He was still and gazed deeply into the infinite pool that bears stars into being. Above him was a tiny smudge of light that was the closest galaxy. It was spinning, spinning, but so far away that one could look for a whole lifetime and not see it alter. The galaxies out there whirled into each other like discs, blinding into space without colliding--passing through each other at thousands of miles per second, yet they did not appear to move.
Suddenly he understood: Time is an illusion of the mind. Only love remains.
When you take a dirty floor ... and make it spotlessly clean, and this polish it until it shines, it radiates back to you the love which you poured into it; the divinity of that floor has been drawn forth.
True service isn't an act, but an attitude. We can do things for other people with all kinds of self-serving motives. True service, however, stems from a feeling of humility, gratitude, and the essential recognition that we are in this together... Service is love in action -- as simple as a friendly smile or nod to a stranger -- or as all embracing as the life of Peace Pilgrim or Mother Teresa.
In all our activities we may be seeking God: in our work, on our social occasions, as we walk along the road, even when we are so busy that we have not time to think of anything except what we are doing... God can deal with us under a thousand forms for our spiritual hallowing. Behind all the strange puzzles of life there is the secret working of God, creating life, creating character, accepting service -- all sorts of spiritual shaping going on.
~ from CHRIST THE COMPANION by S.D.C. Father Andrew
BLESSINGS of the Silence be with you, friends! In the rush and noise of life, pause, step within yourself and be still. Rest and wait upon God. This will enable you to flow through the day's affairs. Ask, what is my best Work.
In the luminous darkness through which we travel on our human journey, we are often lonely but never alone. Road-weary, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the difficulties we face during our brief days, we are tempted to despair or to settle for cheap optimism. But in the deep place of the spirit, we are moved and called forth to undertake this ongoing adventure by the yearning, restless, and creative One who -- though called by the ten thousand names of God -- is still clothed in marvelous silence.
The only little journey we have to make -- the only little moment of transition -- is the moment where we actually become aware of the dignity and beauty and light of the presence in which we already are. I think that being here in this graced planet of landscape, nature, presence, and person is the miracle -- is the journey.
Our real journey in life is interior: a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.
Our spiritual journey is deeply reflected by the evolution of the voice and by the ways in which we communicate with others. Our fears, softness, sharp edges, peacefulness, and joy are carried to others by our tone, words or lack of words. As people become more whole and in tune with themselves, they usually speak with greater simplicity, resonating from both heart and head.
Why is it so difficult to give up old perceptions when it is clear that what we really know is only a fraction of what there is to be known? The tiny fraction we see is not the only way it is. Whenever we say, "I know it," it means that we no longer want to struggle with other ways of seeing it. But the way we once saw it may not be the way it is now. Certainly the way something is now does not determine that it will always be that way because we are, all of us, on a journey whose ultimate destination is unknown.
The sublimation of the human will to the Greater Will is the prime challenge of the spiritual Journey. In fact, this transference of one's allegiance from self to Self, and to God, IS the essence of the spiritual Path. All other aspects of this Path -- all practices, all tests and trials, all teachings and disciplines, and all of the love and the adversity are a part of the great drama of the gradual fusing of the mortal, lesser self with that which is immortal and immutable. But in order to become one with God, the soul itself must first possess an identity, rounded out and matured as a worthy offering to give back to its Creator.
~ from BEETHOVEN AND THE SPIRITUAL PATH by David Tame
We are divine but imperfect beings who exist in two worlds, material and spiritual. Knowing we have a home of everlasting love waiting for us, makes us receptive to the higher spiritual power within our minds... The highest forms of self-expression are acts of kindness. Our soul may be traveling away from a permanent home, but we are not just tourists. We bear responsibility in the evolution of a higher consciousness for ourselves and others in life. Thus, our journey is a collective one.
We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished,
but it is going on;
this is not the end,
but it is the road.
Wishing each friend A BLESSED SUMMER! Through pauses in the Silence, may you remain aware of the Sacred Journey to wholeness wherever you are, wherever you travel. May you invite times of quiet relaxtion and re-creation into your life. As Frederick Franck reminds us in The Zen of Seeing, "In this twentieth century, to stop rushing around, to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world and come back to the earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a cloud, a leaf, is an unforgettable experience".
The spiritual journey is an expanding awareness of the Divine as all in all, vividly and actually present in all external reality, without dualistic separations. Here is the simple truth I keep trying to own, the one that breaks the bounds of beauty: everything is in God, and God is in everything. Think of it. There is no separation, no conflict, no obstruction between the world and the Divine. All that exists is penetrated with divinity. Creation, matter, our bodies -- everything is a vast incarnation or manifestation of Real Presence.
~ from "Silence in the Midst of Noise" by Sue Monk Kidd given at the Schola Retreat Conference
We can be played by the wind, and what we speak will be the sound of the moment, bringing with the word the possibility of real change rather than the apparency of change. We all know this somewhere deep within ourselves, and although God gives us everything, it is up to us to be so finely tuned that the music that is played is of Truth itself.
~ from REASON IS POWERLESS IN THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE by Reshad Feild
The origins of music lie far back in time. It arises out of proportion and is rooted in the Great One ... That from which all beings arise and have their origin is the Great One ... When the world is at peace, when all things are at rest, then music can be brought to perfection.
~ from THE SPRING AND AUTUMN ANNALS OF LU BUWEI by Di Jiangyue
At a certain pitch of religious experience, the heart just wants to sing; it breaks into song. Paradoxically, you could say when silence finds its fullness, it comes to word. As the Book of Wisdom says, "When night in its swift course had reached its halfway point and deep silence embraced everything" -- when night was at its darkest and deepest -- there "the eternal Word leaped from the Heavenly throne": silence burst into song.
We each listen to a different music within, one uniquely our own. A special joy is finding and refining the creative spark which leads us to follow in rhythm to the pace and tempo of our God-given talents.
