Thomas Keating Quotes

Science and technology have been embarrassed by two world wars, many smaller ones, and the spread of weapons that could destroy humanity. As a result, there is some loss of confidence in the great achievements of technology. ~ Thomas Keating

Technology isn't fulfilling its promise of unlimited progress and solving every problem through technology. With the Enlightenment and its aftermath, there already was a general loss of confidence in the Western religions. ~ Thomas Keating

Science and technology has tried to offer an alternative to religion by making a god out of human reason, but that didn't work out too well. ~ Thomas Keating

Redemption basically is about holistic health, if you want to translate it into modern parlance. What I suggest - based on the Christian tradition but not often preached - is that you can't enter into the fullness of the Pascal mystery of the redemption unless there is a radical transformation of motivation within you. ~ Thomas Keating

We need to develop the intuitive capacities of the brain that some geniuses have manifested over humanity's lengthy history. ~ Thomas Keating

One of the great purposes of religion itself is being hindered by an exclusive-ism that doesn't take into account the common elements and values that we actually share. ~ Thomas Keating

Divine life is basically the inner freedom to choose the right and the good spontaneously. ~ Thomas Keating

All religions proclaim the advantages of peace, loving one another, and "doing to others what we would like them to do to us." ~ Thomas Keating

Nothing is more helpful to reduce pride than the actual experience of self-knowledge. If we are discouraged by it, we have misunderstood its meaning. ~ Thomas Keating

By deepening the spiritual dialogue between the spiritual traditions of the various religions in a spirit of friendship, one begins to understand just what the classical terms of the various spiritual traditions really mean. ~ Thomas Keating

Perhaps the shortest and most powerful prayer in human language is help. ~ Thomas Keating

I venture to say that it's not enough to respect and tolerate religions other than our own. ~ Thomas Keating

The whole immigration issue suggests the inevitability of people in our time seeking economic security that they can't find at home, which usually involves bringing their religion with them. One's children are going to be married to people outside their religious traditions as well as inside. ~ Thomas Keating

Silence is God's language, and it's a very difficult language to learn. ~ Thomas Keating

You should not take prayer too seriously. There is something playful about God. You only have to look at a penguin ... to realize that He likes to play little jokes on creatures. ~ Thomas Keating

Finding out what particular insights mean to people in other traditions enables us not only to respect but to love the wisdom of other religions. ~ Thomas Keating

God is a tremendous supporter of creation, especially of all living beings. ~ Thomas Keating

Lent is a time to renew wherever we are in that process that I call the divine therapy. It's a time to look what our instinctual needs are, look at what the dynamics of our unconscious are. ~ Thomas Keating

It is essential for world peace that the world religions make peace with each other. If they don't, we can hardly expect the nations of the world to lay down their arms. ~ Thomas Keating

Centering prayer is a training in letting go. ~ Thomas Keating

If one completes the journey to one's own heart, one will find oneself in the heart of everyone else. ~ Thomas Keating

Over time we are able to undermine habitual modes of thinking formed by our self-made self in early childhood, which tries to squeeze happiness from the gratification of our desires for the symbols in our culture of survival and security, power and control, and affection and esteem. ~ Thomas Keating

Union with God is really possible. Unity with God I presume, is what is meant by Heaven, but that too is available in this life for the humble of heart. ~ Thomas Keating

One of the values of centering prayer is that you are not thinking about God during the time of centering prayer so you are giving God a chance to manifest. In centering prayer there are moments of peace that give the psyche a chance to realize that God may not be so bad after all. God has a chance to be himself for a change. ~ Thomas Keating

What I really wanted was to fall in love with God. It's amazing what obstacles there are within us, or at least in me, that seem to slow this process. ~ Thomas Keating

Is a process of inner transformation, a conversation initiated by God and leading, if we consent, to divine union. One's way of seeing reality changes in the process. A restructuring of consciousness takes place which empowers one to perceive, relate and respond with increasing sensitivity to the divine presence in, through, and beyond everything that exists. ~ Thomas Keating

For human beings, the most daunting challenge is to become fully human. For to become fully human is to become fully divine. ~ Thomas Keating

The striking discoveries of contemporary science are continually telling us new things about how material creation came to be and how it continues to evolve. Although we do not have all the answers, we are clearly going in a direction that transcends the cosmology in which the great world religions came into existence. Our vision, understanding, and our attitudes about God inevitably must change. ~ Thomas Keating

St. Teresa of Avila wrote: 'All difficulties in prayer can be traced to one cause: praying as if God were absent.' This is the conviction that we bring with us from early childhood and apply to everyday life and to our lives in general. It gets stronger as we grow up, unless we are touched by the Gospel and begin the spiritual journey. This journey is a process of dismantling the monumental illusion that God is distant or absent. ~ Thomas Keating

God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us. ~ Thomas Keating

We are kept from the experience of Spirit because our inner world is cluttered with past traumas ... As we begin to clear away this clutter, the energy of divine light and love begins to flow through our being. ~ Thomas Keating

We may experience moments of profound inner peace, a sense of oneness with nature, or a sense of something that is more important that we're not reaching by the usual goals of human society. Perhaps we could say there's a common heart to all the religions. ~ Thomas Keating

In human relationships, as mutual love deepens, there comes a time when two friends convey their exchanges without words. They can sit in silence sharing an experience or simply enjoying each other's presence without saying anything. ~ Thomas Keating

The best way to understand another person's religion is to listen to the story of what particular practices helped them to deepen and to embody their religion, especially its spirituality. ~ Thomas Keating

In centering prayer, the sacred word is not the object of the attention but rather the expression of the intention of the will. ~ Thomas Keating

To see everything in God and to see God in everything normally takes a lifetime of practice. ~ Thomas Keating

The complementary movement towards divine love is growth in humility which is the acceptence of the reality about ourselves, our own weakness and limitations. ~ Thomas Keating

If you accept the belief that baptism incorporates us in the mystical body of Christ, into the divine DNA, then you might say that the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and thus we have the capacity for the fullness of redemption, of transformation. ~ Thomas Keating

Becoming fully rational is not enough anymore; evidently it can lead to distortions of all the great human possibilities. ~ Thomas Keating

We're obviously at the edge of something quite new in humanity's experience. That is this globalization process which isn't just economic or social, but involves the interpenetration of cultures, people moving to different places several times in their lifetime, traveling for business or pleasure, and marrying people of very different cultural backgrounds, all of which was almost impossible a hundred years ago. ~ Thomas Keating

This interesting subject, which, if the condition of man is to be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, is to be the chief instrument in effecting it. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Meditate on the unique relationship between Christians. Psalm 133:1 proclaims the goodness and pleasantness of dwelling together in unity; there are some things in the world that are good but not pleasant and others that are pleasant but not good. But to live in peace is both pleasant and good. ~ Thomas Brooks

It is easier to purchase products that denote superiority than to actually be superior in economic achievement. ~ Thomas J. Stanley

Everything looked the same every morning: all in order and just the same. It was in the nights that the difference held sway and there was no comfort for lost and lonely things. ~ Alice Thomas Ellis

The skill of becoming and remaining attuned to another's emotional rhythms requires a solid investment of years. (205) ~ Thomas Lewis

We need not fear God as we fear all other suffering, which burns and maims and kills. For God's fire, though it will perfect us, will not destroy, for 'the bush was not consumed. ~ Thomas Cahill

The biggest and most deadly 'tax' rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits - food stamps, housing subsidies and the like - if their income goes up. ~ Thomas Sowell

If we lose the ability in question for a single moment only, we are immediately being hijacked by an aggressive little "Think me!" and our mind begins to wander. ~ Thomas Metzinger

You are a free man, and let no organization come between you and your best interests. Do not let any man, or any body of men, tell you where you shall work, or where you shall not work, when you shall work, or when, you shall not work. If a man wants to belong to a labor organization, let him belong. If he does not want to belong to a labor organization, let him have perfect liberty to stay out. You own yourself. Let no man put a manacle on your hand, or foot, or head, or heart. ~ Thomas De Witt Talmage

In the postbiblical world we understand that from the first day of the world, God trusted man to make choices, when He entrusted Adam to make the right decision about which fruit to eat in the Garden of Eden. We are responsible for making God's presence manifest by what we do, by the choices we make. And the reason this issue is most acute in cyberspace is that no one else is in charge there. There is no place in today's world where you encounter the freedom to choose that God gave man more than in cyberspace. Cyberspace is where we are all connected and no one is in charge. So, ~ Thomas L. Friedman

What I do is live, how I pray is breathe, what I wear is pants. ~ Thomas Merton

There are cries in the dark at night
As owls answer the moon ~ R.S. Thomas

The artist should preach nothing-not even his own autonomy. His art should speak its own truth, and in so doing it will be in harmony with every other kind of truth- moral, metaphysical, mystical. ~ Thomas Merton

You have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavored to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove in my opinion that it is premature, insufficient and false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole, I think the new nomenclature will be rejected, after doing more harm than good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful. ~ Thomas Jefferson

One should never send soldiers on a mission based on just good will and good intent. Unfortunately, that can mean one has to stand by and watch human rights abuses take place. ~ Thomas De Maiziere

Hans?" Thomas asked. "You still can't find him?"
"I am here," Boris said.
"Oh. Why do you have Hans's phone?"
"He gave it to me in exchange for a blow job."
Hans gasped. "I did not!"
Thomas laughed. "What's going on?"
"Hans tells me I will get sunburned," Boris said, "so I should put on this nasty-smelling coconut shit. But I cannot reach my back - I am not a comic book character - and he will not put it on me."
"You're sunbathing? Since when do you sunbathe?"
Boris made a rude noise. "That is beside the point. I need you to tell Hans you won't divorce me and come after him with a butcher knife if he rubs coconut shit on my back."
"You two will be the death of me," Thomas muttered, but there was a note of affection in his voice. Hans assumed that was for Boris, but the way Thomas had said "you two" sounded as if they were all somehow together. Hans was surprised by how much he liked that. "Hans, I won't divorce Boris and come after you with a butcher knife if you rub coconut shit on his back."
"Thank you," Boris told him ~ Jamie Fessenden

Even after a peak parenting experience, children never transition to a fully self-tuning physiology. Adults remain social animals: they continue to require a source of stabilization outside themselves. That open-loop design means that in some important ways, people cannot be stable on their own - not should or shouldn't be, but can't be. This prospect is disconcerting to many, especially in a society that prizes individuality as ours does. Total self-sufficiency turns out to be a daydream whose bubble is burst by the sharp edge of the limbic brain. Stability means finding people who regulate you well and staying near them. (86) ~ Thomas Lewis

Democrats do best in urban centers, Republicans in outer suburbs and rural areas. ~ Thomas E. Mann

Coffee - the favorite drink of the civilized world. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Good applied science in medicine, as in physics, requires a high degree of certainty about the basic facts at hand, and especially about their meaning, and we have not yet reached this point for most of medicine. ~ Lewis Thomas

We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But the more violent the outrages, the more assured we feel that a revolution was necessary. ~ Thomas B. Macaulay

M. A. Rosanoff: Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe. Edison: There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish somep'n! ~ Thomas A. Edison

University of Chicago is a Baptist school, where atheist professors teach Jewish students about St. Thomas Aquinas. ~ Martin Gardner

If life is not real, life is not earnest, and the grave is its goal, perhaps it's ridiculous t otake ourselves so seriously. ~ Thomas Nagel

The way to heaven out of all places is of length and distance. ~ Thomas More

Word of mouth sells books. Want to sell more books, learn to write better! ~ Thomas Wilson

But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. ~ Thomas Jefferson

No man is born without ambitious worldly desires. ~ Thomas Carlyle

France, freed from that monster, Bonaparte, must again become the most agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other one, and the first choice of all not under those ties. ~ Thomas Jefferson

An innocent youth wrote recently that he is convinced I am the greatest writer in the world (from New Zealand). A touching letter – so simple & unaffected. Another young man wrote, only yesterday, that I am to him what Hardy must have been to me. Such tributes are worth having, aren't they, even if I don't deserve them. ~ Siegfried Sassoon

THE NEXT DAY Reef, Cyprian, and Ratty were out on the Anarchists' golf course, during a round of Anarchists' Golf, a craze currently sweeping the civilized world, in which there was no fixed sequence - in fact, no fixed number - of holes, with distances flexible as well, some holes being only putter-distance apart, others uncounted hundreds of yards and requiring a map and compass to locate. Many players had been known to come there at night and dig new ones. Parties were likely to ask, "Do you mind if we don't play through?" then just go and whack balls at any time and in any direction they liked. Folks were constantly being beaned by approach shots barreling in from unexpected quarters. "This is kind of fun," Reef said, as an ancient brambled guttie went whizzing by, centimeters from his ear. ~ Thomas Pynchon

The Swimming Pool

All around the apt. swimming pool
the boys stare at the girls
and the girls look everywhere but the opposite
or down or up. It is
as it was a thousand years ago: the fat
boy has it hardest, he
takes the sneers,
prefers the winter so he can wear
his heavy pants and sweater.
Today, he's here with the others.
Better they are cruel to him in his presence
than out. Of the five here now (three boys,
two girls) one is fat, three cruel,
and one, a girl, wavers to the side,
all the world tearing at her.
As yet she has no breasts
(her friend does) and were it not
for the forlorn fat boy whom she joins
in taunting, she could not bear her terror,
which is the terror
of being him. Does it make her happy
that she has no need, right now, of ingratiation,
of acting fool to salve
her loneliness? She doesn't seem
so happy. She is like
the lower middle class, that fatal group
handed crumbs so they can drop a few
down lower, to the poor, so they won't kill
the rich. All around
the apt. swimming pool
there is what's everywhere: forsakenness
and fear, a disdain for those beneath us
rather than a rage
against the ones above: the exploiters,
the oblivious and unabashedly cruel. ~ Thomas Lux

The world is my country, mankind are my friends, to do good is my religion. ~ Thomas Paine

The Indwelling of Christ by faith ... is to have Jesus Christ continually in one's eye, a habitual sight of Him. I call it so because a man actually does not always think of Christ; but as a man does not look up to the sun continually, yet he sees the light of it ... . So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes. - Thomas Goodwin, Works, 2:411 ~ Thomas Goodwin

If politics were like sports, we could ask Israel to trade us Benjamin Netanyahu for Barack Obama. Of course, we would have to throw in trillions of dollars to get Israel to agree to the deal, but it would be money well spent. ~ Thomas Sowell

When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted. ~ Thomas Paine

Perhaps in no minor point does a woman astonish her helpmate more than in the strange power she possesses of believing cajoleries that she knows to be false – except indeed in that of being utterly skeptical on strictures that she knows to be true. ~ Thomas Hardy

He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil. ~ Thomas Fuller

Theism pushes the quest for intelligibility outside the world. If God exists, he is not part of the natural order but a free agent not governed by natural laws. He may act partly by creating a natural order, but whatever he does directly cannot be part of that order. ~ Thomas Nagel