Quotes About Spirituality

Now it is quite true to say that curiosity, exactly like its analogue, lust, never ends and is never satisfied; but man was made for something more than this. He was made to rise, above curiosity and lust, to love, and through love to the attainment of truth.

And suddenly there came a second, when somehow for the first time I saw (as if a door had opened from a dark room into the sunny street), and in the next second I already knew for sure that God exists and that God is the Jesus Christ of Orthodoxy, and not some other God. I call this moment the greatest miracle because this precise knowledge came to me not through reason (I know this for sure) but by some other way, and I am unable to explain this moment rationally ....

When conversion takes place, the process of revelation occurs in a very simple way — a person is in need, he suffers, and then somehow the other world opens up. The more you are in suffering and difficulties and are 'desperate' for God, the more He is going to come to your aid, reveal Who He is and show you the way out..." ? Seraphim Rose, God's Revelation to the Human Heart

We who live on earth can hardly even begin to understand the reality of the spiritual world until we ourselves come to dwell in it. This is a process that begins now, in this life, but ends only in eternity, when we will behold "face to face" what we now see only "through a glass, darkly

It is women who possess knowledge of dreams and of realms beyond the earthly experience.

Faith is underrated. Paradoxically, religion is vastly overrated.

We're extremely adroit at hiding our fear. Most of our lives in public are spent papering over, rationalizing, and otherwise denying our fear. We go to war because we're afraid, and we often go to spiritual events for the very same reason.

Most of our lives in public are spent papering over, rationalizing, and otherwise denying our fear. We go to war because we're afraid, and we often go to spiritual events for the very same reason.

And yet, rather than this I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches.

They were martyred. But what a martyrdom! I had long read about martyrdom in the lives of the saints--how the souls of the martyrs had gone home to Heaven, how they had been filled with glory in Paradise, how the angels had blown trumpets. This was the splendid martyrdom I had often seen in my dreams. But the martyrdom of the Japanese Christians I now describe to you was no such glorious thing. What a miserable and painful business it was!

Do the other angels know what they are doing? Am I the only confused one? Maybe I am unfinished, an unfinished angel.

I prayed to trees. This was easier than praying directly to God. There was nearly always a tree nearby.

Mrs. Mudkin closed her eyes. We should pray. I ain't praying, Crazy Cora said. Mrs. Mudkin said, Lord, please bless--- I ain't praying. --this land and the people who-- I ain't praying. --have toiled on this earth-- Stop that praying. I can pray if I want to. Then be quiet about it.

Over and over, I prayed the same thing. I prayed to trees. This was easier than praying directly to God. There was nearly always a tree nearby.

Those who served both the Almighty and secular lords did their best to follow Jesus's teachings and render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar's, and unto God the things that were God's, all the while praying they'd never have to choose between the two.

It felt at times as if the very center of his world had become hollow, and try as he might to fill it with faith, the emptiness lingered. He was not sure why his faith was not enough, although he suspected that it was because it had come to him so late in life. If he were God, he'd look askance, too, at deathbed conversions. No matter what the priests might tell him, piety must lose some of its lustre when it was not altogether voluntary.

Do not fret, lad. Priests expect you to keep on sinning, do not care as long as you keep on confessing, too. In fact, I would think they prefer it that way, for if there were no sinners, why would we need them?

These four qualities are among the most beautiful and powerful states of consciousness we can experience. Together they are called in Pali, the language spoken by the Buddha, the brahma-viharas. Brahma means "heavenly." Vihara means "abode" or "home." By practicing these meditations, we establish love (Pali, metta), compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha) as our home.

Thinking we are only supposed to have loving & compassionate feelings can be a terrible obstacle to spiritual practice.

Our path, our sense of spirituality demands great earnestness, dedication, sincerity & continuity.

In Buddhism there is one word for mind & heart: chitta. Chitta refers not just to thoughts and emotions in the narrow sense of arising from the brain, but also to the whole range of consciousness, vast & unimpeded.

When we put together two substances in nature that are dry, they cannot cohere; there is no way for them to join. When we add wetness, these two substances can bond; they can come together. In just that same way, the force of metta, lovingkindness, allows us to cohere, to come together within ourselves and with all beings. The beauty of this truth moved the Buddha to say that sustaining a loving heart, even for the duration of the snap of a finger, makes one a truly spiritual being.

Wir werden die vier Feinde in dieser Reihenfolge behandeln, weil auch der Weg der Befreiung durch die Überwindung von Ärger, Angst und Selbstbezogenheit im Allgemeinen diesen Verlauf von außen nach innen nimmt.

But to take delight in our generosity helps us immeasurably in our spiritual practice.