Quote on science and spirituality

Source: mi2g

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

~ Carl Sagan

Quote on science and spirituality

Source: mi2g

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

~ Carl Sagan

Quote on apprenticeship

William Coperthwaite in front of a Yurt

APPRENTICES NEEDED, NOT DISCIPLES
For many, the knowledge of a Jesus, a Lao-tzu, a Buddha or a Gandhi is complete and unassailable. But we do them and their vision a disservice when we follow them rather than using what they have taught to build upon as we strive toward our goal of a better society.
When we merely follow another, we take a potentially creative mind out of service--our own. We tie up a natural resource, just as much as when we put away money in the mattress.
We don't need more disciples, we need more apprentices, the difference being that an apprentice serves as a follower only temporarily and is expected to go on and work independently. Wise apprentices recognize that the masters are always a part of them, that within them is a partnership of apprentice and master artisan, including all the other masters that came before.
Good apprentices know that they are in the process of becoming masters and that as responsible artisans they must seek to improve upon knowledge entrusted to them and go further.
As apprentices we are not better than those who went before. We are a part, an extension of our predecessors, the newest buds on an ancient, living tree. If we do not reach up to the sun and down into the soil for nourishment to help the tree grow, we have not been faithful to the trust invested in us.
It is always easier to take the words of a Jesus, a Gandhi, a Marx, or a Confucius as constituting Holy Writ. This involves less reading, less study, less thought, less conflict, and less independent searching, but it also means less growth toward maturity.

~ William Coperthwaite

Quote on apprenticeship

William Coperthwaite in front of a Yurt

APPRENTICES NEEDED, NOT DISCIPLES
For many, the knowledge of a Jesus, a Lao-tzu, a Buddha or a Gandhi is complete and unassailable. But we do them and their vision a disservice when we follow them rather than using what they have taught to build upon as we strive toward our goal of a better society.
When we merely follow another, we take a potentially creative mind out of service--our own. We tie up a natural resource, just as much as when we put away money in the mattress.
We don't need more disciples, we need more apprentices, the difference being that an apprentice serves as a follower only temporarily and is expected to go on and work independently. Wise apprentices recognize that the masters are always a part of them, that within them is a partnership of apprentice and master artisan, including all the other masters that came before.
Good apprentices know that they are in the process of becoming masters and that as responsible artisans they must seek to improve upon knowledge entrusted to them and go further.
As apprentices we are not better than those who went before. We are a part, an extension of our predecessors, the newest buds on an ancient, living tree. If we do not reach up to the sun and down into the soil for nourishment to help the tree grow, we have not been faithful to the trust invested in us.
It is always easier to take the words of a Jesus, a Gandhi, a Marx, or a Confucius as constituting Holy Writ. This involves less reading, less study, less thought, less conflict, and less independent searching, but it also means less growth toward maturity.

~ William Coperthwaite

Quote on religions

Credit: Boloji.com

I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.

~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Quote on religions

Credit: Boloji.com

I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.

~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Christ Is the Kind of Guy

Image: TeddyBear[Picnic]/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Christ is the kind of guy

you just can't help hurting

No matter how much you love him

when you walk you stumble into him

you push him accidentally from a window

If you back the car out

you will find him squashed behind the wheels

broken on the door--all over the grate

Christ has the kind of skin

that bruises when you hold him

the kind of face that

kisses cut

He is always breaking open

when we go to embrace him

Christ the haemophiliac

even the gentlest people can't help

wounding Jesus Christ

They are always running for a band-aid

and then pulling open his old wounds

on a nail

If there is a cross in your house

you will find yourself bumping up against him

accidentally

moving him closer and closer to it

his arms continually more and more

widespread as he talks

Christ is the kind of guy

who can't help falling asleep like that

his arms spread wide as though over the whole world

You have a dream with a hammer

You are making a house

In the morning you awake

and find him up there on the crossbeams

one hand nailed to the door frame

"Look Jesus" you say

"I don't want to be saved like this!"

But then you hurt him

extra

taking him down

you pry at the nails savagely

but it's no use

Christ is the kind of saviour

you can only get off a cross

with a blow torch

"Father forgive them" he says

as you begin to burn his hands

~ Robert Priest

__________________________________

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Christ Is the Kind of Guy

Image: TeddyBear[Picnic]/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Christ is the kind of guy

you just can't help hurting

No matter how much you love him

when you walk you stumble into him

you push him accidentally from a window

If you back the car out

you will find him squashed behind the wheels

broken on the door--all over the grate

Christ has the kind of skin

that bruises when you hold him

the kind of face that

kisses cut

He is always breaking open

when we go to embrace him

Christ the haemophiliac

even the gentlest people can't help

wounding Jesus Christ

They are always running for a band-aid

and then pulling open his old wounds

on a nail

If there is a cross in your house

you will find yourself bumping up against him

accidentally

moving him closer and closer to it

his arms continually more and more

widespread as he talks

Christ is the kind of guy

who can't help falling asleep like that

his arms spread wide as though over the whole world

You have a dream with a hammer

You are making a house

In the morning you awake

and find him up there on the crossbeams

one hand nailed to the door frame

"Look Jesus" you say

"I don't want to be saved like this!"

But then you hurt him

extra

taking him down

you pry at the nails savagely

but it's no use

Christ is the kind of saviour

you can only get off a cross

with a blow torch

"Father forgive them" he says

as you begin to burn his hands

~ Robert Priest

__________________________________

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

If I Cannot Forgive Myself

Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

If I cannot forgive myself

For all the blunders

That I have made

Over the years,

Then how can I proceed?

How can I ever

Dream perfection-dreams?

Move, I must, forward.

Fly, I must, upward.

Dive, I must, inward,

To be once more

What I truly am

And shall forever remain.

~ Sri Chinmoy

___________________________________

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

If I Cannot Forgive Myself

Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

If I cannot forgive myself

For all the blunders

That I have made

Over the years,

Then how can I proceed?

How can I ever

Dream perfection-dreams?

Move, I must, forward.

Fly, I must, upward.

Dive, I must, inward,

To be once more

What I truly am

And shall forever remain.

~ Sri Chinmoy

___________________________________

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi