The true mystic is always both humble and compassionate, for she knows that she does not know.
Interpretation
True mystics possess humility and compassion due to their awareness of the limits of their knowledge.
This quote emphasizes the essence of a mystic's character, which is rooted in humility and compassion. Understanding that true knowledge is unending leads the mystic to approach life with an open heart, fostering empathy towards others while recognizing their own limitations in understanding the vast mysteries of existence.
In practice
In a meditation group, during discussions about spirituality and the nature of knowledge.
My scientist friends have come up with things like 'principles of uncertainty' and dark holes. They're willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories. But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of 'faith'! How strange that the very word 'faith' has come to mean its exact opposite.
The gift of darkness draws you to know God’s presence beyond what thought, imagination, or sensory feeling can comprehend.
I cannot illustrate huge differences between male and female spiritualities except in their starting points, style and fascinations along the way. This is significant, however, and has huge pastoral implications: men must be challenged in the world of doing; women must be challenged in the world of relating.
Much of the Christian religion has largely become “holding on” instead of letting go. But God, it seems to me, does the holding on (to us!), and we must learn the letting go (of everything else).
We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.
I've had the good fortune of teaching and preaching across much of the globe, while also struggling to make sense of my experience in my own tiny world.
It was like the first time i saw a cadaver. For weeks afterward the cadavers head, or what was left of it - floated up behind my eggs and bacon at breakfast and in the face of Buddy Willard, who was responsible for my seeing it in the first place, and pretty soon I felt as though I were carrying that cadavers head around with me on a string, like some black, noseless balloon stinking of vinegar.
We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Every morning you put on your clothes to cover your nakedness and protect your body from inclement weather. Why don't you also clothe your soul with the garment of faith? Remember each morning the truths of your creed, and look at yourself in the mirror of your faith. Otherwise, your soul will soon be naked with the nakedness of oblivion.
I have no influence with the rising generation. All my arguments have failed to induce them to set bounds to their wants.
The impressions of the spriritual experiences gave my future life its form and content.
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