Monday, November 17, 2014

Oneness: A Collection of Quotes Illustrating a Common Theme

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be One. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be One, as we are One."
- Jesus in
John 17:20-22

"We will never find God until we learn that He exists in every living being, including ourselves."
- Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta Hindu


"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."
- Paul in Ephesians 4:4-6

"I seek only One thing: the All that exists in everything. All things are born of the One. All things flow from the One. The One is not just in all things, but above all things. This God holds me within my own heart."
- Dame Catherine Gascoigne, Roman Catholic



"All that is, is One Mind. It is eternal and clear. It embraces all realities - both the visible and the invisible."
- Padmasambhava, Tibetan Buddhist

"How does one seek union with God?
The harder you seek, the more distance you create between Him and you.
So what does one do about the distance?
Understand or recognize that it isn't there.
Does that mean that God and I are one?
Not one. Not two.
How is that possible?
The sun and its light, the ocean and the wave, the singer and his song. --
Not one. Not two.
"
- Anthony de Mello, Jesuit Priest and Psychotherapist


"Walking upon my path, I found that my former friends had become enemies. But I received solace from the One True Friend. When I realized Oneness, I became free of the many. Now I am His and He is mine."
- Sarmad, Sufi, Jewish


"Be joyful and behold the One in all things."
- Mother Julian of Norwich, Roman Catholic


"One master asked his teacher: 'Where can Tao be found?' The teacher replied: 'Where can't Tao be found?'"
- Chan Buddhist Story


"'Do not I fill heaven and earth?' declares the Lord."
- Jeremiah 23:24

"Where is Tao? If you look for it, you won't see it. It comes in and goes out, but doesn't use doors. It is the very smallest of all things, yet it is everywhere. If you fail to recognize it, you will meet it without knowing."
- Han Shan, Taoist, Chan Buddhist


"I repent me of the ignorance wherein I ever said that God made man out of nothing: there is no nothing out of which to make anything; God is all in all."
- George MacDonald, Christian minister and author


"For from him and through him and to him are all things."
- Paul in Romans 11:36

"Having examined all religions, I have realized that God is the Whole and I am His part. We are One. He manifests Himself in never-ending forms to fulfill the desires of those devoted to Him. But He, Himself, is formless. He cannot be divided because He is the Absolute."
-
Sri Ramakrishna, Vedanta (Hindu)

"You have no beginning or end, yet have become He who preserves and protects us. You are the All, beyond comparison, beyond limits, without visual essence, without attributes, beyond division, beyond description, beyond understanding. You are imperishable. You may only be seen by those with spiritual eyes, even though you are everywhere and within everything - both manifest and un-manifest simultaneously. No one can see you without divine eyesight, even though You are everywhere and in everything. You are both manifest and un-manifest. You are infinite power and bliss. You are the Knower and that which is known. You are Truth, Bliss, Love. You are beyond the beyond."
- Meher Baba, Sufi


"He is the knowledge, the knower, and that which is known. All things are united in Him, and are imbued with His essence. He is Being - in which all things have their existence and perfection."
- Moses Cordovero, Jewish

"What we are looking for is what is looking."
- St. Francis of Assisi, Roman Catholic


"God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them."
-
I John 4:16

"Only that which is in you - which is also in me - can hear what I'm saying."
- Ram Dass
, Vedanta (Hindu)

"For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’"
- Paul at Mars Hill in Acts 17:28


"God does not exist. He is being-itself beyond essence and existence. To argue that God exists is to deny him."
- Paul Tillich, Christian Theologian


"The many do not exist; there is only the One. At-one-ment is the realization that duality is an illusion."
- Padmasambhava, Tibetan Buddhist

"The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere."
- Plotinus, Greek Philosopher


"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our own mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely ... I have no program for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is every-where."
- Thomas Merton, Roman Catholic (Trappist)

"The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love."
- Meister Ekhart, Roman Catholic


"Wherever I wander, there is only You. Whatever I think about, it is You. Everywhere, there is only You. In the sky, upon the earth, above us and below us, in the beginning and at the end, there is only You!"
- Levi Yitzchak, Jewish


"I sang with You during the day, and we slept together at night. But I am confused; I thought I was I, but it was You."
- Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, Sufi


"Studying Buddha nature is the same as studying yourself. Studying yourself requires forgetting yourself. To become enlightened is to become free - which means being free of one's own mind and body as well as the minds and bodies of others. Once achieved, even this enlightenment disappears, and cannot be found anywhere even though it exists forever."
- Dogen, Zen Buddhist


"When self-love ceases, and love of goodness takes its place, then you will be One with the Beloved. Loving Him, He must also love you. That love draws you to Him and Him to You. And the two become One. In such union there is no division."
- Jacopone Da Todi, Roman Catholic


"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
- Paul in Galatians 2:20

"The only thing that God expects from you is that you leave yourself behind and realize that you are made of Him."
- Meister Ekhart, Roman Catholic

"You are the absolute Light which can see with pure eyes beyond the haze of our limitations. Your light is hidden everywhere in the world, and the world reveals Your beauty. Your gift to me was to become one with You. It is Your blood that runs through my veins. I have become one with Your pure body - transparent, holy and filled with light."
- Symeon the New Theologian, Eastern Orthodox


"Where can I find you Lord? Your place is grand and undisclosed. And where can I find You not? Your glory is everywhere upon the earth."
- Judah Halevi, Jewish

"We could say many things and never say enough. The final word is: The Lord is 'the All'."
- Sirach 43:27

"This world is not merely a thing which God hath made, subjecting it to laws; but it is an expression of the thought, the feeling, the heart of God himself."
- George MacDonald, Christian minister and author


"Throughout eternity, that which we call Mind has never been born and has never died. Changeless, it has no past or future. It is not subject to cause and effect. It is not good or evil, true or false, male or female. Mind is no one's property and it does not seek liberation. It is formless and hard to perceive since it is not subject to the senses. Many are those who seek It, yet they do not realize that it already lies within themselves. It is what gives them life."
- Bodhidharma, Zen Buddhist


"Our lives are in God, as God is within us. He nurtures all creatures, and even though His splendor is often hidden from us, it abides in all life. God is the life of all that exists."
- Hildegard of Bingen, Roman Catholic


"That which dwells in all creatures - the Self - is that which controls the universe. He is manifest in all objects and creatures, and those who find it within themselves have eternal Bliss."
- The Katha Upanishad, Vedanta (Hindu)


"Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
- Paul in I Corinthians 3:16

"I will know that I am free from bondage on the day when I can finally see God in every human being, and every being as the temple of God, When I stand in reverence of the One in all, all else will vanish and I will be free."
- Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta (Hindu)


"When you perceive that the two are One, that the outer is the same as the inner, that which is above is the same as that which is below, that the male and the female are one and the same - then you will enter the kingdom of God."
- Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas saying 22


"If one does not recognize God, the barrier lies within his own mind. For God is all things, and has become all things within the individual."
- Meister Ekhart, Roman Catholic


"God is in you and God is in me. He is hidden in all things, so let go of your pride and vanity and seek Him within yourself."
- Kabir, Sufi

"I am you and you are me. We exist interdependently. As we work on ourselves personally, others benefit at the same time."
- Thích Nhất Hạnh, Zen Buddhist


"Abide in me as I abide in you."
- Jesus in John 15:4

"The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.  It is the sower of all true science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.  To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness."
- Albert Einstein

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together...I am the walrus, goo goo goo joob."
- John Lennon


Additional reading:
Love is Like the Wind
Paul and the Greek Poets