Sunday, January 17, 2010

Drinking the words of the wise

The righteous and pure of heart do not complain about evil, but rather add justice.
They do not complain about doubt, rather they add faith.
They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom. ”

Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, First Chief Rabbi of The State of Israel, The Mists of Purity, p39


"It doesn't really matter what proportion of your pain body belongs to your nation or race and what proportion is personal. In either case you can only go beyond it by taking responsibility for your inner state right now. Even if blame seems more than justified, as long as you blame others, you keep feeding the pain body with your thought and remain trapped in your ego. There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim-identity dissolves, and your true power emerges - the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.

Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, p159



If not NOW, when?

Hillel, Talmudic Sage, Ethics of the Fathers, in the Babylonian Talmud



“There is a person who sings the song of his soul. He finds everything, his complete spiritual satisfaction, within his soul.

There is a person who sings the song of the nation. He steps forward from his private soul, which he finds narrow and uncivilized. He yearns for the heights. He clings with a sensitive love to the entirety of the Jewish collective and sings its song. He shares in its pains, is joyful in its hopes, speaks with exalted and pure thoughts regarding its past and its future, investigates its inner spiritual nature with love and a wise heart.

There is a person whose soul is so broad that it expands beyond the border of Israel. It sings the song of humanity. This soul constantly grows broader with the exalted totality of humanity and its glorious image. He yearns for humanity’s general enlightenment. He looks forward to its supernal perfection. From this source of life, he draws all of his thoughts and insights, his ideals and visions.

And there is a person who rises even higher until he unites with all existence, with all creatures, and with all worlds. And with all of them, he sings. This is the person who, engaged in the Chapter of Song every day, is assured that he is a child of the World-to-Come.

And there is a person who rises with all these songs together in one ensemble so that they all give forth their voices, they all sing their songs sweetly, each supplies its fellow with fullness and life: the voice of happiness and joy, the voice of rejoicing and tunefulness, the voice of merriment and the voice of holiness.

The song of the soul, the song of the nation, the song of humanity, the song of the world–they all mix together with this person at every moment and at all times.

And this simplicity in its fullness rises to become a song of holiness, the song of God, the song that is simple, doubled, tripled, quadrupled, the song of songs of Solomon–of the king who is characterized by completeness andTranslated peace.”

Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, The Lights of Holiness II, p. 444,

No comments: