Living in the Present
Do not overburden yourself with thoughts about how to continue the traditions of Religious Spiritualism over the course of your entire life. Live in the present moment, focusing your attention and concentration on your actions now. For example, live day-by-day, only concerning yourself with the traditions as applied to this day only. Or, consider only your immediate actions and situations—do not bother yourself with questions of “what if…”; all people are limited in their understanding. Consider the present as best as you can and act accordingly. If you make a mistake in retrospect, then do so with a confident and peaceful heart.
Quotations
These quotes are meant to inspire and clarify, not define the various traditions. There is no order to the quotations under the specific tradition. While this may make it difficult to search, the scattering is meant to portray a larger concept: there is no order or hierarchy amongst world religions.Similarly, some quotes are not even from sacred or spiritual texts in the traditional sense; inspiration can come from any source.
Our sources are listed at the end along with the ISBN’s of our texts. We encourage all readers to consult the original source (preferably in the original language) for their own spiritual guidance and clarification.
Feel free to add comments with your own favorite quotations.
“Go, trust in Providence, trust is the better part.
War not with the divine decree, O hot-headed one,
Lest that decree enter into conflict with thee.”
(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 173)
“Really, the misfortunes which are now such a cause of grief ought to be reasons for tranquility. For now she (Fortune) has deserted you, and no man can ever be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune….If you cannot keep her, and if it makes you miserable to lose her, what is fickle Fortune but a promise of future distress? It is not enough to see what is present before our eyes; prudence demands that we look to the future….If you hoist your sails in the wind, you will go where the wind blows you, not where you choose to go; if you put seeds in the ground, you must be prepared for lean as well as abundant years.”
(Boethius, p. 22)
“But we are still too weak now for this sight; we are not yet strong enough to open our mind’s eyes and look on the incorruptible, incomprehensible beauty of that good. In the moment when you have nothing to say about it, you will see it, for the knowledge of it is divine silence and suppression of all the senses.”
(Hermetica, Corpus Hermeticum X, v. 5)
“Thus everyone who is happy is a god and, although it is true that God is one by nature, still there may be many gods by participation.”
(Boethius, p. 63)
“Before every Sufi who is enlightened
Whatever is past is never mentioned.
When his whole thoughts are absorbed in present ecstasy,
No thought of consequences enters his mind.
Arab, water-pot, and angels are all ourselves!
‘Whatsoever turneth from God is turned from Him.’”
(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, pp. 200-1)
“Human depravity, then, has broken into fragments that which is by nature one and simple; men try to grasp part of a thing which has no parts and so get neither the part, which does not exist, nor the whole, which they do not seek.”
(Boethus, p. 58)
“You may give them [your children] love but not
your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not
their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even
in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek
not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”
(Gibran, The Prophet, p. 17)
“No one is so completely happy that he does not have to endure some loss. Anxiety is the necessary condition of human happiness since happiness is never completely achieved and never permanently kept.”
(Boethius, p. 28)
“‘Follow God’”
επον θεω
(Boethius, p. 13; This is a quotation from Pythagoras)
“But if I engage in doubts and answers,
How can I give water to thirsty souls?
Yet, if you are perplexed by Whole and finite parts,
Have patience, for ‘patience is the key of joy.’”
(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 201)
“This very place which you (Boethius) call a land of exile is home to those who live here: nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it…. The joy of human happiness is shot through with bitterness; no matter ho pleasant it seems when one has it, such happiness cannot be kept when it decides to leave.”
(Boethius, p. 29)
“The Sufi acts according to whatever is most fitting to the moment.”
(Amr ibn Uthman Al-Makki, Essential Sufism, p. 37)
“[May] the right time precede your words.”
(Nag Hammadi, The Sentences of Sextus, p. 503)
