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Quote by Richard Powers

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The Overstory

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Author

Richard Powers
Richard Powers

Richard Powers is an American contemporary novelist, born on June 18, 1957. His works are known for their profound philosophical thinking, rich imagination, and unique narrative style. more

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“Just as his sentimentalism is profoundly middle-class and plebeian, but his irrationalism reactionary, so his moral philosophy also contains an inner contradiction: on the one hand, it is saturated with strongly plebeian characteristics, but on the other, it contains the germ of a new aristocratism. The concept of the ‘beautiful soul’ presupposes the complete dissolution of kalo-kagathia and implies the perfect spiritualization of all human values, but it also implies an application of aesthetic criteria to morality and is bound up with the view that moral values are the gift of nature. It means the recognition of a nobility of soul to which everyone has a right by nature, but in which the place of irrational birthrights is taken by an equally irrational quality of moral genius. The way of Rousseau’s ‘spiritual beauty’ leads, on the one hand, to characters like Dostoevsky’s Myshkin, who is a saint in the guise of an epilectic and an idiot, on the other, to the ideal of individual moral perfection which knows no social responsibility and does not aspire to be socially useful. Goethe, the Olympian, who thinks of nothing but his own spiritual perfection, is a disciple of Rousseau just as much as the young freethinker who wrote Werther.”

NatureMoralityGoetheDostoevskyRousseauNobility Of SoulNew AristocracySpiritulization
Book:The Social History of Art Volume 3: Rococo, Classicism and Romanticism
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“In „The Secret of Secrets“, al-Jilani refers to the Hadith Qudsi, where God speaks through His Messenger, peace be upon him: „Man is My secret and I am his secret. The inner knowledge of the spiritual essence (ilm al-batin) is a secret of My secrets. Only I put this into the heart of My good servant, and none may know his state other than Me.“ (p. 192)”

IslamSufismSufi WisdomHadith QudsiAbd Al Qadir Al JilaniThe Secret Of Secrets
Book:Hearts Turn: Sinners, Seekers, Saints and the Road to Redemption
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“Prophet Muhammad PBUH said, that Allah SWT said: "When Allah loves a slave, He calls Gabriel and says: 'I love so-and-so; so love him.' And then Gabriel loves him. Then Gabriel announces in the heavens saying: 'Allah loves so-and-so; so love him'; then the inhabitants of the heavens (the angels) also love him; and then people on earth love him." [Narrated by Imam Al-Bukhari]”

ReligionSelf LoveIslamNonfictionHadith Qudsi
Book:You are Loved
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“Futuwwah is the way of the fata. In Arabic, fata literally means a handsome, brave youth. After the enlightenment of Islam, following the use of the word in the Holy Koran, fata (plural: fityan) came to mean the ideal, noble, and perfect man whose hospitality and generosity would extend until he had nothing left for himself; a man who would give all, including his life, for the sake of his friends. According to the Sufis, Futuwwah is a code of honorable conduct that follows the example of the prophets, saints, sages, and the intimate friends and lovers of Allah. (p. 6)”

Sufi WisdomSufi Way Of BeingFutuwwahThe Way Of Sufi Chivalry
Book:The Way of Sufi Chivalry
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“The Shambhala understanding of bravery is quite different. Here bravery is the courage to be – to live in the world without any deception and with tremendous kindness and caring for others. You might wonder how this can bring magic into your life. The ordinary idea of magic is that you can conquer the elements, so that you can turn earth into fire or fire into water or ignore the law of gravity and fly. But true magic is the magic of reality, as it is: the earth of earth, the water of water – communicating with the elements so that, in some sense, they become one with you. When you develop bravery, you make a connection with the elemental quality of existence. Bravery begins to heighten your existence, that is, to bring out the brilliant and genuine qualities of your environment and of your own being. So you begin to contact the magic of reality – which is already there in some sense. You actually can attract the power and strength and the primordial wisdom that arise from the cosmic mirror.”

EnlightenmentAwakeningWay Of The WarriorShambhala Warrior
Book:Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
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“„The Shambhala understanding of bravery is quite different. Here bravery is the courage to be – to live in the world without any deception and with tremendous kindness and caring for others. You might wonder how this can bring magic into your life. The ordinary idea of magic is that you can conquer the elements, so that you can turn earth into fire or fire into water or ignore the law of gravity and fly. But true magic is the magic of reality, as it is: the earth of earth, the water of water – communicating with the elements so that, in some sense, they become one with you. When you develop bravery, you make a connection with the elemental quality of existence. Bravery begins to heighten your existence, that is, to bring out the brilliant and genuine qualities of your environment and of your own being. So you begin to contact the magic of reality – which is already there in some sense. You actually can attract the power and strength and the primordial wisdom that arise from the cosmic mirror.“ (The Sacred Path of the Warrior)”

BuddhismEnlightenmentAwakeningWay Of The WarriorShambhala Warrior
Book:Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
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“Love makes us speak; love makes us moan; love makes us die; love brings us to life; love makes us drunk and bewildered; it sometimes makes one a king. Love and the lover have no rigid doctrine. Whichever direction the lover takes he turns toward his beloved. Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved. Wherever he goes, he goes with his beloved. He cannot do anything, cannot survive for one moment even, without his beloved. He constantly recalls his beloved, as his beloved remembers him. Lover and beloved, rememberer and remembered, are ever in each other’s company, always together.”

LoveSufismSufi WisdomSufi PathRemembrance Of God
Book:The Unveiling of Love: Sufism and the Remembrance of God
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