This is an Index of Content on Spirituality.
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Ancestry: Contemporary: An excerpt from “Concerning Smoke” by Jordan Paper GalleryAncestry: Contemporary: An excerpt from “Concerning Smoke” by Jordan Paper
Native American, History and Culture, Consciousness, Energy, and Matter: Quotations, Cross-Cultural Mythology, Ancestry: Contemporary, Earth and Ecology, Intention and Expectation: Quotations, All Ancestry Content, Prayer: Quotations
Ancestry: Contemporary: An excerpt from “Concerning Smoke” by Jordan Paper
“The bowl of the pipe is a sacrificial vessel that itself is a miniature cosmos. Often tobacco is added pinch by pinch, each explicitly dedicated to the sacred directions as well as animals and spirits (as part of ones relations), thus bringing the entire cosmos into the bowl itself...The offerings are directed towards [...]
Quotations from Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux GalleryQuotations from Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Native American, History and Culture, Cross-Cultural Mythology, Consciousness, Energy, and Matter: Quotations, Psychology, Spirituality, Fear, Courage, and Reassurance: Quotations, Earth and Ecology, Prayer: Quotations
Quotations from Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Black Elk was a holy man of the Oglala Sioux. The following quotes are from Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux: “The Sun Dance…We hold it during the Moon of Making Fat, because this is the time when the sun is at its highest [...]
Order and Connection, A Quote from Vine Deloria Jr.
“…From observing the world around them, they could see orderly processes that marked the way organic life behaved. From the obvious motions of the sun and moon to the effects of periodic winds, rains, and snows, the regularity of nature suggested some greater power that guaranteed enough stability to be reliable and within which lives [...]
War, Peace, Reconciliation, by Glenda Taylor
This article, War, Peace, Reconciliation, is by Glenda Taylor, who notes: "I wrote this in 1989, but amazingly, as I read it in the year 2018, it is as current today as ever it was then!" Last month in our home town, a young man hanged himself. In another small town a few weeks later, [...]
Settled, Unsettled
Every time I've come to Colorado by driving up out of the mostly flat lands of East Texas, through the endless plains, to the foothills, and eventually to the sudden uprising of the great Rockies, I've reflected on the experiences of pioneer families coming in their covered wagons. I often imagine them, as they watch [...]
Mystery
What are we to do? In this time of cultural chaos, this video explores the question of where we may find the bedrock values and strength to go on and to have peace in our lives.
Honoring Our Foremothers: Mirabai
(Unfortunately, I cannot now find my source for the following, but will gratefully credit it when I do! Perhaps I wrote it using a number of different references. I’ve had this version for a long time. GT) Mirabai was born around 1498 in a village about 300 miles southwest of Delhi, India. She lived during [...]
Transformation: Quotations
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” Joseph Campbell “If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.” [...]
Spiritual Diversity: Quotations
From The World's Religions, by Huston Smith: “Muslims point out that Muhammad incorporated into his charter for Medina the principle of religious toleration that these verses announce. They regard that document as the first charter of freedom of conscience in human history and the authoritative model for those of every subsequent Muslim state. It decreed [...]
Prayer: Quotations
People do not need your opinions or your advice. People do not need to be fixed, corrected, or judged. What people need is to be empowered and encouraged so that they can discover and live their own sacred truth, however different that may look to you, and since their struggle and their mistakes are part of [...]
Forgiveness and Repentance: Many Short Quotations
This list of quotations has been collected over many years by Glenda Taylor. They are all credited appropriately, so feel free to copy and use in your own work. “If one has, indeed, done deeds of wickedness, but afterward alters his way and repents, resolved not to do anything wicked, but to [...]
Andrew Harvey on “Chanting Om” GalleryAndrew Harvey on “Chanting Om”
Mysticism, Hinduism, Compassion: Quotations, Cross-Cultural Mythology, Consciousness, Energy, and Matter: Quotations, Buddhism, Healing: Quotations, Oneness and Unity: Quotations, Prayer: Quotations, Spiritual Diversity: Quotations, Transformation: Quotes
Andrew Harvey on “Chanting Om”
"Lama Govinda tells us in his Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism" “the sound values of om and their symbolic interpretation (in the Upanishads) are described in the following manner: O is a combination of “A” and “U”, the whole syllable…consists of three elements… A-U-M. Since om is the expression of the highest faculty of consciousness, these [...]
Quotation from Andrew Harvey, contemporary mystic, scholar, poet, spiritual activist, on “Paradox” GalleryQuotation from Andrew Harvey, contemporary mystic, scholar, poet, spiritual activist, on “Paradox”
Mysticism, Hinduism, Consciousness, Energy, and Matter: Quotations, Cross-Cultural Mythology, Psychology, Spirituality, Islam, Justice and Ethics: Quotations, Mysticism: Quotations, Oneness and Unity: Quotations, Spiritual Diversity: Quotations, Transformation: Quotes
Quotation from Andrew Harvey, contemporary mystic, scholar, poet, spiritual activist, on “Paradox”
“All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey…Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all [...]
Prayer of Saint Francis, (1181-1226), Catholic friar
Make me an instrument of thy peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O [...]
“Who Can Tell…” a Poem by Sufi Mystic Allama Iqbal
Who can tell what miracles Love has in store for us If only we have the courage To become one with It? Everything we think we know now Is only the beginning Of another knowing that itself has no end. And everything we now can accomplish Will seem derisory to us When the powers of our [...]
Chinook Blessing
We call upon those who have lived on this earth, Our ancestors and our friends, Who dreamed the best for future generations And upon whose lives our lives are built, And with thanksgiving, we call upon them to Teach us and show us the way. And lastly we call upon all that we hold most sacred, [...]
Quotations from Martin Buber
“Every real relation with a being or life in the world is exclusive. Its Thou is freed, steps forth, is single, and confronts you. It fills the heavens.” Martin Buber “But whenever the sentence “I see the tree” is so uttered that it no longr tells of a relation between the man—I—and the three—thou--, it [...]
From “A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth”
“…Every day, in almost all its branches, the revelations of modern science offer evidence that the universe, reality itself, is alive—alive beyond all imagining. All those who love science must know this truth in their bones, whatever may be the view officially sanctioned in the corridors of our universities and institutions of research. In any [...]
Excerpts from “The Invisibles” by David Abram in Parabola, Vol. 31. No. 1
“…A feel for the mysterious and the unseen is thus entirely proper to our experience of the material surroundings. Invisibility is not, first and foremost, an attribute of some supernatural domain beyond the sensuous, but is integral to our encounter with material nature itself. While there exist around us many shapely and richly colored things [...]
Intuition: Quotations
“The word intuition is derived from the Latin intueri—which has been translated “to look upon," "to see within,” and “to consider and contemplate.” The dictionary definition is “the fact or faculty of knowing directly, without the use of the rational processes.” Notice that to know something in this context means to know something as [...]
Desire and Will According to the Upanishads
Excerpts From The Upanishads, ancient accounts of mystical revelations from the Vedas, Hindu’s oldest holy scriptures “Narada once came to Sanatkumara and asked to be taught. To Sanatkumara’s question, “What have you already studied?” Narada replied that he had studied all the branches of learning–art, science, music, and philosophy, as well as the sacred scriptures. [...]
The Four Great Vows of Zen Buddhism
The Four Great Vows of Zen Buddhism: However innumerable beings are, I vow to save them; However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them; However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to master them; However incomparable [...]
Intentions and Expectations: Quotations from the Christian Gospels GalleryIntentions and Expectations: Quotations from the Christian Gospels
History and Culture, Courage, Hope, Meaning: Quotations, Christianity, Forgiveness and Repentance: Quotations, Intention and Expectation: Quotations, Spiritual Diversity: Quotations
Intentions and Expectations: Quotations from the Christian Gospels
Words of Jesus as remembered by John “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father. And Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the [...]
Intention and Expectation: Quotations
“In caring for others and serving heaven, there is nothing like using restraint. Restraint begins with giving up one’s own ideas. This depends on Virtue gathered in the past. If there is a good store of Virtue, then nothing is impossible. If nothing is impossible, then there are no limits....” Lao Tzu, 600 BC, [...]
Individualism: Quotations
“Normal comes from normaliter, meaning in a straight line, directly. The 16th and 17th century meaning of ‘normal’ was rectangular, perpendicular, standing at a right angle. The word in our usage today, however, connotes average, usual, regular, not deviant. Thus it has to do with statistical certainty, and with ideal standards. As Hillman says, [...]
