“Western man has been turning outwards to the world of the senses for centuries and losing himself in outer space. He has to learn again to turn inwards and find his Self. He has to learn to explore not outer space but the inner space within the heart, to make that long and difficult journey to the Centre, to the inner depth and height of being, which Dante described in the Divine Comedy compared with which the exploration of the moon and the other planets is the play of children.
Each man must therefore discover this Centre in himself, this Ground of his being, this Law of his life. It is hidden in the depths of every soul, waiting to be discovered. It is the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price. It is the one thing which is necessary, which can satisfy all our desires and answer all our needs… It is the original paradise from which we have all come.”
Bede Griffiths / Swami Dayananda (1906 – 1993), quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox
“No one leaves here alive. So please stop treating yourself as an afterthought. Eat delicious food. Walk in the sun. Jump into the sea. Speak the truth that you carry in your heart like a hidden treasure. Be silly. Be good. Be weird. There is no time for anything else.”
“Lord, the air smells good today, straight from the mysteries within the inner courts of God. A grace like new clothes thrown across the garden, free medicine for everybody. The trees in their prayer, the birds in praise, the first blue violets kneeling. Whatever came from Being is caught up in being, drunkenly forgetting the way back.”
“The next time you refuse to sing because you’ll never fill a stadium or decline the joy of dance for fear of looking ridiculous or you resist risking the new adventure because you’re not entirely ready or you dim your shine because you’re not completely healed and whole the next time you hold yourself suspect because you’re not entirely qualified just remember a bird doesn’t sing because it’s talented a bird sings because it has a song the moon doesn’t only shine when it’s whole it can show up with a single sliver of itself and still light an entire night sky show up. sing. shine. the world needs you as you are.”
“Perhaps one of the most profound expressions of nature is the simple equation E=mc2. Einstein’s calculation establishes that every mass contains a remarkable quantity of energy. Look around the common objects in your room. Every object – even a bookmark, a paperweight, or a pair of shoes – contains enough power within itself to light a sun. And you are no different. What will it take to release the energy inside you? You might shed light across distances you’ve never dreamed of.”
From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations for All Seasons by Brian Nelson
“”Human beings, vegetables, cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” Albert Einstein, interview
Those who, like Einstein, come daily into contact with the physical laws that order the universe cannot help but catch the strains of that great dance in which we are all whirling. Whether it be in the intricacy of cellular formation, or in the flow of currents, or in the vast patterning of the stellar orbits that illuminate the heavens, scientists are privileged too see into the structure of that dance.
The inapprehensible motion of life escapes our daily awareness, as does the tune of the cosmic dust that orders us all in one great dance of life. We do not hear it playing until we come to a point where our ordinary and subtle senses are aligned together. Then we come into harmony and awareness of both worlds at once, the apparent and the unseen worlds in conscious communion within us. These privileged moments cannot be sought; they come unbidden, surprising us into mystical vision. It may be that when we interrupt a walk on a high place at evening to admire the view, we apprehend the revolution of the earth as a physical motion beneath our feet; it may be that we become aware of a rhythm that weaves about the steady beating of our own heart, as if it were a partner in the dance.
The resonances to which we respond and the relationship between ourselves and the music of life give us the only clues available about the nature of the invisible partner – clues reassuring enough that we can trust the source of our music.
Attune to the cosmic tune and rhythm of life; stand and dance.”
From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews
This image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The submillimetre-wavelength observations, made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope and shown here in orange, use the heat glow of interstellar dust grains to show astronomers where new stars are being formed. They are overlaid on a view of the region in visible light.
Chorlton Unitarians 