This is how all people will know that you are of Me—if you Love each other.
Tag: love
Rabindranath Tagore’s “First Vision” Account
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali author, poet, essayist, playwright, novelist, composer, and painter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so. He recounted the following experience that he had while in Calcutta, India.
Thomas Merton’s “First Vision” Account
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Catholic writer, theologian, Trappist monk, and mystic. The following is from his book New Seeds of Contemplation, describing his experiences in contemplation...
Clark Heinrich’s “First Vision” Account
I shared this account in my introductory paper about mysticism, but I think it should be shared as a stand-alone post as well. This is because it is so stunningly similar in many respects to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision.
AA Co-Founder Bill Wilson’s “First Vision” Account
Bill Wilson, the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), had a spiritual awakening that involved bright light, sometimes referred to as his “hot flash” or “white light transformation.”
St. Augustine's "First Vision" Account
And being admonished by these books to return into myself, I entered into my inward soul, guided by thee... And I entered, and with the eye of my soul—such as it was—saw above the same eye of my soul and above my mind the Immutable Light.
Oceanic Light "First Vision" Account
Meditation begins as most do. I feel as if I am a small stone sinking into an ocean of filtered light. The light seems to be coming from all directions. I slow, almost pause, at certain levels before my specific gravity increases again, and I sink deeper into this ocean of consciousness—no real experience of having entered this ocean—just being there and going deeper and deeper. It is beyond peaceful, beyond serene.
The Greatest Commandments are One
How did Jesus say we are to love ourself? How could we know how to love our neighbor unless we first knew how we are to love ourself? It seems Jesus was referring back to something he previously said, so that we could love our neighbor likewise.
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
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.