Inter- Faiths Dialogue

The Ways > Love & Devotion

146 quote(s) | Page 3 / 6

T heir thoughts are on Me, their life is in Me, and they give light to all. They speak always of Me, and in Me they find peace and joy.
To those who focus their minds on Me, who worship Me with their love, I give the yoga of vision whereby they come to Me.
Give Me your mind and give Me your heart; give Me your offerings and your adoration. Thus, with your soul focused solely on Me as your supreme Goal, truly, you shall come to Me.

quote 3612 | The Bhagavat Gita
10:8-10 and 9:34; based on Mascaro, Juan, 1962

O Visvakarma, Thou art our Father, our Creator, Maker;
Thou knowest every place and every creature.
To Thee, by whom the names of the gods were given,
All creatures turn in prayer.

quote 3577 | The Rig Veda
x.82

M any people think that they are achieving great things in external works such as fasting, going barefoot and other such practices which are called penances. But true penance, and the best kind of penance, is that whereby we can improve ourselves greatly and in the highest measure, and this consists in turning entirely away from all that is not God, or of God in ourselves and in all creatures, and in turning fully and completely towards our beloved God in an unshakeable love so that our devotions and desire for him become great.

quote 3531 | Meister Eckhart
Selected Writings. Trans. Oliver Davies. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994, p. 26

I f you love yourself, then you love everyone as much as yourself. But as long as there is anyone whom you do not love as much as yourself, then you have never properly loved yourself -- unless you love everyone as yourself, loving all in one person, in someone who is both human and divine. Such a person, who loves themselves and everyone as much as themselves, is doing the right thing. Now some people say: I love my friend, who is a source of good things in my life, more than I do someone else. This is not right; it is imperfect. But we must accept it, just as some people cross the sea with a slack wind and still reach the other side. It is the same with those who love one person more than another, althouth this is natural. But if I loved him or her as much as I love myself, I would be just as happy that whatever happens to them, whether joy or pain, death or life, should happen instead to me, and this would be true friendship.

quote 3530 | Meister Eckhart
Selected Writings. Trans. Oliver Davies. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994, p. 176

A lmighty God wills that we be perfectly subject and obedient to Him, and that we rise high above our own will and our own reason by a great burning love and a complete desire for Him.

quote 3508 | Thomas a Kempis
The Imitation of Christ. Trans. Richard Whitford, moderenized by Harold C. Gardiner. New York: Doubleday, 1955, p. 48

L et your thought always be upward toward God, and direct your prayers continually to Christ.

quote 3507 | Thomas a Kempis
The Imitation of Christ. Trans. Richard Whitford, moderenized by Harold C. Gardiner. New York: Doubleday, 1955, p. 76

E verybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

quote 3491 | Martin Luther King
The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

T o love is the greatest thing in life; it is very important to talk about love, to feel it, to nourish it, to treasure it, otherwise it will soon be dissipated, for the world is very brutal. If while you are young you don't feel love, if you don't look with love at people, at animals, at flowers, when you grow up you find that your life is empty; you will be very lonely, and the dark shadows of fear will follow you always. But the moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

quote 3489 | Jiddu Krishnamurti
Think on these Things

T he soul must forget about {understanding}, and abandon itself into the arms of love, and His Majesty will teach it what to do next..

quote 3475 | Saint Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle. Trans. E. Allison Peers. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990, p. 90, Fourth Mansions, Chapter 3, Paragraph 8

Y et this {awareness of God's continual presence} brings a special knowledge of God, and from this constant companionship is born a most tender love toward His Majesty, and yearnings, even deeper than those already described, to give oneself wholly up to His service, and a great purity of conscience; for the Presence Which the soul has at its side makes it sensitive to everything. For though we know quite well that God is present in all that we do, our nature is such that it makes us lose sight of the fact; but when this favour is granted it can no longer do so, for the Lord, Who is near at hand, awakens it. And even the favours aforementioned occur much more commonly, as the soul experiences a vivid and almost constant love for Him Whom it sees or knows to be at its side.

quote 3474 | Saint Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle. Trans. E. Allison Peers. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990, p. 181, Sixth Mansions, Chapter 8, Paragraph 4

I do not cease swimming in the seas of love, rising with the wave, then descending; now the wave sustains me, and then I sink beneath it; love bears me away where there is no longer any shore.

quote 3439 | Hallaj
Diwan al-Hallaj, M. 34

W e should know, moreover, that a person energized by God to such love rises, at that moment, even above faith, since by reason of his great love he now senses consciously in his heart the One whom he previously honoured by faith…

quote 3393 | Diadochos of Photiki
On Spiritual Knowledge: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", text 91, p. 290)

F asts and vigils, the study of Scripture, renouncing possessions and everything worldly are not in themselves perfection, as we have said; they are its tools. For perfection is not to be found in them; it is acquired through them. It is useless, therefore, to boast of our fasting, vigils, poverty, and reading of Scripture when we have not achieved the love of God and our fellow men. Whoever has achieved love has God within himself and his intellect is always with God.

quote 3391 | The Philokalia
St. John Cassian quoting Abba Moses in On the Holy Fathers of Sketis: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 96)

W hen the intellect forgets the purpose of true devotion, then external works of virtue bring no profit.

quote 3390 | Saint Mark the Ascetic
No Righteousness by Works: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", text 51, p. 129)

T hink nothing and do nothing without a purpose directed to God…

quote 3385 | Saint Mark the Ascetic
On the Spiritual Law: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 114, text 54)

W hat is a charitable heart? It is a heart that is burning with charity for the whole of creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons - for all creatures. He who has such a heart cannot see or call to mind a creature without his eyes becoming filled with tears by reason of the immense compassion that seizes his heart, a heart that is softened and can no longer bear to see or learn from others of any suffering, even the smallest pain, being inflicted upon a creature. This is why such a man never ceases to pray also for the animals, for the enemies of Truth, and for those who do him evil, that they may be preserved and purified. He will pray even for the reptiles, moved by the infinite pity that reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming united to God.

quote 3367 | Saint Isaac the Syrian
The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky (Crestwood, NY: St. V1adimir's Seminary Press, 1991).

W hen we turn our spirit from the contemplation of God, we become the slaves of carnal passions.

quote 3348 | Desert Fathers
Abba Theonas: The sayings of the Desert Fathers : the alphabetical collection. Trans. Benedicta Ward, SLG. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1984, 1975, p. 80, Theonas 1

W atching means to sit in the cell and be always mindful of God. This is what is meant by, "I was on the watch and God came to me."

quote 3346 | Desert Fathers
Abba John the Dwarf: The sayings of the Desert Fathers : the alphabetical collection. Trans. Benedicta Ward, SLG. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1984, 1975, p. 91, John the Dwarf 27

{see Mt. 25:36; and Lk. 12:37-40}

L ove is for vanishing into the sky.

quote 3329 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
The Essential Rumi, p. 107, Trans. Coleman Barks with John Moyne. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995

O God,
You know that the only thing I want in this life
Is to be obedient to Your command.
Even the living sight of my eyes
Is service at your court.

quote 3291 | Rabia al-Adawiyya
Doorkeeper of the heart : versions of Rabia. Trans. Charles Upton. Putney, Vt.: Threshold Books, 1988, p. 25

I t is impossible that this gnosis resulting in the heart should be achieved by man for any other purpose than to obey God, love Him, and worship Him. This gnosis should be sought for the sake of God, not for any other reason whatsoever, unlike the remaining external acts of devotion, {which can be} performed for other worldly interests, such as hypocrisy, praise, and commendation.

quote 3281 | Ibn' Ata' Allah
The Key To Salvation: A Sufi Manual of Invocation. Trans. Mary Ann Koury Danner. Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1996, p. 159

W hoever adores Allah through the fears of the fires of hell or in order to gain Paradise, whoever invokes Him in order that his share in the goods of the world be enlarged, or so that people should turn their faces toward him in order that he be glorified, or to avoid the evil which an oppressor afflicts upon him; or further, if he has heard a hadith of the Prophet according to which he who accomplishes a certain pious work, or recites a certain invocation, will receive from God some recompense -- whoever does this, his adoration is tainted, and it will not be acceptable to God except by virtue of His grace and of His generosity…

God said, "Whoever hopes to encounter his Lord, let him do pious works and, in the adoration of his Lord, not associate any being with Him." (Koran 18:110) The things which I have mentioned are the "beings" which are associated with God. Now, God is, of all those that are associated in adoration, the One who absolutely transcends all association. That is why He prescribed to all His servants that they adore Him with a perfectly pure faith which implies the desire for no other recompense than His face…

quote 3265 | Abd el-Kader
Kitab al-Mawaqif 4, pp. 37-38,in The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995

T urn your face toward the sacred Mosque (Koran 2:144,149,150)
Commentary:This means: "Turn the [divine] face which is particular to you"…

This face is the secret (sirr) through which your spirit subsists… It is the source of man's being and the command [formulated in the verse] is in reality concerned with this. God … does not consider your exterior form but only your heart -- which is the "divine face" proper to each of you, and it is this "divine face" which, in you, "contains" God even though His sky and His earth cannot contain Him… He who turns (toward the sacred Mosque} with his body alone, without also turning this face, has not truly turned…

quote 3263 | Abd el-Kader
Kitab al-Mawaqif 149, pp. 105-107,in The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995

T urn your face toward the sacred Mosque (Koran 2:144,149,150)
Commentary: The word "sacred" means that a heart wich has not desengaged itself from the sphere of the soul and the sphere of created beings is forbidden to penetrate into this place… "Wherever you are, turn your face" [toward the sacred Mosque] means, "Wherever you are, in the accomplishment of works of worship or in the ordinary acts of life, contemplate Him -- in what you eat, in what you drink, in him or her whom you marry, always knowing that He is at once the Contemplator and the Contemplated…

quote 3261 | Abd el-Kader
Kitab al-Mawaqif 149, pp. 105, 107,in The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995

A rguna:
Of those steadfast devotees who love you and those who seek you as the eternal formless Reality, who are the more established in yoga?
Krishna:
Those who set their hearts on me and worship me with unfailing devotion and faith are more established in yoga.
As for those who seek the transcendental Reality, without name, without form, contemplating the Unmanifested, beyond the reach of thought and of feeling, with their senses subdued and mind serene and striving for the good of all beings, they too will verily come unto me.

Yet hazardous and slow is the path to the Unrevealed, difficult for physical man to tread. But they for whom I am the supreme goal, who do all work renouncing self for me and meditate on me with single-hearted devotion, these I will swiftly rescue from the fragment's cycle of birth and death, for their consciousness has entered into me.

quote 3238 | The Bhagavat Gita
BG 12:1-7, p. 162, The Bhagavad Gita. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1985.

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