Gaia: The Sacred Pool - Masters, Mystics, Saints - Misc. Quotes

Is the sky like I?

http://aaronguay.gaia.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:58:49 GMT

I am afraid that I have mispoke. I can not say what it is that I feel. my thoughts have been lossed through words. the art from that which I grasp fails me. but I continue to write.... When the rain falls, behind thundershake-- the sky growls, and in soft drizzles, comes down in drops-- plopping faint ripples in puddles, sky, you made me cry... but sky... can you explain to me why? or you sun? your warmth beating down- envigorating my soul, eyes closed, I let you take me in... why did you burn? what lesson are you trying to learn? but the shine is beautiful. incredible warmth. Is the sky, like I? unable to understand... but trys to show in ways it can't comprehend. lost in the ways from which it was made-- but still reaches out as a part of the infinite chain. at moments--feeling as one.

Re: This will help you come closer to God

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:23:45 GMT

:o )

This will help you come closer to God

http://SantMat.gaia.com — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:17:30 GMT

This will help you come closer to God: This will help you come closer to God

Below is from an email I received from a devotee in India the other day.

Namaste',

James

This will help you come closer to God

To live Guru Kabir Ji did not require anything complicated. Be simple. Be dedicated in doing your work. Believe in Sat Purush (God). Pay attention to your actions and beware of karma. Do whatever is good for society. Be the purest form of a human being. Just think purely, act purely, and love purely.....everyone, anyone. This will help you come closer to God. By attaining this purity you will give a place to God, and the Sound Current will reside within you. You will become one atom of the element known as God, and atoms retain all the properties of God. Have a good time.

Gnostic Mandaean Scrolls: I became the illuminator of the worlds

http://SantMat.gaia.com — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:22:57 GMT

Gnostic Mandaean Scrolls: I became the illuminator of the worlds of Light

Books Containing Mandaean Scriptures
The Gnostic Bible, edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, Shambhala
The Other Bible, Willis Barnstone, Harper Collins

Mandaean History, Background Information, and Photographs
Gnosis, by Kurt Rudolph
The Gnostic Religion, by Hans Jonas, Beacon Press
The Gospel of Jesus, John Davidson, Clear Press UK

Mandaean Scriptures and Art Online, Websites
MandaeanWorld:
http://www.mandaeanworld.com/mandaeanworld1.html
Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans:
http://www.geocities.com/mandaeanworld1/cpindex1.html
The Mandaean Section of the The Gnostic Library:
http://www.gnosis.org/library/mand.htm
http://www.gnosis.org/library/ginzarba.htm

Gnostic Mandaean Scrolls: I became the illuminator of the worlds of Light
By James Bean
Copyright January 2006
***James***

I sometimes like saying that the Nag Hammadi Library found in Egypt represents 'the prose of the Gnostics', but the Mandaean writings from Iraq are 'the poetry'. Below is a Mandaean psalm-scroll translated by the German scholar Werner Forrester. Below that are a couple of Mandaean Aramaic words defined. And below that, I provide commentary on the meaning of these ancient Aramaic verses from the Middle east, chanted in antiquity. I have always been quite fond of these Mandaean psalm-scrolls translated in "Gnosis II", "The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans" (out of print), and also in, "The Gnostic Book of John the Baptizer" (Kissinger Reprints).

In the Name of the Great Life,
Sublime Light Be Praised.

Naamaste',

James

I became the illuminator of the worlds of Light

. . . . .

I became a garment to the worlds of Light. . .
I became a king to the Nasoreans.
I became a king to the Nasoreans,
who received praise and stability through my Name.
Praise and stability they received,
and by my Name they ascend to the Place of Light
and behold the Place of Light.

As for the chosen righteous, who put me on (as a garment),
their eyes were filled with Light.
Their eyes were filled with Light,
and Manda dHaiye* [Knowledge or Acquaintance with God]
was established in their hearts.
Whoever puts me on, the Treasure of Life, (as a garment),....
I speak to them, [saying]:

"The vine which bears (fruit) ascends,
(the vine) which bears nothing is cut off here (from the Light).
Whoever is enlightened and instructed by me
rises and beholds the Place of Light.
Whoever is not enlightened and instructed by me
is cut off (from the Light), and falls into
the great Ocean of Suf**."

(Mandaean Aramaic psalm translated in, "Gnosis II", by Werner Forrester, Oxford University Press, out of print)

*Notes:

**"Suf" in Mandaic Aramaic: "Sea of Reeds or Sea of the End, a place of unbelievers: like the Egyptians in the biblical narrative: the departure of the Israelites from Egypt was evidently interpreted allegorically as the departure of the soul from the body." (Glossary in "Gnosis II")

*"Manda dHaiye": -- Gnosis of the Great Life (Great Life, a term for God); Knowledge or Acquaintance with God; Divine Knowledge, often personified in the Mandaean texts as "the name of the most important messenger of Light and Redeemer". (Glossary in "Gnosis II")

Commentary

"I became the illuminator of the worlds of Light."

"Understand what the Great Light is". (Apocryphon of James the Just, Nag Hammadi Library) In the Mandaean texts, written in a dialect of Aramaic almost two thousand years ago, a term for God is "Light", very much as in the Gospel of Thomas: Light=God=Christ=Kingdom of the Father. "God is Light and in Him there is no darkness." "Darkness is not dark to Thee." One phrase or benediction often repeated or chanted literally thousands of times in these old Mandaean scrolls is: "In the Name of the Great Life, Sublime Light Be Praised." God is described as "the Great Light", and heavenly realms are called "A Place of Light." Souls clothed in their heavenly garments are described as radiant beings like suns or stars.

The true messenger of God is a "Light-giver".

"Whoever is enlightened and instructed by me rises and beholds the Place of Light."

As wonderful as old writings of saints might be, people are in need a competent living teacher who has become one with God to be their guide, in order to have the right-view, right-knowledge, and right-practice. Otherwise, it is a teacher of a lesser order that is one's influence, or perhaps one's own limited and ever-changing interpretations. We "see through a glass darkly" (saint Paul), which means that what the ego may comprehend is not necessarily the whole picture but a dim outline at best. Only someone who is one with God is qualified to guide others into that divine experience. Rather than the usual "blind leading the blind", someone with Sight needs to be recognized as the guide. Like the Mandaeans of old, we also need a living Light-giver.

What is the result of this spiritual guidance from "a living one"? Souls "ascend to the Place of Light and behold the Place of Light", and, "....Their eyes were filled with Light..." There are visions of the divine Light -- real Light is seen, and ascensions to "the Place of the Light" are experienced.

Clues are provided in the text about not only the luminous visionary results, by at least one of the spiritual practices that was imparted, and it is a contemplative practice universally taught by saints and mystics.

"I became a king to the Nasoreans,
who received praise and stability through my Name.
Praise and stability they received,
and by my Name they ascend to the Place of Light and behold the
Place of Light."

The Prayer of God's Name has been taught, and continues to be taught, by countless saints and mystics. The name or names that one is instructed to repeat may vary from place to place, from language to language, and from tradition to tradition. A sacred word is slowly and prayerfully repeated, either verbally, or even better: mentally (higher, more "within"), and can indeed lead to beatific revelations or visions of Light, and even travels in spirit, "up hither" to the Place of the Light.

"As for the chosen righteous, who put me on (as a garment),
their eyes were filled with Light.
Their eyes were filled with Light,
and Manda dHaiye* [Knowledge or Acquaintance with God]
was established in their hearts.
Whoever puts me on, the Treasure of Life, (as a garment),....
I speak to them, [saying]:

"'The vine which bears (fruit) ascends,
(the vine) which bears nothing is cut off here (from the Light).'"

Here there is language that is reminiscent of the Gospel of John about abiding in the living vine of Yeshua and hearing the heavenly Voice: life is connected with the Great Life. On a spiritual level, one abides in the teacher, one becomes united to the teacher, puts the radiant form of the teacher on like a garment, and this is an essential stage of the journey of ascension.

Being able go go beyond darkness is extremely important. As has been said, "Watch out that the vision within you is not darkness." "Consider the One who is alive while you are alive, lest you die and then seek to behold that One - and you will not be able to behold." (Bently Layton's translation of Gospel of Thomas, 59) And, "Seek to see Him who is living, while you are living; rather than to die and to seek to see Him when you can no longer see Him!" (same verse, Doresse translation). While others put the spiritual life off till the next life or after some hypothesised "end of the world" scenario at the end of time, the contemplative soul "seeks to see Him" right now in the living present -- the present moment of time. It is necessary to be united with the Light now, in order to know that one will be united with the Light in eternity. "If one does not receive the Light while here in this place, one cannot receive it in the other place." (Gospel of Philip) That which we treasure or are attached to in this life, there we go. "What is found now, is found then." (Kabir) If Gnosis of the Place of the Light -- Knowledge or Acquaintance with God -- is established within our hearts, then our "eyes are filled with Light." "Perfect things have opened to us, and Hidden Things of Truth." (Gospel of Phillip) "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me, I myself will become that person, and the Hidden Things will be revealed to them." (Yeshua, Gospel of Thomas, 108) If you eye becomes Single, your whole body will be full of Light. If you are no longer divided, but become whole, darkness will give way to Light, and you will become a child of the Light.

"Help me and save me in thy Mysteries.
Incline thy ear to me and free me.
Let the power of thy Light save me and carry me
to the aeons on high,
for it is thou who appears to me in the darkness,
savest me and takest me
to the height of thy aeons.
Rescue me, O Light."
(Pistis Sophia)

"Truly, truly, I say to you that I will complete you in all
Mysteries of the Kingdom of the Light." (Egyptian Book of Pistis Sophia)

The Living Teacher gives us:
What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
what no hand has touched, and
what has never occurred to the human mind. (Coptic Gospel of Thomas, 17)

From another psalm-scroll of the Mandaean texts:

From the Place of Light have I gone forth,
from thee, Bright Habitation.

I come to feel the hearts,
to measure and try all minds,
to see in whose heart I dwell,
in whose mind I repose.

Who thinks of me, of him I think:
who calls my Name, his name I call.
Who prays my prayer from down below,
his prayer I pray from the Place of Light. . . .

I came and found
the truthful and believing hearts.
When I was not dwelling among them,
yet my Name was on their lips.
I took them and guided them up to the World of Light. . . . ////////

(a Mandaean psalm-scroll quoted in, "The Gnostic Religion -- The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity", by Hans Jonas, Beacon Press)

Re: middle ground - a poem by me...

http://beachcomber.gaia.com — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:19:55 GMT

How very beautiful....... Your poem reminded me of this one by silent lotus www.silentlotus.net __________________________________ The Silence Of Sunrise In The Silence Of sunrise Nature stands before me Unveiling the poetry of loves unpublished Sermons silent lotus ___________________________________________

Re: middle ground - a poem by me...

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 05:14:47 GMT

between you and me - that is wonderful! Thank you for letting that all just tumble out. Good to see you!

Metta

Re: middle ground - a poem by me...

http://professionalhumanbeing.gaia.com — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:10:58 GMT

Oooh.. may I? Between Between this and that Between what is and what may be Between love and loving Between breathe in and breathe out Between is Now Between is All Between is where you and I here and there kiss and sip fly and fall never and always are One You inspired me. I just read your words and these came tumbling ou exactly as you see. Thank you

middle ground - a poem by me...

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:34:36 GMT

I look to the place where night becomes dawn -
not directly at the Sun -
the space where shadows and light merge
lie together in harmony and
breathe Beauty

Re: Surrender

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 18:47:08 GMT

What a beautiful poem! I especially like the last two lines... but I understand the entire plea/longing.

Surrender

http://aspiration.gaia.com — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 14:22:08 GMT

" O Thou of whom I am the instrument ,
        O secret Spirit and Nature housed in me ,
Let all my mortal being now be blent
        In Thy still glory of divinity .

I have given my mind to be dug Thy channel mind ,
        I have offered up my will to be Thy will ;
Let nothing of myself be left behind ,
       In our union mystic and unutterable.

My heart shall throb with the world-beats of Thy love,
       My body becomes Thy engine for earth-use :
In my nerves and veins Thy rapture's streams shall move;
       My thoughts shall be hounds of Light for Thy power to loose.

Keep only my soul to adore eternally
And meet Thee in each form and soul of Thee ."

                                  Sri Aurobindo

Thou Art Glory

http://gopala.gaia.com — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:10:19 GMT

Thou Art Glory, Thou Art Grace- Life and Death, Time and Space, Every flower, Every face: All is held In Thy Embrace. -David Sangalastri

Re: Namaste

http://gopala.gaia.com — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 06:03:14 GMT

Namaste So beautiful! When we look deep into all aspects of Indian life the overall goal is for this understanding of the world. Thanks for the clear translation.

Stanley Saunders' Quote

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:01:53 GMT

Imagine a world where the representatives of the greatest military power on earth are humbled by an unarmed healer from the backwaters of Galilee. If you can imagine this kind of world, you possess...an imagination ready to discern the reign of heaven.

Kirpal Singh: Our Aim is God

http://SantMat.gaia.com — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 23:00:18 GMT

We must constantly
remember our aim
is God.
And we must
not be concerned
with anything
that makes us
forget Him.

Back cover of,
Kirpal Singh
His Grace Lives On
The Last Darshan Talks
Ruhani Satsang
Divine Science of the Soul
Irvine, CA
2001

Psalm/Song for Peace Day - Imagine - John Lennon

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:35:25 GMT

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Re: Dionysius the Areopagite

http://SantMat.gaia.com — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:45:13 GMT

There is a book of fairly recently published writings from Syriac-Aramaic-speaking mystics called, The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. The Syrian mystics really like Dionysius. Their stuff is some of the deepest that the Christian tradition has to offer. This little-known branch of Christianity shares some of the same geography as Sufism, and some have suggested Syriac mysticism has directly influenced early Sufism. I put this anthology in the same category as the Nag Hammadi Library or Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection representing the holy books of a mystical community of antiquity. It's on page 3 of my z-bookshelf:
http://santmat.zaadz.com/books/bookshelf?page=3

Re: Dionysius the Areopagite

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:57:50 GMT

James,

Thank you for posting this. Honestly what I posted was the first little bit I had read of Dionysius. I look forward to taking in these other words. Since I know your practice, I am not suprised that he is someone you are familiar with and only after posting this quote did I see what I suspected you found in the quote.

Metta

Re: Dionysius the Areopagite

http://SantMat.gaia.com — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 18:45:02 GMT

Dionysius is always an interesting read. The Syriac tradition of Christian mysticism quotes him often.

The pure, absolute,
and immutable mysteries of theology are veiled
in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence. (Dionysius, Mystical
Thology)

Dionysius the Areopagite in Mystical Theology, Chapter 1:

In diligent exercise of mystical contemplation, leave behind the
senses and the operations of the intellect, and all things sensible
and intellectual, and all things in the world of being and non-being,
that you may arise by unknowing towards the union, as far as is
attainable, with Him who transcends all being and all knowledge. For
by the unceasing and absolute renunciation of yourself and of all
things you may be borne on high, through pure and entire self-
abnegation, into the superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.

Mystical Theology, By Dionysius the Areopagite,
Chapter One

THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY
CHAPTER I

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/MysticalTheology.html

What is the Divine Darkness?

Supernal Triad, Deity above all essence, knowledge and goodness;
Guide of Christians to Divine Wisdom; direct our path to the ultimate
summit of your mystical knowledge, most incomprehensible, most
luminous and most exalted, where the pure, absolute and immutable
mysteries of theology are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of the
secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their
Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with the utterly
impalpable and invisible fairness of glories surpassing all beauty.

Let this be my prayer; but do, dear Timothy, in the diligent exercise
of mystical contemplation, leave behind the senses and the operations
of the intellect, and all things sensible and intellectual, and all
things in the world of being and nonbeing, that you may arise by
unknowing towards the union, as far as is attainable, with it that
transcends all being and all knowledge. For by the unceasing and
absolute renunciation of yourself and of all things you may be borne
on high, through pure and entire self-abnegation, into the
superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness.

But these things are not to be disclosed to the uninitiated, by whom
I mean those attached to the objects of human thought, and who
believe there is no superessential Reality beyond, and who imagine
that by their own understanding they know it that has made Darkness
Its secret place. And if the principles of the divine Mysteries are
beyond the understanding of these, what is to be said of others still
more incapable thereof, who describe the transcendental First Cause
of all by characteristics drawn from the lowest order of beings,
while they deny that it is in any way above the images which they
fashion after various designs; whereas they should affirm that, while
it possesses all the positive attributes of the universe (being the
Universal Cause) yet, in a more strict sense, it does not possess
them, since it transcends them all; wherefore there is no
contradiction between the affirmations and the negations, inasmuch as
it infinitely precedes all conceptions of deprivation, being beyond
all positive and negative distinctions.

Thus the blessed Bartholomew asserts that the divine science is both
vast and minute, and that the Gospel is great and broad, yet concise
and short; signifying by this, that the beneficent Cause of all is
most eloquent, yet utters few words, or rather is altogether silent,
as having neither (human) speech nor (human) understanding, because
it is super-essentially exalted above created things, and reveals
itself in Its naked Truth to those alone who pass beyond all that is
pure or impure, and ascend above the topmost altitudes of holy
things, and who, leaving behind them all divine light and sound and
heavenly utterances, plunge into the Darkness where truly dwells, as
the Oracles declare, that ONE who is beyond all.

It was not without reason that the blessed Moses was commanded first
to purify himself and them to separate himself from those who had not
undergone purification; and after the entire purification heard many
trumpets and saw many lights streaming forth with pure and manifold
rays; and that he was thereafter separated from the multitude, with
the elect priests, and pressed forward to the summit of the divine
ascent. Nevertheless, he did not attain to the Presence of God
itself; he saw not it (for it cannot be looked upon) but the Place
where it dwells. And this I take to signify that the divinest and
highest things seen by the eyes or contemplated by the mind are but
the symbolical expressions of those that are immediately beneath it
that is above all. Through these, Its incomprehensible Presence is
manifested upon those heights of Its Holy Places; that then It breaks
forth, even from that which is seen and that which sees, and plunges
the mystic into the Darkness of Unknowing, whence all perfection of
understanding is excluded, and he is enwrapped in that which is
altogether intangible, wholly absorbed in it that is beyond all, and
in none else (whether himself or another); and through the inactivity
of all his reasoning powers is united by his highest faculty to it
that is wholly unknowable; thus by knowing nothing he knows That
which is beyond his knowledge.

Dionysius the Areopagite

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:08:34 GMT

Thou who art called the Transcendent Archetype of light because Thou fillest every heavenly mind with spiritual light, we pray to Thee to drive all ignorance and error from souls where they have gained lodgment, and to give them all a share of holy light, purging their spiritual eyes from the mist of ignorance that surrounds them. Stir and open the eyes which are fast shut and weighed down with darkness, giving them first a moderate illumination, then (when they taste the joy of Thy light and desire it more) giving Thyself in greater measure and shining in more abundance on them "because they have loved much." And ever constraining them according to their powers of looking upward, let Thy overflowing radiance illumine with its fullness every mind above the world, around it or within it!

Re: Gitanjali

http://mettakaruna.gaia.com — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 15:12:50 GMT

Yes, I know, this is nothing but thy love,
O beloved of my heart- this golden light that dances
upon the leaves, these idle clouds sailing across the
sky, this passing breeze leaving its coolness upon
my forehead.

The morning light has flooded my eyes- this is thy message
to my heart. Thy face is bent from above, thy eyes look down
on my eyes, and my heart has touched thy feet.

Jayraj,

Thank you for this beauty to being my morning with.

Metta