Spiritual Friendships Quotes

For, when the friendship is purely spiritual, the love of God grows with it; and the more the soul remembers it, the more it remembers the love of God, and the greater the desire it has for God; so that, as the one grows, the other grows also. For the spirit of God has this property, that it increases good by adding to it more good, inasmuch as there is likeness and conformity between them. But, when this love arises from the vice of sensuality aforementioned, it produces the contrary effects; for the more the one grows, the more the other decreases, and the remembrance of it likewise. If that sensual love grows, it will at once be observed that the soul's love of God is becoming colder, and that it is forgetting Him as it remembers that love; there comes to it, too, a certain remorse of conscience. And, on the other hand, if the love of God grows in the soul, that other love becomes cold and is forgotten; for, as the two are contrary to one another, not only does the one not aid the other, but the one which predominates quenches and confounds the other, and becomes strengthened in itself, as the philosophers say. Wherefore Our Saviour said in the Gospel: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' That is to say, the love which is born of sensuality ends in sensuality, and that which is of the spirit ends in the spirit of God and causes it to grow. This is the difference that exists between these two kinds of love, whereby we m ~ Juan De La Cruz

Holy moment is a sacred existence. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Imagination is divinity. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The Soul's [our true self's] natural form is the absolute supreme Self [Parmatma]. It does not show you 'wrong [doing]', nor does it show 'right [doing]'. When demerit karma effect is unfolding, then one will see the 'wrong' and when merit karma is unfolding, it will show 'right'. The Soul is not the 'doer' in any of this; it continues to 'See' only the vibrations! ~ Dada Bhagwan

Meditation is the process of understanding your own mind. ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Make sure you stand firm on the solid rock. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Prayer is the means by which God has established for God's people to invite the spiritual into the physical, and the invisible realm into the visible realm. ~ Tony Evans

When I Am Within, I Am Never Without. ~ Trilby D. Johnson

Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole. ... "These Native Americans ... believed that nature was filled with spirits. Each form of life, such as plants and animals, had a spirit. Earth and air held spirits too. People were never alone. They shared their lives with the spirits of nature." ... Stated flatly like this, the beliefs seem like make-believe, not the sophisticated theology of a higher civilization. Let us try a similarly succinct summary of the beliefs of many Christians today: "These Americans believed that one great male god ruled the world. Sometimes they divided him into three parts, which they called father, son, and holy ghost. They ate crackers and wine or grape juice, believing that they were eating the son's body and drinking his blood. If they believed strongly enough, they would live on forever after they died."

Textbooks never describe Christianity this way. It's offensive. Believers would immediately argue that such a depiction fails to convey the symbolic meaning or the spiritual satisfaction of communion. ~ James W. Loewen

Silence embeds thoughts better than speeches. If you are afraid of silence, you are afraid of your thoughts. ~ Rossana Condoleo

When everything comes from Jesus, it is spiritual insanity to have any form of pride. ~ Derwin L. Gray

One day, many years after the siege was lifted and the war was over, two nutritionists met by chance. They introduced themselves. One, Alexei Bezzubov, had worked at Leningrad's Vitamin Institute, seeking out new sources of protein for the hungry. The other, as it turned out, was Ernst Ziegelmeyer, deputy quartermaster of Hitler's army, the man who'd been assigned to calculate how quickly Leningrad would fall without food deliveries. Now these two men met in peace: the one who had tried to starve a city, and the other who had tried to feed it. Ziegelmeyer pressed Bezzubov incredulously: "However did you hold out? How could you? It's quite impossible! I wrote a deposition that it was physically impossible to live on such a ration." Bezzubov could not provide a scientific, purely nutritive answer. There was none. Instead, he "talked of faith in victory, of the spiritual reserves of Leningraders, which had not been accounted for in the German professor's ~ M T Anderson

Hope is one of the three great Christian virtues because Christ Himself is the master of life and therefore the master of hope. We are free to choose because we were made free from the beginning, and He honors our agency and our right and ability to choose. The choice He offers is life, and life offers hope. Any other choice is a choice of spiritual death that will bring us into the power of the devil ... Part of that hope in Christ is hope in the future, a future that includes resurrection and salvation and exaltation. ~ Chieko N. Okazaki

The Universe contains three things that cannot be destroyed; Being, Awareness and LOVE ~ Deepak Chopra

It is therefore no wonder that modern thought, to the extent that it reduces man from a spiritual to a purely biological entity, elevates the state of inexorable competition, conflict, and self-serving aggression from a tragic lapse of our ordained destiny into the primary principle of the natural order. ~ Sanford Schwartz

If you shift from compulsiveness to consciousness, being joyful will not be an effort. ~ Jaggi Vasudev

Know that you are a spark of God and can exist fully only within the realization of that profound truth. As such, you are a light and inspiration to others. ~ Harold Klemp

Luther labeled as theologies of glory all distortions of the Gospel that would promise the Christian elements of glory in this life if he will perfect or offer spiritual things that deserve God's favor. ~ Steven A. Hein

The happiness and peace attained by those satisfied by the nectar of spiritual tranquillity is not attained by greedy persons restlessly moving here and there. ~ Chanakya

The spiritual leader will choose the hidden path of sacrificial service and approval of the Lord over the flamboyant self-advertising of the world. ~ J. Oswald Sanders

I'm anxious about work, the future, friendships, past relationships ... I'm just one of those people that, whatever I'm doing, it's a big worry. ~ Conor McPherson

I care not what black spiritual crisis we may come through or what delightful spiritual Canaan we may enter, no blessing of the Christian life becomes continually possessed unless we are men and women of regular, daily, unhurried secret lingerings in prayer. ~ J. Sidlow Baxter

We usually don't look. We overlook. ~ Alan Watts

Each of us is a unique strand in the intricate web of life and here to make a contribution. ~ Deepak Chopra

Barth observes that the seventh day does not come at the end of a week of toil and labor for human beings as though its primary purpose is to offer a measure of respite after days of toil. Rather, since "God's seventh day was man's first,"54 the seventh day sets life's priority for human beings in the most tangible way. Better yet - and much closer to the point - the seventh day brings to view God's priorities. Seeing that human time "begins with a day of rest and not a day of work,"55 the spiritual pursuit, living life in a relationship with the Creator that is mutually meaningful, stands out as the primary meaning in life. ~ Sigve K. Tonstad

Everyone belongs to God. Rather black or white there is no colour for God. He loves all. ~ Saira Hafeez

The pursuit of life is passion to seek the presence of God. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The best thing you can do in this life is share your open heart with the world. ~ Tehya Sky

Man is indeed the Absolute Supreme Soul (Parmatma); it is possible for infinite divinity to arise within. The moment he has a desire, he becomes a human! Otherwise, he can acquire whatever he wants, but he is unable to do so because of impediments (antray). ~ Dada Bhagwan

It did not occur to me at the time that her radiance had a spiritual dimension, owing nothing to the values of the temporal world. ~ Jennifer Worth

However, over the years, the martial arts were separated into two schools for training, one for actual combat and the other as ritual dances that served to reinforce Manipuri cultural identity and played an important role in the physical and spiritual growth of the students who studied it. ~ Christopher Fernandes

Yes, creation is moving toward us; life is moving toward us all the time. We back away, but it keeps pushing toward us. Why not step forward and greet it. ~ Joan Halifax

Oh darling,
The darkness is a gift,
And when you realise this,
You will never be defeated
Again. ~ Nikki Rowe

As our lives speed up more and more, so do our children's. We forget and thus they forget that there is nothing more important than the present moment. We forget and thus they forget to relax, to find spiritual solitude, to let go of the past, to quiet ambition, to fully enjoy the eating of a strawberry, the scent of a rose, the touch of a hand on a cheek ... ~ Michael Gurian

Each individual human being can claim the Spirit of Jesus as the guiding spirit of his or her life. In that Spirit we can speak and act freely and confidently with the knowledge that the same Spirit that inspired Jesus is inspiring us. ~ Henri Nouwen

Our talk is right and the other person's talk is wrong, however if a conflict occurs, then it is wrong. ~ Dada Bhagwan

Classical music is at odds with contemporary culture precisely because of its insistence on the tension between the bodily and intellectual, the material and the spiritual, the thinglike and its transcendence in thought. A culture that is merely sensuous and that denies the activity of the mind within sensuous materials risks becoming pornographic. ~ Julian Johnson

We must intend to live [the new spiritual awareness], to integrate each increased degree of awareness into our daily routine. It only takes one negative interpretation to stop everything. ~ James Redfield

When you look down, you see your body. When you look in the mirror, you see yourself. ~ Jenna Alatari

Apparently, in the Avesta classical period no one would have dreamed of having a spiritual experience without resort to drugs. ~ Terence McKenna

My soul crave to walk with the Creator.
My spirit sought to know the will of the Creator.
My mind seek to mediate on the Holy words spoken by the Creator. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

...to lead an individual along a spiritual path consonant with the person's gifts and personality...[The Jesuit training of novitiates and lay students] ~ John W. O'Malley

Have no fear in the devil and acknowledge the insecurities, mistakes of the past, and disappointments that you have long failed to accept as new beginnings and see the child within you begin to heal. ~ Forrest Curran

Very few spiritual or religious masters know that the student is sometimes a teacher because they haven't acquired such level. ~ Daniel Marques

Huxley's mescaline trip, reported in his 1954 book, The Doors of Perception, is probably the most poetically realized of its kind. It underscored an idea that shifted the English schoolteacher's son's entire spiritual outlook. This notion was that the brain and the central nervous system, rather than being the seat of awareness and perception, are actually filters that prevent human beings from being overwhelemed by what Huxley calls Mind at Large. ~ Peter Bebergal

But he could no longer disbelieve in the reality of love, since God Himself had loved his individual soul with divine love from all eternity. Gradually, as his soul was enriched with spiritual knowledge, he saw the whole world forming one vast symmetrical expression of God's power and love. Life became a divine gift for every moment and sensation of which, were it even the sight of a single leaf hanging on the twig of a tree, his soul should praise and thank the Giver. The world for all its solid substance and complexity no longer existed for his soul save as a theorem of divine power and love and universality. ~ James Joyce

Sufism is the reconciliation of all opposites: the outer and the inner, the material and the spiritual, the finite and the infinite, the here and the hereafter, freedom and servanthood, the human and the divine. Enlightenment in this tradition does not prevent us from functioning in a practical and humble way in life, does not entitle us to special treatment, does not exclude us from the inevitable joys and griefs of life. The Sufi's union with God does not cancel servanthood. What I found through Sufism far exceeded my hopes. As an example, one poet said to me: "All of my reading, study, and creative writing could not have prepared me for the poetry of Rumi." And yet all Rumi's poetry is just the wave on the surface of the ocean of Sufi spirituality. Perhaps it is consistent with the idea of Divine generosity that it should exceed in actuality the gift we had foreseen in our imagination. The Source is not only infinitely generous, it is infinitely creative, and its gifts surpass human imagination. ~ Kabir Edmund Helminski