Spiritual Essence: August 2020

SPIRITUAL ESSENCE:

Focusing on the essence of spirituality from all times, places, cultures…and beyond. Serving and cultivating the innate, inherent spiritual nature contained within all: the religious, the non-religious, the spiritual but not religious, the atheist, the agnostic, the mystic; whatever one does or does not consider oneself. We are beings at many different levels with many different aspects: physical, energy/life force, mind, intellect, emotion; but at our deepest common core, we are all spiritual beings. We all yearn to love and be loved, to nurture and be nurtured, to express and serve and realize each of our unique destinies. We can all help each other along our individual journeys, united by our common needs and yearnings.

Quote of the Week #156 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Quote of the Week #156 - Listening/Hearing for Non-material Sustenance

Every one who is thirsty, come and drink. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good. Let your soul delight in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, that your soul will live…

--Isaiah 55:1-3, The Living Torah translation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Quote of the Week #155 - A Walk Through a Garden in Late Autumn

Quote of the Week #155 - A Walk Through a Garden in Late Autumn

I am walking through a garden. The time is late autumn. The hour is twilight. How colorful everything is. It is so beautiful my eyes are moist. Oh, this wonderful twilight hour, these precious moments of eternity…silently, I stand and listen…listen…it speaks to me:

“Welcome home, my son! Let me embrace you. Your hair is gray, your eyes are clear and bright. It is well now, you are back in the heart of your family. Sit down, have some fruit. The others will be here soon to press your hands and to kiss your lean cheeks. We all missed you so. You strayed here and there, but we never lost track of you and we hoped that you would find the road. Always, we longed for you, and you are here with us, and you smile. ‘Twasn’t so bad, was it? The road was long, the trails were steep and a bit lonely. But, that is all past now…you are home. Let me take a good look at you.”

--Mory Berman, Autumn Leaves; A Collection of Essays

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Quote of the Week #154 - The Answer

Quote of the Week #154 - The Answer

The answer to the Mysteries:

Doo dum dum dum

Da doo dum dum

--Leonard Cohen, “Tower of Song”, Live in London

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Quote of the Week 153 - Coping with the void

Quote of the Week #153 - Coping with the void

Everyone in our nation has a terrifying void inside that we attempt to fill with work, smartphones, and every other addiction. Some of us enter 12-step programs, where we become addicted to meetings, but the void persists.

We each keep our emptiness a shameful secret. It never occurs to us that everyone around us shares the exact same interior void.

--Sparrow, The Sun magazine, August 2020 issue

My comments:

Existentialism teaches to accept the void and deal with it.

Zen teaches to embrace, even celebrate the void, not try to fill it.

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Quote of the Week #152 - The Most Brilliant Light

Quote of the Week #152 - The Most Brilliant Light

There is no light as brilliant as that which emerges out of the Dark.

--Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai

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