Watts: “One can only attempt a rational, descriptive philosophy of the universe on the assumption that one is totally separate from it. But if you and your thoughts are part of this universe, you cannot stand outside them to describe them. This is why all philosophical and theological systems must ultimately fall apart. To ‘know’Continue reading “Out of the Depths”
Tag Archives: soul
Necessary Idols
Heschel: “What is an idol? Any god who is mine but not yours, any god concerned with me but not with you, is an idol.“ This quote from Heschel is taken from his chapter titled “Religion and Race,” which was originally an opening address at the National Conference on Religion and Race in January ofContinue reading “Necessary Idols”
Frontier of the Future
Nietzsche: “Actual philosophers are commanders and law-givers: they say ‘thus it shall be!’, it is they who determine the Wherefore and Whither of humankind, and they possess for this task the preliminary work of all the philosophical laborers, of all those who have subdued the past – they reach for the future with creative hand,Continue reading “Frontier of the Future”
Giving Up Security
Watts: “To understand that there is no security is far more than to agree with the theory that all things change, more even than to observe the transitoriness of life. The notion of security is based on the feeling that there is something within us which is permanent, something which endures through all the daysContinue reading “Giving Up Security”
Breakpoint for Religion
Heschel: “You can affect a person only if you reach his [or her] inner life, the level where every human being is insecure and feels his [or her] incompleteness, the level of awareness that lies beyond articulation. “The soul is discovered in response, in acts of transcending the self, in the awareness of ends thatContinue reading “Breakpoint for Religion”
Faith For Today
Heschel: “Faith in the sense of being involved in the mystery of God and [humanity] is not the same as acceptance of definitive formulations of articles of belief. Even [one] who merely strives for faith in the living God is on the threshold of faith. The test is honesty and stillness. “Our error is inContinue reading “Faith For Today”
Two Small, Really Big Words
Watts: “If we want to keep the old language, still using such terms as ‘spiritual’ and ‘material’, the spiritual must mean ‘the indefinable’, that which, because it is living, must ever escape the framework of any fixed form. Matter is spirit named.” Question: Why would we want to keep the “old language”? If it’s increasinglyContinue reading “Two Small, Really Big Words”
From Having Answers to Having to Answer
Heschel: “How to save the inner [life] from oblivion – this is the challenge we face. To achieve our goal, we must learn how to activate the soul, how to answer the ultimate, how to relate ourselves to the spirit.” The cultural atmosphere of the 1960s, as it relates to religion and spirituality, was galvanizedContinue reading “From Having Answers to Having to Answer”
Are We Spiritual Idiots?
Heschel: “Is it not possible that we are entering a stage in history out of which we may emerge as morons, as an affluent society of spiritual idiots?” What is spiritual intelligence? Do “spirit,” “spiritual” and “spirituality” even have a place in a worldview that rejects metaphysical realism as a foundational assumption? If the mythologicalContinue reading “Are We Spiritual Idiots?”
Tracts of Revolution 