#nature

Today there is a deep longing in our culture to reconnect to this spiritual world, for we are not whole without it. But our longing cannot be satisfied by embracing religious belief alone, no matter how emotional the embrace, for our longing is at root a hunger and thirst for the experience of interior realities. If, however, we are to forge a new relationship to the invisible world of spirit based on experience, what will distinguish it from the past is the modern necessity that it be based on our own autonomy as free individuals, able to think, decide, and act for ourselves. ↗

— Jeremy Nadler

#egypt #nature #religion #spirituality #experience

You can judge me all you want. That's just the way your mind operates. Utilizing a recollection of all previously incurred events and experiences with individuals to make quick decisions about the current situation is an easy and painless method of using your memory and knowing better than to suffer unnecessary hardship. ↗

— Amsal

#human-nature #interaction #learning #pain #psychology

I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. ↗

— Edgar Allan Poe

#human-nature #humanity #perfection #time #faith

When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh. ↗

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

#human-nature #life #sin #faith

What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind. ↗

— William Wordsworth

#poetry #soul #youth #death

Nature" is another name for the miracles that are so commonplace in our lives that we take for granted and have grown used to seeing them. ↗

— Shalom Arush

#miracle #nature #faith

Plants or animals rarely behave in an unnatural manner that’s contrary to their true makeup. Human beings are also natural beings, but at the same time, we’re conscious entities. We therefore have free will and must make the choice not merely to be part of nature, but also to follow faithfully the “laws of nature. ↗

— H.E. Davey

#laws-of-nature #meditation #natural #nature #yoga

The old school of thought would have you believe that you'd be a fool to take on nature without arming yourself with every conceivable measure of safety and comfort under the sun. But that isn't what being in nature is all about. Rather, it's about feeling free, unbounded, shedding the distractions and barriers of our civilization—not bringing them with us. ↗

— Ryel Kestenbaum

#barriers #burden #civilization #distractions #freedom

And certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. ↗

— George Eliot

#human-nature #funny

The fig tree grows its flowers strangely inside out, concealed within the soft interior of the fruit. Erszébet imagines the fig's hidden fairy weight of seeds, grown in sweetness that is also a darkness. Like treasure in a cave. ↗

— Jody Shields

#fig #fruit #fruit-tree #mystery #nature