July 15

Help us, Holy One

to begin our quest for you

knowing and accepting

that you will forever escape

our every attempt to confine you

to what we can understand.

Our words cannot capture you.

Our imagination cannot define you.

Our hearts cannot limit you.

But support us, I beg you,

on a journey without end,

with a love that knows no bounds.

Angelus Silesius (1600’s)

We don’t have to defeat our humanness in order to be happy. Defeating our humanness will not work. It’s like a general sending squadron after squadron of troops on suicide missions against a huge and impregnable wall, trying to breach the wall head on. Instead of this we have to just send a peaceful scout or two to ride slowly along the wall- until the way around it is discovered. It’s necessary to accept the real facts and real consequences of being human. That’s the way to be happy and to help others to be happy.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

God is the purest naught

untouched by time or space;

the more we reach for him,

the more he will escape.

Angelus Silesius (1600’s)

The life of letting go is the life of freedom, the life of nonattachment. Nonattachment doesn’t mean we are distant from things or have no warmth or no care for things; the word nonattachment is good because it suggests some distance and in love there always has to be some distance- some spaciousness or openness. In ordinary everyday human life there is always some desire- if there weren't any desire there couldn't be any life. But if desire is held onto too strongly it becomes very confining. If there’s too much strongly held desire in our loving then our loving becomes confining too and soon it is no longer love, it turns into dependency, or even antipathy; real love has to have some distance in it, some nonattachment.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

D.H. Lawrence wrote: “Men are not free when they are doing whatever they like. Men are only free when they are doing what the deepest self likes. And there is getting down to the deepest self. It takes some diving.”

When we are motivated by immediate gratification to do “just what we like”, we will feel continuously driven. No amount of productivity or consuming or recognition can break through the trance of unworthiness and put us in touch with the “deepest self”. As Lawrence points out, to do what the deepest self likes, “takes some diving.” To listen and respond to the heart requires a committed and genuine presence. The more completely we’re caught in the surface world of pursuing substitutes, the harder it is to dive.

Tara Brach

Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and you shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened to you.
For whoever asks, receives;
and he who seeks, finds;
and to him who knocks, the door is opened.

Matthew 7:7:8 - Jesus of Nazareth

With the eye of nonattachment we can see that the object of our love can never be possessed, can never be held onto. When I say this maybe it seems tragic to you. In a way it is tragic, tragic if you don’t like it and you don’t want to accept it. But if you accept it you see that it is a good thing that we cannot possess or hold onto the object of our love: because if we could it would not really be a living being; it would only be our invention, and inventions are not lovable. Any living being needs its own integrity and its own freedom and spaciousness- so there has to be always some distance and nonattachment in loving.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

Two disciples of an old rabbi were arguing about the true path to God. One said the path was built on effort and energy. “You must give yourself totally and fully with all your effort to follow the way of the law: to pray, to pay attention, and to live rightly.” The second disciple disagreed. It is no effort at all. That is only based on ego. It is pure surrender. To follow the way to God to awaken is to let go of all things and live the teaching. ‘Not my will but thine.’”

As they could not agree on who was right they went to see the master. He listened as the first disciple praised the path of wholehearted effort and when asked by the disciple, “Is this the true path?” the master said, “You’re right.” The second disciple was quite upset and responded eloquently with the path of surrender and letting go.” When he had finished he asked, “Is this not the true path?” The ,master responded, “You are right.” A third disciple was in the room and said, “But master, they cannot both be right.” And the master smiled and said, “You are right too!”

It would be easier, Divine One

To stay with what I know

To take only well marked paths

to familiar places

in my heart and soul.

But if I am to come to you

then I must leave behind

the comfort of what I already know

and accept your invitation

to journey into your infinite mystery.

Take my hand,

guide my steps,

Give courage to my heart and soul.

John Kirvan

July 8, 2007

‘...the sense of an object as being attractive, unattractive, or neutral...feelings of pleasure, pain, or neutrality arise. Due to such feelings, attachment develops, this being the attachment of not wanting to separate from pleasure and the attachment of wanting to separate from suffering...’ the Dalai Lama

There ain’t no answer.

There ain’t going to be any answer.

There never has been an answer.

That’s the answer

Gertrude Stein

In the 16th century, St. John of the Cross counsels that after, and in the midst of, our liturgies, hymns and discursive prayers, Christians must also occasionally enter a dark night of the senses and soul, emptying ourselves of our self-centered preferences and ideas about God and everything else. Jesus modeled this discipline of self-emptying love for us, but he did not do it instead of us. We ourselves need to clear our minds of self-centered and habitual thinking. We must become inwardly nonattached in an ambience of love that continuously connects us to others and to creation. Our contemplative tradition tells us that when we open ourselves to the Divine movement within, the Holy Spirit will help us do this work. We do the work of creating a space within us for God, and then trust that the Holy Spirit will do the work in us: as we flow out of ourselves, the Holy Spirit flows in.

We need not take ourselves quite so seriously. If all things are constantly transforming and will eventually die, then, perhaps the best way to live is not by holding on, but by letting go with all our might – letting go of our impossible craving for certainly or significance; letting go of our demands on the universe for perfect happiness and everlasting life. Our only option may be to learn what Alan Watts called ‘the wisdom of insecurity” and to discover that which Camus sought – a way to be comfortable with unfamiliarity. We are then free to leap with Chuang Tzu into the boundless and make it our home. Accepting uncertainty as our philosophy might allow us to honor each other’s stories more, delighting in all the bizarre and wondrous interpretations of the mystery. We might also show more tolerance for those who appear to be fools, and for those who speak truths we don’t wish to hear.

Wes Niskeryh

"What in the world happened at the picnic yesterday?" a fellow asked Mulla Nasrudin. "They are saying around the tavern that you acted like a coward." "Well, I am no fool," the Mulla said. "Some of the girls found a big hornet's nest in the top of a tree and dared me to climb up and get it. And I just didn't do it, that's all." "Whether you were smart or not," said the friend, "That sort of thing makes you unhonored and unsung around here." "THAT'S RIGHT," said Nasrudin, "BUT I AM ALSO UNHARMED AND UNSTUNG."

But letting go is hard to do because our human mind persistently wants to hold on; it has an enormous and ancient habit of holding on. In fact, holding on is all we know; holding on is literally us, and we do not want to give ourself up. Letting go feels like death and we are frightened of death because it means the end of us. And actually letting go is a kind of death- it may be literally sometimes death: we have to let go of our life sometime. But actually whether it is what we call death or just everyday letting go it really is death anyway. Every moment we have to die - every moment anyway we do die to this moment of our lives. It is gone and it will never return. If it is a wonderful moment it will go away and if it is a terrible moment it will go away in exactly the same way. Every moment dies to itself and this is how every moment of our lives takes care of itself completely; every moment contains within itself its own perfect resolution. To practice letting go is to participate with this actual moment by moment dying which is life: to let go is to join our life.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

Ho! If I am supposed to get sick, let me get sick, and I'll be happy.

May this sickness purify my negative karma and the sickness of all sentient beings.

If I am supposed to be healed, let all my sickness and confusion be healed, and I'll be happy.

May all sentient beings be healed and filled with happiness.

If I am supposed to die, let me die, and I'll be happy.

May all the delusion and the causes of suffering of sentient beings die.

If I am supposed to live a long life, let me live a long life, and I'll be happy.

May my life be meaningful in service to sentient beings.

If my life is to be cut short, let it be cut short, and I'll be happy.

May I and all others be free from attachment and aversion.

Letting go really is dying but dying isn’t just dying: dying is freedom, release, peacefulness. Dying means laying down the burden of our life and going off into the mountains for a big hike, just wandering around, like a cloud. Dying means that we don’t hold onto anything of the six senses- whatever we see hear smell taste touch or think we just appreciate it for what it actually is - we don’t “me” it and try to hold it fixed- we just let it come and go- we allow it to be born and die as it really is being born and dying moment by moment.

This is really the kindest way to live and it is the only way to love: to let each thing really be what it is and then to let it go- to let it be free. To try to hold ourselves or our world or another person in place is impossible. Nothing can be held in place. Life is very pressured, very stressful, very burdensome- and this is why- because we are trying mightily to hold in place what cannot be held in place, we are trying to preserve the unpreservable and fix the unfixable. Actually everything has integrity as it is; everything is surrounded by immense space: each of our thoughts, even our miseries, certainly trees and grasses, the sun and moon and clouds, our human body- everything passes and reappears as it is, all of it operating together in a marvelous harmony of freely passing by, if we will only let it, if we will only let go and allow it to be that way in the course of our living.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer

O, Brother of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other's guilt.
Don't let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS translated from the Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West

July 1, 2007

Let our hearts be the vessel of God's Love.

Let our thoughts be the blossom of God's Love.

Let our words be the expression of God's Love.

Let our actions be the fulfillment of God's Love.

willingness - David Ridge

Attachment is the origin, the root of suffering; hence it is the cause of suffering.’ [1]

Attachment is an attraction: a like or dislike, which we express in many different ways to people, situations, possessions and definitely in our own projections and expressions. In fact, we do not know how to live without attachment. It is a condition that can create some form of holding on to– sensory, sensual, emotional, intellectual, subjective or objective – some form of repulsion or attraction. This is the concept of attachment in a nutshell: It is the human tendency to identify with, to link up and to relate to something very intimately from a very personal point of view. We cannot develop objectivity in that situation because we are constantly projecting ourselves.

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

If one

Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs

Attraction; from attraction grows desire,

Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds

Recklessness; then the memory—all betrayed—

Let noble purposes go, and saps the mind,

Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.

Bhagavad Gita

Human beings get attached to ideas — ideas about who they are, what's the best way to live, ideas about what other people should be like, how other people should live, and so on — and our attachment to those ideas causes most of our day-to-day suffering. It really does. I know it seems like the circumstances and reality is what makes us unhappy. But it is our ideas about reality and believing that other people really should be different that causes the suffering, not the reality itself. When you change your ideas about something, it changes the way you feel about it.

Adam Khan

Do everything with a mind that lets go.
Do not expect any praise or reward.
If you let go a little, you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom.
Your struggles with the world
will have come to an end.

insight meditation - achaan chah

We tend to run away from discord. Discord and anger are real so what is the use of reacting against them? The moment we react we are creating a process within ourselves which holds on to the negativity, and the moment that happens, our mind, nature and behaviour are affected by that impression. Our past impressions and memories bring up the corresponding negative emotion and we project anger, frustration or discord, more so than it actually is.

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

In this life we cannot do great things.
We can only do small things with great love.

mother teresa

Let nothing disturb thee;
Let nothing dismay thee;
All things pass:
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Lacks for nothing:
God alone suffices.

st. teresa of avila - 16th century

June 24, 2007

An ancient philosopher says the soul is made in between one and two. The one is eternity, ever alone and without variation. The two is time, changing and given to multiplication. He means to convey that the soul in her higher powers touches eternity, God, that is, while her lower powers being in contact with time make her subject to change and biased towards bodily things, which degrade her.

Meister Eckhart

To be identified with your mind is to be trapped in time: the compulsion to live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation. This creates an endless preoccupation with past and future and an unwillingness to honor and acknowledge the present moment and allow it to be. The compulsion arises because the past gives you an identity and the future holds to the promise of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.

Eckhart Tole

That’s the main thing. As long as you are wanting to be thinner, smarter, more enlightened, less uptight, or whatever it might be, some how you are always going to be approaching your problem with the same logic that created it to begin with: you’re not good enough.

Pema Chodron

What you thin k of as the past is a memory trace, stored in the mind of a former Now. When you remember the past, you reactivate a memory trace – and you do so now. The future is an imagined Now, a projection of the mind. When you think about the future, you do it now. Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power and reality of the eternal present. Their reality is “borrowed” from the now.

Eckhart Tole

A modern master described how the Buddha had encouraged the monks by stating that those who practiced diligently would surely be enlightened in seven days, or if not then in seven, months, or seven years. A young American Monk heard this and asked if it was still true. The master, Achaan Chah promised that if the young monk was continuously mindful without break for only seven days, he would be enlightened.

Excitedly the young monk started seven days, only to be lost in forgetfulness ten minutes later. Coming back to himself, he again started the seven days, only to be lost once again in mindless thought – perhaps about what he would do after his enlightenment. Again, and again. And again he began his seven days, and again and again he lost his continuity of mindfulness. A week later, he was not enlightened, but he had become very much aware of his habitual fantasies and wandering mind – a most instructive way to begin his practice on the Path to real awakening.

Buddhist story

Spiritually there is a lesson in every moment. When we are seemingly stuck in a boring routine, the miracle lies not so much in finding something else to do as in realizing how much we can do in a single moment – through the power of our own consciousness – to transform ourselves and the world around us. Marianne Williamson

Looking forwards and backwards [in time] is how we lose joy. How we become fragmented, shallow, and diversified. Once gotten beyond time and temporalities we are free and joyous all the time; then is the fullness of time, then is the Son of God born in you.

Meister Eckhart

The essence of what I am saying here cannot be understood by the mind. The moment you grasp it, there is a shift in consciousness from mind to Being, from time to presence. Suddenly, everything feels alive, radiates energy, and emanates Being.

Eckhart Tole

Saint Theresa's Prayer

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

Father's Day

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard

"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann

Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.

Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern

Luke 17:21

"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus

In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006

From "The Way of the Pilgrim" (Christian writer):

"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.

Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

A healed person is . . . a person who realizes a new personal identity as one who comes from God and is going to God. Such a person knows that he or she lives a limited, chronologically circumscribed life, and yet one also feels oneself to be standing in a place of love, blessedness, freedom and healing that is timeless. In Jesus's mind, such a person refocuses his or her life to love God and others in unselfish ways. St. Paul would call such a state of consciousness the mind of Christ--something that we already have, if we but turn to God in each moment. This much seems clear.

Robert A. Jonas, 2006

Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive

Jump into life while you are alive!

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,

do you think

ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –

that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard

"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann

Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.

Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern

Luke 17:21

"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus

In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006

From "The Way of the Pilgrim" (Christian writer):

"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.

Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

A healed person is . . . a person who realizes a new personal identity as one who comes from God and is going to God. Such a person knows that he or she lives a limited, chronologically circumscribed life, and yet one also feels oneself to be standing in a place of love, blessedness, freedom and healing that is timeless. In Jesus's mind, such a person refocuses his or her life to love God and others in unselfish ways. St. Paul would call such a state of consciousness the mind of Christ--something that we already have, if we but turn to God in each moment. This much seems clear.

Robert A. Jonas, 2006

Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive

Jump into life while you are alive!

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,

do you think

ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –

that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
-- Annie Dillard

"Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden
hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for
they are gone forever."
-- Horace Mann

Mark Twain, Old Times on the Mississippi:
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.

We lose the power of the moment because we're so rarely in it. We're
reliving the past or speculating about the future. We continue to
believe that tomorrow's the day when I'll be more capable, more wealthy,
more fit and more loving. Meanwhile, I'm just putting in time, dreaming
of better things but not making any concrete move to realize them.
When you find yourself thinking of the future or the past, bring your
awareness into the present moment. Really experience how you feel and
what's happening around you, without judgment. If we can treasure each
moment, our lives will be rich, no matter what we have accomplished.

Marcelene Cox:
Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves.

Harry S Truman:
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

"If, before going to bed every night, you will tear a page from the
calendar, and remark, 'there goes another day of my life, never to
return,' you will become time conscious."
-- A. B. Zu Tavern

Luke 17:21

"The Realm of God is here and now" — Jesus

In Philippians (2:5ff), St. Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself ” (Greek: kenosis), taking the form of a servant. Jesus’s many acts of service and healing did not come from a mind that was thinking and analyzing about what to do or say, but rather from a mind that had emptied itself into God. Jesus’s mind was emptied of self-reference and the centripetal force of merely personal preference. In his “emptiness,” God’s infinite love could shine through Jesus’s human form unencumbered. Through him, the invisible could become visible. In this way, the purified Christian mind is analogous to Tibetan Buddhist emptiness and to Zen’s “no-thought-ness” (Jap. munen). Visible, tangible compassion arises out of nothing, out of the emptiness that circulates in God. This spiritual emptiness is not a shallow nihilism, a nonchalant rejection of ultimate meaning, but rather a deep focused detachment of mind and heart that has been shaped within a profound ethical context Robert A. Jonas, 2006

From "The Way of the Pilgrim" (Christian writer):

"Remember God always, everywhere and in all situations…When you behold light, remember who gives it to you, when you see heaven and earth and sea and all that they contain, be in awe and give praise to their Creator. When you put on your clothes, remember whose gift they are and give thanks to Him who takes care of your needs.

Anonymous
One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be.

A healed person is . . . a person who realizes a new personal identity as one who comes from God and is going to God. Such a person knows that he or she lives a limited, chronologically circumscribed life, and yet one also feels oneself to be standing in a place of love, blessedness, freedom and healing that is timeless. In Jesus's mind, such a person refocuses his or her life to love God and others in unselfish ways. St. Paul would call such a state of consciousness the mind of Christ--something that we already have, if we but turn to God in each moment. This much seems clear.

Robert A. Jonas, 2006

Friend, hope for a guest while you are alive

Jump into life while you are alive!

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,

do you think

ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten –

that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire…

Kabir