When the Sun moves Northward – The Way of Initiation (A Quest Miniature)
By Mabel Collins (1851-1927).
160 Pages | First Quest Edition 1987, A Quest Miniature | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 9780835606141.
Dutch translation: Als de Zon Noordwaards Gaat | Published in 2004 | Uitgeverij Gabriël | ISBN 9080501735.
Mabel Collins, author of The Light On the Path, explores the link between the mystic recurrence of the Earth’s cycles of birth, death and rebirth with the seasonal regeneration of our own spiritual nature. Her meditative prose beautifully evokes the time-less sense of cosmic renewal and the consequent growth of consciousness that has its germination deep within those reflective months of quietude when the sun moves northward.
” I am often asked about the question of Time in regard to the great Ceremonies which take place at midnight when the spirits of men are most completely released from their bodies during the recurrent periods of light and darkness on the earth. Midnight means the deepest depth of the darkness: it has no connection with the arbitrary hours. Therefore, in time there is necessarily a difference according to what places on earth the disciples are dwelling in: and, as time does not exist except as an arbitrary temporary convenience, once outside the body man loses the sense of it. ” – Mabel Collins (1923).
From Chapter VII (p. 86):
” Now comes the awful test of obedience. The moment of decision, which arrive to the man, and to the disciple, as a climax to a series of events, these come within the domain and power of mankind. There are other far more awful moments when the hand of a supreme power interferes in the affairs of men, and when the man, even though he be a disciple, is helpless. There are decisions made in a court above us all, from which there is no appeal, which are carried out inexorably. Then there is no decision to be made by the man himself; he can only rebel or obey. The religious man calls this supreme power which gives, and takes away, God: occultists see it in the working of the law of Karma. Be it what it may, if the man rebels against it, the disciple may not. “
Gifts of the Lotus – A Book of Daily Meditations (Quest Miniature Series)
By Virginia Hanson.
191 Pages | 1974, fourth printing 1988 – A Quest Miniature | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835604500.
Here are 366 Meditations – one for each day of the year. Each from the heart of a spiritually oriented philosopher, from Plato to Emerson to Sri Aurobindo to a host of theosophical students and scholars. Inside of this miniature Quest book is a complete philosophy for living: quiet, short, engaging thoughts, each alive with the spirit of being. In truth, this is not a book to be studied. It is a book to be carried in the pocket or purse. It is a book to be treasured.
From page 41:
” 25. A doctrine of ‘Truth’, presenting itself without proof on the bare value of its own nobility, is as disturbing a factor to the majority of men as would be the stranger without name or country. We are afraid of it; it is to us an invasion from an unknown world. And such it is; it is an invasion from another world, from the only real world, the world of Reality . . . “
Trust yourself to life
133 pages | paperback | TPH Adyar, 1994
Clara Codd has long been a popular theosophical writer. She writes with an eloquence and spontaneous naturalness about the most profound aspects of living. In this gentle little book she tells how she feels about God and man, death and life, and love – both human and Divine.
The Natural Man – A Thoreau Anthology (A Quest Miniature)
119 pages | Paperback | Quest Books, 1988
This Quest Miniature presents a lively selection of Thoreau’s writings, topically arranged.
Popular quotes:
Page 1 – I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.
Page 5 – If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Page 7 – I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
More Details Page 8 – Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations. Page 8 – Some are dinning in our ears that we Americans, and moderns generally, are intellectual dwarfs compared with the ancients, or even the Elizabethan men. But what is that to the purpose ? A living dog is better than a dead lion. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can ? Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Page 31 – In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost ; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. Page 50 – I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society. Page 52 – At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
The Hymn of Jesus (A Quest Miniature)
By George Robert Stowe Mead (1863 – 1931).
75 Pages | First published in 1907, Quest book edition 1973 | Paperback | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835604322.
According to Mead the translator of this beautiful Hymn of Jezus, there is strong reason to presume that this work is a very early Christian Mystery ritual. Perhaps the oldest Christian ritual preserved to us.
G.R.S. Mead was a renowned British scholar and a recognized authority on Christian origins and Gnostic and Hermetic literature. He died in 1933, but his works are still widely read. In his commentary on this Hymn in ritual form he has offered and interpretation of its inner, spiritual meaning.
” If then, we have before us not a Hymn, but the remains of a mystery-ritual, there must have been two people in the circle. One of them was the Master, the Initiator. Who was the other? Manifestly, the one to be initiated. Now the ultimate end of all Gnosis was the at-one-ment or union of little man with the Great Man, of the human Soul with the Divine Soul… “
Fragments – From the World of C. Jinarājadāsa (A Quest Miniature)
By Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (1875–1953).
62 Pages | Published in 1980 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835605337.
Carefully culled from the writings of Brother ‘Raj’, here is a gathering together of his reflections on many aspects of life. The keynote is ‘inspiration’ and within this little book you will find the true Wisdom and Beauty, that can flow from the intuïtion of a deeply spiritual man. Brother ‘Raj’ provides a rich and sublime literary mosaic to a variety of universally appealing topics as he comments upon art, beauty, children, mysticism, love, liberation, reïncarnation, truth, unity, wisdom, and the Elder Brothers of Humanity.
Mr. Jinarājadāsa was the International President of the Theosophical Society from 1946 until 1953. Author of many books including The New Humanity of Intuition, How We Remember Our Past Lives and Art As Will and Idea, his intense enthusiasm for life, for the arts, and for theosophy, is strongly reflected in these Fragments of Wisdom.
The Sage from Concord – The Essence of Ralph Waldo Emerson (A Quest Miniature)
Compiled by V. Hanson and C. Pedersen.
127 Pages | First Quest printing 1985, 2nd printing 1987 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835605930.
In a spiritual sense one might describe the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson as that of a nineteenth century ‘Voice of America’. Contained within his writings one will find almost incomparable insights into the nature of America, of America’s people and their destiny.
Emerson’s essays are based on his sensitivity to the fundamental fellowship of all that lives. The 301 excerpts in this book have been culled from the author’s best-known works including The Oversoul, Compensation, Fate, Friendship, Nature, Heroism and Self-Reliance. Here then is The Sage from Concord at his transcendental best – a selected digest of his philosophy particularly suitable for today’s seeker, who must ‘read as he/she runs‘.
Terminus (p. 127):
” As the bird trims her to the gale
I trim myself to the storm of time
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
‘Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed’. “
Freedom through the Balisier (A Quest Miniature)
By Cyril H. Boynes.
113 Pages | First edition 1984 – A Quest Miniature | Softcover| Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835605841.
‘I go to prepare a place for you… that where I AM, there you may be also…’
The colorful balisier is indigenous to Trinidad. The fiery plant has taken on deep mystical overtones for many of the natives, because of its unusual characteristics. It represents a symbol of life’s conflicts and eventual victory over our temporal nature. It might be said, it represents eternity itself, because of its almost indestructable nature. Because of the snake, that makes the balisier its home, it represents the dangers we encounter in our search for Truth. All this and more is brought to light in this Quest Miniature booklet. A native of Trinidad, points to many symbolic correspondences between the balisier and Christianity in an ecumenical sense.
From Chapter 3 – ‘A Symbol for a full Heart (p. 31 & 32):
” I decided to take Emerson’s concept splitting a word and watching it bleed to study this silence that flows into our stilled Souls. So I broke the word ‘silence’ and watched it bleed:
S = See | I = Into | L = Life | E = Every | N = New | C = Creative | E = Experience.
That means to me that in silence we can look at life in a new way and see in every experience a newly created thing flowing out from God. Seeing this new creation, our hearts, which are the dwelling place of God, can both appreciate and participate in the creation of new experiences. This is what our natural Self yearns to do. “
From the Outer Court to the Inner Sanctum (A Quest Miniature)
By Annie Besant (1847 – 1933)
158 Pages | 1983 | Paperback | Quest Books, Wheaton | ISBN: 9780835605748
Spirituality never ages. This little volume contains lectures held in 1895, but which are as relevant today as then, if not more so. A Temple on a Mountain top is described. It is encircled by courts, quite similar to the concentric courtyards (prakāram) of a Hindu temple. Aspirants are climbing up the ‘Mountain of Evolution’ and waiting in the enclosure outside the Temple – ‘The Outer Court’. None are in the Outer Court save those who have definitely dedicated themselves to service. Much has to be accomplished in the Outer Court, classified by the author as purification, thought control, character building, spiritual alchemy and ‘On the Threshold’. These are to be practised simultaneously, sincerely and continuously.
The Song Celestial – A Poetic Version of the Bhagavad Gītā (A Quest Miniature)
By Sir Edwin Lester Arnold (1832 – 1904).
154 Pages | First edition 1970, Quest Miniature Series 1975 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835604187.
The incomparable religious classic of India . . .
In exquisite poetic allegory, Sir Edwin Lester Arnold translates the revered and sacred story of Arjuna and Krishna, representing the eternal struggle between the personality and the Immortal Self.
” Take my last word. My utmost meaning have! Precious thou art to Me; right well-be-loved! Listen! I tell thee for thy comfort this. Give Me thy heart! Adore Me! Serve Me! Cling in faith and love and reverence to Me! So shalt thou come to Me! I promise true, For thou art sweet to Me! “
Bezig met bijwerken…