Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the Soul.
Nicolas MalebrancheRead
You will not dishonor the divine perfections by judgments unworthy of them, provided you never judge of Him by yourself, provided you do not ascribe to the Creator the imperfections and limitations of created beings.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that one should not judge the divine based on human imperfections and limitations.
In this quote, Nicolas Malebranche emphasizes the importance of perceiving divine perfection without projecting human flaws onto it. He warns against evaluating the Creator through the lens of human experiences and shortcomings, promoting an understanding that the divine operates beyond human comprehension and limitation.
In practice
In a philosophical discussion about the nature of God and human perception, this quote can highlight the distinction between human and divine qualities.
Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the Soul.
Our soul is not united to our body in the ordinary sense of these terms. It is immediately and directly united to God alone.
As our bodies live upon the earth and find sustenance in the fruits which it produces, so our minds feed on the same truths as the intelligible and immutable substance of the divine Word contains.
Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to create.
. . . persist in that invocation until the unity of the world is subsumed for you in a single sphere, so that with the eye of your heart you will see naught in the two worlds save the One.
We are biological creatures. We are born, we live, we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason, and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear, we find courage in the face of helplessness, insignificance and uncertainty.
If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed.
It's more impressive," I said out loud. "From a distance, I mean. You can't see the wear on things, you know? You can't see the rust or the weeds or the paint cracking. You see the place as someone once imagined it.
One who not merely beholds the outward shows of things, but catches a glimpse of the soul that looks out of them, whose garment and revelation they are-if he be such, I say, he will stand, for more than a moment, speechless with something akin to that which made the morning stars sing together.
We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount.
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