Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quotes. Show all posts

Monday, September 26, 2022

Maya or veil of tears

 When Einstein Walked With Gödel.png


Do you believe this?

Perhaps the world is a humongous hallucination and we are simply watching the shadows on Plato's cave walls. This raises the philosophical epistemological question of how do we know what we know? Our physical senses lie to us all the time. Can we trust them? The bumper sticker is "Don't believe everything you think."

The mystics teach that the only truth is the non dual Oneness of God. Everything else is an illusion, what the Buddhists call "maya." St. Paul wrote that we look through the glass darkly. Christians have called the hallucination, or illusion if you prefer, this "veil of tears."

Friday, September 16, 2022

Wisdom cannot be imparted.

 


Can you name two people you consider wise?

Wisdom is not a commodity. It is gained through maturity and raising one's level of consciousness. Wisdom is an organic thing not mechanical. It is the result of an evolutionary process. 

What are the factors that nurture this kind of growth? Does the application of the principles of Unitarian Universalism nurture the growth of wisdom? 

What might be other factors that promote the growth of wisdom?

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Why were you born?

 

"We are here because there are things that need our help. Like the planet. Like each other. Like animals. The world is like a garden, and we are its protectors."

- B.B. King

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Are you a mirror or a window?

 


"Most people are mirrors, reflecting the moods and emotions of the times; few are windows, bringing light to bear on the dark corners where troubles fester.  The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."
—S. J. Harris (1917-1986)

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Quote of the day - The mystery of transformation.........

"Some of it is simply natural - an embryo becomes a baby, becomes a child, becomes an adolescent, becomes an an adult. Where did the child go? Transformation, indeed. Explainable through biology? Yup. Miraculous? Yup, that too. A bulb to a tulip, an acorn to an oak, a drug addict to a productive citizen, a grief stricken widow to a blushing bride, a cancer patient to a cancer survivor."

Rev. Karen Gustafson, "Easter: An Invitation To Transformation", First Unitarian Society of Madison, April 24, 2011

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Quote of the day

"Don’t lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don’t have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue."

From Dear Sugar, 02/10/11, Tiny Beautiful Things

In our American society how do we define the self?

You are what you have.
You are what you do.
You are what you be.

In Unitarian Universalism we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person even when they have nothing, do nothing, and are nothing.

Tough teaching. Tough to practice. If UUs could do it, they would be distinctive in the world. But alas, we have difficulty practicing what we preach, but we try, we aspire, we desire.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Quote of the day

"How does one hang in there with folks, patiently taking from the wreck of a lifetime of internalized shame, a sense that God finds them(us) wholly acceptable?"

Gregory Boyle, Tattoos Of The Heart, p.44

Isn't this the core of our Universalist faith? Carl Rogers called in "unconditional positive regard" and I was taught in my Social Work training to manifest a "nonjudgemental attitude" and "to take the client where they're at."

Boyle's question gets to the crust of the matter as he asks "how does one hang in there with folks?"

The key to being non judgemental is to get into and maintain a "non anxious presence" and how does one lower one's own anxiety and manage one's own fears so they do not get in the way of our relating and empathizing with others?

How does one manage fear and anxiety?

Alcohol, Xanax, Ativan, Sex, Work, Food, Gambling, Marijuana, Prayer, Fellowship, Being of Service, Nature, Solitude, skills of mastery, knowledge, a sense of the transcendent, a warm bath, sleep, cutting, compulsive behaviors, crying, clinging to delusions, singing, other.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Quote of the day

"You go to church on Sunday because someone might need you."

Karen L., 02/25/11,

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Quote of the day

Thoreau's metaphor "nearer the shoes of spring" has stuck with me. I found myself sharing this idea with a friend yesterday. At this time of year in the Northeast people are getting sick of winter and yearn for warmer weather. Mid February and March is when we mental heatlh professionals see an increase of depression of the Seasonal Affective Disorder variety and an increase in suicides. This season can be every heard on people with a disposition toward depression. They are in my thoughts and prayers and an object of my humble psychotherapeutic ministrations. Looking over the seasonal horizon and spotting the shores of spring begins to give us some hope of positive change. Things will get better. All you have to do is wait a few weeks. Patience, friend, patience. Let nature take her course. All will be well. Live through this dark time because better days are ahead!

David Markham, 02/08/11, on Boston Unitarian

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Quote of the day

"And any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against any true religion."

Julia Ward Howe, What is Religion?", delivered at the Parliament of World Religions at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893

Monday, December 20, 2010

Quote of the day

"Divine love is incessantly restless until it turns all woundedness into health, all deformity into beauty and all embarrassment into laughter."

Beldon Lane as quoted in Tattoos of The Heart by Gregory Boyle

Monday, December 13, 2010

Quote of the day

Far too often we give from our pocketbooks, not from our hearts. It is too easy to go and buy something. It is much harder to figure out what would be the most valuable thing that you could give to another person, a group or the world.

Connie Goodbread

Monday, October 11, 2010

UU Quote of the Day

"In a few hours it will have gone through the whole congregation (town) that you have come to change things, and your life will be miserable. I don't have to spell out for you what this might have to do with the teachings of Jesus. God knows you know what trouble he got into."

 
Rev. Dr. John B. Wolf, Minister Emeritus, All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa Oklahoma in a sermon on 09/12/10. Parenthesis is mine.

Friday, October 8, 2010

UU Quote of the week

"Studies show that on average a person laughs six minutes a day, but complains for eight. You reminded me that all of you want more time laughing than complaining. That you understand Emerson better than me: "That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our life and our character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming."

Rev. Kaaren Anderson, First Unitarian Church of Rochester, NY, sermon 08/22/10

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

UU quote of the week

"I was reminded that the best test of someone's character, of their spiritual grounding, is not how they are when life is treating them fairly, but how they handle life when it falls apart."

Rev. Kaaren Anderson, First Unitarian Church in Rochester, NY, sermon on 08/22/10

Thursday, September 30, 2010

UU Quote of the week

"Between the intimate world of blood-ties and the fee-for-service professionals to whom people today often turn for assistance we find religious associations—communities of succor and support that too often are underappreciated and thus underutilized."

Rev. Michael Schuler, First Unitarian Society of Madison, 08/16/09

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

How to change the world

"I realy see no other solution that to turn inwards and to root out all the rottenness there. I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we have first changed ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned from this war."

Etty Hillesum (concentration camp victim)
An Interrupted Life

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Who are humans?

"What is man? Hope turned to dust? No. Dust turned to hope."

Elie Wiesel
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