BEHOLD THE SPIRIT, A STUDY IN THE NECESSITY OF MYSTICAL RELIGION
Alan Watts
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"Love, in the divine sense, is the giving of one's whole being to another, and when we say that God is love we mean that he gives his entire infinite Self to every single object of his love, to every creature that he has made."
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"The eternal life of God is GIVEN to man here and now in the 'flesh' of each moment's experience."
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"God is the most obvious thing in the world. He is absolutely self-evident – the simplest, clearest and closest reality of life and consciousness."
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"God out of unchangeable and infinite love has given union with himself to the soul."
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"Every process, every movement from the circling of stars to the vibration of a gnat's wing, is not only under the complete control of God, but also occupies his entire consciousness as if it were the only thing that was happening."
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"God and union with God are Reality; nothing is more real, more concrete, more actual, and more present."
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"The motive power of any vital religion is the divine love."
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"When we say that man is made in the image of God, we mean that he is free. This is one of the deepest of human intuitions, and it can only be denied at the price of surrendering rational thought."
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"We now know beyond doubt that large and widely scattered numbers of otherwise sane and sober people have had experiences of 'cosmic consciousness' in which the sense of life becomes perfectly clear. The antagonisms of good and evil, life and death, being and nothing, self and other are felt as the poles or undulations of a single, eternal and harmonious energy –exuding a sense of joy and love."
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"God's divinity is united inseparably to me. I move my foot, and lo! It glows like God himself." 'Divine Hymns of Love', quoted in'Orthodox Spirituality'
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"To man and to atom, to star-cloud and to earth, to sun and to snow crystal, to mountain and to worm, to sage and to fool, to saint and to sinner, God, to whom size and number offer no obstacle, gives eternal and inescapable union with his very Self."
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"Everywhere the will of God reigns supreme."
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"In its deepest meaning, the good news of the Gospel is that union with God is a free and universal gift and that the consciousness of it is presented to us in the Eternal Now – in short, that the love of God is generous beyond comprehension."
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"Every discernible part or process is a sort of microcosm or hologram. That is to say, the whole is expressed in or implied by every part, as is the brain in each one of its cells."
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"In the Eternal Now we shall find that strait and narrow gate, that needle's eye, through which we are taken into the infinite life of God."
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"In its created being (the soul) incessantly receives the impress of its Eternal Archetype, like a flawless mirror, in which the image remains steadfast and in which the reflection is renewed without interruption by its ever-new reception in new light." John of Ruysbroeck, 'Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage'
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"The splendour of God…is that without let to his absolute holiness and self-sufficiency, he has made himself one in love and one in life with every finite and errant member of his universe – here and now."
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"Every moment is the message of God's will; every external event, everything outside us, and even every involuntary thought and feeling within us is God's own touch." Dom John Chapman
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"The mystic knows that in some mysterious and indescribable manner God and his universe are one."
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"Here, where there is neither past nor future, the doors of perception are cleansed, and we see everything as it is – infinite."
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"We are living in touch with God. Everything we come in contact with, the whole of our daily circumstances, and all our interior responses, whether pleasure or pains, are God's working. We are living in God – in God's action, as a fish in the water." J. P. DeCaussade, 'Abandonment to Divine Providence'
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"In all things one should endeavour to find God….in conversation, in walking, seeing, tasting, hearing, thinking, and in fact in all kinds of activity, for of a truth the majesty of God is in all things." St. Ignatius Loyola
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"God has wedded himself to humanity, has united his divine essence with our inmost being."
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"If we knew how to greet each moment as the manifestation of the divine will, we would find in it all the heart could desire….The present moment is always filled with infinite treasures: it contains more than you are capable of receiving….The divine will is an abyss, of which the present moment is the entrance; plunge fearlessly therein and you will find it more boundless than your desire." J. P. DeCaussade, 'Abandonment to the Divine Providence'
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"The presence of God as the Eternal Now is a truth which, at least in part, should be able to penetrate our consciousness with ease. God has made it that way out of love."
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