[XianAnarchist]

I thought it would be fun to have a place dedicated to cool quotes that we come across in our various readings. Make sure to identify where you got it (author, title, page).

[PantaRhea]

"How can it be meaningful to take a single step, if the whole journey is meaningless?" - Charles Birch, Regaining Compassion for Humanity and Nature , p. 206

[fatherman]

Quote

"The natural life in each of us is something self-centred, something that wants to be petted and admired, to take advantage of other lives, to exploit the whole universe."

--Mere Christianity -- C.S. Lewis

"[The natural life] knows that if the spiritual life gets hold of it, all its self-centredness and self-will are going to be killed and it is ready to fight tooth and nail to avoid that."

--Mere Christianity  -- C.S. Lewis

[fatherman]

Quote

He who would own everything, should seek to own nothing. He who would be everything, should seek to be nothing. He who would know everything, should seek to know nothing.

St. John of the Cross (given the title "Doctor of the Church" by Pope Pius XI)

Comments on the above quote by Swami Kriyananda

Quote

When we refuse to accept any wisdom as our own, to take credit for anything
that we do, or to consider anything we have as our own—then suddenly, we find that we
are a part of everything.

Then the Infinite One can shine through us. A stained glass window is colorless and
dull until the sun shines through it. We, too, are without beauty and brilliance until,
through total self-offering, the divine light can shine through us.

This post has been edited by fatherman: 07 January 2005 - 11:52 AM

[AletheiaRivers]

“Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through all the time.

This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true.

If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently.

God shows Himself everywhere, in everything – in people and in things and in nature and in events.

It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is we don’t see it.”

- Thomas Merton

[fatherman]

Quote

Exodus
14:14: "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still"

[XianAnarchist]

"The attention of the heart, this quietness within movement is actually another, intimate movement that spontaneously arises in the moment between life and death, when the ego is wounded and God is still distant; this attention is prayer in the sense of the Psalmist who asks, and asks and asks; it is that which watches and waits in the night."
~~Jacob Needleman, Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery to the Centre of Christian Experience, 165.

[fatherman]

Quote

 
God is often like a cup of water in front of blind, thirsty man.

Strangely, God is often like a cup of water in front of a seeing, thirsty man.

First we are attached to our blindness, then we are attached to our thirst.  ~ Fatherman

[fatherman]

(not sure if this is a true story or not, but it's a good one)


The professor of a well known local university
challenged his students
with this question. "Did God create everything that
exists?"

A student answered bravely, "Yes, he did".

The professor then asked, "If God created
everything, then he created
evil. Since evil exists (as noticed by our own
actions), so God is evil.

The student couldn't respond to that statement
causing the professor to
conclude that he had "proved" that "belief in God"
was a fairy tale, and
therefore worthless.

Another student raised his hand and asked the
professor, "May I pose a
question? "

"Of course" answered the professor.

The young student stood up and asked : "Professor
does Cold exist?"

The professor answered, "What kind of question is
that? ... Of course
cold exists ... haven't you ever been cold?"

The young student answered, "In fact sir, Cold does
not exist.

According to the laws of Physics, what we consider
cold, in fact is the
absence of heat. Anything is able to be studied as
long as it transmits
energy (heat). Absolute Zero is the total absence of
heat, but cold does
not exist. What we have done is create a term to
describe how we feel if
we don't have body heat or we are not hot."

"And, does Dark exist?", he continued. The
professor answered "Of
course".

This time the student responded, "Again you're
wrong, Sir. Darkness
does not exist either. Darkness is in fact simply
the absence of light.
Light can be studied, darkness cannot. Darkness
cannot be broken down. A
simple ray of light tears the darkness and
illuminates the surface where
the light beam finishes. Dark is a term that we
humans have created to
describe what happens when there's lack of light."

Finally, the student asked the professor, "Sir,
does evil exist?"

The professor replied, "Of course it exists, as I
mentioned at the
beginning, we see violations, crimes and violence
anywhere in the world,
and those things are evil."

The student responded, "Sir, Evil does not exist.
Just as in the
previous cases, Evil is a term which man has created
to describe the
result of the absence of God's presence in the
hearts of man.

After this, the professor bowed down his head, and
didn't answer back.

The young man's name was ALBERT EINSTEIN

[XianAnarchist]

This is not quite exact, but it comes from M. Night Shyamalan's The Village.

"Love is what moves people. They kneel before it in awe."

[des]

"He drew a circle and shut me out. Heretic, rebel, thing to flout. But Love and I had a wit to win. We drew a circle and took him in." Edwin Markham

posted by des

[XianAnarchist]

It's close, but not exact. This came from a friend of mine's sermon last Sunday:

Quote

Love is a lot less like heart-shaped candies for Valentine's Day, and a lot more like willfully sitting down to table to share your bread with Judas."

I was floored when he said that.

[fatherman]

MERCY REACHES OUT, SAYING ...

RETURN. Turn. Let go of the old ways that lead to such pain. Start
over. Fast. Empty yourselves to be filled with something new.

-- Wendy M. Wright
THE RISING

[ComradeInChrist]

Repent and Rebel!

Spray painted on a dumpster behind a pub.

[XianAnarchist]

Don't know whether I've posted this here before. It's from a fictional account of a fictional desert mother, Amma Ananda...

*****
"Amma Ananda," asked a disciple, "of all the words of Jesus, which do you think the church today would find most frightening?"

Amma replied, "His words in Nazareth, 'I have come to set the prisoners free.'"

"Prisoners?" asked the disciple.

"Yes," she answered, "true disciples of Jesus must not be prisoners of fear, guilt or shame. Nor should they be held bound by church laws that are made greater than, or even equal in value to, the commands of Christ."

~~Edward Hayes, The Ladder, 34.

[BrotherRog]

The Seven Deadly Social Sins

1. Politics without principle

2. Wealth without work

3. Commerce without morality

4. Pleasure without conscience

5. Education without character

6. Science without humanity

7. Worship without sacrifice

- attributed to Ghandi