ONE

Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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The Religions
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1		"There is one underground river – but there are many wells into that river: an African well, a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a Goddess well, a Christian well, and aboriginal wells. Many wells but one river." One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from World Faiths (Matthew Fox)

2		"Deep ecumenism is about shared heart work; it is the coming together of spiritual practioners to do heart work together no matter what our particular religious backgrounds." Wrestling with the Prophets, Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life (Matthew Fox)

3		"Teach us to respect the essence of all religions, and lead us to the One Ultimate Reality." Japanese prayer In Silence: Why We Pray (Donald Spoto, Ph.D.)

4		"The Founders of the great religions are members of the one Brotherhood." The Ancient Wisdom (Annie Besant)

5		"Each partner is a light for the other and enables him/her to see better the depths of his/her own tradition. The religion of the partner is like a sounding board in which one's own terms and symbols acquire new over- or undertones." The Unity of Reality (Michael vonBruck)

6		"All religions have forms of mysticism which emphasize direct awareness of and communion with the sacred. Hindu samadhi and Zen satori, Jewish devekut and Christian unio mystico, all describe intense consciousness of ultimate reality's underlying unity and goodness." Spiritual Genius, The Mastery of Life's Meaning (Winifred Gallagher)

7		"The similarity of reported mystical experiences around the world and through time was one body of evidence that led William James to conclude that spirituality is basically one thing; that the plurality of the world's religions are only different manifestations of the same religion, different staircases, variously carved and polished, that all lead to the same place. Religions are many – mysticism is one." Saints and Madmen: Psychiatry Opens its Doors to Religion (Russell Shorto)

8		"Whether or not a particular religion is our personal path, its core mystical teachings apply to everyone." The Gift of Change, Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life (Marianne Williamson)

9		"Living synthesis is found and expressed in the images, symbols, myths and allegories of all the world religions." Divine Light and Fire, Experiencing Esoteric Christianity (Peter Roche deCoppens)

10		"The principles of inner development are basically no different now than they were in the days of Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Shankara, or Confucious. These great masters offer similar messages that have not become less essential for people in the modern world. These principles stretch beyond time and change." Oneness: Great Principles Shared By All Religions (Jeffrey Moses)

11		"Repeat, repeat, repeat the wisdom of the ages, until it has melted into your subconscious." Tomorrow's God, Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (Neale Donald Walsch)

12		"Respecting the diversity of all religions need not obscure the underlying unity." The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightenment (Amit Goswami, Ph.D.)

13		"The fact that there is a religious movement upon which many brilliant minds have worked over a period of many centuries is sufficient reason for at least venturing a serious attempt to bring such processes within the realm of scientific understanding." Collected Works (Carl Jung)

14		"There is remarkable agreement found among mystics of widely varying religious traditions." Mysticism and Ecumenism (Robley Edward Whitson)

15		"On the surface, the various religions might appear to offer very different teachings about the nature of reality and the means toward achieving salvation or liberation. But once one begins to pare away cultural trappings and the additions and corrections imposed by later commentators and translators, a basic teaching begins to emerge which is common to them: we are, at our cores, united." The Global Brain, Speculations on the Evolutionary Leap to Planetary Consciousness (Peter Russell)

16		"The poets, prophets, and visionaries of untold millenniums – Dante, Aquinas, and Augustine, al-Ghazali and Mohammed, Zarathustra, Shankaracharya, Nagarjuna, and T'ai Tsung, were not bad scientists making misstatements about the weather, or neurotics reading dreams into the stars, but masters of the human spirit teaching a wisdom of death and life. And the thesaurus of the myth-motifs was their vocabulary. They brooded on the state and way of man, and through their broodings came to wisdom; then teaching with the aid of the picture-language of myth, they worked changes on the patterns of their inherited iconographies." The Flight of the Wild Gander (Joseph Campbell)

17		"Lines converging from the base of a pyramid start from infinite points of diversity. The nearer the apex the closer they come to one another until at the summit they reach the point of unity. So it is that religions at the base exhibit irreconcilable differences and conflicts. But as they approach sight of the spiritual light of their origin, they, like converging lines within a pyramid, draw closer to one another until the supernal vision of the apex submerges all differences in unity." The Cosmic Womb, An Interpretation of Man's Relationship to the Infinite (Arthur W. Osborn)

18		"All that is auspicious, blessed, and beautiful is inherent in every human individual, like a great towering tree with its spreading branches, height, fruits, foliage, and flower is inherent in a tiny little seed. This message is the central content of the teachings of all the prophets, the messiahs, the messengers of God that have come and taught from time to time in different parts of the world." His Holiness Sri Swami Chidananda Saraswati, 'Love' A Parliament of Souls, In Search of Global Spirituality (Michael Tobias, Jane Morrison, Bettina Gray, editors)

19		"Religion is universal and it is one. We cannot possibly universalize particular customs and conventions; but the common element in religion can be universalized." Autobiography of a Yogi (Paramahansa Yogananda)

20		"Open your soul to the wisdom and truth in all traditions." Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul (Caroline Myss)

21		"Whether they are Syrian, Greek, Egyptian or Hindu, the writers of the sacred books seem to me as men who had all gazed upon the same august vision and reported of the same divinity." George W. Russell (1867-1935), Irish author, 'The Candle of Vision' Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery (Cranston/Head, editors)

22		"Religious evolution through the ages has been practically One thing – there has been in fact a World-religion, though with various phases and branches." The Origins of Pagan and Christian Beliefs (Edward Carpenter)

23		"Within the most fundamental aspects of the world which is affected by the presence of religion, a holy feminine presence will be heard as a gentle but important voice." Nostradamus Nostradamus: Prophecies for Women (Manuela Dunn Muscetti & Peter Lorie)

24		"All the tools have been given you….in all the esoteric writings and sacred teachings of your global civilization." Tomorrow's God, Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge (Neale Donald Walsch)

25		"The motive power of any vital religion is the divine love." Behold the Spirit, A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion (Alan Watts)

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite