Inter- Faiths Dialogue

The Absolute > God

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T here are no divine scriptures, no world, no imperative religious practices;
There are no gods, no classes or races of men,
No stages of life, no superior or inferior;
There's nothing but Brahman, the supreme Reality.

temple_hindu

quote 3722 | The Avadhuta Gita
#34, Reprinted from Abhayananda, S., Dattatreya: The Song Of The Avadhut, Olympia, Wash., Atma Books, 1992

H e is neither number nor order; nor greatness nor smallness; nor equality nor inequality; nor similarity nor dissimilarity; neither is He still, nor moving, nor at rest; neither has He power nor is power, nor is light; neither does He live nor is He life; neither is He essence, nor eternity nor time; nor is He subject to intelligible contact; nor is He science nor truth, nor a king, nor wisdom; neither one nor oneness, nor godhead nor goodness; nor is He spirit according to our understanding, nor a son, nor a father; nor anything else known to us or to any other of the beings or creatures that are or are not; ... (1)

... He suffers no change, corruption, division, privation or flux; none of these things can either be identified with or attributed to Him. (2)

church

quote 3674 | Dionysius the Areopagite
(1) Mystical Theology, V.; Editors of The Shrine Of Wisdom, 1965; P. 16 ; (2) Mystical Theology, IV.; Editors of The Shrine Of Wisdom, 1965; P. 15

T AT: Is God then in matter, 0 father?

HERMES: Where could matter be placed if it existed apart from God [who is infinite]? Would it not be but a confused mass, unless it were ordered? And if it is ordered, by whom is it ordered? The energies which operate in it are parts of God. Whether you speak of matter or bodies or substance, know that all these are the energy of God, of the God who is all. In the All there is nothing which is not God. Adore this teaching, my child, and hold it sacred.

church

quote 3653 | The Corpus Hermetica
Poimander, 1.12, based on translation by Yates, F., 1964, pp. 33-34

T he world, too, is a god, image of a greater God. United to Him and performing the order and will of the Father, it is the totality of life. There is nothing in it, through all the duration of the cyclic return willed by the Father, which is not alive. The Father has willed that the world should be living so long as it keeps its cohesion; hence the world is necessarily God.

church

quote 3651 | The Corpus Hermetica
Poimander, 1.12, based on translation by Yates, F., 1964, pp. 33-34

I am hidden by My veil of Maya, and the deluded people of the world do not know Me, the Beginningless, the Eternal. ... But the man of vision and I are one. His Self is Myself, and I am his sole trust.

At the end of many lives the man of vision comes to Me. "God is all," this great man declares. But how rarely is such a man found!

temple_hindu

quote 3609 | The Bhagavat Gita
7:25 and 7:18-19; based on Mascaro, Juan, 1962

H e cannot be seen by the eye, and words cannot reveal Him. He cannot be realized by the senses, or by austerity or the performance of rituals. By the grace of wisdom and purity of mind, He can be seen in the silence of contemplation.

temple_hindu

quote 3592 | The Upanishads
Mundaka Upanishad, III,1; based on Mascaro, Juan, 1965

I am the one Lord; there is no other beside Me. I form the light and create the darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the one Lord, do all these things.

synagogue

quote 3589 | The Nevi'im
Second Isaiah: 45:4-7

A ll this is He-what has been and what shall be. He is the Lord of immortality. Though He has become all this, in reality He is not all this. For truly, He is beyond the world. The whole series of universes-past, present, and future-express His glory and power; but He transcends His own glory. All beings of the universe form, as it were, only a portion of His being; the greater part is invisible and unchangeable. He who is beyond all predicates appears as the relative universe; He appears as all sentient and insentient beings.

temple_hindu

quote 3585 | The Rig Veda
x.90.1-5

T hey call Him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, or Agni, or Garutmat, the heavenly bird.
Reality (Sat) is one; learned men call It by various names, such as Agni, Yama, or Matarisvan.

temple_hindu

quote 3578 | The Rig Veda
I.164.46

I f I say that "God exists", this is also not true. He is being beyond being: he is a nothingness beyond being. Therefore St. Augustine says: "The finest thing that we can say of God is to be silent concerning him from the wisdom of inner riches." Be silent therefore, and do not chatter about God, for by chattering about him, you tell lies and commit a sin. If you wish to be perfect and without sin, then do not prattle about God. Also you should not wish to understand anything about God, for God is beyond all understanding. A master says: If I had a God that I could understand, I would not regard him as God. If you understand anything about him, then he is not in it, and by understanding something of him, you fall into ignorance…

church

quote 3525 | Meister Eckhart
Selected Writings. Trans. Oliver Davies. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994, pp. 236-7

T here is the essence of God and there are the attributes of God. The essence is impossible for us to understand. We can begin to understand the attributes. In fact, part of a Sufi education is to understand those attributes in yourself. God has said, "My servants will find Me as they see Me." This does not mean if you think of God as a tree or as a mountain that God will be that tree or mountain. If you think of God as merciful, or loving, or as angry or vengeful, that is how you will find God.

mosque

quote 3494 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Love is the Wine edited by Dr. Robert Frager.

I n a vision I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else. And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable. And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: "This world is pregnant with God!" Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation -- that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else -- but the power of God fills it all to overflowing.

church

quote 3441 | Angela of Foligno
Complete Works. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1993, pp. 169-170

H ow then was {the Word} everywhere before making the world and, when He had made it, how was He shining in it without the world comprehending Him? (cf Jn 1:1-15). Pay careful attention: God "Who is everywhere present and fills all things" was not, Scripture says, separated from it by location when He created this sensible world, but by the nature of the glory of His divinity, it being evident that nothing created approached or comprehended Him at all. Indeed, being inseparable from all He is as clearly in all.

church

quote 3411 | Saint Symeon the New Theologian
On the Mystical Life : The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996,(Vol. 1), p. 155

G od, the cause of all, is One… That One is not such as are visible things. Rather, He transcends incomparably and inalterably all the visible world…

church

quote 3410 | Saint Symeon the New Theologian
On the Mystical Life : The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1996, (Vol. 1), p. 122

T here is no gainsaying what the fathers have so well affirmed, that a man does not find rest except by acquiring inwardly the thought that God and he alone exist; and so he does not let his intellect wander at all towards anything whatsoever, but longs only for Him, cleaving to Him alone. Such a man will find true rest and freedom from the tyranny of the passions. My soul, as David says, is bound to Thee; Thy right hand has upheld me (Ps. 63:8. LXX).

church

quote 3389 | The Philokalia
St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic in A Century of Spiritual Texts: ("Philokalia (Vol. 2)", p. ?)

B e on your guard against the tricks of the demons. While you are praying purely and calmly, sometimes they suddenly bring before you some strange and alien form, making you imagine in your conceit that the Deity is there. They are trying to persuade you that the object suddenly disclosed to you is the Deity, whereas the Deity does not possess quantity and form.

church

quote 3370 | Saint Evagrios the Solitary
On Prayer: ("Philokalia (Vol. 1)", p. 63, text 68)

A nd He is with you wherever you are … (Koran 57:4)
Commentary: … The companionship expressed by "with" is that of the Being and the non-being, for there is no Being other than Allah…

If Allah -- May He be exalted! -- was not, by His very Essence, which is the Being of all that is, "with" the creatures, we could not attribute being to any of these createres and they could not be perceived either by the senses, by the imagination, or by the intellect. It is their 'being with' which assures to creatres a relation with Being. Better yet, it is their being itself. This 'being with' embraces all things, whether they are sublime or lowly, great or small. It is through it that they subsist. He is the pure Being by which 'that which is' is. The 'being with' of Allah consists therefore in the fact that He is with us through His essence; that is, through that which we call the divine Self (huwiyya), universally present …

Indications of this divine 'being with' are contained in the following verses:

And He is witness of all things (Koran 34:47)
And Allah, behind them, encompasses them (Koran 85:20)
Wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah (Koran 2:116)

mosque

quote 3258 | Abd el-Kader
Kitab al-Mawaqif 132, pp. 86-89,in The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995

A llah is in Himself the non-being and the being, the inexistent and the existent. He is at the same time that which we designate by absolute non-being and by absolute being; or by relative non-being and relative being… All these designation come back to God alone, for there is nothing which we can perceive, know, write or say which is not Him.

mosque

quote 3257 | Abd el-Kader
Kitab al-Mawaqif 287, p. 85,in The Spiritual Writings of 'Abd al-Kader. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995

I n the Vedas creation is likened to the spider's web. The spider brings the web out of itself and then remains in it. God is the container of the universe and also what is contained in it.

temple_hindu

quote 3171 | Ramakrishna
Mahendranath Gupta. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Trans. Swami Nikhilananda. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942, 1948, 1958, p. 194

A s Consciousness, (God) pervades the entire universe of the living and the non-living.

temple_hindu

quote 3170 | Ramakrishna
Mahendranath Gupta. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Trans. Swami Nikhilananda. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942, 1948, 1958, p. 272

T hink of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water is frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the Sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his I any more.

temple_hindu

quote 3168 | Ramakrishna
Mahendranath Gupta. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Trans. Swami Nikhilananda. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1942, 1948, 1958, p. 209

B rahman is more spotless than the sky.
It is formless and vast.
It extends above all heavens.
It exists beyond all worlds.
It occupies the smallest part of the universe.
It is quite near to us and yet it is hidden.
We live in it and yet we do not know it.

Wherever you cast your glance,
it is before you.
You in fact see within it.
It is both inside and outside.
Where we feel it is not,
it immediately manifests itself
Whatever object we take in hand
it is nearer to us than that.

Ramdasa says,
Only one who has had the spiritual experience
can know this secret.

.

temple_hindu

quote 3111 | Ramdasa
Ranade, R. D. Mysticism in India. Albany, NY SUMY Press, 1983, pp. 390-392, 395, 410, 412-413, 4 15

B rahman is before all things.
It fills the whole universe.
Nothing compares to its purity.
In all the heavens, in the celestial worlds, from the far reaches of the earth, it fills every nook and cranny.
It fills all this space at once.
It touches all and abides in all.
It cannot be soiled by clay.
It cannot be carried away by flood.
Simultaneously, it is before us and behind us.
Simultaneously, it is to our right and to our left.
Simultaneously, it is above and below.

As soon as we begin to be aware of it, we forget it.
But as soon as we forget it, it comes within the ken of our consciousness …

When we try to realize it, it cannot be realized.
When we try to leave it, it cannot be left.
We are connected with Brahman forever, and nothing can break this connection.

temple_hindu

quote 3110 | Ramdasa
Ranade, R. D. Mysticism in India. Albany, NY SUMY Press, 1983, pp. 390-392, 395, 410, 412-413, 4 15.

G od and Love are as body and soul.
God is the mine, Love is the diamond.
They have been together
since the beginning …
in every beat of every heart.

mosque

quote 3064 | Jami
Nicholson, R. H. The Mystics of Islam. New York: Shocken Books, 1975, p. 81.

A ll through eternity God unveils
His exquisite form.
In the solitude of nothingness
He holds a mirror to
His own Face and beholds
His own beauty.
He is the knower and the known, the seer and the seen;
No eye but
His own has ever looked upon this Universe.

mosque

quote 3063 | Jami
Nicholson, R. H. The Mystics of Islam. New York: Shocken Books, 1975, p. 81.

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