Teachings
about the experience of divine guidance can be
found in the religious tracts, aphorisms, sayings
and sacred poems of the world's spiritual
traditions, and in the personal writings of the numerous
individuals from many walks of life who have
claimed to have had these experiences.
Here
is a small sampling of this wealth of information
on the human endeavor to seek, receive, and follow
guidance from a perceived divine source.
Ask, and
it will be given
you; seek, and
you will find;
knock, and the door will
be opened to
you.
For
everyone who
asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus
(Matthew 7:7-8)
Not
only the
thirsty seek the
water,
but the
water seeks the
thirsty as
well.
Jalal
al-Din Rumi
It is not in heaven that
you would say: "Who can go to heaven for us and bring it back so we can hear and
do?" Neither is it beyond the
sea, that you would say:
"Who will go over
water for us, and bring it back?" ....But the voice of
God is so near to you. It is in your own
heart and in your own
mouth, for you to receive and
act on it.
Deuteronomy 30:12-14
The Tao gives
birth to all beings...nourishes them,
maintains them,
cares for them, comforts them,
protects them,
takes them back
to itself,
creating
without possessing,
acting
without expecting,
guiding
without interfering.
Lao-tzu (Tao Te Ching, 51)
I am blind and do not
see the things of this
world; but when the light comes from above, it enlightens my
heart and I can see, for the Eye of my
heart sees everything; and through this
vision I can help my
people. The heart is a
sanctuary at the center of
which there is a little
space, wherein the Great Spirit
dwells, and this is the
Eye. This is the Eye of the Great
Spirit by which He sees all
things, and through which we see
Him. If the heart is not
pure, the Great Spirit cannot
be seen.
Wallace Black Elk
God acts
within every moment
and creates the world
with each breath.
He speaks from
the center of the universe,
in the silence
beyond all thought.
Mightier than
the crash of a thunderstorm, mightier than
the roar of the sea,
is God's voice
silently speaking
in the depths of
the listening heart.
Psalm 93
You who see me
in everything and everything within me will not be lost to me,
nor will I ever be lost to you.
Bhagavad-Gita 6:30
Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God...what is good
and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
Humans
are the most intelligent of beings, yet they
change their attitudes in various unequal ways,
because the real director is not present. If
people would get the sense of the real director,
then they would not be guided by the subjective
psyche, but would spontaneously be on the Way.
Taoist master Fu-kuei-tzu
(Cleary)
Hear
counsel, and receive instruction, That thou may be
wise in the rest of thy life. There are many
devices in thy heart; but the counsel of the Lord,
that shall stand.
Proverbs
19:20-21
Without
an escort you are bewildered on a familiar road;
do not travel alone on a way you have not seen at
all; do not turn your head away from the Guide.
Jalal
al-Din Rumi
Beloved,
do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God; for many false
prophets have gone out into this world.
John
4:1
That which is
Selfless,
hard it is to see;
Not easy is it
to perceive the Truth.
But who has ended craving utterly and
has naught to cling to,
he alone can see.
Buddhist Udana (80)
Meditate
upon my counsels; love them; follow them; To
the divine virtues will they know how to lead
thee. I swear it by the One who in our hearts
engraved the sacred Tetrad, symbol immense and
pure, Source of Nature and model of the Divine.
Pythagoras (The Golden Verses)
Meditate
on the Guide, the Giver of all, the Primordial
Poet, smaller than an atom, unthinkable, brilliant
as the sun.
Bhagavad-Gita
8:9 (Mitchell)
What is the
purpose,
do you suppose,
of these inspirations--or, more correctly, of these aspirations--
which I have described,
and of these messages
which are sent
by the soul from its innermost centre
to the folk outside
the Castle
and to the Mansions
which are outside
that in which
it is itself dwelling?
Is it to send them to sleep? No, no, no.
St. Teresa of Avila
I am
well aware that many will say that no one can
possibly speak with spirits and angels so long as
he lives in the body; and many will say that it is
all a phantasy, others that I relate such things
in order to gain credence, and others will make
other objections. But by all this I am not
deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have
felt.
Emanual Swedenborg
The
perfect knowledge of
causes cannot be acquired without divine
inspiration; since all prophetic inspiration
derives its first motive principle from God the
creator.
Nostradamus
It
is Love calling to love; and the journey, though in one sense a hard
pilgrimage, up and out, by the terraced moment and the ten heavens to God,
in another is the inevitable rush of the roving comet
caught
at last, to the central sun....Like gravitation,
it
inevitably compels...every spirit to its own place.
Evelyn Underhill
We
and God have business with each other; and in
opening ourselves to His influence, our deepest
destiny is fulfilled. The universe, as those parts
of it which our personal being constitutes, takes
a turn genuinely for the worse or for the better
in proportion as each of us fulfills or evades
God's demands.
William
James
Help is always given
to the human being;
we are always surrounded
by the help of God.
The question is
to realize it...
Irina Tweedie
Nature
is an unlimited broadcasting station, through which
God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune
in.
George Washington Carver
Now,
beside God's laws, which are the same for all of us,
there is also God's guidance and that is unique for
every human soul. If you don't know what God's
guidance for your life is, you might try seeking in
receptive silence. I used to walk receptive and
silent amidst the beauties of nature. Wonderful
insights would come to me which I then put into
practice in my life...to me, the beauties of nature
were always the most inspiring, and so actually that
was my time alone with God. It didn't last more than
an hour, if that, and I got so much from it.
Peace Pilgrim
Truth
lies within ourselves; it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you
may believe. There is an inmost center in us all, where truth abides in
fullness and to know rather consists in opening out a way whence the
imprisoned splendor may escape than in effecting entry for light supposed to
be without.
Robert
Browning
It
is in that inner peace and stillness that things begin to happen, and it was
in that peace and stillness that I began to hear God's voice. . . . All can
hear that still, small voice within. Try it. Be still and know that the I AM
within you is God, the Beloved. Listen-then live by it. It really does work.
Eileen
Caddy, Co-Founder of Findhorn
How
does man live? Whichever way he may live, we need to remember that he is
also lived by an authority or a power for which there are many names. And,
above all, we must remember one thing, namely that whichever way man lives,
he follows, whether he knows it or not, an inner commission that points
beyond him.
Jean Gebser
I
cannot doubt the existence of a guidance, which I dare to call divine, which
can so invade one's soul as to set one's feet on wholly untried and
unexpected paths.
Joan
Mary Fry
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