Christian spirituality & World Faiths spirituality
There are several pages on our site that feature content related to Christian mysticism and spirituality, and World Faiths mysticism and spirituality.We have decided to attempt to present a brief Comparative Religion course based on the commonalities of spirituality and mysticism to be found across all the major World Religions.
Some truly extra-ordinary wisdoms ~ a brief selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" gleaned from Christian sources closely followed by another brief selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from World Faiths spirituality sources now follow:
A selection of "Central Spiritual Insights" ~
gleaned from Christian sources
These Christian quotations have been selected based on their inherent Spiritual Impact, (rather than whether they might be deemed to be
Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox), and come from The King James Bible and from the 'Of the Imitation
of Christ'; a fifteenth century devotional work that has long been the second most widely read Christian book after The Bible itself.
- A Disdain for Materialism
-
Some have Me in their mouths, but little in their
hearts.
There are others who, being enlightened in their understanding and purified in their affection, always breathe after things eternal, are unwilling to hear of earthly things, and grieve to be subject to the necessities of nature; and such as these perceive what the Spirit of Truth speaketh in them.
For it teacheth them to despise the things of the earth and to love heavenly things; to disregard the world, and all the day and night to aspire after heaven.
Thomas a Kempis - Of the Imitation of Christ Book 3 Ch. 4 v. 4 - A Distrust of Intellect
- This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles
walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the
life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
St. Paul - Spiritual Insights are possible!
- It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared
for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
of God.
...the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
St. Paul - Charity
- Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
St. John - Purity of Heart
- Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my
presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things
without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke ...
St. Paul - Humility
- Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even
Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whomsoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that
shall humble himself shall be exalted.
Jesus - Meekness
- Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, and slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God.
St. James
"Central Spiritual Insights" ~
drawn from "non-Christian" World Faiths sources
- A Disdain for Materialism
- Chuang Tzu put on cotton clothes with patches in them, and
arranging his girdle and tying on his shoes,
(i.e. to keep them from falling off),
went to see the prince of Wei.
"How miserable you look, Sir!" Cried the prince. "It is poverty, not misery", replied Chuang Tzu. "A man who has TAO cannot be miserable. Ragged clothes and old boots make poverty, not misery".
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism) - A Distrust of Intellect
- Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment; Cleverness is mere
opinion, bewilderment intuition.
Rumi - (Islam) - Spiritual Insights are possible!
- The intelligence of the mean man does not rise beyond bribes and letters of
recommendation. His mind is beclouded with trivialities. Yet he would penetrate the
mystery of TAO and of creation, and rise to participation in the ONE. The result is
that he is confounded by time and space; and that trammelled by objective existences,
that he fails apprehension of that age before anything was.
But the perfect man, - he carries his mind back to the period before the beginning.
Content to rest in the oblivion of nowhere, passing away like flowing water, he is
merged in the clear depths of the infinite.
Chuang Tzu - (Taoism) - Charity
- He that does everything for Me, whose supreme object I am, who
worships Me, being free from attachment and without hatred to any
creature, this man, Arjuna!, comes to Me.
Bhagavad Gita 11:55 ~ (Hinduism)
And my soul is absorbed
In the Love of My Lord.
Bow humbly to the saint
That is a pious act.
Bow to the ground before him
That is devotion, indeed.
The faithless know not,
The joy of the love of the Lord;
From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das - (Sikhism) - Purity of Heart
- The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as
darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Solomon - (Judaism) - Humility
- Would you become a pilgrim on the road of love? The first
condition is that you make yourself humble as dust and ashes.
Ansari of Herat - (Islam) - Meekness
- Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good;
let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth!
Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked
for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Dhammapada - (Buddhism)
The World Religions & their spirituality and mysticism
Commonalities as to spirituality and mysticism teachings between Christianity and the other major World Religions are perhaps surprisingly
extensive.
We hope that a demonstration of said extensive commonality will be able to be seen by our visitors as constituting something of a brief
Comparative Religion course.
The following linked pages are intended to more fully demonstrate the degree of
Common Ground between the Inner-most Spiritual Teachings of several major World Religions on Charity, Purity of
Heart, Humility, Meekness, A Disdain for Materialism
(compared to the Spiritual), A Distrust of the Intellect (compared to Divine Inspiration) and A Thirst for Spiritual Enlightenment.
These quotations are presented on a series of very brief pages where each faith is considered individually.
We have
seen it as worthwhile to add
another category of quotation ~ where recognition has been given "by the wise and holy of several faiths" to the possibility of Mystical Communion with God ~ as this
addition may rather directly tend the range of agreement from Comparative Religion studies about "Core Spiritual Truths" already demonstrated
towards actually becoming real evidence
of the existence of "Spiritually Discernible" aspects to the one God or Spirit which is central to Mystical
Faith.
Alongside our efforts to demonstrate extensive profundities in Christian spirituality we also have great respect for the spiritualities that exist at the
cores of the Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh, Taoist and Vedic-Hindu faiths and have laid out the above table of links in a manner consistent
with our aspiration towards promoting a mutually respectful co-existence of The Great Faiths of the World.