Abu Sa’id Ibn Abi’l-Khayer

I like this reading and especially the part about the souls. “Four thousand years before God created these bodies, he created the souls.” I haven’t every heard this before but it is interesting to think about it that way. Giving people a deeper connection of brotherhood before this body. That when we were without bodies we were connected and friends. We are all still connected even though we now live apart. Thinking in this manner can give a deeper connection to you and other people around the world a common love for god therefore for each other. We should all speak well of each other, we must show the same face to all, to bring joy to a single heart is better than to build many shrines of worship. I liked this example of brotherhood and how regardless of our differences we are all the same and we all need to show compassion to everyone.

Huang Po

So I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out these readings about the “Original Mind” “pure mind” and getting rid of conceptual thought the whole time reading and getting more confused about how that is done. You can’t think about it or seek it or even know it. It is all extremely confusing for me and it is starting to get repetitive. Although, I really enjoyed the analogy of the warrior looking for his pearl and that simple thing helped me figure some of this out. He could look everywhere forever and not find it because it is on his own forehead, which he cannot see. “But if someone simply pointed it out to him he would immediately realize that the pearl had been there all the time” That put the search for enlightenment that way it seems to make more sense to me, or at list as much as it can for me. I was wondering if we need someone else to show us or if it could be known without some one showing you.
I also enjoyed the part about your true nature and how it is never lost, even if you are in moments of delusion. It can never die and it shines through the universe. I liked that thought so its there even if I don’t understand it and live in a more permanent delusional life. “It does exist, but in a way too marvelous for us to see”

Albert Einstein

I know that we all grew up learning that Albert Einstein was a brilliant man, but I think this was the first time that I every got to experience his great mind through my own reading. This was great. I really liked they way that he explained that when you are no longer awed by this universe you might as well be dead. Its true that even with as much as science has taught us there are still so many things that just blow you away with amazement. And I love the mystery of things. That is one of my favorite parts about being a parent is watching my children be completely amazed with things that have become so normal to me that I forget how amazing they are, things like why trees grow or the fantastic way that flowers blow in the wind, my daughter spent an hour today picking up and looking at different kinds of rocks, she really studied everything about them how they felt, the sound they made when she dropped them, their size, shape and weight. Watching my children experience these things for the first time reminds me to appreciate this amazing world and remember the existence of the mystical, those things that I am usually too busy to notice. I also liked they way that he gave us our task and I think that I will try to live like that more “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings of nature.” It seems like a simpler task to expand our circle of compassion instead of saying we need to be liberated from ourselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Although there was quite a bit of this reading that I didn’t understand (at least to the extent that he meant it) I really enjoyed it. The part were he said that man postpones or remembers; he does not live in the present was another good reminder for me. Especially now with everything that is going on and I have this feeling of complete overwhelm its good to sit back relax and enjoy today with out thinking about the things you have to do tomorrow or the mistakes we made yesterday. Really enjoy today and LIVE. It’s hard to do. “There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.” I don’t agree completely that we should forget about history or past. I think that it is helpful to the soul to learn from history and from ancestors, to learn about their mistakes, and their accomplishments. I agree that we should not live in shame or be afraid to say “I think” or “I am”. I think that our history shapes who we are but it doesn’t have to be a trap that means that is who we have to be. If we use our past and our history to really enjoy this life history is good. I also think that we need to live mindful of the future, not only ours but the future of this earth and of our children.
I also got a lot out of the sentence: “Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure which concealed it.” I have never really thought about cause and effect this way or about the laws of nature for that matter. I have always had knowledge of “what goes around comes around” but never really thought of it that way. I really like the way he put that.

The Hermetic Writings

This reading was different. I don’t think that it common for people to say in order to know god you must make yourself equal to god. I think that most religions focus on how god is greater than, the almighty, and the creator of everything, and we are just human. How can you be expected to become equal to God. Is he saying that you can’t really know god because as a human we can’t make ourselves equal to god. We can’t (most of us humans anyway) Realize that nothing is impossible, or that we too are immortal, understand that we are everywhere. It would be great if we could just realize that and become everything and be equal to God. But if we are all equal to god than is there a God? Lots to think about in this reading. Then it changes to say that the path to god is an easy road to travel. Realizing that I am death and life at the same time doesn’t sound easy to me. Maybe I am just tiered. I did like how he said “he will appear to you everywhere at times and places when you don’t expect it, for there is nothing in which god does not exist” “God made all things so that through all things you can see him.”

Maximus of Tyre

I enjoyed this short reading. It was specific and to the point. What I got out of this reading is that it shouldn’t matter what or how people are inspired by god. Or what they use to remind them of god's existence whether they use art or idols or pictures it really doesn't matter. Because god is unnamable and there is no way to describe him people need a description they need a visual to have in their head when praying and worshiping some way to focus their energy to god. So they will fashion one. Weather it is in their mind or out of gold. It all to the benefit of reminding them of god and giving them something to picture. I got the impression that Maximus was telling people that it didn’t matter to what idol or inspiration people gave their worship that it was all for the same god, “the father and fashioner of all that is, older than the sun or the sky, greater than time and eternity and all the flow of being.”
“I have no anger for their divergences. Only let them know, let them love, let them remember.” You can’t tell someone how to believe, how to worship or how to have faith. They may do it your way but is it much more powerful and meaningful when they really believe it and it comes from inside that person.

Rumi
There were many parts of this reading that I enjoyed and agreed with and I enjoyed this one very much.
The first passage about talking to the embryo and trying to explain the beautiful world to someone who hasn’t experienced it. I think this is a great way of looking at people in all situations that you can talk about something as much as you want and tray to explain it to someone but it is difficult or sometimes impossible for them to picture it until they themselves have experienced it. They think you are crazy and you think they are blind. You are both just seeing and experiencing things from different view points.

The second part that I enjoyed is the part were Moses told the Shepard that they way that he was praying to God was wrong and God told Moses that it didn’t matter how someone talked or prayed to God that there was no wrong way to pray that God looks deeper than the words and inside the person for the humility and all he hears is praise. What a great thought that the way we pray can’t be wrong it is the right way if we believe it. “The Love Religion has no doctrine. Only God”
I also really enjoyed the part about beauty. “It is not the form of Laila that I love. Laila is not in the form. You are looking at the cup, whereas I think only of the wine I drink form that cup. Passion is present when a man can distinguish between the wine and the container.” This is one of the most beautiful passages about looking for the inner beauty in someone that I have every read. How great it would be if we could all see the wine and not the container.