Browse the Living Book by "The Sacred"

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Despite the many differences that seem to exist between peoples the world over — regardless of culture, tradition, environment, or heredity — there is but one seeker, one search, and one sacred object of our desire. The celestial source of this sacred being doesn’t just live within us… we are, in fact, one with it.

Let me tell you, that as here lies all the true and real freedom, which cannot be taken from you, so in the constant exercise of this freedom, that is, in a continual leaving yourself to, and depending upon the operation of God in your soul, lies all your road to heaven. No divine virtue can be had any other way.

William Law (1686 – 1761)

I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself, with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee… mighty, powerful and self-subsisting.

Baha’u’llah Mirza Husayn Ali Nur (1817 – 1892)

Sublime me,
Master Alchemist,
Again, again
And yet again
In the cracked
And sooty retort
Of my own unwilling
Skin.

In your cruel,
Impartial fires
Bone and brain
All vain desires,
Vanity and inward blight
Refine. Reform me
Free of what obscures your
Light.

Transparent
Make this vessel be
So to embrace,
Transmit and focus
Your life-searing energy
That so careless flows
To and through
Me. Amen.

Anchorite Prayer (circa 250)

Because every thought enters the heart in the form of a mental image of some sensible object, the blessed light of the Divinity will illumine the heart only when it is completely empty of everything, and so free from all form. Indeed, this light reveals itself to the pure intellect in the measure to which the intellect is purged of all concepts.

Philokalia (300 – 1400)

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be mortifying in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishin in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)