#mysticism

Racial history is therefore natural history and the mysticism of the soul at one and the same time; but the history of the religion of the blood, conversely, is the great world story of the rise and downfall of peoples, their heroes and thinkers, their inventors and artists. ↗

— Alfred Rosenberg

#blood #conversely #downfall #great #heroes

I used unexpectedly to experience a consciousness of the presence of God, or such a kind that I could not possibly doubt that He was within me or that I was wholly engulfed in Him. This was in no sense a vision: I believe it is called mystical theology. The soul is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside itself. The will loves; the memory, I think, is almost lost; while the understanding, I believe, thought it is not lost, does not reason—I mean that it does not work, but is amazed at the extent of all it can understand; for God wills it to realize that it understands nothing of what His Majesty represents to it. ↗

— Teresa of Ávila

#mystical-theology #mysticism #prayer #experience

The fundamentalists of every faith remain blind to the truth that the “sigh within the prayer is the same in the heart of the Christian, the Muslim, and the Jew.” I have seen this unity with my eyes, heard it with my ears, felt it with all my being. ↗

— David James Duncan

#mysticism #religion #religious-freedom #spirituality #faith

Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#mysticism #poetry #reason #serenity #faith

Life is not only Newton, it is also Milton. ↗

— Wasif Ali Wasif

#sufi-wisdom #life

Meditation expands our inner being. The inner being is like a small, individual river flowering towards the Ocean. In meditation, I feel how my inner being expands into an inner ocean, which is part of everything, which is one with Existence. Through the inner being, we come in contact with the inner ocean, the undefined and boundless within ourselves, where we are one with life. We realize that God is part of life. We realize that God is not a person, but the consciousness that is part of everything. We find God in a flower, in a tree, in the eyes of a child or in a playful dog. Through discovering our inner being, we discover that we are also part of the flower, the child or the dog. We realize that God is everywhere. ↗

— Swami Dhyan Giten

#consciousness #dog #existence #flower #god

The Shadow-maker shapes forever. ↗

— Lafcadio Hearn

#philosophy #religion #religion

Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science. ↗

— Henri Bergson

#religion #science

Wit is the appearance, the external flash of imagination. Thus its divinity, and the witty character of mysticism. ↗

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

#character #divinity #external #flash #imagination

I like to borrow a metaphor from the great poet and mystic Rumi who talks about living like a drawing compass. One leg of the compass is static. It is fixed and rooted in a certain spot. Meanwhile, the other leg draws a huge wide circle around the first one, constantly moving. Just like that, one part of my writing is based in Istanbul. It has strong local roots. Yet at the same time the other part travels the whole wide world, feeling connected to several cities, cultures, and peoples. ↗

— Elif Shafak

#rumi #mysticism