Reading Archive (Holiness)

Serving Is Different From Helping And Fixing

Rachel Naomi Remen

In recent years the question how can I help? has become meaningful to many people. But perhaps there is a deeper question we might consider. Perhaps the real question is not how can I help? but how ca...

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250K reads, 61 comments

You Carry Your Wound

Osho

You carry your wound. With the ego, your whole being is a wound. And you carry it around. Nobody is interested in hurting you, nobody is positively waiting to hurt you; everybody is engaged in safegua...

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79K reads, 57 comments

Selfless Climbing versus Ego Climbing

Robert Pirsig

Phaedrus wrote a letter from India about a pilgrimage to holy Mount Kailas, the source of the Ganges and the abode of Shiva, high in the Himalayas, in the company of a holy man and his adherents. H...

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38K reads, 15 comments

Only Service Heals

Rachel Naomi Remen

If helping is an experience of strength, fixing is an experience of mastery and expertise. Service, on the other hand, is an experience of mystery, surrender and awe. A fixer has the illusion of being...

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28K reads, 29 comments

Knowledge can be Conveyed, but not Wisdom

Herman Hesse

Look, my dear Govinda, this is one of my thoughts, which I have found: wisdom cannot be passed on.  Wisdom which a wise man tries to pass on to someone always sounds like foolishness.&q...

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22K reads, 12 comments

Pronounce a Silent Blessing

Barbara Brown Taylor

"It is forbidden to taste of the pleasures of this world without a blessing." --The Talmud I think that the best way to discover what pronouncing blessings is all about is to pronounce a ...

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22K reads, 14 comments

What I Learned From Trees

Herman Hesse

For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are...

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21K reads, 15 comments

Silence

Jean Klein

Silence is our real nature. What we are fundamentally is only silence. Silence is free from beginning and end. It was before the beginning of all things. It is causeless. Its greatness lies in the ...

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19K reads, 28 comments

Web of Life

Chief Seattle

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experie...

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18K reads, 4 comments

Three Qualities Of Holiness

Anthony De Mello

True happiness is uncaused. You are happy for no reason at all.  And true happiness cannot be experienced. It is not within the realm of consciousness. So it is with holiness.  Holiness i...

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18K reads, 6 comments

Reverence Protects Life

Gary Zukav

As you work toward becoming reverent, your tendencies toward harming others and other forms of life diminish. As you acquire a sense of reverence, you develop the capacity to think more deeply about t...

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17K reads, 12 comments

To Walk Unmasked

Sir John Wilson

To have tried on every mask and eventually to have confidence to walk unmasked. Having experienced many places to appreciate, in its infinite variety, one's own place. To achieve for one's depen...

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4K reads, 3 comments

Wide Angle View

Huston Smith

The final reason for understanding another is intrinsic -- to enjoy the wider angle the vision affords. I am, of course, speaking metaphorically of vision and view, but an analogue from ocular sigh...

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4K reads

Returning to the Root

Seng T'san

Let go of longing and aversion, and everything will be perfectly clear. When you cling to a hairbreadth of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart. If you want to realize the truth, don't be f...

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3K reads