. The light image kept me alive ... I was suffused with love. I had sensations of warmth from the light coming into my body and entering each cell, having awareness of my whole body in a startling way. It felt comforting, life-changing and dramatic, yet peaceful. I was able to function again. My most important focus became to deepen my experience of being suffused by the light.
Gifts of the Spirit
True friendship exists when human beings share a love of goodness and truth. Two friends alone, like two legs on a table, offer a wobbly situation at best. But two friends anchored to a third, spiritual center form a rock-solid foundation to support everything that comes: hardship, suffering, exaltation, love. True friendship between two human beings exists only when there is a third Friend present: call this third friend God, or simply the Sacred.
The Physics of Angels
To study angels is to shed light on ourselves, especially those aspects of ourselves that have been put down in our secularized civilizations, our secularized educational systems, and even our secularized worship system. By secularization, I mean anything that sucks the awe out of things.
Thanksgiving Psalms, Dead Sea Scrolls
Life always begins again.
The Angel of Earth embraces the seed
And gives unto it Life.
The kiss of the Angel of Water
Awakens the seed.
The warmth of the Angel of Sun
Makes the seed grow.
The little plant bends in the breeze–
The Angel of Air makes it grow strong.
The little plant is holy.
It bathes in the Lifestream
Of Eternal Order.
Loving angels everywhere
in smiles we give ... in words we share
in gentle hearts of those who care.
I was walking in the open air on a beautiful spring morning. The wheat was growing green, the birds were singing, the dew was sparkling, the smoke rising; a transfiguring light lay over everything; this was only a tiny fragment of Earth – and yet the idea seemed to me not only beautiful, but also so true and obvious that she was an Angel – an Angel so sumptuous, so fresh, so like a flower and at the same time so firm and so composed, who was moving through the sky.
The Angel Experience
As humans we respond to symbols. We express divine Beauty and insight in our art. If there is a preponderance of art depicting angels with wings, obviously this symbolizes something real within the collective consciousness. Angels appear to humans according to human capacity to accept and understand the appearance. The angels inspire, and that is what is left in our heart after an angel experience.
Make yourself familiar with the angels
and behold them frequently in spirit,
for without being seen, they are present
with you.
A Light in the Window
Amy tightened an arm around his neck and announced in a loud voice, "I was with them big angels, and they runned in front of me and left me and I gotted lost!"
"So it occurs to me," the preacher said, "that many of us may be leaving small angels behind. Are we neglecting to help those who would benefit from our love? ... Just a thought," he said, smiling.
Meditations and Mandalas
Blessed are You, Who understood my tears,
You comfort me with love's embrace.
Though my eyes cannot see You,
I feel your gentle Presence,
like angel wings lifting my spirit.
You turn my mourning into joy,
I dance to a new song.
Blessed are You, O loving companion
of my heart.
Echoes
resounding from
a starry night so long
ago, carry angels song, still
singing.
Angels in our midst
seen now
through diaphanous veil.
The divine angelic hierarchy is more than a collection of celestial beings; they are both inner and outer states of consciousness, constantly presenting an opportunity to us for our divine awakening. Now, more than ever, is the awareness dawning within the hearts and minds of people everywhere that the Divine is a part of our spiritual ancestry. The souls of the earth are awakening from a long spirited sleep to a great mystery – that we are part and parcel of the great angels of light and love. This is the reality which is unfolding before us like a flower, right now in our world and in our lives.
Anna: Woman of Miracles
Anna was too filled with joy and wonder to sleep. This was the night for which her soul had prepared her these many years. She heard the celestial music of the saints and the rustle of angel wings. Love had chosen her for this wondrous experience, so she was unafraid. The time was close now, for she smelled the fragrance of roses around her. "Oh, blessed angels, I love my God with all my being."
... walking and talking with an angel is really fundamentally no different from walking and talking with an ordinary human being. Both the angel and the person are expressions of the ultimate mystery; both are emanations of the Beloved ... There is only one sacredness and we all have it.
Every blade of grass has its Angel
that bends over it and whispers,
"Grow, grow."
Angels accompany us in all we do throughout our life . . Be mindful of their gifts.
Elder Zosima
No sooner had I fallen asleep than I saw standing a maiden dressed in a long white gown and modestly girded. On her head, in hooded fashion, was a white scarf which was so thin and transparent that through it I could see her face, which shone with heavenly beauty. She stood before me, tender, affectionate and loving, and although with downcast eyes, she would at times humbly and kindly look at me. With such a vision, I awoke.
My attraction to her was not sensuous, but somehow pure, devoted and unutterably comforting, since my soul sensed that this was not an earthly maiden, but some heavenly being, the very embodiment of purity and charity.
"Know ye not that the Realm of Love is within you?" With this assurance, God is not far off. Silent prayer is the manner in which you talk to God, and in silence you hear the answer. Silence removes chaos and confusion. You hold the key which turns the lock in the door to the storehouse of God's infinite riches. May we use it.
Eat, Pray, Love
Thich Nhat Hanh came on stage. In the space of ten minutes, this small Vietnamese man had drawn every single one of us into his silence. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he drew us each into our own silence, into that peace which we each inherently possessed, but had not yet discovered or claimed. His ability to bring forth this state in all of us, merely by his presence in the room – this is divine power.
Secretly we spoke,
that wise one and me.
I said, "Tell me the secrets of the world. "
He said, "Shh ... Let silence
Tell you the secrets of the world. "
In Buddha's Kitchen
Silence, a stilling of not only the voices outside but the inner voices, the roof brain chatter. Now, without the babble or words – inner and outer – I watch my mind, notice when a thought arises. I turn my attention inward, asking, "Who is thinking this thought?" As the mind turns to look, the thinker seems to disappear. But a focus comes from asking, a clearing a deepening. No "me," but a presence. Awareness.
The most beautiful words, those that give the most genuine help, are often born in a silence filled with suffering. Silence is the glowing furnace of the word, the forge of true speech and sensitivity.
Falling Angels
At first her refusal to speak very often upset me, but over time I've grown used to it and now love her the better for it. Ivy May's silence can be a great comfort. There is nothing the matter with her head – she reads and writes well enough for a girl of seven, and her numbers are good. I asked her once why she said so little, and the dear replied, "When I do speak, you listen." It is surprising that someone so young should have worked that out for herself. I could have done with the lesson – I do go on and on from nerves to fill the silence.
The Edge of Glory
I weave a silence on to my lips
I weave a silence into my mind
I weave a silence within my heart
I close my ears to distractions
I close my eyes to attractions
I close my heart to temptations
Calm me as You stilled the storm
Still me, keep me from harm
Let all the tumult within me cease
Enfold me, Beloved, in your peace.
Listen. What word does silence have for you today?
In a breath of silence
in a whisper,
God speaks to you humbly.
Silence is spacious
uncrowded like the
Cosmos.
Wellesley Tudor Pole
In the depths of silence, we are all one, and it is through interior stillness that knowledge of our oneness with the Creator reaches us. It has been truly said that the voice of silence carries infinitely farther than the loudest cry. Such a union as this can never be ours except in silence, and through stillness and deep prayer and meditation we can begin to comprehend the meaning of Infinity and of that one Mind in which we all live and move and have our being.