Topics — Spirituality and Faith

"No one is truly ever gone, since all of us and our connections began at the Big Bang, the explosion of oneness into oneness, and have never come to an end."

— David Richo

Everything Ablaze: Meditating on the Mystical Vision of Teilhard de Chardin

"With spiritual awareness, everyone’s wholeness matters."

— David Richo

Wholeness and Holiness

"Nothing changes till it becomes what it is."

— Fritz Perls

As cited in Homecoming

"Once something appears before you, ask yourself what is happening inside you and around you—what you are in the midst of experiencing."

— Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len

As cited in The Book of Ho’oponopono

"If psychologists and psychiatrists would be in dialogue with the insights of St. John of the Cross and those who experience the dark nights, there could be a marvelous symbiosis of treatment. We are not sick just because of some physiological pathology. It is not just a question of sin either; it is a question of the human condition, for which none of us is initially responsible but, on becoming adults, we are now called to be responsible."

— Father Thomas Keating

The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

"As we attune with the heart, our approach to life reverses. Instead of feeling empty, agitated, and disconnected, we discover an inner fullness, peace, and sense of seamlessness."

— John J. Prendergast

The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence

"Thank God for what doesn’t need healing."

— Joan Z. Borysenko

Gratitude: A Way of Life

"By surrendering to love, by surrendering to God, we can go through each day acknowledging one another with gratitude."

— Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D., and Diane V. Cirincione

Gratitude: A Way of Life

"The garden is a spiritual place where the mind dwells."

— Shunmyo Masuno

Zen Garden Design

"Nature is always moving and transforming, and Japanese gardens express this quality through the use of plants and trees that move with the wind and change over the seasons."

Zen Garden Design

"To submit to the divine therapy is something we owe to ourselves and the rest of humanity."

— Thomas Keating

The Human Condition

"Contemplative prayer is a deepening of faith that moves beyond thoughts and concepts. One just listens to God, open and receptive to the divine presence in one’s inmost being as its source. One listens not with a view to hearing something, but with a view to becoming aware of the obstacles to one’s friendship with God."

— Thomas Keating

The Human Condition

"When we are not thinking, analyzing, or planning and place ourselves in the presence of God in faith, we open ourselves to the contents of the unconscious."

— Thomas Keating

The Human Condition

"A soulful person trusts his intuitions and other forms of inner guidance, knowing that a stronger sense of self abides there."

— Thomas Moore

Care of the Soul

"To be yourself, you have to learn how to become who you were dreamed to be."

— John O’Donohue

To Bless the Space Between Us

"Something rather than nothing — that is a dividing line between those who believe in God and those who do not."

— Philip Brownell

Gestalt Therapy: Advances in Theory and Practice

"While psychotherapy and spiritual practice may both incorporate reflection and presence, the home base of therapy is reflection and the home base of spirituality is presence."

— John Welwood

Reflection and Presence: The Dialectic of Awakening

"Psychotherapy generally fails when it does not help individuals to discover the place within or without (depending upon the individual’s belief system) where they can go to connect with the spiritual truth."

— Margaret Paul, PhD

Inner Bonding

"Mystics in many spiritual traditions see suffering as necessary, essential, the only means toward closeness to God or to existential transcendence. Yet in our medicalized world, normal bereavement and trauma are turned into mental disorders with diagnostic codes, which then become treatable with medications. But if grief is a disease, so too must be love."

— Dr. Joanne Cacciatore

Bearing the Unbearable

"The Serenity Prayer… is a succinct and meaningful way of talking about acceptance and willingness when addressing difficult life circumstances."

— Jill A. Stoddard, PhD and Niloofar Afari, PhD

The Big Book of ACT Metaphors

"While traditional spiritual cultures of the East have specialized in illuminating the… “heaven” side of human nature — Western psychology has focused on the earthly half… We need a new vision that embraces all…. domains of human existence…."

— John Welwood

Toward a Psychology of Awakening

"Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence. Not only can trauma be healed, but with appropriate guidance and support, it can be transformative. Trauma has the potential to be one of the most significant forces for psychological, social, and spiritual awakening and evolution."

— Peter Levine

Waking the Tiger

"People first awaken to a spiritual dimension in their lives in an incredible variety of ways. Some people seem to open up to it through traumatic experiences… Other people awaken through meditation or through religious experiences. Others arrive at it through sex or through drugs."

— Ram Dass

Polishing the Mirror

"It’s an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative . . . the love of God operating in the human heart."

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

As cited in: Be Love Now

"The heart area is central to human experience. It is where we feel most affected and touched, both emotionally and spiritually. Our sense of meaning springs from the heart, as does our sense of oneness or communion with the whole of life."

— John J. Prendergast

The Deep Heart

"We all have a sacred calling that has very little to do with what we accomplish in this world. It is the calling of the sacred – the quiet pull of an implicit wholeness within each of us that awaits our conscious recognition."

— John J. Prendergast

The Deep Heart

"Amongst all of the existential angst of modern life there is a blossoming of spirit arising within the collective psyche of humanity."

— Adyashanti

The Deep Heart

"When you know the answer you won’t ask the question."

— Unknown Zen Master

Alan Watts, Psychotherapy East & West

"Even though no word can capture the boundless mystery of what you are, some people use the word awareness; some people use the word consciousness; some people use the word presence, spirit, god, space, emptiness, source, life . . . but in the end, the language we use really doesn’t matter, and can just become yet another distraction. You exist before language, concepts, dreams, conclusions — be- fore even the most beautiful and spiritual words like awakening, enlightenment, and love."

— Jeff Foster

The Self-Acceptance Project

"It is not feelings that are the problem, but what we do with them that matters. The freedom to deal with them and to confront them with reason and faith is what makes us fully human."

— Thomas Keating

The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation

"This is the wisdom of anxiety: the call to turn inward so that you can fill your well and turn back outward to give to a world that needs you."

— Sheryl Paul

The Wisdom of Anxiety