The task of the peacemaker is to speak the truth, whether our culture wants to hear it or not. As we speak the truth in a spirit of love and peace, we will realize deeper levels of truth and begin to understand the great truth of human unity and God’s way of nonviolence. The pursuit of truth ultimately is the pursuit of God.
Luminous is the word of Truth; like
a laser beam, it cuts through
ignorance and illusion. . . .
Blessed are those who choose Truth.
Their path is made straight,
their spirit freed to soar.
Somebody once said that if you really seek the truth, whatever road you travel, sooner or later you come to God.
Trust that truth whether good or bad, pretty or ugly, is
still truth . . . the knowledge of anything true brings
freedom and empowerment back to oneself.
The word integrity has two meanings. The first is "honesty"... We have to be honest in facing our limitations, in facing the sheer complexity of the world, honest in facing criticism even of things which are deeply precious to us. But integrity also means wholeness, oneness, the desire for single vision, the refusal to split our minds into separate compartments where incompatible ideas are not allowed to come into contact. An undivided mind looks in the end for an undivided truth, a oneness at the heart of things. The whole intellectual quest, despite its fragmentation, despite its limitations and uncertainties, seems to presuppose that in the end we are all encountering a single reality, and a single truth.
Happy are those who, while possessing the truth, search more earnestly for it in order to renew it, deepen it, and transmit it to others. Happy also are those who, not having found truth, are working toward it with a sincere heart.
Let us humbly remember that absolute truth exists only
in the mind of God. We human beings are forever searching.
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise from
outward things, what e’er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness . . . and to know,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
supposed to be without.
In all ten directions of the universe,
there is only one truth.
When we see clearly,
the great teachings are the same.
What can ever be lost? What can be obtained?
If we attain something, it was there from
the beginning of time.
If we lost something,
it is hiding somewhere near us.
Truth is a shining goddess, always veiled, always distant,
never wholly approachable, but worthy of all the
devotion of which the human spirit is capable.
Whoever deeply searches out the truth and will not be deceived by paths untrue, shall turn unto himself his inward gaze, shall bring his wandering thoughts in circle home and teach his heart that what it seeks abroad, it holds in its own treasure chests within.
We are at liberty to be real or unreal, to be about truth or untruth. We really do have a choice. We are talking here about a felt knowledge, inner awareness, knowings that come out of the quiet, from a deep place within. Our truth is just ours. And we believe it is wise to be leery of anyone who [claims] to hold ALL truth -- even organizations, ministries, and leaders whose values we admire. A part of the journey into freedom is examining the truths upon which we have built our lives and discovering that we have choices about who we follow, where we put our time and money. And our choices, our truths, make us who we are.
When Henry wove a rug, he wove from the depths of his spirit and from the fullness of his heart, and with the careful eye of a focused mind.Directly across from his upright loom, at eye level on the concave wall of the hut, Henry had lettered a small sign for his own inspiration: BY THEIR WORKS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.And more, it was a reminder that his remission from consumption, he believed, had come as a consequence of work with his hands.Work for him was the very stuff of salvation and healing.For that reason, whenever he should write or type or spell the word "work" for any reason, he would use an uppercase "W" as its beginning.
To learn to concentrate without effort
and to transform work into play
I need to have and hold a zone of silence
in my soul.
The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
If artistic creations emerge from our lives and the ways in which we see the world, then it seems useful to engage the workplace as a source of creative subject matter and energy.The job is the place where most of us spend time and expend effort each day.It is the world we inhabit, and I believe we can make it better and more satisfying through the conscious use of the creative process.. . . Our creations and our lives are enhanced when we realize that everything in our environment is a source for imagination.
If we open up to our vitality and to the sense of urgency that flows within us, we will have the pleasure of experiencing ourselves living and working in cooperation with the deepest forces of life.
It is not vast quantities of mechanical work that appeals to the Divine, but it is the link with the divine consciousness established through that work that matters.This consideration of the spirit in which the work is done is of the utmost relevance to all of us who want to progress toward divine consciousness.When one is conscious during work, that quality of consciousness is naturally imparted to what one is working with or upon.Such work retains the vibration of that person and they link others immediately with that cause.
If only he could work faster.Yet if he did work faster, how could he produce paintings grounded in deep beds of contemplation, the only way living things could be stilled long enough to understand them?And wasn't everything he painted--a breadbasket, a pitcher, a jewelry box, a copper pan--wasn’t it all living?
The manner in which we carry out all our work has a direct bearing on our spiritual health.
To do work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself with God's will in my work.I become an instrument for God to work through me.
"We don’t really have to do a perfect job."
"Nobody will be able to tell, though."
"That’s not the point, not the point at all.The old masters didn't care whether anyone could see their flaws or not.They wanted to do as well as they could, because their work was a gift to God, who deserved their best.That’s all gone; now what's important is whether anyone will notice the difference, and how much it will all cost.It changes the spirit of the building forever."
Ludmilla taught me that we can pray anywhere, during any kind of work that is being done attentively and well and to the best of our ability.In such work, God is present.We only have to know this and try to give it our heart.Many people wish to have spiritual development without obstacles or even effort, and so they will never understand God’s love or the poverty of our humanity.
A hidden river runs beneath the conscious layers of our lives.We become fatigued not from overwork, but from how much energy it takes to stage our lives in order to drown out the sounds of the river inside us.
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.
Society functions at its very best when each member finds security in their place in the social structure.When all members can be gainfully employed, yet have individual initiative, when they can excel in their own craft and find satisfaction in their work contributing to the overall goals of society, then there exists harmony and a sense of community.When members have an interest in the continuity of their community, great deeds can be accomplished.This is because the many work for the One.
Much of life…is about awakening to the interior experience.In our day-to-day living, we come to see how all of our physical journeying is not simply a temporal exercise, a transitory, earthly trek, but increasingly points to a shared and liberating inner passage . . .As Christianity and all the great religious traditions of the world testify, our surface-level living is the symbolic acting out of a deep inward pilgrimage leading to -- and beyond -- the gates of the heart.
There comes a time in the spiritual journey when you start making choices from a very different place . . .And if a choice lines up so that it supports truth, health, happiness, wisdom, and love, it’s the right choice.
The real journey in life is interior.
It is a matter of growth, deepening,
and of an ever greater surrender to the
creative love and grace in our hearts.
Everything we need for growing into a full, rich relationship with God is already available in our lives. We need to pray, stay open, and not become discouraged. A spiritual journey is not a competitive event; we can all be on a spiritual quest. God comes to each of us in the native language of our soul. Gradually the language grows and expands, but no one grows in just the same way as someone else. We need to accept ourselves as we are and keep ourselves open to being changed and shaped by a life lived in growing intimacy with God.
The outer path we take is public knowledge, but the path with heart is an inner one. The two come together when who we are that is seen in the world coincides with who we deeply are. As we grow wiser, we become aware that the important forks in the road are usually not about choices that will show up on any public record; they are decisions and struggles to do with choosing love or fear; anger or forgiveness; pride or humility. They are soul-shaping choices.
With each discovery of truth about ourselves, we come to a crossroad on our journey toward God.One path leads to denial and despair . .. the other to holiness.
From the forest branches fading
birdsong offered
Self-sacrifice to a huge silence.
Dark formlessness settled over all
diversity
Of land and water.As shadows, as particles,
my body
Fused with endless night.I came to rest
At the altar of the stars.Alone, amazed,
I stared
Upwards with hands clasped and said,
"Sun, you have removed
Your rays: show now your loveliest,
kindlier form
That I may see the Person who dwells in
me as in you."
There is a time in every life
when the very act
of looking back and taking stock
becomes essential
to going forward.
Without the light
that shines out of the darkness
of the past,
we cannot chart
a new path
to the future.
We may enjoy an experience of God that is so delightful that we may think all our troubles are over and we have at last completed the journey.Then after a few hours or a few days we find ourselves on the spiral staircase again and cannot even remember the pleasures of that transient experience of divine union.The whole purpose of this alternation is to bring the soul to the total transformation of love.
A God seeker is a person on a journey.When the thirst has been awakened, we are no longer persons wandering aimlessly about, but persons who have begun to discern the bare outlines of a path.We become more than wanderers.It is a journey based upon the assumption that there is more to life than meets the eye.
There is no there anywhere, no destination, only ways through,
passages, resting spots, doors that swing open to where
a vision is hammered out, painted, written, sung or prayed
behind the facade of the common.
There is no glimpse of the light without walking the path.You can’t get it from anyone else, nor can you give it to anyone.You take whatever steps seem easiest for you, and as you take a few steps it will be easier to take a few more.
To embrace one's brokenness, whatever it looks like, whatever has caused it, carries within it the possibility that one might come to embrace one's healing, and then one might come to the next step: to embrace another and their brokenness and their possibility for being healed.To avoid one’s brokenness is to turn one’s back on the possibility that the Healer might be at work here, perhaps for you, perhaps for another.
There is healing in the universe.
There is a fabric that holds things together.
When it is ready . . . in its own good time,
shall it not bind together . . . all of us?
At first I was surprised that people with the same disease had such very different stories.Later I became deeply moved by these stories, by the people and the meaning they found in their problems, by the unsuspected strengths, the depths of love and devotion, the rich and human tapestry initiated by the pathology I was studying and treating. . .These stories engaged me at another, more hidden point.I too suffer from an illness . . . I listened to human beings who were suffering, and responding to their suffering in ways as unique as their fingerprints.Their stories were inspiring moving, important.In time, the truth in them began to heal me.
The more I can love everything -- the trees, the land, the water, my fellow men, women and children, and myself -- the more health I am going to experience and the more of myself I am going to be . . .
"Healing," Papa would tell me, "is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature."
Underneath all we are taught, there is a voice that calls to us beyond what is reasonable, and in listening to that flicker of spirit, we often find deep healing.This is the voice of embodiment calling us to live our lives like sheet music played, and it often speaks to us briefly in moments of deep crisis.Sometimes it is so faint we mistake its whisper for wind through leaves.But taking it into the heart of our pain, it can often open the paralysis of our lives. . . . the best chance to be whole is to love whatever gets in the way, until it ceases to be an obstacle.
Healing is a journey deep within oneself -- a search for soul, the essence of the self.It seeks to balance the inner and outer worlds to connect and to integrate.Healing is the reuniting of the body, mind and spirit.
Healing is embracing what is most feared;
healing is opening what has been closed,
softening what has hardened into obstruction,
healing is learning to trust life.
When you awaken your heart, you find to your surprise that your heart is empty.If you search for the awakened heart, there is nothing but tenderness.You feel sore and soft, and if you open your eyes to the rest of the world, you feel tremendous sadness.It occurs because your heart is completely open, exposed.It is the pure raw heart that has the power to heal the world.
I was never in a hurry in my life.He lives long who enjoys life and bears no jealousy of others, whose heart harbors no malice or anger, who sings a lot and cries a little, who rises and retires with the sun, who likes to work, and who knows how to rest.