Quote of the Week 417 - The Answer

 Quote of the Week 417 - The Answer

 The answer to the Mysteries:

 

Doo dum dum dum

 

Da doo dum dum

 

--Leonard Cohen,  “Tower of Song”, Live in London

Quote of the Week 416 - Coping with the void

 Quote of the Week 416 - Coping with the void

 

Everyone in our nation has a terrifying void inside that we attempt to fill with work, smartphones, and every other addiction. Some of us enter 12-step programs, where we become addicted to meetings, but the void persists.

We each keep our emptiness a shameful secret. It never occurs to us that everyone around us shares the exact same interior void.

 

--Sparrow, The Sun magazine, August 2020 issue

 

My comments:

 

Existentialism teaches to accept the void and deal with it.

 

Zen teaches to embrace, even celebrate the void, not try to fill it.

Quote of the Week 415 - The most Brilliant Light

Quote of the Week 415 - The Most Brilliant Light

 

There is no light as brilliant as that which emerges out of the Dark.

 

--Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

Quote of the Week 414 - The Point to Life

Quote of the Week 414 - The Point to Life  

There is no point to life; life itself is the point.

--Rabbi Rami Shapiro, from Raodside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler, Spirituality & Health Magazine, July/August 2020 issue

Quote of the Week 413 - Saints and Sinners

Quote of the Week 413 - Saints and Sinners

There is no saint without a past

and no sinner without a future.

--Shri Babaji Haidakhan

Quote of the Week 412 - Here, There and Everywhere

Quote of the Week 412 - Here, There and Everywhere

My three children, the only European children at Tiruvannamalai, were conspicuous among the devotees. One evening, in December 1946 Sri Bhagavan initiated the two elder of them into meditation, and if their efforts to describe it fail, so do those of older people. Kitty, who was ten, wrote: “When I was sitting in the hall this evening Bhagavan smiled at me and I shut my eyes and began to meditate. As soon as I shut my eyes I felt very happy and felt that Bhagavan was very, very near to me and very real and that he was in me. It wasn’t like being happy and excited about anything. I don’t know what to say, simply very happy and that Bhagavan is so lovely.”    

And Adam, who was seven, wrote: “When I was sitting in the hall I didn’t feel happy so I began to pray and I felt very happy, but not like having a new toy, just loving Bhagavan and everyone.”

…

When Frania, the youngest child, was seven the other two were talking about their friends and she, having no real friends yet but not wanting to be left out, said that Dr. Syed was the best friend she had in the world.

…

And her mother said, “What about Bhagavan?”

Frania said, “Bhagavan is not in the world.”

…

            Later, Dr. Syed asked the child where Bhagavan was if not in the world, and she replied, “He is everywhere.”

            Still he continued, “How can we say that he is not a man in the world like us when we see him sitting on the couch and eating and drinking and walking about?”

            And the child replied, “Let’s talk about something else.”

--from Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-Knowledge, by Arthur Osborne

Quote of the Week 411 - Surf's Up

Quote of the Week 411 - Surf’s Up

With the world changing so rapidly, there’s no point in being optimistic or pessimistic about anything. You’ve just got to surf uncertainty, because it’s all we get.

--Alan Alda, June/July 2020 AARP Magazine

Quote of the Week 410 - Silver Threads

Quote of the Week 410 - Silver Threads

They say silver threads emerge   

From unknown to known,

Traversing all dimensions,

Conveyors of life-light.

And every morning

During my daily shower

A few of those threads

Go down the drain.

--Steven J. Gold

Quote of the Week 409 - Perspectives in Difficult Times

Perspectives in Difficult Times

It started to rain

In the middle of my walk.

A soft, gentle, spring-heralding rain.

I got wet

I didn’t mind.

In fact, it felt good,

reassuring somehow.

And the birds

Couldn’t care less.

--Steven J. Gold

Quote of the Week 408 - Happening: The Will of a Good and Loving God?

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Quote of the Week 408 - Happening: The Will of a Good and Loving God?

Question: I believe everything that happens is God’s will. My problem is reconciling a good and loving God with all the horrible things that happen. Can you help me make sense of this?

Answer: Yes: Stop insisting God is good and loving. I too believe that everything that happens is God’s will, but I don’t believe that God is good or loving or that God wills freely. God is Reality, the Happening happening as all happening. God’s will is that everything happens because the conditions for it happening are such that it must happen. God’s will doesn’t make things happen, God’s will is what happens. When you know that all happening is God and God’s will, you are free from the distraction, “Why did God will this to happen,” and free for engaging with what happened. When a tragedy happens, don’t ask, “Why?” ask, “What can I do to alleviate the suffering happening with this tragedy?”

--Rabbi Rami Shapiro, from his column, “Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler” in Spirituality & Health magazine, January/February 2020