Sattvic Action

We surrender our wills to the Peace of the Divine and thereby become an instrument of Divine Will. Our speech and actions become the same as we trust in the Divine Nous within us; remembering that courage and strength first come from within. This inner strength is our Tetan or Divine Spark that allows us to exist as physical and mental beings. We are, therefore, partially divine ourselves, and the goal of Sattvic Action is to recognize our Tetan and act as agents and angels of the Divine. We are not controlled by the Divine hand, we are the Divine hand. Acting according to our Tetan, our actions will then become subtle and peaceful like the light from a slowly rising sun.

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.

“Do you have the patience to wait

till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving

till the right action arises by itself?”

(Tao te Ching, ch. 15)

“For be a man’s intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some sort of external arts and entrenchments, always, in themselves more or less paltry and base. This it is, that for ever keeps God’s true princes of the Empire from the world’s hustings; and leaves the highest honors that this air can give, to those men who become famous more through their infinite inferiority to the choice hidden handful of the Divine Inert, than through their undoubted superiority of the dead level of the mass.”

(Moby Dick, p. 129)

Jesus speaking: “’You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

‘Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.’”

(The Bible, Matthew 5:15-16)

“Strive to obtain entrance within,

If thou wouldst not remain as a ring ouside the door.

Having chosen thy Director, be not weak of heart,

Nor yet sluggish and lax as water and mud;

But if thou takest umbrage at every rub,

How wilt thou become a polished mirror?”

(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 205)

“Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of the earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,

And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.”

(Gibran, The Prophet, p. 25-6)

“For the father and master of all, who alone is all, shows himself freely to all–not where as in a place nor how as through some quality nor how much as in a quantity but by illuminating people with the understanding that comes only through mind.”

(Hermetica, Asclepius, p. 84)

“For whoever is conquered and turns his eyes to the pit of hell, looking into the inferno, loses all the excellence he has gained.”

(Boethius, p. 74)

“Now when the tempter came to Him [Jesus], he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’

“But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”’”

(The Bible, Matthew: 4:3-4)

“Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while the live, when they die they will receive nothing.”

(Nag Hammadi, The Gospel of Philip, p. 153)

“Behold, then, God’s action and man’s action;

Know, action does not belong to us; this is evident.

If no actions proceeded from men,

How could you say, ‘Why act ye thus?’

The agency of God is the cause of our action,

Our actions are the signs of God’s agency;

Nevertheless our actions are freely willed by us…”

(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p.184)

Jesus speaking: “’You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.”

‘But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, “Raca!” shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says “You fool!” shall be in danger of hell fire.

‘Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,

‘leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift.’”

(The Bible, Matthew 5:21-24)

“Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, ‘He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes sandals for our feet.’

But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.”

(Gibran, The Prophet, p. 27-8)

“Then an old man, a keeper of an inn, said,

Speak to us of Eating and Drinking.

And he said:

Would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth, and like an air plant be sustained by the light.

But since you must kill to eat, and rob the newly born of its mother’s milk to quench your thirst, let it then be an act of worship.

And let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man.

When you kill a beast say to him in your heart,

‘By the same power that slays you, I too am slain; and I too shall be consumed.

For the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand.

Your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven.’

(Gibran, The Prophet, p. 23)

“You (Lady Philosophy) know that this is true, and that I (Boethius) have never acted out of a desire for praise; for integrity of conscience is somehow spoiled when a man advertises what he has done and receives the reward of public recognition.”

(Boethius, p. 13)

“Cherishing the god of heaven and all that heaven contains means but one thing: constant assiduous service.”

(Hermetica, Asclepius, v. 9)

Jesus speaking: “’Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’”

(The Bible, Matthew 5:8)

“’This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him that goodness! Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!”

(Moby Dick, p. 50)

“For when they turn away their eyes from the light of supreme truth to mean and dark things, they are blinded by a cloud of ignorance and obsessed by vicious passions.”

(Boethius, p. 104)

…After being asked who is the person who is “already divine”: “One who says little and hears little. He fights with shadows, my son, who wastes time on talking and listening to talk. One neither speaks nor hears of god the father and the good. This being so–that there are senses in all things that are because they cannot exist without them–yet knowledge differs greatly form sensation; for sensation comes when the object prevails, while knowledge is the goal of learning, and learning is a gift from god. [10] For all learning is incorporeal, using as instrument the mind itself, and mind uses body. Both enter into body, then, the mental and the material. For everything must be the product of opposition and contrariety, and it cannot be otherwise.”

(Hermetica, Corpus Hermeticum X, v. 9-10)

“Yea, see in your heart the knowledge of the Prophet,

Without book , without tutor, without preceptor.”

(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 212)

“Therefore the Master

acts without doing anything

and teaches without saying anything.

Things arise and she lets them come;

things disappear and she lets them go.

She has but doesn’t possess,

acts but doesn’t expect.

When her work is done, she forgets it.

That is why it lasts forever.”

(Tao te Ching, ch. 2)

“I went out of myself into an immortal body, and now I am not what I was before. I have been born in mind. This thing cannot be taught, nor can it be seen through any elementary fabrication that we use here below. Therefore, the initial form even of my own constitution is of no concern. Color, touch or size I no longer have; I am a stranger to them. Now you see me with your eyes, my child, but by gazing with bodily sight you do <not> understand what <I am>; I am not seen with such eyes, my child.”

(Hermetica, Corpus Hermeticum XIII, v. 3)

“‘I do not say that I possess

the treasures of God, or have knowledge of the Unknown,

or that I am an angel.

I only follow what is sent down to me.’”

(Al-Qur’ān, 6:50)

“Do good to others as God has done good to you.”

(Al-Qur’ān, 28:77)

“Since god has made me tranquil, father, I no longer picture things with the sight of my eyes but with the mental energy that comes through the powers. I am in heaven, in earth, in water, in air; I am in animals and in plants; in the womb, before the womb, after the womb; everywhere.”

(Hermetica, Corpus Hermeticum XIII, v. 11)

“…be a pattern for the world.

If you are a pattern for the world,

the Tao will be strong inside you

and there will be nothing you can’t do.”

(Tao te Ching, ch. 28)

“Whosoever is bewildered by wavering will,

In his ear hath God whispered His riddle,

That He may bind him on the horns of a dilemma;

For he says, ‘Shall I do this or its reverse?’”

(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 182).

Jesus speaking: “’Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.”

‘But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne,

‘nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

‘Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

‘But let your “Yes” be “Yes” and your “No” be “No.” For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.’”

(The Bible, Matthew 5:33-37)

Jesus speaking: “Do not labor for the food which parishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

(The Bible, John 6:27)

“‘Who and where is he that hath stolen my steed?’

They say, ‘What is this thou ridest on, O master?’

He says, ‘True, ’tis a steed; but where is mine?’

They say, ‘Look to thyself, O rider; thy steed is there.’”

(God’s Breath, Book of Rumi, p. 178)

“Giving birth and nourishing,

having without possessing,

acting with no expectations,

leading and not trying to control:

this is the supreme virtue.”

(Tao te Ching, ch. 10)

“He [the Christ] must increase, but I must decrease.”

(The Bible, John 3:30)

“We have seen you turn your face to the heavens..

We shall turn you to a Qiblah that will please you.

So turn towards the Holy Mosque,

and turn towards it wherever you be.”

(Al-Qur’ān, 2:144)

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.”

(The Bible, John 3:27)

“Not by avoiding actions

does a man gain freedom from action,

and not by renunication

alone, can he reach his goal.”

(Bhagavad Gita, p. 62)

Keep your hands busy with your duties in this world, and your heart busy with God.

(Shikh Muzaffer, Essential Sufism, p. 35)

We Sufis are lovers of beauty. Because we have renounced the world, it does not mean that we should look miserable. But neither do we want to stand out and attract undue attention…. We behave like others, we dress like others. We are ordinary people, living ordinary lives. We will always obey the law of the land in which we live; but in reality we are beyond the laws of men, for we obey the law of God. We surrendered somewhere: we are completely free!

(Irina Tweedie, Essential Sufism, p. 36)

The Sufis do not abandon this world, nor do they hold that human appetites must be done away with. They only discipline those desires that are in discordance with the religious life and the dictates of sound reason.

They don’t throw away all things of this world, nor do they go after them with a vengeance. Rather, they know the true value and function of everything upon the earth. They save as much as is necessary. They eat as much ast they need to stay healthy.

They nourish their bodies and simultaneously set their hearts free. God becomes the focal point toward which their whole being leans. God becomes the object of their continual adoration and contemplation.

(Al-Ghazzali, Essential Sufism, p. 37)

“You will not be a mystic until you are like the earth–both the righteous and the sinner tread upon it–and until you are like the clouds–they shade all things–and until you are like the rain–it waters all things, whether it loves them or not.”

(Bayazid Bistami, Essential Sufism, p. 40)

“The perfect mystic is neither an ecstatic devotee lost in contemplation or Oneness nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind. The true saint goes in and out among the people, eats and sleeps with them, buys and sells in the market, marries and takes part in social intercourse, and never forgets God for a single moment.”

(Abu Sa’id, Essential Sufism, p. 40)

“Look to what you do,

for that is what you are worth.

True labor means neither fasting nor prayer.”

(Ansari, Essential Sufism, p. 46)

“For everyone must go to the place from which he has come. Indeed, by his acts and his acquaintance each person will make his nature known.”

(Nag Hammadi, On the Origin of the World, p. 189)

“[A man who] is worthy of God, [he] is God among [men], and [he is] the son of God.”

(Nag Hammadi, The Sentences of Sextus, p. 507)

“He who makes his mind like unto God as far as he is able, he is the one who honors God greatly.”

(Nag Hammadi, The Sentences of Sextus, p. 507)

Sources

Bhagavad Gita. (c. 500 B.C.E to 100 C.E.; trans. 2000). (Stephen Mitchell trans.). New York: Harmony Books. ISBN: 060960550X

Boethius (524 C.E; trans. 1962). The Consolation of Philosophy. (Richard Green trans.). New Jersey: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN: 002346450X

Gibran, Kahlil. (first printed 1923, this edition: 2001). The Prophet. New York: Alfred A Knopf ISBN: 0394404289

Hermetica. (1992). (Brian P. Copenhaver, Trans.). London: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0521425433

Lao Tzu. (original composition date unknown, possibly c. 500 B.C.E; trans. 1991). Tao Te Ching. (Stephen Mitchell trans.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN: 0060916087

Melville, Herman. (first printed: 1851, this edition: 1967). Moby Dick. London: England. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN: 039309670X

Miller, J, Kenedi, A. (Eds.). (2000). God’s Breath: Sacred Scriptures from Around the World. New York: Marlowe & Company. ISBN: 1569246181

Muhammad. (trans. 1993). Al-Qur’ān. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0691074992

Rudolph, Kurt. (1987). Gnosis: the Nature and History of Gnosticism. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. ISBN: 0060670185