THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICS
Andrew Harvey
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"If people can….realize all as one, then people can be companions of heaven." Liu I Ming (b. 1737), Taoist adept
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"Creation is the extension of God. Creation is God encountered in time and space. Creation is the infinite in the garb of the finite. To attend to creation is to attend to God. To attend to the moment is to attend to eternity. To attend to the part is to attend to the whole." 'Pirke Avot', 6:2 (Rabbinic sayings, ca. 250-275),
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"Even as a mother watches over and protects her child, her only child, so with a boundless mind should one cherish all living beings, radiating friendliness over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit. So let everyone cultivate a boundless good will toward the entire world, uncramped, free from ill will or enmity." The Majjhima Nikaya
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"Whatever we see or think about is the manifestation of the Mother, of the Primordial Energy, the Primal Consciousness." Ramakrishna
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"The Spirit filled all with his radiance. He is incorporeal and invulnerable, pure and untouched by evil. He is the supreme seer and thinker, immanent and transcendent. He placed all things in the path of Eternity." Isa Upanishad
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"Seek to know Brahman by 'tapas', by prayer, because Brahman is prayer." Taittiriya Upanishad
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"Every human being is one with Brahman in his or her Atman – his or her divine self or soul. The aim of human life is to know the Atman consciously and to live the calm, fearless, and selflessly loving life that arises from this knowledge."
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"Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. Better still is surrender in love, because there follows immediate peace." Bhagavad Gita
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"The mind shall be God-vision's tabernacle, the body intuition's instrument, and life a channel for God's visible power….The Spirit's tops and Nature's base shall draw near to the secret of their separate truth and know each other as one deity. The Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze and Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face. Then man and superman shall be at one and all the earth become a single life." Aurobindo (1872-1950), Hindu mystic philosopher, 'Savitri'
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"'This is myself and this is another.' – Be free of this bond which encompasses you about, and your own self is thereby released." Saraha, 9th century Buddhist monk and poet
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"Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that leads him to do right with instinctive sureness." I Ching, Hexagram 25
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"However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them. However inexhaustible the defilements are, I vow to extinguish them. However immeasurable the dharmas are, I vow to master them. However incomparable enlightenment is, I vow to attain it." Bodhisattva vows
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"The universe, as many mystical traditions tell us, is the 'child' of a sacred marriage between the feminine and masculine forces within the One."
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"Behind all multiplicity in Hinduism there is always the underlying indivisible and eternal unity of all things."
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"My heart has become capable of every form: It is a pasture for gazelles and a monastery for Christian monks…and the pilgrim's Ka'ba, and the tablets of the Torah, and the Book of the Koran. I follow the religion of Love; whatever way love's camel takes, that is my religion, my faith." Ibn Arabi (1165-1240), Spanish Sufi philosopher
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"Let me tell you why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and….he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men. God desired that all things should be good." Plato, 'Timaeus'
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"Why not plunge into union with the Great Goddess Kali? Discover your spiritual anxiety to be without the slightest ground." Ramprasad, 18th century Bengali mystic
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"The Soul is not divided, nor does it split up in order to give life to each individual. All things live by the Soul in its entirety; it is all present everywhere." Plotinus (204-270), Greek philosopher, 'Enneads'
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"Love, the Supreme Musician, is always playing in our souls." Rumi
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"The law of the Supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity." Aurobindo (1872-1950), Hindu mystical philosopher
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"Never fear that this inner treasure of all reality will wither and decay. This knows no age when the body ages; this knows no dying when the body dies. This is the real city of Brahman; this is the Self, free from old age, from death and grief, hunger and thirst. In the Self all desires are fulfilled." Chandogya Upanishad
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"The Lord dwells in the hearts of all creatures, and he whirls them round on the wheel of time. Run to him for refuge with all your strength and peace profound will be yours through his grace." Bhagavad Gita
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"A single moment of awakening in this world is eternity in the world to come. The inner peace of the world to come is living in this world with full attention." Pirke Avot 4:22 (Rabbinic sayings, 250-275)
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"There is only one longing this poet's soul declares over and over: 'Mother! Mother! Mother! May every moment of my existence merge completely with your essence.'" Ramprasad, 18th century Bengali mystic
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"Every mystic of every time and tradition has awakened in wonder and rapture to the signs of this eternal Presence and known its mystery as one of relation and love."
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