When I read (as distinct from skimming) a book I put a line in the margin against anything which grabs my attention – and a double line for ideas which I must ponder again and again.

Here are my double-lined markings in Tom Butler-Brown’s 50 Spiritual Classics.

But first, a disclaimer: I’m impressed with St. Paul’s market-place dialogue with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in Athens (Acts 17): although he disagreed with many of their presuppositions he was willing to quote their poets when he agreed with them. I believe strongly that our Christian apologetic should follow a similar pattern. On this point I diverge from the stance of most of my fundamentalist friends, who somehow feel contaminated if they read or think about something alien to their conservative understanding of the Christian faith. If we are in dialogue with folks from a postmodern/ new age/ secular / whatever culture we ought to be familiar with what they’re reading/thinking, and give credit to whatever wisdom we find, without necessarily agreeing with all they believe. Richard Rohr quotes Aquinas with approval: ‘He does not ask where it came from, but if it is true: “If it is true, it is of the Holy Spirit”.’

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* In ‘The Way of the Peaceful Warrior’, the Dan character makes a great discovery: ‘There are no ordinary moments!’

* There is a Persian proverb: ‘Seek truth in meditation, not in moldy books. Look at the sky to find the moon, not in the pond’

* Asad [a convert from Judaism to Islam!] was not blind to the intellectual and material decay in many Muslim societies, which had led them to become scientific and economic backwaters

* If we could see that the nature of the universe is love, and that we are all part of an undying conscious life-force, we can no longer experience fear or doubt (Bucke)

* Physics and spirituality are two sides of the same coin (The Tao of Physics)

* The old man tells him (Castaneda) to constantly be aware of death lurking behind him. If he has this awareness, he will live differently

* Blessed is the one expecting nothing, for that one shall enjoy everything (G K Chesterton)

* The straight tree is the first to be chopped down; the well of sweet water is the first to run dry (the Grand Duke Jen to Confucius)

* Chuang Tzu’s idea of the perfect person is someone who does not try to be their own source of light for the world: they act as a clean channel of that light whenever and wherever it is appropriate for it to shine

* Agrippinus is said to have remarked: ‘I am not a hindrance to myself’

* [Gurdjieff] told his son to cultivate a space within his mind that was always free, and to develop an attitude of indifference to everything that normally disgusts or repels others

* Just by existing we have a debt to repay, and we do so by being fully alive in each moment, not worried about past or future (Hammarskjold)

* Things perish within time; time itself does not change. We should not speak of the flow or passage of time but of the flow or passage of space through time… Jews celebrate the Sabbath on a Saturday, Christians on a Sunday, and Muslims make Friday special, which suggests a basic human need to regain a still mind on a regular basis, to have time for meditation or contemplation even as the world continues to rush on (Heschel)

* Aldous Huxley died in 1963, on the same day as C. S. Lewis and President John F. Kennedy

* Jung: ‘collective unconscious’ – a larger human mind of which every individual is a part; ‘synchronicity’ – the occurrence of seemingly meaningful coincidences that go beyond the realms of normal probability

* Malcolm X’s father was brutally murdered by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group

* ‘Strive to see supernal light, for I have brought you into a vast ocean. Be careful! Strive to see, yet escape drowning’ (Isaac of Akkor)

* Neither is there a hell in which people suffer interminably. Instead, some souls who have done bad things in life are separated from the main spirit world for a time of solitary reflection (Michael Newton)

* Loosen up, and see what is special in ordinariness (John O’Donohue)

* Offer a donkey a salad, and he will ask you what kind of thistle it is (Sufi teacher Abdull-Azziz)

* Angels understand eternity to mean an infinite state, not an infinite time (Swedenborg)

* Prayer is not for getting things, but for drawing closer to God and his will… Pray, even when you don’t think it is effective… There is a time for penance, and a time for partridge (Teresa of Avila)

* The poverty of the West is not only a poverty of loneliness, but also of spirituality (Mother Teresa)

* We are addicted to thinking. By getting us to think all the time the ego gives us a sense of identity. Yet continual thinking prevents us from simply enjoying the moment… When we are in love, the other person makes us feel whole, but the downside is a growing addictiveness to this individual and the horror of any possibility of losing them (Eckhart Tolle)

* For thousands of years people have disbelieved the promises of God for the most extraordinary reason: they were too good to be true (Neale Donald Walsch)

* God specializes in giving people a fresh start (Rick Warren)

* The soul’s natural inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the breath from on high (Simone Weil)

* The ‘transpersonal’ is an awareness of the universe unclouded by the ego or the normal self… Human development is a successive decrease in egocentrism (a world in which each mindset turns on the other to win) (Ken Wilber)

* He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom (Yogananda)

* If we are to achieve authentic power, aligning our personality with our soul must be the main concern of our life… To someone ruled by their five senses, intuitions are not really considered ‘knowledge’ and so are disregarded, treated as curiosities… For intuitions to be received, we have to clear our mind of mental toxins in the form of unexpressed emotions: only through the emotions can you encounter the force-field of your own soul… We chase fame, money, and position because we feel a lack of power inside, but without soul knowledge real power will always elude us (Gary Zukav)

Rowland Croucher

November 2005

Tom Butler-Bowdon, 50 Spiritual Classics (2005). Available from OpenBook – http://www.openbook.com.au/