anthropology
Poverty Of Spirit
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
106 passages · 11 traditions
christian_mysticism37
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1c
“The Good is beyond this distinction, for nothing (on the ultimate plane) is outside It.
See Intr., p.
5.
and Lifelessness an excess of Life and Its Mindless state is an excess of Wisdom, 252 252 This apparently profitless speculation rea…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1k
“Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf.
Dante, cio che per l’universa si squaderna, etc.
382 Cf.
Section 5.
383 i.
e.
The Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences.
Bu…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IIIa
“THE ANGEL’S GREETING St Luke i.
28 .—“Hail, thou that art highly favoured among women, the Lord is with thee.” Here there are three things to understand: the first, the modesty of the angel; the second, that he thought himself unworthy to…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IVa
“TRUE HEARING Ecclesiasticus xxiv.
30 .—“Whoso heareth Me shall not be confounded.” The everlasting and paternal wisdom saith, “Whoso heareth Me is not ashamed.” If he is ashamed of anything he is ashamed of being ashamed.
Whoso worketh in…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Vb
“It is necessary, therefore, for all the creatures which issued forth from God to co-operate earnestly with all their powers to form a Man who may again attain that union with God which Adam enjoyed before he fell, and who may again restore…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Vc
“Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to school, and learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the Trinity, and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him.
St Augustine saith that the righteousness…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIe
“Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses the soul, and illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue and separates us from creatures, and un…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIIc
“When a good work is done by a man, he is free of it, and through that freedom is liker and nearer to his Original than he was before.
The moral task of man is a process of spiritualization.
All creatures are go-betweens, and we are placed…”
Show all 37 →buddhism29
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter I, Section 1d
“He suffers when he thinks of the evil he has done; he suffers more when going on the evil path.
18.
The virtuous man is happy in this world, and he is happy in the next; he is happy in both.
He is happy when he thinks of the good he has…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter V, Section 1a
“p.
20 CHAPTER V.
THE FOOL.
60.
Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law.
61.
If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his eq…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter V, Section 1b
“In Manu IV, 172, where a similar sentence occurs, the commentators are equally doubtful: Nâdharma s k arito loke sadya h phalati gaur iva, 'for an evil act committed in the world does not bear fruit at once, like a cow;' or 'like the earth…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter VI, Section 1a
“p.
23 CHAPTER VI.
THE WISE MAN (PA ND ITA).
76.
If you see an intelligent man who tells you where true treasures are to be found, who shows what is to be avoided, and administers reproofs, follow that wise man; it will be better, not wo…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter VII, Section 1a
“p.
27 CHAPTER VII.
THE VENERABLE (ARHAT).
90.
There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey, and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides, and thrown off all fetters.
91.
They depart with their thoughts well-co…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XIV, Section 1a
“p.
49 CHAPTER XIV.
THE BUDDHA (THE AWAKENED).
179.
He whose conquest is not conquered again, into whose conquest no one in this world enters, by what track can you lead him, the Awakened, the Omniscient, the trackless?
180.
He whom no…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XV, Section 1a
“p.
53 CHAPTER XV.
HAPPINESS.
197.
Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us!
among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!
198.
Let us live happily then, free from ailments among the ailing!
among men who are ail…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XVI, Section 1
“p. 56 CHAPTER XVI. PLEASURE. 209. He who gives himself to vanity, and does not give himself to meditation, forgetting the real aim (of life) and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation. 210. Let no…”
Show all 29 →gnosticism9
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i
“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection.
THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 3
“Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and i…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 36
“Jesus said, "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear."…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 42
“Jesus said, "Become passers-by."…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 46
“Jesus said, "Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist, there is no one so superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered (before him). Yet I have said, whichever one of you comes to be a child will be ac…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 61
“Jesus said, "Two will rest on a bed: the one will die, and the other will live." Salome said, "Who are you, man, that you ... have come up on my couch and eaten from my table?" Jesus said to her, "I am he who exists from the undivided. I wa…”
◆Pistis Sophia | Document FIRSTv
“Deliver me because of my enemies; for thou art (he) who knoweth my reproach with my shame and my disgrace: all those who afflict me (are) in thy presence.
My heart looked out for a reproach with wretchedness; I looked out for him who will…”
◆Pistis Sophia | Document SECOND
“And that Mystery indeed is that which knoweth because of what the Slander became, and because of what the Word which is good [194 ] became: and that Mystery indeed is that which knoweth because of what the Obedience became, and because of w…”
Show all 9 →western_esoteric8
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XIX (part 7)
“In the reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union—this identity.
But this sublime condition is not of permanent duration.
It is only now and then that we can enjoy this elevation above the limi…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXI (part 3)
“All attempts to penetrate mentally into that higher, noumenal world, or world of causes, by means of the logic of the phenomenal world, if they did not fail altogether, or did not lead to castles in the air , gave only one result: in becomi…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXII (part 10)
“But it does not bear fruit presently; and, though it blossoms, they fall off; also many a cold wind, frost and snow, puff upon it, before it comes to any growth and bearing of fruit.
Boehme's books are full of wonderment before these myste…”
◆Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXII (part 22)
“I seemed to be directly under the foot of God, and I thought he was grinding his own life up out of my pain.
Then I saw that what he had been trying with all his might to do was to change his course, to bend the line of lightning to which…”
◆Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi) | Introductiong
“He trusts in God rather than Roman policy for the salvation of the unity idea; he respects the old age of the Church, but he has no fear that she will die; he knows that her apparent death will be a transfiguration and a glorious assumption…”
◇Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter I (part 4)
“New forms of knowledge.
The ideas of Plotinus.
Different forms of consciousness.
Sleep (the potential state of consciousness).
Dreams (consciousness en-closed in itself, reflected from itself).
Waking consciousness (dualistic sensation…”
◇Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXI (part 1)
“p.
254 CHAPTER XXI Man's transition to a higher logic.
The necessity for rejecting everything "real." "Poverty of the spirit." The recognition of the infinite alone as real.
Laws of the infinite.
Logic of the finite—the Organon of Arist…”
◇Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) | Chapter XXI (part 4)
“This sensation of light and of unlimited joy is experienced at the moment of the expansion of consciousness (the unfoldment of the mystical lotus of the Hindu yogi), at the moment of the sensation of infinity, and it yields also the sensati…”
renaissance_hermeticism7
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguea
“.
Tansillo .
There are several varieties of enthusiasts, which may all be reduced to two kinds.
While some only display blindness, stupidity, and irrational impetuosity, which tend towards savage madness, others by divine abstraction bec…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguee
“Others esteem him unhappy through this appearance of an evil destiny, as being condemned to these pangs, for he will never cease from acknowledging the obligation he is under to love, nor cease from rendering thanks to him because he has pr…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Fourth Dialogueg
“Behold me, miserable one, deprived of heart, abandoned of thoughts, left by hope, I, who had fixed my all in them.
Nothing is left to me but the sense of my poverty, my unhappiness and misery; why does not this too leave me?
Why does not…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Fifth Dialoguel
“Here are shown the pains and troubles which beset love, principally love of a low kind, which is no other than the forge of Vulcan, that smith who makes the bolts of Jove which torment offending souls.
For ill-ordered love has in itself th…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Fifth Dialogueo
“For love, while it is finite, contented, and fixed in a certain measure, is not in the form of the species of divine beauty, but as it goes on with ever higher aspirations, it may be said to verge towards the infinite.
Cic.
.
How is brea…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogueg
“Wherefore not only can we never discourse about things divine, but we cannot even think of them without detracting from, rather than adding to the glory of them; so that the best thing to be done with regard to them is, that man, in the pre…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori) | Second Dialoguee
“Now, it must be said that the outcome of the mind is that alone which is always by it desired, sought for, and embraced, and that which is more enjoyed than anything else, with which it is filled, comforted and becomes better,—that is Truth…”
greek_mystery6
◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXXVI. DEATH (part 2)
“The waters of Thames, heavy laden with the wealth of merchandize, and sonorous with the din of trade, may devolve abundance in a golden tide; but we must remember that the Dæmon of commerce is at the same time advancing with giant strides,…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 7 (part 1)
“p.
29 THE PYTHAGOREAN SENTENCES OF DEMOPHILUS 1.
Request not of Divinity such things as, when obtained, you cannot preserve; for no gift of Divinity can ever be taken away; and on this account he does not confer that which you are unable…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 7 (part 2)
“Understand that no dissimulation can be long concealed.
24.
The unjust man suffers greater evil while his soul is tormented with a consciousness of guilt, than when his body is scourged with whips.
25.
It is by no means safe to discours…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 10 (part 2)
“It is not proper to despise those things of which we shall be in want after the dissolution of the body.
36.
You should not ask of divinity that which, when you have obtained, you will not perpetually possess.
37.
Accustom your soul aft…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 11
“p. 62 PYTHAGOREAN SENTENCES FROM THE PROTREPTICS OF IAMBLICHUS 1. As we live through soul, it must be said that by the virtue of this we live well; just as because we see through the eyes, we see well through the virtue of these. 2. It must…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 12 (part 1)
“p.
67 THE SYMBOLS OF PYTHAGORAS All the Symbols are exhortatory in common to the whole of virtue; but particularly each to some particular virtue.
Different symbols also are differently adapted to parts of philosophy and discipline.
Thus…”
sufism5
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUEa
“HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And t…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUEb
“Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not?
Because the rust has not been scoured from its face.
If it were purified from all rust and defilement, It would reflect the shining of the SUN Of GOD.6 O friends, ye have now heard this tale, Whic…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY II
“The Oilman and his Parrot. An oilman possessed a parrot which used to amuse him with its agreeable prattle, and to watch his shop when he went out. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, a cat upset one of the oil-jars. When the oi…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IXa
“The Arab and his Wife.
An Arab lived with his wife in the desert in extreme poverty, so that they became a reproach to their neighbours.
The wife at last lost patience, and began to abuse her husband, and to urge him to improve their cond…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY XII
“Joseph a‚Žd the Mirror. An old friend came to pay his respects to Joseph, and, after some remarks upon the bad behaviour of his brethren, Joseph asked him what present he had brought to show his respect. The friend replied that he had long…”
taoism2
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 1)
“p.
223 BOOK V.
PART I.
SECTION V.
Teh Khung Fû, or 'The Seal of Virtue Complete 1 .' 1.
In Lû 2 there was a Wang Thâi 3 who had lost both his feet 4 ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those o…”
◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 20
“When we renounce learning we have no troubles. The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'-- Small is the difference they display. But mark their issues, good and ill;-- What space the gulf between shall fill? What all men fear is indeed to…”
finnic1
◆The Kalevala | Rune IVa
“FATE OF AINO.
When the night had passed, the maiden, Sister fair of Youkahainen, Hastened early to the forest, Birchen shoots for brooms to gather, Went to gather birchen tassels; Bound a bundle for her father, Bound a birch-broom for her…”
jewish_mysticism1
◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter CVIII
“CVIII. AN APPENDIX TO THE BOOK OF ENOCH. CHAPTER CVIII. 1. Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days. 2. Ye who have done good shall wait for those days ti…”
platonism1
◆Plato: Symposium | Section 1w
“The truth of the matter is this: No god is a philosopher.
or seeker after wisdom, for he is wise already; nor does any man who is wise seek after wisdom.
Neither do the ignorant seek after Wisdom.
For herein is the evil of ignorance, tha…”