While I am connected to many religions and spiritual paths, hence starting an interfaith ministry that celebrates all, and seeks to find the similarities and not the differences, because through those things that are similar, we are tied together and have a base of understanding, no matter what path we follow. Below are but a few quotes, symbols, and ideas. I invite you to find similarities with your own spiritual path. Research it. Study it. Open your arms and your heart to all that is, and then love. Only love. Begin with beginner's mind...
ZEN BUDDHISM
"For Zen students the most important thing is not to be dualistic. Our 'original mind' includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. You should not lose your self-sufficient state of mind. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few."
Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
"Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning "circle" and a concept strongly associated with Zen. Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character. It symbolizes enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an "expression of the moment" it is often considered a form of expressionist art.
In Zen Buddhist painting, ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create. The brushed ink of the circle is usually done on silk or rice paper in one movement (but the great Bankei used two strokes sometimes) and there is no possibility of modification: it shows the expressive movement of the spirit at that time. Zen Buddhists "believe that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally and spiritually complete can draw a true ensō. Some artists will practice drawing an ensō daily, as a kind of spiritual exercise."
Audrey Yoshiko; Loori, John Daido. Enso: Zen Circles of Enlightenment
NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY
"Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop.
From Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life
Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
As told through John G. Neihardt,
"Flaming Rainbow"
THE CELTIC CROSS
Associated with Christianity,
Catholicism, Pagan and
Wiccan faiths...
The Celtic cross is widely used as Christian symbol, but as we can tell from its name, the cross has a history stretching further back than Christianity. For example, its four arms are interpreted as the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), the four directions of the compass (north, south, east, west) or the four parts of man (mind, soul, heart, body), in various cultures and traditions.
The Celtic cross is said to have derived from the Chi Rho symbol, as popularised by the Roman emperor, Constantine. "Chi" and "Rho" are the first letters of the word "Christ" in the Greek alphabet, and when these letters are interlinked, they appear similar to the cross at the centre of a Celtic cross.
But where does the cross's distinctive circle come from? The truth is, no one is sure, but among ancient races, circles were used to represent the moon and a cross and circle conjoined symbolised the sun. So, it's likely that the Celtic cross was originally a Pagan sun or moon representation, later used by the Romans in order to try to convert the Pagans of Britain to Christianity. According to Irish legend, St Patrick created the cross by drawing a circle around a Latin cross to represent the Pagan moon goddess. But to Irish Catholics, the circle can represent Christ's halo, or as eternity and the endlessness of God's love.
More often than not, the pentagram is enclosed within a circle, although this is not always the case. Upright pentagrams are drawn in the air as part of the ritual practice within a Wiccan magickal circle. This is done precisely, and with will and purpose. The point at which one begins the drawing of the pentagram has meaning in correspondence to the elements, or to whether one is banishing or invoking." Source: The Celtic Cross
Found at: Nature of Spirit
Click symbol for source of image and
information on Sacred Geometry...
And when two circles join we have perhaps
the most powerful symbol of all...
THE VESICA PISCIS
(To read a fascinating, multifaceted explanation of
the many meanings of the Vesica Piscis, go to this site.)
One of my favorite passages about the
Vesica Piscis, from a book I cherish so much I quickly bought a second copy when I couldn't find my first, and now I have two, and I have reread this book countless times and am about to read it again. Every midlife woman should read this...
"
Vesica Piscis means 'the vessel of the fish' in Latin. The basic design is made by overlapping the edges of two circles of equal size, the circumference of each of which passes through the center of the other, which creates an almond shape (a mandorla) or pointed oval between them.
When the two circle are one above the other, the shape between them becomes the outline of the body of a fish, which was a symbol of Christ, an easily drawn symbol that early Christians used to identify themselves to one another. It is said that using the fish as a Christian symbol was that the Greek symbol for fish, ichthys, can be an acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God. However, before it became a Christian symbol, the
vesica piscis was a universal symbol of the Mother Goddess, the almond shaped mandorla representing an outline of her vulva, through which all life came. To Barbara Walker in
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, this was unequivocally so."
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.
Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Pilgrimmage
As an interfaith minister, it is my duty, my obligation, and my deepest journey in this life to study religions and spiritual paths around the world, to look for the sameness, to celebrate the union between all faiths that, like the Vesica Piscis interlap each other. I come to this study with the open heart and mind of a child, with Beginner's Mind, and I see circles everywhere. I feel their impact and their grace. And I continue on, under the sun and the moon, those great circles in the sky, to continue my vision quest, my search for the Holy Grail, and in my case that is everything that people have found in their cultures to connect them to the holiest of the holy, and to each other. It is this kind of connection that we need more than ever today. In our diversity we should seek our connectedness. It is the most sacred ground we might tread upon to find our way back to each other...
On my knees I bow until my forehead touches the earth. In the Holy Earth I will find you...
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