18 May 2009

Sensation and urbanism (Jung)

Rationalism and boredom are essentially products of the over-indulged craving for stimulation so characteristic of urban populations. The city-dweller seeks artificial sensations to escape his boredom; the hermit does not seek them but is plagued by them against his will.

-- C.J. Jung, from Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky

10 May 2009

Character of God (Smith)

It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God, and to know that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, and that he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did.

-- from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith

28 April 2009

Americans not losing their religion, just changing it

More than half of American adults have changed religion in their lives, a huge new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. And there is no discernible pattern to the change, just "a free for all," according to one of the lead researchers in the study, who attributes these shifting loyalties as simply "the free market at work."

The number of people who have changed religion is much higher than previously thought, the new report suggests. A study released last year concluded that just over one in four Americans had switched. Even that lower number was considered "striking," the Pew Forum said, and the latest research suggests it was a serious underestimate.

More than four in 10 American adults are no longer members of the religion they were brought up in, while about one in 10 changed religion, then went back to the one they left, the study found. Just under half have never changed religious affiliation.

Some have switched more than once, and a small number have changed three times or more, according to the study.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/27/changing.religion.study/index.html

13 April 2009

Mental Revolution (Halal)

Just as the Industrial Revolution was powered by the need to overcome poverty, and the Information Technology Revolution is crucial for managing complexity, the world is today in the throes of a 'mental revolution' to resolve the global crisis of maturity.

-- William Halal, from Technology's Promise

31 March 2009

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)

25 March 2009

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)

16 March 2009

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

10 March 2009

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)

05 March 2009

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

01 March 2009

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)