Quotes about Awareness

The ability to stand back and calmly observe my inner dramas, without rushing to judgment, is foundational for spiritual seeing.

It is the primary form of "dying to the self" that Jesus lived personally and the Buddha taught experientially. The growing consensus is that, whatever you call it, such calm, egoless seeing is invariably characteristic of people at the highest levels of doing and loving in all cultures and religions.

To stay on the surface of anything is invariably to miss its message—even the surface meaning of our sinfulness.

To keep the mind space open, we need some form of contemplative or meditation practice. This has been the most neglected in recent centuries, substituting the mere reciting and "saying" of prayers, which is not the same as a contemplative mind, and often merely confirms us in our superior or fear-based system.

A mature Christian sees Christ in everything and everyone else.

Practice is standing in the flow, whereas theory and analysis observe the flow from a position of separation.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it." I

Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit, "Invoked or not invoked, God is still present."*3

When you are present, you will know the Presence. It is that simple, and it is that hard.

God comes to you disguised as your life," as my friend Paula D'Arcy so wisely says.

All we can do is keep our egos out of the way, note and weep over our defensive behaviors, keep our various centers from closing down—and the Presence that is surely the Highest Power is then obvious, all-embracing, and immediately effective. The immediate embrace is from God's side.

Contemplation is a spiritual practice that has the potential to heal, and connect us to the source of our being.