Spiritual Quotes - Page 295

Compassion being action without motive, without self-interest, without any sense of fear, without any sense of pleasure.

The demand to be safe in a relationship inevitably breeds sorrow and fear.

Meditation is the process of understanding your own mind.

The earth doesn't belong to anyone. It is the land upon which all of us are to live for many years, ploughing, reaping and destroying. You are always a guest on this earth and have the austerity of a guest. Austerity is far deeper than owning only a few things. The very word austerity has been spoilt by the monks, by the sannyasis, by the hermits. Sitting on that high hill alone in the solitude of many things, many rocks and little animals and ants, that word has no meaning.

The very attention given to finding out if the mind can be completely quiet is quietness.

Through self-knowledge you begin to find out what is God, what is truth, what is that state which is timeless. In self-knowledge is the whole universe; it embraces all the struggles of humanity.

As with other movements of the spirit, simplicity can be both a cause and an effect. As a spiritual path develops, so there is a yearning for a simpler life; as we simplify our life, so the inner voice becomes clearer.

A man that advances in spiritual and in temporal matters at the same time, minding to keep the spiritual first, will not let the temporal lead him; he will not place his heart upon his farm, his horses, or any possession that he has. He will place his desires in heaven, and will anchor his hope in that eternal soil; and his temporal affairs will come up as he advances in the knowledge of God.

He who believes himself to be far advanced in the spiritual life has not even made a good beginning.

Every one of us is more beloved to the Lord than we can possibly understand or imagine.

Christ was the first feminist and because of that I've learned from his teaching to call myself a Christian feminist, adding that her faith is not a matter of traditions and dogmas but, rather, a spiritual experience.

Judaism, Christianity & Islam are innovations on fragments from the periphery of the African cultural and spiritual system.

I'm asked that a lot: 'James, is there really a continuing spiritual renaissance occurring on this planet? Look at all the conflict, look at the wars.' And I believe, yes, we're still moving toward a deeper spirituality. It's personal. It's grassroots. It's everybody trying to get their own connection made, and from there it grows out.

Too often in the west we fail to realize that even in eastern disciplines the spiritual life is not meant as an escape from the worldly life. There is karma to be fulfilled on earth, within the dharma of necessity.

Few of us take the pains to study the origin of our cherished convictions.

As reason and revelation both tell us that this state of being is but a preparation for another of a still higher and more spiritual order, all the interests of life are of comparatively little importance, when put in the balance against the future.

When Whitney Houston died, I felt great sadness. My sadness, of course, was about our collective loss - when you listened to this nightingale sing, your body would drop into a chair, your head would tilt up, a small smile would creep across your face, and inside you knew that there was a higher power somewhere: gifted, beautiful, spiritual.

I must oppose any attempt that Negroes may make to do to others what has been done to them. . . . I know the spiritual wasteland to which that road leads . . . whoever debases others is debasing himself.

The science and technology of how this life functions and what we can do with it, is what we refer to as yoga.

We are eating, using up, and possessing more than we should. That is why a large portion of the human population is hungry.

Generally, people who are not self-realized are full of themselves. One who is self-realized sees that the whole world is full of one.

It is not because there is God that devotion has come; because there is devotion, there is God.

The whole creation is so tenderly balanced - this manifests the mastery of the Creator.

Creation is not your doing, but the way you are, the way you experience life, the situations you attract, are one hundred percent your doing.

If you pay sufficient attention, everything in life is magnificent, everything is a doorway to the Divine.