“The meditator develops new depths of insight through direct communication with the reality of the phenomenal world... He or she is able to see not only the absence of complexity, the absence of duality, but the stoneness of stone and the waterness of water. One sees things precisely as they are, not merely in the physical sense, but with awareness of their spiritual significance.” WorldRealityAbleSpiritualWaterAwarenessCommunicationStonesDirectDepthInsightAbsenceComplexitySignificanceDualityPhenomenalDirect Communication Author:Chogyam Trungpa
“Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space. I know of no sculpture, painting or music that exceeds the compelling spiritual command of the soaring shape of granite cliff and dome, of patina of light on rock and forest, and of the thunder and whispering of the falling, flowing waters. At first the colossal aspect may dominate; then we perceive and respond to the delicate and persuasive complex of nature.” KnowsFirstsMayLightSpiritualFallWaterSpaceWonderRocksPaintingShapesAspectStonesGreenComplexesForestsCommandGoldenPerceiveValleysDelicateCompellingSunriseSoarSculptureThunderCliffsExceedWhisperingGlitterPersuasiveColossalEdificeDomesGraniteYosemiteFlowing Water Author:Ansel Adams
“What greater weakness can there be than not to know what is the source of one's being, of one's life, of one's senses, of one's knowledge, and what is to be their end? What can be more deeply disheartening than to wonder whether one's soul is, perhaps, a material thing, like a stone or a reptile, corruptible like these base creatures? Is there not more strength and greatness of mind in admitting the idea of a being superior to all other beings, who has made them all and to whom all owe their existence; of a being supremely perfect, who is pure, who had no beginning and can have no ending, of whom our soul is the image and, so to speak, a portion, being a spiritual and immortal thing?” IfsMenMindMayDoeMadeIdeasSoulEndsAbleSpiritualPerfectDoubtSubjectsMaterialsPureProveCreaturesAll ThingsStonesCorruptionSuperiorsImmortalDiscouragingGrandeurStrength Of MindReptiles Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“The ideal that marriage aims at is that of spiritual union through the physical. The human love that it incarnates is intended to serve as a stepping stone to diving or universal love.” HumansSpiritualMarriageIdealsStonesUniversalAimUnionsStepping StonesDivingHuman LoveUniversal Love Author:Mahatma Gandhi
“God cannot be represented by an image. We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God.” IfsThinkingMenGivingArtSoulBodySpiritualOughtStonesGoldInfiniteSilverDevicesConceptionUnjustAffrontDishonour Author:Matthew Henry
“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.” SpiritualSpiritPoetrySocialVoiceSecretFantasyPoetBuiltStonesCollectivesPoetry IsLiquidCompactRuptureAquifers Book:What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition) Source: What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)
“The garden reconciles human art and wild nature, hard work and deep pleasure, spiritual practice and the material world. It is a magical place because it is not divided. The many divisions and polarizations that terrorize a disenchanted world find peaceful accord among mossy rock walls, rough stone paths, and trimmed bushes. Maybe a garden sometimes seems fragile, for all its earth and labor, because it achieves such an extraordinary delicate balance of nature and human life, naturalness and artificiality. It has its own liminality, its point of balance between great extremes.” WorldLifeHumansArtSometimesHardSeemsEarthSpiritualPleasurePracticePathAchieveRocksMaterialsHard WorkWallBalanceGardenLaborStonesExtraordinaryExtremesPeacefulHuman LifeRoughDivisionDividedFragileDelicateAccordReconcileFinding PeaceSpiritual PracticeMaterial WorldPolarizationArtificialityMagical PlacesDisenchanted Author:Thomas Moore
“Just as a stone, a tree, a straw, grain, a mat, a cloth, a pot, and so on, when burned, are reduced to earth (from which they came), so the body and its sense organs, on being burned in the fire of Knowledge, become Knowledge and are absorbed in Brahman, like darkness in the light of the sun.” BodyLightEarthSpiritualDarknessSunFireTreeStonesPotOrgansGrainBurnedStrawsBrahman Author:Adi Shankara
“Ethical religion affirms the continuity of progress toward moral perfection. It affirms that the spiritual development of the human race cannot be prematurely cut off, either gradually or suddenly; that every stone of offence against which we stumble is a stepping-stone to some greater good; that, at the end of days, if we choose to put it so, or, rather, in some sphere beyond the world of space and time, all the rays of progress will be summed and centred in a transcendent focus.” IfsWorldHumansEndsSpiritualSpaceRaceMoralGreaterFocusCuttingProgressDevelopmentStonesPerfectionHuman RaceThe End Of The DayEthicalRaysSpheresTime And SpaceContinuityTranscendentOffenceSpiritual DevelopmentStepping StonesGreater GoodMoral Perfection Author:Felix Adler