The air of the day surrounds us like spring . . .

"We may not know whether our understanding is correct, or whether our sentiments are noble, but the air of the day surrounds us like spring which spreads over the land without our aid or notice."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel,
"The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man"

Photo: Pasqueflowers backlit with Vedauwoo Rocks in the background, Medicine Bow National Forest, WY, April 13, 2015

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity that grows with the ability to say '"no" to oneself.

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline, the sense of dignity that grows with the ability to say 'no' to oneself."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

Photo: Elderberry, Crater Lake, and Lone Eagle Peak, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO; August 25, 2012

The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it.

"To think of God is not to find Him as an object of our minds, but to find ourselves in Him . . . , a perception of our being perceived.  The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated with it; not to know but to be known to Him, to expose ourselves to Him rather than Him to us."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

Photo: Moss-covered Pacific Silver Fir trunks in the fog, Mount Rainier National Park, WA; July 23, 2012

To Know God is Actually to Know Ourselves Penetrated with His Knowledge of Us

 

"To think of God is not to find Him as an object of our minds, but to find ourselves in Him, a perception of our being perceived.  The task is not to know the unknown but to be penetrated by it; not to know but to be known to Him, to expose ourselves to Him rather than Him to us."

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

"We know God insofar as we become aware of ourselves as known through and through by him. We 'possess' him in proportion as we realize ourselves to be possessed by him in the inmost depths of our being.  The aim of meditation is not to arrive at an objective and apparently 'scientific' knowledge about God, but to come to know him through the realization that our very being is penetrated with his knowledge and love for us."

Thomas Merton

Photo: Nokhu Crags in last light, Never Summer Range, January 6, 2012

"Dignity grows with the ability to say 'no' to oneself."

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself."

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

"What America needs . . . is one great healthy ability to say 'No.'  To rest a minute and realize that many of the things being sought are unnecessary to a happy life.  We are suffering in our cities, from a need of simple things."

Carl Gustav Jung

Photo: Juniper berries with sandstone monolith.  Needles District, Canyonlands National Park, UT, November 27, 2011