A nd verily We shall try you until We know those of you who really strive and are steadfast, and until We test your record.

mosque

quote 4281  |   The Quran Qur'an 47.31

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V anity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

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quote 4275  |   The Ecclesiastes 1.2-3 and 1.14

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B y reason of the habit-energy stored up by false imagination since beginningless time, this world is subject to change and destruction from moment to moment; it is like a river, a seed, a lamp, wind, a cloud; like a monkey who is always restless, like a fly who is ever in search of unclean things and defiled places, like a fire which is never satisfied. Again, [thought] is like a water-wheel or a machine: it goes on rolling the wheel of transmigration, carrying varieties of bodies and forms... causing the wooden figures to move as a magician moves them. Mahamati, a thorough understanding concerning these phenomena is called comprehending the egolessness of persons.

temple_buddhist

quote 4268  |   The Lankavatara Sutra Lankavatara Sutra 24

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T his vast universe is a wheel, the wheel of Brahman. Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death, and rebirth. Round and round it turns, and never stops. As long as the individual self thinks it is separate from the Lord, it revolves upon the wheel in bondage to the laws of birth, death, and rebirth.... The Lord supports this universe, which is made up of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest and the unmanifest. The individual soul, forgetful of the Lord, attaches itself to pleasure and thus is bound.

temple_hindu

quote 4267  |   The Upanishads Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.6-8

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I n sleep our nights wasted, in filling our belly the days: This life, precious as a jewel, is forfeited for a cowrie shell. Ignorant fool! You who have never realized God's Name, In the end into regrets shall fall.

quote 4265  |   The Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Gauri Bairagani, M.1, p. 156

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T ruth is High, Higher Still is Truthful Living!

quote 3972  |   Guru Nanak Shri Guru Granth Sahib

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W herever a being may be born, Arjuna, know that My Prakrti is his Mother, and I [Purusha] am the Father who gave him life.

temple_hindu

quote 3616  |   The Bhagavat Gita 14:4; based on Mascaro, Juan, 1962

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E very man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?

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quote 3490  |   Martin Luther King The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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N ow some men have followed the intellect to such an extent that they have become totally angels and sheer light. They are the prophets and saints… In some men sensuality has dominated their intellects, so that they have totally assumed the properties of animals. And some men have remained struggling. They are that group who feel inside themselves a suffering, a pain, a distress, a longing. They are not satisfied with their lives. These are the believers. The saints are waiting to bring the believers into their own houses and make them like themselves. And the satans are also waiting to drag them down toward themselves to the lowest of the low (Koran 95:5).

mosque

quote 3307  |  Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi, p. 86, Trans. William C. Chittick. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1983

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I n a man's life, his time is but a moment, his being a mere flux, his senses a dim glimpse, his body food for the worms, and his soul a restless eddy … the things of the body pass like a flowing stream; life is a brief sojourn, and one's mark in this world is soon forgotten.

candle

quote 3036  |   Marcus Aurelius Book 2:4 and Book 2:17.

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I t is time to realize that you are a member of the Universe, that you are born of Nature itself, and to know that a limit has been set to your time. Use every moment wisely, to perceive your inner refulgence, or it will be gone and nevermore within your reach.

candle

quote 3035  |   Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius, Book 2:4 and Book 2:17.

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A t daybreak, when you loathe the idea of having to leave your bed, have this thought ready in your mind: I am rising for the work of man." Should I have misgivings about doing that for which I was born, and for the sake of which I came into this world? Is this the grand purpose of my existence-to lie here snug and warm underneath my blanket? Certainly it feels more pleasant. Was it for pleasure that you were made, and not for work, nor for effort? Look at the plants, sparrows, ants, spiders, and bees, all working busily away, each doing its part in welding an orderly Universe. So who are you to go against the bidding of Nature? Who are you to refuse man his share of the work? To live each day as though it were your last-never flustered, never lazy, never a false word-herein lies the perfection of character.

candle

quote 3034  |   Marcus Aurelius Book 5:1 and Book 7:69.

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T his world is a place of preparation where one is given many lessons and passes many tests. […] What is bad is what you do with the world when you become blind to truth and totally consumed by your desires, lust, and ambition for it.

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quote 2875  |   Ibn 'Arabi Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.56

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Q uestion: Why is the sacrifice of Isaac considered so glorious? At that time, our Father Abraham had already reached a high rung of holiness, and so it was no wonder that he immediately did as God asked him! Answer: When man is tried, all the rungs and all holiness are taken from him. Stripped of everything he has attained, he stands face to face with God who is putting him to the test.

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quote 2768  |   Martin Buber Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.72

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Q uestion: In the Sayings of the Fathers we read: "Who is wise? He who learns from all men, as it is said, 'From all my teachers I have gotten understanding."' Then why does it not say: "He who learns from every teacher"? Answer: The master who pronounced this dictum is intent on making it clear that we can learn not only from those whose occupation is to teach but from every man. Even from a person who is ignorant, or from one who is wicked, you can gain understanding as to how to conduct your life. "You can learn from everything," the rabbi of Sadagora once said to his hasidim. "Everything can teach us something, and not only everything God has created. What man has made has also something to teach us." "What can we learn from a train?" one hasid asked dubiously. "That because of one second one can miss everything." "And from the telegraph?" "That every word is counted and charged." "And the telephone?" "That what we say here is heard there."

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quote 2763  |   Martin Buber Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.65

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L ife and death, and existence and non-existence are one.

quote 2240  |   Tchuang Tzu Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

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H ow can you find delight and mirth Where there is burning without end? In deepest darkness you are wrapped! Why do you not seek for the light? I look at this puppet here, well rigged, A heap of many sores, piled up, Diseased, and full of greediness, Unstable, and impermanent! Devoured by old age is this frame, A prey to sickness, weak and frail; To pieces breaks this putrid body, All life must truly end in death.

temple_buddhist

quote 2115  |   Buddha Sakyamuni Khuddaka Nikaya, Dhammapada, 146-48

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