Inspiring Quotes of the Week...
Oneness
Commentary by Peter Shepherd
“Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Love leads to connection and oneness, acceptance and compassion. It's the path we need to take, both to survive and to evolve. Indeed, it's the spiritual path.
“Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like and Compassion is what it acts like.” ~ Ethan Walker
The human animal (body-mind) experiences life as duality, and the human soul (when fully awakened) as non-duality. At the same time. And that's OK... You don't have to stop being a human when you are awakened to Oneness. You don't have to give up your life and live in an isolated cave in order to be enlightened.
“The sun shines down, and its image reflects in a thousand different pots filled with water. The reflections are many, but they are each reflecting the same sun. Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are, we will see ourselves in all people.” ~ Ammachi
Meaning of Namaste: "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you, which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one." More and more people are feeling this, and really it's our hope for the future that this becomes the New Human, and the old mentality of fear and hate no longer has a place in our societies. And it's not just humans, it's sheep and fields and trees and fields too... a true Oneness we can experience. Brings tears to the eyes... that's OK, tears are liquid love.
“When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life turns.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
Nothing and everything at the same time, two sides of a golden coin... the big Zen paradox that has fooled thinkers for millennia, because it can only be experienced. It is the insight of enlightenment, beyond duality. We are spirit, not a material thing, and simultaneously we are not separate from any physical thing, nor from each other. Both spirit and the universe are simply expressions of Love.
“A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.” ~ Albert Einstein
Our solid, physical world - home of the human animal - is based on duality. Our soul - the human being - comes from the afterlife dimension where there are levels of consciousness, from a less solid duality rising through to oneness, but we can taste oneness here and now through love.
Here’s some further reading on this theme...
Can We Be Both Divine And Human? ~ by Beth Green
Most of us live our lives as though we exist only on the material plane and that all decisions need to be made by our egos and for our safety. Others of us try to escape the pain of existence by transcending into an ungrounded other world, where our feet hardly touch the ground. These choices are foolish and limiting. They hurt. Why do we feel we have to choose? Continues...
PODCAST: Peter Shepherd about Transitions in Life
