Favourite quotations from world religious traditions (mystics, saints, thinkers etc.)

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Vouthon said:
Amen 🙂

There is great wisdom in other religious traditions. The Holy Spirit is present in every human heart and universally throughout all societies, religions and cultures so this should not be suprising.

Another one:

“…Tear down the mosque and temple too, break all that divides, but do not break the human heart, as it is there that God resides…”

- Shaykh Bulleh Shah (1680–1757), Punjabi Sufi poet
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I’ve enjoyed reading the Norse myths some over the last few years. Some fascinating stories and some interesting tidbits of wisdom sprinkled throughout.

If I was at home right now, I’d post a couple.
 
ironchapman said:
I’ve enjoyed reading the Norse myths some over the last few years. Some fascinating stories and some interesting tidbits of wisdom sprinkled throughout.

If I was at home right now, I’d post a couple.
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When you get the chance Iron it would be wonderful if you would share since I have never read them! 👍
 
Vouthon said:
👍

In fact the work of literature which this saying is derived from is considered to be a “major” work of Catholic mysticism:

“…Angelus Silesius, original name Johannes Scheffler (born December 1624, Breslau, Silesia [now Wrocław, Pol.]—died July 9, 1677, Breslau), religious poet remembered primarily as the author of Der Cherubinischer Wandersmann (1674; “The Cherubic Wanderer”), a major work of Roman Catholic mysticism…”

- Encyclopedia Britannica

If properly understood such statements are Orthodox and certainly not pantheistic. Indeed the Cherubic Wanderer was published with an imprimatur as the old catholic encyclopedia tells us:

“…Angelus published, in 1657, the two poetical works on which his fame rests. “The Soul’s Spiritual Delight” (Heilige Seelenlust) is a collection of more than two hundred religious songs, many of them of great beauty, which have found their way not only into Catholic, but even into Protestant hymn books. “The Cherubic Pilgrim” (Der Cherubinische Wandersmann) is a collection of over sixteen hundred rhymed couplets, full of deep religious thought expressed in epigrammatic form …] They ought to be interpreted in an orthodox sense, for Angelus Silesius was not a pantheist. His prose writings are orthodox; “The Cherubic Pilgrim” was published with the ecclesiastical Imprimatur, and, in his preface, the author himself explains his “paradoxes” in an orthodox sense, and repudiates any future pantheistic interpretation…”

- Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907

So Angelus Silesius is an important Orthodox mystic. He was never even suspected of heresy or error like some other saints and mystics.
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So he guarded against accusations of pantheism, but what about panentheism, which that last quote could be interpreted as a statement of?
 
Gaber said:
So he guarded against accusations of pantheism, but what about panentheism, which that last quote could be interpreted as a statement of?
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Ah yes it depends 🙂

The Catholic Church teaches that God is everywhere. St Thomas Aquinas said that wherever there is Being there is the presence of God. He is in all things but he also not contained by them or limited to them as with pantheism - rather he is also totally transcendent.

The official Catholic teaching was summed up by Saint Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor:

“…God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere…”
  • Saint Bonaventure
Most Catholics mystics have stated, “God is in all things and all things are in God”.

If that is what one means by panentheism, then it can be understood in a completely Orthodox fashion.

Its a difficult one - the teaching is clear God is in all things but its just that the words we use for that doctrine are not certain.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia defines Panentheism : "Panentheism views all things as being in God without exhausting the infinity of the divine nature. Panentheism stands as a kind of surrelativism holding for a real convertible relation of dependence between God and the world - not only is the world dependent upon God, but God is dependent upon the world. It regards the world as an actual fulfillment of God’s creative possibility. Today it describes the views of those who introduce a polarity in the notion of God as both eternal and temporal and as including yet transcending the world. " (4)…

… Taking this definition line by line, we see that ‘Panentheism views all things as being in God without exhausting the infinity of the divine nature’. This means that God exists within creation without being limited to, or encompassed by, nature. ln this way Panentheism differs from pantheism, which holds that God is in nature in such a way that creation is identical with God.

I think that panentheism could be adhered too in a wholly Orthodox fashion.

But I’m not going too express too much certainity since it seems to be theologically murky waters.

Your thoughts? 🙂
 
Rabbity said:
“We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.” - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, remarking on a photo taken by Voyager 1 about six billion kilometers from Earth.
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The great ship, the ship of the world
Long time sailing
Mariners, mariners, gather your skills
Jesus and Hitler and Richard the Lion Heart
Three kings and Moses and Queen Cleopatra
The Cobbler, the maiden
The mender and the maker
The sickener and the twitcher
And the glad undertaker
The shepherd of willows
The harper and the archer
All sat down in one boat together
Troubled voyage in calm weather.

-“Maya” by the Incredible String Band
 
“Satan’s greatest trick was convincing the world he didn’t exist”

Not really coming from a mystic or a saint but I think it’s religious enough. I heard that one in the movie “The Usual Suspects” but I don’t think that’s the original source, it is from some French novel if I remember correctly. Nevertheless, it’s a great quote.
 
Vouthon said:
When you get the chance Iron it would be wonderful if you would share since I have never read them! 👍
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Most of the Edda’s advice is practical wisdom. Think the book of Proverbs instead of the book of Pslams. Here’s a few selections:

A man shall not boast | of his keenness of mind,
But keep it close in his breast;
To the silent and wise | does ill come seldom
When he goes as guest to a house;
(For a faster friend | one never finds
Than wisdom tried and true.)

[NOTE: I have seen “wisdom tried and true” listed as “common sense” in other translations]

Often he speaks | who never is still
With words that win no faith;
The babbling tongue, | if a bridle it find not,
Oft for itself sings ill.

Seek never to win | the wife of another,
Or long for her secret love.

If evil thou knowest, | as evil proclaim it,
And make no friendship with foes.

Curse not thy guest, | nor show him thy gate,
Deal well with a man in want.

These are from the “Sayings of the High One” aka, Odin.

sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe04.htm
 
In essentials unity, in nonessentials liberty, and in all things, charity.

Complaining - the act of accusing God of not knowing what he is doing.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears

What we know about God is important, but we we do with what we know about God is even more important. Too often people think it is necessary that we all see God the same way (which is impossible anyway), but what is really necessary is that we all follow God according to what God tells us.

One God, variously understood.

When nothing is forbidden, nothing is required.

The day will come when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we will harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Death is nothing more than an imaginary loss of an imaginary self.

Exorcise your addictions or they will exercise you.

The less we say about God, the more accurate we are.
 
“…In that he saw the unity, he was of God;
in that he saw distinctions, he was of man…
Do not develop the nature which is of man,
but develop the nature which is of God…
I will lead you through the portals of Eternity
to wander in the great wilds of Infinity…”

*** — Chuang Tzu (369 BC - 286 BC), most important Taoist sage after Lao Tzu ***

Is this not an excellent description of theosis (Divinisation) from a pre-Christian sage?
 
"…He who can see the small is clear-sighted;
He who stays by gentility is strong.
Use the light,
And return to clear-sightedness -
Thus cause not yourself later distress.
  • This is to rest in the Absolute…"
— Lao Tzu (born 604 BC), Tao te Ching
 
“…The Perfect Man ignores self…The Perfect Man is a spiritual being. Were the ocean itself scorched up, he would not feel hot. Were the Milky Way frozen hard, he would not feel cold. Were the mountains to be riven with thunder, and the great deep to be thrown up by storm, he would not tremble…How does the Sage seat himself by the sun and moon, and hold the universe in his grasp? He blends everything into one harmonious whole, rejecting the confusion of this and that. Rank and precedence, which the vulgar prize, the Sage stolidly ignores. The revolutions of ten thousand years leave his unity unscathed. The universe itself may pass away, but he will flourish still…”

***— Chuang Tzu (369 BC - 286 BC), most important Taoist sage after Lao Tzu ***
 
“…If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite…”

- William Blake (1757 – 1827), Christian mystic

“…Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime…”
  • *** William Blake (1757 – 1827), Christian mystic***
 
“…I want to accustom all the inhabitants, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and nonbelievers, to look on me as their brother, the universal brother. Already they’re calling this house “the fraternity” (khaoua in Arabic) — about which I’m delighted — and realizing that the poor have a brother here — not only the poor, though: all men…Above all, always see Jesus in every person, and consequently treat each one not only as an equal and as a brother or sister, but also with great humility, respect and selfless generosity…”

- Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858- 1916), Catholic mystic and martyr
 
“…I am certain that the good God will welcome into heaven those who have been good and honest, without the need for them to be Roman Catholic. You are a Protestant, others are unbelievers and the Tuareg are Muslim. I am convinced that God will receive us all, if we deserve it…”

***- Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858- 1916), Catholic mystic and martyr (letter to a Protestant friend) ***
 
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