Quotes from Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

One might have practiced on a spiritual path for thirty years, or one might be walking through a dappled wood, or one might have just met a friend who will be a friend forever—suddenly love is present, arriving unexpectedly, as a tender feeling, a fragrance in the heart.

What else can I say? You don't know your own worth. Do not sell yourself at a ridiculous price, You who are so valuable in God's eyes. (Rumi)

The bond between the lover and the Beloved is the strongest link with the beyond, and it is through this link that grace can flow into the world. (p. 42)

It is said that what you think, you become. If we continually think of Allâh we become one with Allâh.

We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation. By breaking that conversation we have shattered the universe. All the disasters that are happening now are a consequence of that spiritual "autism.

By human soul, I mean an individual person's ultimate place in the more-than-human world—his or her place in the Earth community, not just in a human society.

He replied, "I try to remember that it's not me, John Seed, trying to protect the rain forest. Rather, I am part of the rain forest protecting itself. I am that part of the rain forest recently emerged into human thinking.

By "developing" the planet, we have been reducing Earth to a new type of barrenness.

When we first arrived as settlers, we saw ourselves as the most religious of peoples, as the most free in our political traditions, the most learned in our universities, the most competent in our technologies, and most prepared to exploit every economic advantage. We saw ourselves as a divine blessing for this continent. In reality, we were a predator people on an innocent continent.

You are more valuable than both heaven and earth. What else can I say? You don't know your own worth. Do not sell yourself at a ridiculous price, You who are so valuable in God's eyes. (Rumi)

It is burning of the heart I want; this burning which is everything, More precious than a worldly empire, because it calls God secretly, in the night. (Rumi)

Your journey is towards your homeland. Remember you are travelling from the world of appearances to the world of Reality. – Abdul Khaliq Ghujduwani

When you seek God, seek Him in your heart. – Yunus Emre

The perfect mystic is not an ecstatic devotee lost in contemplation of Oneness, nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind, but "the true saint" goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment. – Abu Said ibn Abi al-Khair

The Sufi path is subversive rather than confrontational. It works from within, from the Self which lives in the very depths of the unconscious, in the secret recesses of the heart. The changes begin far away from the conscious mind, where they cannot be interfered with. Then slowly the energy of the Self filters into consciousness, where it begins the work of altering our thinking processes.

As a Canadian psychiatrist observed: When a human being is standing with both feet firmly on the ground, with both legs on the earth, and is "quite normal" as we medical practitioners call it, spiritual life is very difficult, perhaps impossible. But if something is not quite right with the mind, a little wheel not working properly in the clockwork of the mind, then spiritual life is easy.

When the Sufi Abû Sa'îd ibn Abî-l-Khayr was asked what Sufism entailed he replied: "Whatever you have in your mind—forget it; whatever you have in your hand—give it; whatever is to be your fate—face it!

There is a polish for everything that taketh away rust; and the polish of the heart is the invocation of Allâh. – Hadith of the Prophet

The fire of devotion within the heart, ignited by the glance of the Beloved, contains the secret of divine consciousness, sirr allah. Sirr Allah is a spiritual substance within the innermost chamber of the heart, the heart of hearts. His divine consciousness, which reveals itself within the heart of His devoted servant. (p. 116)

Sufis describe the heart as a mirror which the wayfarer polishes and polishes with aspiration and inner work, until no imperfection remains. Then the mirror of the heart can reflect the true light of the Beloved.

Like ether, let us remain undivided and not become narrow and unyielding. Like the earth, let us help and share the burden of all. Like the water, let us flow untethered and quench the deepest thirst. Like fire, let us eliminate the unnecessary and unimportant. Like air, let us silently become a lifeline for all.

God placed within the heart the knowledge of Him, and so the heart became lit by God's Light. By this light He gave the heart eyes to see. Then God spoke in a parable and said, "Compared to a niche wherein is a lamp." The lamp of the Divine Light is in the hearts of those who believe in the Oneness of God. – Al-Hakim at-Tirmidhi

When we hear our own song as a part of the world song it has a richness, passion and purpose born from the integration of the individual with the whole. It is only in relation to the whole that we can appreciate the full range of our own potential, for the simple reason that our life has a purpose beyond our individual self. When we hear the song of the world soul our own song resonates with this deeper destiny. (p. 104)

The Sufi is interested in neither this world nor the next, in neither heaven nor hell. He will pay any price to reach Reality in this life. The price is that "everything has to go," and like any mental belief, the values of good and bad can be a limitation. Even the desire to renounce must be left behind. One Sufi poet wrote: "On the hat of poverty three renouncements are inscribed: 'Quit this world, quit the next world, quit quitting.