Author: gnox

The world

The world is a mirror of Infinite Beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. It is more to man since he is fallen than it was before. It is the place of Angels and the Gate of Heaven. When Jacob waked out of his dream, he said, God is here, and I wist it not. How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the House of God and the Gate of Heaven.

— Thomas Traherne, The First Century 31

The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me; but my deaf ears cannot hear it.

— Kabir I.83 (Tagore 1915)

How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom, and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop!

— Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán ¶107

The messages cease to be messages when nobody can read them.

— G. Bateson

O ESSENCE OF NEGLIGENCE!
Myriads of mystic tongues find utterance in one speech, and myriads of hidden mysteries are revealed in a single melody; yet, alas, there is no ear to hear, nor heart to understand.

— Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words (Persian) 16

The adventure of the universe depends upon our capacity to listen.

— Swimme and Berry (1992, 44)

The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover. It becomes as small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.

— Tagore

Nothing is hidden

Whatever i am saying now, it may be true or not, but there is no doubt that i am saying it.

Whatever you are seeing now, it may be real or not, but you are really seeing it.

The same goes for whatever appears in any way at any time to anyone.

This whatever appears was called by Peirce the phaneron. There is nothing hiding behind it; it does not signify something else; there is nothing else. It appears to none other than the primal person; there is no one else.

It may be called the buddha nature.

Thus, all are buddha nature. One form of all beings is sentient beings. At this very moment, the inside and outside of sentient beings are the all are of buddha nature.…

Buddha nature is immediate, and there is no second person, just as it is said, “Cut through the original person beyond knowing; action consciousness continues without ceasing.” Buddha nature is not the being of imaginary causation, because “Nothing is hidden in the entire world.”

“Nothing is hidden in the entire world” does not necessarily mean “The entire world is full of beings.” To say, “The entire world is self-existence” is a crooked view held by those outside the way. What is not hidden is not original beings, as it encompasses past and present. It is not an embryonic being, as it is not affected by even one speck of dust from outside. It is not a suddenly emerged being, as it is shared by all beings. It is not a beginningless being, as it is “What has thus come?” It is not an embryonic being, as “Everyday mind is the way.”

Know that in the midst of all are, sentient beings are hard to find. If you thoroughly understand all are, all are will be penetrated and dropped off.

— Dogen, SBGZ ‘Bussho’ (Tanahashi 2010, 234-5)

Kabir on Presence

For the sake of concord among religions, let us agree that the Creator is beyond our understanding.

Let us also agree that the Creator is not remote from us, but is a Presence in our lives.

15th-century Indian poet Kabir addressed these remarks to a sadhu (religious ascetic who has renounced the worldly life):

Kabir says: “O Sadhu! hear my deathless words. If you want your own good, examine and consider them well.
You have estranged yourself from the Creator, of whom you have sprung: you have lost your reason, you have bought death.
All doctrines and all teachings are sprung from Him, from Him they grow: know this for certain, and have no fear.
Hear from me the tidings of this great truth!
Whose name do you sing, and on whom do you meditate? O, come forth from this entanglement!
He dwells at the heart of all things, so why take refuge in empty desolation?
If you place the Guru at a distance from you, then it is but the distance that you honour:
If indeed the Master be far away, then who is it else that is creating this world?

— Kabir III.63 (Tagore 1915)

Everything that is hath come to be through His irresistible decree.

— Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas ¶7

All things proceed from God and unto Him they return. He is the source of all things and in Him all things are ended.

— Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Aqdas ¶144

Couriers

They were offered the choice of becoming Kings or the couriers of kings. They way children would, they all wanted to be couriers. Therefore there are only couriers who hurry about the world, shouting to each other – since there are no kings – messages that have become meaningless. They would like to put an end to their miserable lives but they dare not because of their oaths of service.

— FranzKafka (1961, 175)

Discover the familiar

The Greek word apocalypse means literally discovery, the uncovering or revelation (revealing) of what was hidden from consciousness – sometimes hidden because of our immersion in it.

The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.

— Wittgenstein (PI I.129)

We don’t know who discovered water, but we’re certain it wasn’t a fish.

— source unknown

The veil of habit hides the Firstness of the phenomenon, generalization dissipates the force of discovery, percepts are overgrown with perceptual judgments. Yet ‘there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed.’

It is easier to discover another such a new world as Columbus did, than to go within one fold of this which we appear to know so well; the land is lost sight of, the compass varies, and mankind mutiny; and still history accumulates like rubbish before the portals of nature.

— Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.

— George Orwell (1946)

Bless

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

— Albert Einstein, from a speech to the New History Society (14 December 1930)

Opposition always enflames the enthusiast, never converts him.

— Friedrich Schiller

Damn braces; bless relaxes.

— William Blake

The path to guidance is one of love and compassion, not of force and coercion.

— The Báb, Persian Bayan II.16