Affinity of Spirits (Kardec)

It is a mistake to suppose that a man must be a medium in order to attract to himself the beings of the invisible world. Space is peopled with spirits; they are always around us, always beside us; they see us and watch us; they mingle in our meetings, and follow or avoid us, according as we attract or repel them. The medianimic faculty has no influence in this respect; for that faculty is only a means of communication. After what we have said respecting the causes of sympathy and antipathy in spirits, it will be easily understood that we are surrounded by those who are in affinity with us, whether our state be one of elevation or of degradation.

-- Allan Kardec, from The Mediums' Book (point 223)

Attainment of the Supreme (Gita)

Physical nature is known to be endlessly mutable. The universe is the cosmic form of the Supreme Lord, and I am that Lord represented as the Supersoul, dwelling in the heart of every embodied being. Whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.

-- Gita 8.4-5 (trans. Prabhupada)

Pre-existence of the spirit (B. Young)

I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our Heavenly Father, or the great Eloheim. You are well acquainted with him, for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in His house and dwelt with Him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with Him, when the fact is you have merely forgotten what you did know.

-- Brigham Young, from the Journal of Discourses

Spirit influence (Kardec)

"The transformation of the human race has been predicted from the most ancient times, and you are now approaching the period when it is destined to take place. All those among you who are laboring to advance the progress of mankind are helping to hasten this transformation, which will be effected through the incarnation, in your earth, of spirits of higher degree, who will constitute a new population, of greater moral advancement than the human races they will gradually have replaced."

-- Allan Kardec, from The Spirits Book (IV.8)

Importance of the human stage (E.J. Gold)

The act of being human is a necessary and important stage in the evolution of a planet and more importantly to you, in the personal evolution of the being. It allows us to actively participate in self-evolution by fusing the intellectual, emotional and physical centers into a single unified presence through the process of intentional suffering; to perfect ourselves through conscious labors; and to attain crystallization of the soul through the process of the collection and transformation of higher substances.

-- E.J. Gold, from Autobiography of a Sufi

Shobogenzo (Dogen)

To carry yourself forward experiencing myriad things is delusion. The fact that myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

-- Dogen, from Shobogenzo, part 1: Genjo Koan (Actualizing the Fundamental Point)