Interreligious dialogue : The Saints

L et the eye of your heart be opened that you may see the spirit and behold invisible things.
If you set your face toward the region where Love reigns, you will see the whole universe laid out as a rose garden. What you see, your heart will wish to have, and what your heart seeks to possess, that you will see. If you penetrate to the 'middle of each mote in the sunbeams, you will find a sun within.
Give all that you possess to Love. If your spirit is dissolved in the flames of Love, you will see that Love is the alchemy for spirit.
You will journey beyond the narrow limitations of time and place and will pass into the infinite spaces of the Divine World. What ear has not heard, that you will hear, and what no eye has seen, you shall behold. Finally, you shall be brought to that high Abode, where you will see One only, beyond the world and all worldly creatures. To that One you shall devote the love of both heart and soul until, with the eye that knows no doubt, you will see plainly that "One is and there is nothing save God alone.'

quote 2998 | Others Sufis Teaching
Ahmad Hatif, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.123

I came out of Bayazid-ness as a snake from its skin. Then I looked. I saw that lover, Beloved, and love are one because in that state of unification all can be one.

quote 2972 | Bistami
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.250

H e who is intimate with worldly wealth will find his intellect destroyed; he who is intimate with people will become lonely; he who is intimate with work will be preoccupied; and he who is intimate with God will attain union.

quote 2904 | Others Sufis Teaching
Shibli, Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.83

I " and "you' are but the lattices,

In the niches of a lamp
Through which the One Light shines.
"I" and "you' are the veil
Between heaven and earth;

Lift this veil and you will see
No longer the bonds of sects and creeds.

quote 2866 | Shabistari
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.39

I 've spent my life, my heart
And my eyes this way.
I used to think that love
And beloved are different.
I know now they are the same.
I was seeing two in one.

quote 2856 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.15

T hou didst contrive this "I", and "we" in order that Thou mightest play the game of worship with Thyself, That all "I's" and "thou's" should become one soul and at last should be submerged in the Beloved.

quote 2854 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.14

B efore this Divine fire of love is introduced into the substance of the soul, and is united with it, by means of a purity and purgation that is perfect and complete, this flame is wounding the soul, and destroying and consuming in it the imperfections of its evil habits; and this is the operation of the Holy Spirit, wherein he prepares it for Divine union and the transformation of its substance in God through love.

quote 2846 | Saint John of the Cross
Saint John of the Cross, taken from Saint John of the Cross: Poems, translated by Willis Barnstone (New York: New Directions, 1972).

T here, their bare understanding is drenched through by the Eternal Brightness, even as the air is drenched through by the sunshine. And the bare, uplifted will is transformed and drenched through by abysmal love, even as iron is by fire. And the bare, uplifted memory feels itself enwrapped and established in an abysmal Absence of image. And thereby the created image is united above reason in a threefold way with its Eternal Image, which is the origin of its being and its life.
Yet the creature does not become God, for the union takes place in God through grace and our homeward-turning love: and therefore the creature in its inward contemplation feels a distinction and an otherness between itself and God. And though the union is without means, yet the manifold works that God works in heaven and on earth are nevertheless hidden from the spirit. For though God gives himself as he is, with clear discernment, he gives himself in the essence of the soul, where the powers of the soul are simplified above reason, and where, in simplicity, they suffer the transformation of God. There all is full and overflowing, for the spirit feels itself to be one truth and one richness and one unity with God. Yet even here there is an essential tending forward, and therein is an essential distinction between the being of the soul and the Being of God; and this is the highest and finest distinction that we are able to feel.

quote 2833 | John Ruusbroec
John Ruusbroec, adapted from the translation by Evelyn Underhill in Mysticism (London: Methuen, 1911).

B ecause they have abandoned themselves to God in doing, in leaving undone, and in suffering, they have steadfast peace and inward joy, consolation and savor, of which the world cannot partake; neither any dissembler nor the man who seeks and means himself more than the glory of God. Moreover, those same inward and enlightened men have before them in their inward seeing, whenever they will, the Love of God as something drawing or urging them into the Unity; for they see and feel that the Father with the Son through the Holy Ghost embrace each other and all the chosen, and draw themselves back with eternal love into the unity of their Nature. Thus the Unity is ever drawing to itself and inviting to itself everything that has been born of it, either by nature or by grace.

quote 2831 | John Ruusbroec
John Ruusbroec, adapted from the translation by Evelyn Underhill in Mysticism (London: Methuen, 1911).

W ith these three - eye, mirror, and image - we are like God and united with him, for this vision in our simple eye is a living mirror which God created to his image and on which he impressed his image. His image is his divine resplendence, with which he fills the mirror of our soul to overflowing, so that no other light or image can enter there. But this resplendence is not an intermediary between God and ourselves, for it is both the very thing that we see and also the light with which we see, though it is distinct from our eye that does the seeing. Even though God's image is in the mirror of our soul and is united with it without intermediary, still the image is not the mirror, for God does not become a creature. The union of the image in the mirror is, however, so great and so noble that the soul is called the image of God.

quote 2830 | John Ruusbroec
John Ruusbroec, adapted from John Ruusbroec: The Spritual Espousals and Other Works, translated by James Wiseman (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1985)

T herefore, I say, if a man turns away from self and from created things, then - to the extent that you do this - you will attain oneness and blessedness in your soul's spark, which time and place never touched.

quote 2821 | Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart, from the translation by Jonathan Star in Two Suns Rising (New York: Bantam, 1991).

T hat human being who is inwardly illumined by the light of the Holy Spirit cannot endure the vision of it, but falls face down on the ground and cries out in great fear and wonder, because he has seen and experienced something that is beyond nature, thought, or conception. He becomes like someone suddenly inflamed with a violent fever; as though on fire and powerless to control the flames, he is beside himself, totally incapable of controlling himself. And though he weeps incessant tears that bring some relief, the flame of his desire breaks out even more intensely. Then his tears flow even more abundantly and washed by their flow, he becomes even more radiant. When, utterly incandescent, he has become like light, then the saying of Saint Gregory of Nazianzos is fulfilled, "God is united with gods and known by them" in the sense perhaps that he is now united to those who have joined themselves to him, and revealed to those who have come to know him.

quote 2808 | Saint Symeon the New Theologian
The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (London: Faber & Faber, 1995)

L eave the senses and the workings of the intellect, and all that the sense and the intellect can perceive, and all that is not and that is; and through unknowing reach out, so far as this is possible, toward oneness with him who is beyond all being and knowledge. In this way, through an uncompromising, absolute, and pure detachment from yourself and from all things, transcending all things and released from all, you will be led upwards toward that radiance of the divine darkness that is beyond all being.

Entering the darkness that surpasses understanding, we shall find ourselves brought, not just to brevity of speech, but to perfect silence and unknowing.

Emptied of all knowledge, man is joined in the highest part of himself, not with any created thing, nor with himself, nor with another, but with the one who is altogether
unknowable; and in knowing nothing, he knows in a manner that surpasses understanding.

quote 2804 | Dionysius the Areopagite
Dionysius the Areopagite, adapted from the translation of the Mystical Theology by Colm Luibheid in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press).

T herefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

quote 2793 | Saint Paul
St. Paul; I Corinthians 1:18-29,3:18-23 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

F or as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

quote 2792 | Saint Paul
St. Paul, Romans 12:1-9 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

J esus saw some babies nursing.
He said to his disciples:
"These babies nursing are like those
Who enter the kingdom.'
His disciples said to him:
"Shall we then enter the kingdom as babies?
" Jesus answered them and said:
'When you make the two into one,
"And when you make the inner like the outer,
'And the outer like the inner,
'And the upper like the lower,
'And when you make male and female
Into a single one,
"So that the male will not be male
'And the female not be female …
"Then you shall enter the kingdom.'

quote 2728 | Jesus Christ
Logion 22, Gospel of Thomas, adapted from translations of the Gospel of Thomas by Anthony Duncan in Jesus: Essential Reading (Crucible Press, 1986).

A nd I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

quote 2724 | Jesus Christ
John 17:1-6,20-26 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

N either pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

quote 2723 | Jesus Christ
John 17:1-6,20-26 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more Can ye, except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in You, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love;
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

quote 2722 | Jesus Christ
John 15:1-11 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

A t that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

quote 2721 | Jesus Christ
John 14:15-21,25-27 (AV), taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Bible

T he Spirit shall look out through Matter's gaze
And Matter shall reveal the Spirit's face.
Then man and superman shall be at one
And all the earth become a single life.

quote 2716 | Aurobindo Ghose
"Savitri" by Sri Aurobindo, in the Teaching of the Hindu Mystics, by Andrew Harvey, Shambala.

T he last stage of this perfection will come when you are completely identified with the Divine Mother and feel yourself to be no longer another and separate being, instrument, servant, or worker but truly a child and eternal portion of her consciousness and force. Always she will be in you and you in her; it will be your constant, simple and natural experience that all your thought and seeing and action, your very breathing or moving come from her and are hers. You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, Ananda of her Ananda. When this condition is entire and her supramental energies can freely move you, then you will be perfect in divine works; knowledge, will, action will become sure, simple, luminous, spontaneous, flawless, an outflow from the Supreme, a divine movement of the Eternal.

quote 2711 | Aurobindo Ghose
All for her, in the Teaching of the Hindu Mystics, by Andrew Harvey, Shambala.

W hen a pot is broken the space that was in it becomes one with space; so too when the limitation caused by the body and its adjuncts is removed the Sage, realized during life, shines as Brahman, becoming absorbed in Brahman he already was, like milk in milk, water in water, or oil in oil, and is radiant as the One Supreme Self.
Thus, when the Sage who abides as Brahman, which is Pure Being, obtains his disembodied absolute state, he is never again reborn.

quote 2673 | (Adi Shankaracharya) Shankara
The Vivekachudamani of Shankaracharya

S eeking me in your heart, you will at last be united with me.

quote 2664 | The Bhagavat Gita
translated by Eknath Easwaran, Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

A s a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is without and what is within, so a person in union with the Self is not aware of what is without and what is within, for in that unitive state all desires find their perfect fulfillment. There is no other desire that needs to be fulfilled, and one goes beyond sorrow.
In that unitive state there is neither father nor mother, neither worlds nor gods nor even scriptures. In that state there is neither thief nor slayer, neither low caste nor high, neither monk nor ascetic. The Self is beyond good and evil, beyond all the suffering of the human heart.

In that unitive state one sees without seeing, for there is nothing separate from him; smells without smelling, for there is nothing separate from him; tastes without tasting, for there is nothing separate from him; speaks without speaking, for there is nothing separate from him; hears without hearing, for there is nothing separate from him; touches without touching, for there is nothing separate from him; thinks without thinking, for there is nothing separate from him-, knows without knowing, for there is nothing separate from him.

Where there is separateness, one sees another, smells another, tastes another, speaks to another, hears another, touches another, thinks of another, knows another. But where there is unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahman. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure, the supreme joy. Those who do not seek this supreme goal live on but a fraction of this joy.

quote 2656 | The Upanishads
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, translated by Eknath Easwaran, 1987; Nilgiri Press, Tomales, California

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The Saints > Oneness