Humanity is a thing both infinite and rare. Perfect and broken, fractured, lost inside our flaws and unable to see the gem within. How do we help each other to see it again? It has to start with seeing something good inside of ourselves, and that is always the most difficult part. How do I show my children that they are part of God, that they are perfectly made and loved, that they belong to love and goodness and light,... Read more
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter XVIII Each man, devoted to his own duty, attains perfection. How he attains perfection while being engaged in his own duty – hear now. He from whom all the beings have evolved and by whom all this is pervaded – worshipping that one with the due performance of his own duty, man attains perfection. [Source] Daily Readings with a Modern Mystic Evelyn Underhill “Thus the spiritual life does not begin in an arrogant attempt at some peculiar... Read more
The Essential Rumi: Quietness Tr. Coleman Barks Inside this new love, die. Your way begins on the other side. Become the sky. Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. You’re covered with thick cloud. Slide out to the side. Die, and be quiet. Quietness is the surest sign that you’ve died. Your old life was a frantic running from silence. The speechless full moon comes out now. [Source]... Read more
Hávamál: The Words of Odin the High One Tr. Olive Bray 53. Little the sand if little the seas, little are minds of men, for ne’er in the world were all equally wise, ’tis shared by the fools and the sage. [Source] The Holy Quran: Sura XIII Tr. Yusuf Ali 14. For Him (alone) is prayer In Truth: any others that they Call upon besides Him hear them No more than if they were To stretch forth their hands For water to reach their... Read more
Fear is not meant to be a constant state of being. It’s meant to be an alert system. As an alert system, to real and immediate threats, it works remarkably well. As an ongoing opportunity-assessment tool, however, it sucks. If we allow fear to induce us into rejecting possibilities, or stressing out over maybes, we operate at a lower level of capability. We reduce our ability to reason, to empathize, to be creative, to be calm, and to make the most... Read more
Bible: 1 John 2 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is past and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in... Read more
Fear comes when we perceive a threat to us. The threat may be physical: harm, injury, illness. Or it may be a threat that could bring some other type of harm to us, such as loss, discomfort, embarrassment, rejection, loneliness, grief, confusion, so on. Fear is an equal-opportunity response. It doesn’t matter, really, whether the threat is real or potential. It doesn’t even seem to matter whether potential threats are likely or unlikely. And it doesn’t matter much whether the... Read more
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas Tr. Thomas O. Lambdin 2) Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.” 3) Jesus said, “If those who lead you say, ‘See, the Kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the... Read more
It is too easy to feel bad about yourself. We start out in life knowing nothing. We might feel, perhaps, for a while, perfectly accepted. We might never feel that. But even in the best and most loving of families and environments, pure and perfect acceptance quickly gives way to something else. There are rules. There are expectations. There are mistakes, and we make them, and don’t even know what we’ve done wrong. But we learn. We learn so quickly that we... Read more
The Veil of Isis: Part 1, Chapter 1 Helena P. Blavatsky On the dead soil of the long by-gone past stand their sacred oaks, now dried up and stripped of their spiritual meaning by the venomous breath of materialism. But for the student of occult learning, their vegetation is still as verdant and luxuriant, and as full of deep and sacred truths, as at that hour when the arch-druid performed his magical cures, and waving the branch of mistletoe, severed... Read more
Sacred Readings
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