God

The Cultivation of Equanimity

A lotus flower in a pond, a symbold for buddhism and equanimity

If we wish to attain what the Buddhists call nirvana and what the Hindus call moksha—the state in which we transcend our personal identity and become enlightened, it is said that we should engage in certain practices. Both Buddhists and Hinduism’s Patanjali cite eight categories of these, which include truthful…

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I’ve always been interested in the story of Jacob wrestling with God (although in this picture it’s an angel), because it’s so rich in symbolism. Interpretations of the incident meander across the three Abrahamic religions, and range from one extreme to the other. Here are some: It is metaphorical: Jacob…

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The God-infused Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

A painting of Rainer Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke’s God-infused Poetry speaks of our yearning for completeness Today’s entry is about Rainer Rilke’s poetry, which is spiritual, often close to mystical, and whose poems, translated and collated in Rilke’s Book of Hours, Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows sprang from what he described as “inner dictations”. Within…

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