Here are quotes from other sources that I have found nurturing for my journey. (Note, the downloads are in PDF format and when not included in their entirety here can be opened by clicking on the title)
Why We Suffer by Joan Halifax
A short piece by Joan Halifax. (For more on Joan Halifax, click here)
Four Stages of Intimate Relationship
This February 2012 Newsletter by Robert and Diane Masters describes four stages of intimate relationships: 1) Me-Centered, 2) We-Centered Codependent, 3) We-Centered Co-independent, and 4) Being Centered. This article works well with a quote from Pathwork Lecture 80 Cooperation, Communication, Union which I titled Stages of Intimacy in Couplehood. (Link to Masters Center for Transformation)
Luminous Emptiness
This brief quote from Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Francesca Fremantle gives a feel for the teachings of the famed Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyan Trungpa Rinpoche. While very different from Pathwork, my path, one can see some of the same themes expressed in this tradition. Pat is very much enlivened by these kinds of Tibetan Buddhist sources used in her AIP spiritual development program while I am enlivened by Pathwork. However we meet in the same place in the end. Different keys for different locks to the Mystery that is the Cosmos.
Maybe Yes, Maybe No
Countless times retold, but every time worth listening to and contemplating about.
Rumi: The Guest House Poem
I never tire of the message of this familiar Rumi poem!
Is the Universe Friendly?
This is an interesting reflection, attributed to Albert Einstein.
Einstein on Mystery and God
Einstein’s view of Mystery and God aligns very much with my own. I certainly marvel in awe at the Mystery of the Cosmos, Life in all its forms, and Consciousness at all levels. The Mystery and God as Source are well beyond my capacity to grasp intellectually or, as yet, to experience adequately as a felt sense. I stand humbly before this reality.
An interesting quote by Teilhard De Chardin
Patient Trust in Ourselves and the Slow Work of God
A beautiful Pathwork-like quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955).
A Thanksgiving Quote by Melody Beattie
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Melody Beattie
I Could Be Wrong — “This I Believe” by Allan Barger
I found this a refreshing piece — a belief in uncertainty. Direct Link to This I Believe Essay 17183
Spiritual Practices for the Joy of It — Beginning with Finding Joy in the Breath — Daniel Odier
For year I have done meditation and other spiritual practices “to get somewhere” or to “raise my consciousness.” Odier talks about finding joy in the practices themselves, and then doing them not out of duty or as an attempt to grow but rather because they bring us joy! He begins with conscious breathing — finding and experiencing the joy in conscious breathing.
Becoming Fully Human–Integrating Vertical and Horizontal — Cynthia Bourgeault
This selection from Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Meaning of Mary Magdalene speaks of the unitive state — the causal level, the integrated state of vertical and horizontal. Speaks of a deeper Knowing, a Knowing that has the power to emanate Love, Wisdom, and Peace.
Pausing Before the Mystery — Bert Hellinger
This brief writing by Bert Hellinger beautifully states the position of the Pathwork Helper working with the Worker, standing before the mystery of it all.
Cynthia Bourgeault on Knowing and Gnosis
These words from Cynthia Bourgeault in her book The Meaning of Mary Magdalene beautifully explain gnosis and Knowing, the latter as I have come to experience it and based upon Pathwork Lecture 127 Evolution’s Four Stages: 1. Automatic Reflexes, 2. Awareness, 3. Understanding, 4. Knowing. I have added some of my own understanding at the end of this quote, along with a diagram I use to depict this transformational process of spiritual growth in consciousness.
Ira Progoff on The Depth Beyond the Doctrines
These excerpts from Ira Progoff’s book The Practice of Process Meditation strike me as a clear overview and helpful framework of how one’s spiritual depth grows as one brings deeper consciousness to life experiences. Depth Beyond Doctrines is the title of this section of his book, and in this section Progoff explores how one’s journey may begin with doctrines from any of several religions, but then drops to deeper levels by meditation and other practices aimed at getting beyond the mind. He includes experiences of the anonymous monk who authored The Cloud of Unknowing, a work that speaks of the empirical nature of spiritual growth and identifies phases that people circle through on the spiritual journey. 4/20/11
Borysenko on The Ego and The Higher Self
This is a beautiful summary of the limitations of the ego and the role of the Higher Self — 4/15/2011
The Mystic
Mystics are less interested in formulaic or dogmatic definitions than they are in being aware of their participation in the unfolding of creation as it advances up the ladder of human-planetary consciousness. I think, among other reasons, this is what Karl Rahner was thinking when he said that the future spiritual seeker will be a mystic or nothing at all. … Marv Hiles in The Way Through Autumn 2010-Winter 2011 p.6
Equanimity in Mystery — Goethe
The greatest happiness for the thinking person is to have explored the explorable and to venerate in equanimity that which cannot be explored.
Definition: Equanimity — mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain; calmness.
Definition: Venerate — to regard or treat with reverence.
Steve Jobs on Knowing What You Do Best, and Doing It
This is an interesting article on Know Thyself, and then Be Who You Are and Do What You Do Best. (Newsweek 9/30/85 article referred to)
De Rossi’s Journey to Self-Acceptance
This story, recorded in The Week magazine in November of 2010, is about Portia de Rossi’s journey from severe anorexia to happiness. Anorexia nervosa, its full medical name, is defined as an eating disorder primarily affecting adolescent girls and young women, characterized by pathological fear of becoming fat, distorted body image, and excessive dieting, and emaciation. She was also an extremely closeted lesbian and terrified of coming out. When she faced and lived through her two greatest fears, all made possible by love, she found happiness. A good model for some of the principles of Pathwork — including negative pleasure from controlling food intake.
William Falk — Looking at 2010
William Falk is the Editor-in-chief of THE WEEK magazine, a weekly news magazine that I have enjoyed for two or more years now. Because THE WEEK is a secular news magazine I was quite surprised to read Falk’s commentary on the year 2010 — including words like Life Force, spark of the transcendent within us and we are part of the unfolding of something wonderful and mysterious. Seemed to fit right in with my sense of the cosmos as formed from many sources, including Pathwork, all of which have quickened my own sense of inner truth.
The Montessori Philosophy of Teaching
Mothers, fathers, politicians: all must combine in their respect and help for this delicate work of formation, which the little child carries on in the depth of a profound psychological mystery, under the tutelage of an inner guide. This is the bright new hope for mankind. (Dr. Maria Montessori)
The Mystical Style (Christian Schwarz)
This quote from The 3 Colors of Your Spirituality, an excellent book of understanding Spiritual Styles (within Christianity), explains the Mystical Style in a way I found helpful… (See my blog on 4/24/2010 My Cup Overflows)
Nature of Spiritual Work (Sandra Maitri)
Excerpt from the Epilogue to The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram by Sandra Maitri©
Pat and I read this book together and got a lot out of it. We both felt the truth and wisdom of Maitri’s closing words about the nature of spiritual work. While Maitri applies these words to the enneagram, Pat and I realized that her words apply to all effective spiritual paths, including Pat’s AIP program and my Pathwork. Substitute the name of your spiritual path for the word enneagram in the attachment, and I think you will see Maitri’s wisdom.
Listening
To “listen” another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another.
Douglas Steer — Gleanings: A Random Harvest
Patience
Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?
Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu and Stephen Mitchell
Your Calling
The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner
Loving the Questions – Rilke
Quote from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (1903), a long time favorite quote of mine.
Nature of Transformation and Growth Work (A.H. Almaas)
I find this quote from the Introduction to Facets of Unity — The Enneagram of Holy Ideas by A.H. Almaas to be very well said. I find that Pathwork says the same thing in many ways and in many lectures, but I was drawn to this particular set of paragraphs by Almaas as a great summary of what Transformation and Growth are all about.