|
Wisdom Quotes
William James
Were one to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it exists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves hereto.
*The Varieties of Religious Experience
St. John of the Cross.
The third kind of harm the appetites [emotional attachments; a clinging to objects of sense experience] bring upon a person is blindness and darkness. Vapors make the air murky and are a hindrance to the bright sunshine; a cloudy mirror does not clearly reflect a person's countenance; so too muddy water reflects only a hazy image of his features. In just this way a man's intellect, clouded by appetites, becomes dark and impedes the sun of either natural reason or supernatural wisdom from shining within and completely illuminating. As a result David says when speaking of this: ... (My iniquities surrounded me and I was unable to see). [Ps. 39.13].
*Ascent of Mount Carmel
Aldoux Huxley
To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by the Mind at large-this is an experience of inestimable value for everyone.
*The Doors of Perception
Wisdom Story
The disciples were full of questions about God. Said the master, "God is the Unknown and the Unknowable. Every statement about him, every answer to your questions, is a distortion of the truth." The disciples were bewildered. "Then why do you speak about him at all?" "Why does the bird sing?" said the master.
Not because it has a statement, but because it has a song. ... The words of the master are not to be understood. They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird. They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond knowledge.
*Anthony de Mello. The Song of the Bird.
Comments
As a pastor I am a priest, or a go-between for people in relation to God. I cherish this role. I, however, am not one who goes to God for others, not in the sense of doing their going for them.
Each of us are to serve as priests. The Peter correspondence, in the New Testament, refers to the Church as a "holy priesthood" and a "royal priesthood" (I Peter 2.5, 2.9, KJV). This means we are invited to experience the Sacred directly, to "see" the Divine as a deeply, unmediated experience of loving and freeing Mystery.
Ironically, the way of knowing God contemplatively is by the way of unknowing. Un-know God to know God. Darkness descends on intellect, for intellect to receive the Light. The clarity of the Light blinds the eyes of natural reason; natural reason is not suited to receive divine illumination.
Reflection
Reflect on the opening quotes and their relation to each other and to the comments.
In what sense are you to be a priest?
What does it mean to know God by un-knowing God? Do you find this way of un-knowing to know attractive, or not? Explain.
How does contemplative prayer express this knowing by un-knowing?
What is meant in saying that the Light of God itself blinds the natural reason?
How does the teaching of Pure Faith relate to this writing?
How might your clinging to "appetites" blur your reception of the Truth, That is God?
Brian will respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Mentor. He offers retreats, workshops, and classes in such subjects as Contemplative Prayer (he trains in Visualized Praying, Centering Prayer, Christian Meditation, The Jesus Prayer, ...), Contemplative Living, A Spiritual Understanding of the Lord's Prayer, and Spiritual Use of the Scripture. See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For submission of replies and biographical information, see next page:
Continued... |
