All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flames are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one.
Blog
The Divine Light of a Lowly Farmer Boy
Ann invited me to write a guest post for her blog, Enlightenment is for Everyone: Exploring Potential From Every Angle. I did so, writing of Joseph Smith's First Vision experience from a mystical awakening universal divine grace perspective, using the various firsthand and secondhand accounts. My blog post is titled "The Divine Light of a Lowly Farmer Boy." You may read it on Ann's blog.
i thank You God for most this amazing
i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes
The Inner Light of Crystalline Clarity
The Kena Upanishad says that the Self 'shines through the mind and senses,' which is a poetic way of saying that it is the power of the Self which allows the mind and senses to function. So the eternally conscious Self is what makes us conscious. Essentially, it is light.
The Influx of the Divine Mind into our Mind
We distinguish the announcements of the soul, its manifestations of its own nature, by the term Revelation. These are always attended by the emotion of the sublime. For this communication is an influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is an ebb of the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life.
The Soaring Flight of our Mind's Divine Communion
Bibles may convey, and priests expound, but it is exclusively for the noiseless operation of one's isolated Self, to enter the pure ether of veneration, reach the divine levels, and commune with the unutterable.
Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey
that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened:—that serene and blessed mood, In which the affections gently lead us on,— Until, the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul: While with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things.
Norris Stearns "First Vision" Account
This is an account written by Norris Stearns of Greenfield, Massachusetts, published in 1815, five years before Joseph Smith's First Vision experience, in a pamphlet titled The Religious Experience Of Norris Stearns Written by Divine Command. The 35 page pamphlet can be read in its entirety online at this link. Here is an excerpt of part of his vision.
Richard Rohr on Discovering our True Self
We are not what we think we are. This self that we believe ourselves to be everyday, that goes to work, eats lunch, spends time in a hobby, chats with friends, and all else, is a false self.
Seeing Ourselves Between Saturn's Rings
NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which will soon be ending its mission, recently sent a photograph back to Earth that is quite awe-inspiring. It is an image of us, of the Earth, framed between Saturn's rings. We are the dot in the center of the photograph. Behold! Like the famous "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, this image shows [...]