Life is a gift we did not ask for. That is the condition of a pure gift — no Infinite Debt, no Big Benefactor in the sky, no choirs of courtiers singing eternal hosannas to the emperor, no rewards and punishments. Just a gift, without why.
Hoping Against Hope
John D. Caputo
Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest mystics, said that he prays to God to rid him of God, to make him free from God. That is a memorable formulation of a mystical atheism and of radical theology.
The God Eckhart is trying to free us from is a God of our own construction, a God cut to fit the size of our images and concepts, propositions and arguments, not just the God of philosophers but also the God of theologians, of anything and anything we can say of God. But getting rid of that God does not spell the simple end of God for Eckhart, but the beginning, the genuine entry or breakthrough into the depths of God — the God to whom Eckhart is praying, let us say the God beyond God, the God without God. This God is not beyond and above, but in the “ground” of the soul, where God is lodged in our hearts or minds.
The Folly of God
John Caputo
Adversity comes to us unbidden — it doesn’t matter whether or not we’re following a spiritual path. We have the choice of how we respond to adversity. Ann Landers summed it up in these words:
“If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, ‘I will be bigger than you, you cannot defeat me.'”
The Power of Self-Confidence
Brian Tracy
Enlightenment is a symptom of growth: and growth is a living process which has no rest.
Mysticism: Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Evelyn Underhill
Happiness is a condition. It is not something that is achieved by pursuing it directly, but rather comes as a result of our engaging in purposeful activities.
Aristotle
Who Knows Anyhow? 