Quotes About Spirituality

He began to practice the mantra, chanting Rama, Rama, Rama over and over again to himself—both aloud and silently. The mantra eased his fear—

For a period of time after this discovery, Gandhi walked many miles each day, repeating the mantra to himself until it began to coordinate itself with the movement of his body and breath. The practice not only calmed him, but brought him into periods of bliss and rapture—and, as he said, "opened the doorway to God." Rama, Rama, Rama. Eventually, the mantra developed a life of its own within him. The mantra began to chant itself, arising spontaneously whenever he needed it.

The mantra becomes one's staff of life," he wrote, "and carries one through every ordeal Ã¢â'¬Â¦ Each repetition Ã¢â'¬Â¦ has a new meaning, each repetition carries you nearer and nearer to God.

The whole of Chapter Six in the Bhagavad Gita is devoted to Krishna's teachings on this practice: "Whenever the mind wanders, restless and diffuse in its search for satisfaction without, lead it within; train it to rest in the Self," instructs Krishna. "When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.

When doubts haunt me" Sabapathy Kulandran. Grace in Christianity and Hinduism. Lutterworth Press: Cambridge, England, 2004

Self begins to reveal its nature. In the depths of meditation, we begin to recognize again that we are One with Brahman—that we are that wave that is nonseparate from the sea. Memory is restored!

M. K. Gandhi. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Dover Publications: Mineola, New York, 1983

Eknath Easwaran. Gandhi the Man. Nilgiri Press: Novales, California, 1997

Marion Woodman. Rolling Away the Stone. Sounds True Recordings: Boulder, CO, 1989.

It's a wonderful phrase. Gandhi's meaning was simple: Only the human being who acts in a way that is empty of self can be the instrument of Soul Force. And it is only Soul Force that can establish a harmonious world. Human beings alone are helpless to resolve conflicts without it.

Every time we discerningly renounce a possession, we free up energy that can be channeled into the pursuit of dharma. Renunciation was never meant to be for its own sake, but for the sake of dharma.

I was not made for man," Anthony would later declare flatly. "I was made for God. And I was made for myself.

Abandon all supports," says Krishna to Arjuna in one of his great final teachings. "Cast off your dependency on everything external, Arjuna, and rely on the Self alone." We work first because we have to work. Then because we want to work. Then because we love to work. Then the work simply does us. Difficult at the beginning. Inevitable at the end.

Duncan B. Forrester, James Ian Hamilton McDonald, Gian Tellini. Encounter with God. T. T. Clark International: NY, 2004

The great twentieth-century monk Thomas Merton encountered precisely the same spiritual exhaustion partway through his life. The chief source of this exhaustion, he writes, "is the selfish anxiety to get the most out of everything, to be a sparkling

To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.

All that existed was precious in Crazy Horse's religion—whatever a man did or thought was good, was wakan, so long as he obeyed his own inner voice, for that too was wakan.

Eddy believed that everyone, not just a few mystics and saints, has an unimaginably rich potential relation to God that can be entered into amidst everyday life.

Indians, we don't have guardian angels—if we did, they'd have been whispering to us pretty hard when some certain ships bobbed up on the horizon—but we do have helpers. I think usually it's supposed to be an animal.

Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well envelop'd. I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell. —WALT WHITMAN

In cultures that recognize the importance of this capacity, this group of people are trained to use their enhanced perceptual capacities for the benefit of the group. there would then be many more holy people among us

for others gating remains very open, especially among young children, artists, schizophrenics, specialists of the sacred such as shamans and Buddhist masters, and those ingesting psychotropics.

go to YouTube and search "Dr Bruce Greyson consciousness independent of the brain." A video of the lecture should come up at the top of the list.

Bewildered by the dazzling display of lights, the deceased may fail to recognize them as manifestations of his or her own spiritual energy. Overwhelmed by their intensity, he or she may not be able to make any sense of them. In fact, they are the projections arising from his or her own chaotic mind. The guide, therefore, should offer the deceased person counsel and assistance to enable him or her to recognize these visions for what they are.