So
often down through the past 3000 years religious beliefs have been used as
measurements of orthodoxy vs. heresy, causing revolutions and warfare instead
of facilitating the seeking and the finding of the Kingdom of God. The current
hostilities between Jew and Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox, Christian and
Muslim, Catholic and Protestant, Buddhist and Muslim, Scientist and Believer,
etc.. have got to stem from a failure to understand the original message of
their founders, and a substitution of religious symbols for spiritual reality.The following is a
brief sample of prayers, poems, stories and anecdotes which I believe all can
understand and accept. I hope that you like at least some of these: -------------------------------------------------
“ My Lord
God, I have no idea where I am going. I
do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will
end. Nor do I really know myself, and
the fact that I think I am following
your will... does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please
you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I
am doing. I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire And I know that
if I do this you will lead me by the
right path though I may know nothing
about it. Therefore, will I trust
you always though I may seem to be lost and in the
shadow of death. I will not fear, for
you are ever with me, and you will never
leave me to face my perils alone."
{Thomas Merton, The Silent Life}
------------------------------------
“Life is what happens to you . . .
while
you’re busy making other plans”
{ J. Lennon , "Beautiful Boy"}
----------------------------
“Abba Antony said, “ A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see
someone who is not mad,
they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.’”
{from
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers}
------------------------------
"I
had just one desire - to give myself
completely to God. So I headed for the monastery. An old monk asked me, 'What is it you want?'
I said, 'I just want to give myself completely to God.' I expected him to be
gentle, fatherly, but he shouted at me, 'NOW!!' I was stunned. He shouted again, 'NOW!' Then he
reached for a club and came after me. I turned and ran. He kept coming
after me, brandishing his club and shouting, 'Now! .... Now!'
That was
years ago. He still follows me, wherever I go.
Always
that stick, always that 'NOW!' {Theophane the Monk, Tales of
the Magic Monastery}
-------------------------
"I
sat there in awe as the old monk answered our questions. Though I’m usually
shy, I felt so comfortable in his presence that I found myself raising my hand.
'Father, could you tell us something about yourself?'
He leaned
back. 'Myself?' he mused. There was a
long pause. 'My name ... ... used to
be... ...me. But now... ... it’s
You.'
[Ibid.]
----------------------------
"When an
archer is shooting for nothing
He has
all his skill,
If he
shoots for a brass buckle
He is
already nervous.
If he
shoots for a prize of gold
He goes
blind
or sees
two targets -
He is out
of his mind!
His skill
has not changed,
But the
prize divides him. He cares.
He thinks
more of winning
than of
shooting -
And the
need to win
Drains
him of his power"
{Chuang Tzu, ca. 4th Century
BCE}.
-----------------------
"All men will come to
him who keeps to the one,
For there
lie rest and happiness and peace.
Passersby
may stop for music and good food,
but a
description of the Tao
Seems without substance or flavor.
It cannot
be seen, it cannot be heard,
And yet,
it cannot be exhausted."
{Lao
Tzu ca. 6th century}
------------------------
"The wise man has no
mind of his own.
He is aware of the
needs of others.
He is good to people
who are good;
He is also good to
people who are not good
Because Virtue is
goodness.
The wise man is shy
and humble-
to the world he seems
confusing
Men look to him and
listen-
he behaves like a
little child."
(Ibid.)
---------------------------
“... but
now I tell you, love your enemies and
pray for
those who persecute you, so that you may become
children
of your Father in heaven. For he makes
his sun shine on bad and good people alike... And if you speak only to your
friends, have you done anything out of the ordinary? You must be
perfect- just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
{ Jesus - Mt 5:43}
--------------------------
"Very
early the next morning, long before
daylight,
Jesus got
up and left the house. He went out of
town to a
lonely
place, where he prayed".
{
Jesus - Mk 1:35}.
--------------------------
“For this
belongs properly to the nature of love, that the lover will the good of the one
he loves."
{
St. Thomas Aquinas ca. 1270 AD}
--------------------------
"Success
is counted sweetest
By those
who ne’er succeed.
To
comprehend a nectar
Requires
sorest need.
Not one
of all the purple Host
Who took
the Flag today
Can tell
the definition
So clear
of victory
As he
defeated - dying
On whose
forbidden ear
The
distant strains of triumph
Burst
agonized and clear!"
[Emily Dickinson]
----------------------------------
PERFECT
JOY
“Is there to be found on earth a fullness
of joy, or is there no such thing? Is there some way to make life fully worth
living, or is this impossible? If there is such a way, how do you go about
finding it?
What should you try to do? What should
you seek to avoid? What should be the goal in which your activity comes to
rest? What should you accept? What should you refuse to accept? What should
you love? What should you hate?
“What the world values is money,
reputation, long life, achievement. What it counts as joy is health and comfort
of body, good food, fine clothes, beautiful things to look at, pleasant music
to listen to.
“What it condemns is lack of money, a low
social rank, a reputation for being no good, and an early death.
“What it considers misfortune is bodily
discomfort and labor, no chance to get your fill of good food, not having good
clothes to wear, having no way to amuse or delight the eye, no pleasant music
to listen to. If people find that they are deprived of these things, they go
into a panic or fall into despair. They are so concerned for their life that
their anxiety makes life unbearable, even when they have the things they think
they want. Their very concern for enjoyment makes them unhappy.
“The rich make life intolerable, driving
themselves in order to get more and more money which they cannot really use. In
so doing they are alienated from themselves, and exhaust themselves in their
own service as though they were slaves of others.
“The ambitious run day and night in
pursuit of honors, constantly in anguish about the success of their plans,
dreading the miscalculation that may wreck everything. Thus they are alienated
from themselves, exhausting their real life in service of the shadow created by
their insatiable hope.
“The birth of a man is the birth of his
sorrow. The longer he lives, the more stupid he becomes, because his anxiety to
avoid unavoidable death becomes more and more acute. What bitterness! He lives
for what is always out of reach! His
thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the
present...
“I cannot tell if what the world
considers “happiness” is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider
the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and
obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or
to change their direction. All the while claiming to be just on the point of
attaining happiness.
“For my part, I cannot accept their
standards, whether of happiness or unhappiness. I ask myself if after all their
concept of happiness has any meaning whatever.
“My opinion is that you never find
happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists
precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain
happiness: and this, in the mind of most
people, is the worst possible course."
- Chuang Tzu
( ca 300 BC)
[As edited by Thomas Merton in “The Way of Chuang Tzu” 1965]
---------------------------------------------------------------
"The
only place we can touch Jesus and the Kingdom of God
is within us." [Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh, p. 44]
----------------------------------------------------------------
In conclusion, I apologize for having left off this list so many quotes which are so helpful and such good counsel as one lives a believing prayerful life. One last reference I must make is to all the work of the last thirty years of Thomas Keating, OCSO.
to select from just one of his books, I would choose his most recent, Reflections on the Unknowable. In it he writes:
"Religion needs to make sure that it is leading and teaching people to go in this direction(i.e., to contemplative prayer). Otherwise, it's not really meeting its purpose and getting too involved in externals, rituals or structures. They are important, but only up to a point; they are not ends in themselves. God can work independently of religion. He has many ways of bringing people to Himself. Some people have been so damaged by religious misinformation or malformation that they can no longer go by that path."[P.58]
Also: "Here is a formula to deepen and further
Charlie Mc
Thoughts at Christmas 2004
