Fr. Thomas Keating 667 words, 15K views, 6 comments
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On Jan 6, 2012Shariq wrote :
Thank you for sharing this inspiring clarity from Fr. Keating, it conveys beautifully what is felt deeply and yet quite difficult to express in words. Indeed, human family is already one, as it is so spiritually as well as genetically: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/feature2/images/mp_download.2.pdf. Perhaps, path to awareness of our being one family, now more than ever, may lie in our being able to bring together what we can seek spiritually with what we can seek empirically. This is how I envision Gandhiji may have pursued his own inner journey as a scholar-practitioner of his Swagyanic truth. He had inquired and reflected on spirituality, literature, politics, economy and science, among the areas that he was drawn to, and then to have synthesized these into practices of his own by creating his life journey as an experiment with truth to cultivate the promise of his practices to realize his potential for serving others with what he was uniquely blessed with. The fact that the essence of Gandhiji’s practices bring together reason with contemplation in seeking truth is not new though it remains largly under explored horizon of human potential that may possibly hold the ultimate gifts to the seekers of ultimate mystery! Gandhiji’s holistic inquiries into truth included his awareness of implicit sense of beauty in truth as well, as he said in response to the question - Is there truth in a sunset or a crescent moon that shines amid the stars at night?: “Indeed, these beauties are truthful, inasmuch as they make me think of the Creator at the back of them. How else could these be beautiful, but for the Truth that is in the center of creation? When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. I try to see Him and His mercies in all these creations. But even the sunsets and sunrises would be mere hindrances if they did not help me to think of the soul is a delusion and a snare; even like the body, which often does hinder you in the path of salvation.” [Source: Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, 1945, p. 29]
On Jan 6, 2012 Shariq wrote :
Thank you for sharing this inspiring clarity from Fr. Keating, it conveys beautifully what is felt deeply and yet quite difficult to express in words. Indeed, human family is already one, as it is so spiritually as well as genetically: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/feature2/images/mp_download.2.pdf. Perhaps, path to awareness of our being one family, now more than ever, may lie in our being able to bring together what we can seek spiritually with what we can seek empirically. This is how I envision Gandhiji may have pursued his own inner journey as a scholar-practitioner of his Swagyanic truth. He had inquired and reflected on spirituality, literature, politics, economy and science, among the areas that he was drawn to, and then to have synthesized these into practices of his own by creating his life journey as an experiment with truth to cultivate the promise of his practices to realize his potential for serving others with what he was uniquely blessed with. The fact that the essence of Gandhiji’s practices bring together reason with contemplation in seeking truth is not new though it remains largly under explored horizon of human potential that may possibly hold the ultimate gifts to the seekers of ultimate mystery! Gandhiji’s holistic inquiries into truth included his awareness of implicit sense of beauty in truth as well, as he said in response to the question - Is there truth in a sunset or a crescent moon that shines amid the stars at night?: “Indeed, these beauties are truthful, inasmuch as they make me think of the Creator at the back of them. How else could these be beautiful, but for the Truth that is in the center of creation? When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. I try to see Him and His mercies in all these creations. But even the sunsets and sunrises would be mere hindrances if they did not help me to think of the soul is a delusion and a snare; even like the body, which often does hinder you in the path of salvation.” [Source: Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, 1945, p. 29]