Kui-Shan

I liked the way this passage described what a zen master is like. I thought the analogy to a clam, implying that whenever he speaks, you hear nothing but his insides and what he is. There are no hidden motives, no concern with petty or serious things, only life. Only the present and the good that can be seen in it.

I think it is a very attainable goal to reach the state of detachement from all worldly things to the point where just the world itself around you pleases you, regardless of other circumstances. I think this would be a great way of life and I would love to experience it or at least talk to people who live this way. I also think it is interesting the way he implies that a zen master does not care to be a zen master since he has lost all desire and identity, he simply is.

Isaac of Ninevah

I think some very good points are brought up in this passage. I like how the author says "one plus one equals one". I think this is very true in our everyday lives and something that most people often don't realize. When you experience joy or happiness or something good, it is purely the opposite of that which you have experienced in the past which makes the present feeling so good.

"Sunny days wouldn't be special if it wasn't for rain, joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain"

I also like the points brought up about how someone who truly has faith and trust in God does not see the bad as being negative, nor see the good as being positive. It only is. And without one, the other doesn't exist, thus a true believer in God's will never wishes he had more joy, nor wishes he had less pain, he simply accepts what it is and learns to appreciate and deal with every part of it, in the comfort of the fact that they are both necessary, no matter which he is being dealt at the time.

Symeon the new theologian

This reading had some good analogies and descriptions of what knowing and seeing God is like. I really liked the analogy of how some people accept the vision of God and see God as a real thing that is everywhere around them, like someone seeing water when stepping into a pool or a lake. But for the people who are fully submerged in water, all there is is water, and this is how it is for believers who are fully submerged in the vision of God. Everything around them is God, they can't even see anything else, and so nothing else matters.

Al-Muhasibi

I felt this passage did a good job describing and depicting what it is like for someone who truly is under the will of God and who truly sees him for all his greatness without needed to physically see him. It essentially is the heart of a true believer which al-muhasibi is describing here. I can identify with the line "so that it (the mind) is no longer concerned with this world and what is in it". This is exactly how I feel alot of the time...as though nothing here will ever satisfy me or make me truly content, so nothing here really matters in the end. People are so concerned with material things, with possessions, with accomplishments, etc, but what will they have when they die? Nothing but their soul and the memories they left in the people they touched while they were here. It doesn't really matter what your job is, your status, your popularity, your wealth...none of it is important, simply things that entertain your mind while you are here, distracting you from the good and purposeful things you could be doing with your life and time here on earth.

Albert Einstein

In this passage, several good points are made. He explains how those who cannot be struck with awe and amazement at something 'mystical' or inexplicable are 'as good as dead'. People who believe that science can and will explain everything, and that there is nothing left permanently beyond human understanding are truly blinded by their own egotistical arrogance. Man is humbled every day by the universe, by miracles, by life, by God. We become so concerned with ourselves that we dismiss these things as things that we can explain and understand through science and with our own minds, when the reality is that there are some things we will never and can never understand. Religion starts with the acceptance that some things are bigger than us, and more complex than we could ever grasp. It begins with the humility to realize that we are only human, and that there are forces acting infinitely beyond our understanding. Those who feel that God is something that should make sense to us, or that we can make sense out of his actions, are as ignorant and arrogant in those beliefs as the people who blindly follow the God and heavenly rules which are professed to them by their community or parents without giving it a second thought.

Henry David Thoreau

I think this passage was trying to point out the importance of things like art, poetry, philosophy...all of the thoughtful and emotional sides of life which people often like to think of as surreal and petty in the grand scheme of things. In our society we put very little value on these types of things, using and appreciating them only as entertainment (ie. movies, paintings, music, etc). We delusion our selves with our idea of what 'reality' is, without realizing that even still much of what we see as 'reality', isn't reality by the way we are trying to distinguish it. He points out that if we were to eliminate all of these feelings and emotions and subjective ways of thinking, we would be left with nothing, or at least nothing recognizable to us. These things are what make us human and what make up life, and are as real as the earth beneath our feet.

Muhammad

This passage contains a few verses and small clips of verses from the Quran. I particularly like the one "Do not despise the world, for the world too is God". So often we look down on the world and talk about what awful immoral things the world is doing and whatnot, and this reminds us that even that, is God. It is all God's will and everything is the way it is for a reason. Though we may not understand it, we must come to terms with it if we ever wish to be happy within ourselves, instead of constantly trying to renounce it and force it to change.

Another good quote from here is "My servant does not cease to come near me until I love him", saying that you never stop getting closer to God until you are one with him. No matter how far you stray you are always on the path to God, and you will always be led naturally towards him. It also goes on to point out that when you truly know God, he is every part of you. You become God, and God becomes you, when you surrender to his will and know him.