THE ESSENTIAL MYSTICS
Andrew Harvey
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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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"As great as the infinite space beyond is the space within the lotus of the heart. Both heaven and earth are contained in that inner space, both fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars. Whether we know it in this world or know it not, everything is contained in that inner space." Chandogya Upanishad
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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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"When you are filled with compassion, there is no self to oppose another and no other to stand against oneself." Pirke Avot 2:4 (Rabbinic sayings, 250-275)
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"Love, the Supreme Musician, is always playing in our souls." Rumi
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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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"I see with eyes open and smile, and behold His beauty everywhere: I utter His Name, and whatever I see, it reminds me of Him; whatever I do, it becomes His worship. The rising and the setting are one to me; all contraditions are solved." Kabir (1440-1518), Indian mystic poet
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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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"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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"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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"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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"The law of the Supermind is unity fulfilled in diversity." Aurobindo (1872-1950), Hindu mystical philosopher
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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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"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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"Seek to know Brahman by 'tapas', by prayer, because Brahman is prayer." Taittiriya Upanishad
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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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"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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"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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"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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"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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"Behind all multiplicity in Hinduism there is always the underlying indivisible and eternal unity of all things."
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"Every soul is a daughter of the Godhead." Plotinus (204-270), Greek philosopher, 'Enneads'
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"In moments of darkness and pain remember all is cyclical. Sit quietly behind your wooden door: Spring will come again." Loy Ching Yuen, (born ca. 1870), Taoist master
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"There exists just the One Mind….Every grain of matter, every appearance is one with Eternal and Immutable Reality!" Huang Po, founder of the Buddhist Lin Chi sect
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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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