The Purpose of Life

I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible,
to be honorable, to be compassionate.
It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something,
to have made some difference that you lived at all.
Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) American Writer

Ecclesiastic Tyranny

Of all plagues with which mankind is cursed,
ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.
-Daniel Defoe,
novelist and journalist (1659?-1731)

The fundamental delusion of humanity

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose
that I am here and you are out there.
-Yasutani Roshi, Zen master (1885-1973)

Morality and Religion

The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.
-Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer (1917-2008)

Making Allowances

It is a severe Rebuke upon us,
that God makes us so many Allowances,
and we make so few to our Neighbor:
As if Charity had nothing to do with Religion;
Or Love with Faith, that ought to work by it.
~ William Penn

A Way of Life - Not a Declaration

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.
~ Thomas Jefferson

God is Good

If you're killing someone in the name of God —
you're missing the message.

~ Nick Annis in the preface to God is Good.

All Faith is false, all Faith is true:

All Faith is false, all Faith is true:
Truth is the shattered mirror strewen
In myriad bits; while each believes
his little bit the whole to own.
~ Richard Francis Burton

Where God Dwells

"Nirvana is something within you.
It is not an external reality.
No god thunders down from the mountaintop.

Just as the great mystics in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths all discovered,
God is within the self.
God is virtually inseparable from ourselves."

Just Enough Religion

We have just enough religion to make us hate,
but not enough to make us love one another.
~ Jonathan Swift

To Worship is to Love

I never knew how to worship until i knew how to love.
~ Henry Ward Beeche

If God loves me only half as much as my mother does

All I know is that if God loves me only half as much as my mother does,
he will not send me to Hell.
That is a final fact of my inner consciousness,
and for no religion could I deny its truth.
~ Lin Yutang

Man is a religious animal

Man is the religious animal.
He is the only religious animal.
He is the only animal that has the True Religion -— several of them.
He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself
and then cuts his neighbor's throat, if his theology isn't straight.
He has made a graveyard of the globe
while trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.
~ Mark Twain

WHEN YOU TOUCH ONE THING

WHEN YOU TOUCH ONE THING
with deep awareness,
you touch everything.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh,
from "Touching Peace"

A Person Will Worship Something

“A Person Will Worship Something”
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

A person will worship something-have no doubt about that.
We may think our tribute is paid in secret
in the dark recesses of our hearts-
but it will out.

That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts
will determine our lives, and character.
Therefore, it behoves us to be careful what we worship,
for what we are worshipping we are becoming.