The Institute of the Cosmos

http://www.cosmos.art

The Institute of the Cosmos presents an online library of essential readings on and about Russian Cosmism. Until very recently, many of these key essays, treatises, poems, and novelshave not been available in English. Those that have been translated have been scattered and difficult to find. The Institutes researchers assembled this selection of historical and contemporary texts to make the intellectual context surrounding cosmism accessible. This library will continue expanding: subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on new titles.

Topics: Accelerationism, Anarchism, Architecture, Art, Artificial Intelligence, Astro-Linguistics, Biocosmism, Communism, Constructivism, Cryogenics, Cybernetics, Earth, Ecology, Energy, Film, Futurism, Gender, God-Building, Immortalism, Labor, Machine Learning, Marxism, Materialism, Monism, Museology, Noosphere, Occult, Poetry, Productivism, Religion, Reproduction, Resurrection, Revolution, Rocketry, Science, Science Fiction, Socialism, Soviet Union, Space Exploration, Suprematism, Technology, Time, Transhumanism, Weather

Authors: Abba & Wolf Gordin, Aleksandr Svyatogor, Aleksei Gastev, Alexander Bogdanov, Alexander Chizhevsky, Alexander Yaroslavsky, Alexandre Kojve, Anastasia Gacheva, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Andrei Platonov, Anton Vidokle, Arkady Strugatsky, Arseny Zhilyaev, Boris Groys, Boris Strugatsky, Fred Berthold Jr., Friedrich Nietzsche, George Young, Georges Bataille, Gilgamesh, Herman Potonik Noordung, Hermann Oberth, Hito Steyerl, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Johannes Kepler, Kazimir Malevich, Keti Chukhrov, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Marina Simakova, Mckenzie Wark, Mikhail Bulgakov, Nel Grillaert, Nikolai Berdyaev, Nikolai Fedorov, Nikolay Zabolotsky, Pavel Florensky, Peter Kropotkin, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Sergei Bulgakov, Sergei Eisenstein, Trevor Paglen, Valerian Muraviov, Vasily Chekrygin, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Odoyevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, Vladimir Vernadsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Walter Nunzio Sisto

The cinema of the Institute of the Cosmos is pleased to present Immortality for All: A film trilogy on Russian Cosmismby Anton Vidokle.

In this three-part film project, Anton Vidokle probes Cosmisms influence on the twentieth century and suggests its relevance to the present day. In This is Cosmos(2014), the artist returns to the foundations of Cosmist thought. The second chapter, entitled The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun(2015), explores the links between cosmology and politics. The film's third chapter, Immortality and Resurrection for All! (2017), re-stages the museum as a site of resurrection, a central Cosmist idea.

Combining essay, documentary, and performance, the trilogy quotes from the writings of Cosmisms founder Nikolai Fedorov and other philosophers and poets. Vidokle's wandering camera searches for traces of Cosmist influence in the remains of Soviet-era art, architecture and engineering, moving from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the museums of Moscow. Music by John Cale and liane Radigue accompanies these haunting images, conjuring up the yearning for connectedness, social equality, material transformation and immortality at the heart of Cosmist thought.

Watch the films here.

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The Institute of the Cosmos - Announcements - e-flux - E-Flux

Regular and longtime readers of this space have probably figured out by now there is at least one thing in my life I am passionate about.

Spirituality.

Admittedly, this term can be confusing for many, and create all kinds of misunderstandings. When the question arises whether someone is spiritual or religious, many people see it in dualistic terms like you must be one or the other, but you cant be both.

This is just not true.

In fact, after reading about and studying spirituality for 25 years, I would propose that before religion comes into ones life, one is already, by birthright, a spiritual person.

Although it has been attributed to various people over the years, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is credited with originating this statement: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

This implies, that just by being born, each human is a spiritual being. Indeed, some would include in that spiritual being category, all living things animals, plants, trees

Before I sat down at the keyboard this week, I looked up the term spirituality to try to get a grasp on a generally accepted definition of what it means to be spiritual.

There are, of course, many factors that go into determining this, but probably the most basic answer is this, which appeared when I googled the word. This definition is from Oxford Languages:

the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

I might elaborate on that just a bit, to say that spirituality is an effort to find meaning, in ones own life, in others lives, in the world around them, and in the events that take place in their lives.

Another description of what it means to be a spiritual person came from an article on HuffPost in 2015. This one is more detailed than the above definition, but overall (and as in anything, there are exceptions), this definition better encapsulates what it means to be spiritual in these days in which we live:

Being a spiritual person is synonymous with being a person whose highest priority is to be loving to yourself and others. A spiritual person cares about people, animals and the planet. A spiritual person knows that we are all One, and consciously attempts to honor this Oneness. A spiritual person is a kind person.

Now, in reading this definition, we can see that it does not preclude spiritual people from also being religious. For some people, they dont have a spiritual awakening for years, even though they have practiced a religion for their entire life. In fact, most world religions, in one way or another, teach the highest priority of human life is to be loving to yourself and others.

As we all know, not all religious peoples lives reflect this, however. In fact, sadly, religions can be divisive, when seen as the be all and end all of existence.

Anyway, the reason I decided to write about this topic this week, is because I was thinking about 2020 and what an unusually, pardon my language, hellish year it has been. Honestly, humanity has been blindsided this year in more ways than we ever thought possible, at least in modern times. At least that is how it seems to those of us living it out. Now.

And I know for almost everyone scratch that everyone, adjusting to these new realities has been mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually challenging scratch that word challenging exhausting.

I know and have heard of many people with heightened anxiety and other mental health issues that are directly related to the extreme uncertainty we live with now.

Each day we awaken, we wonder what life is going to throw at us today.

It cannot possibly get any worse than it is already, we think.

But then it does.

So as someone who is passionate about spirituality, I look at it this way:

In many ways, there is not a lot we can do hands-on, at least not immediately, to resolve the circumstances we find ourselves in. Many of them, especially those more medically related, take time to research and find solutions to.

Others which are more systemically related with deep, thick, sprawling roots must be addressed with much dialogue and mutual respect. No easy answers here.

At the foundation of all these attempts to find a solution, however, is the need for each one of us to tap into that spiritual side of us, that is our birthright.

For months, millions of people have been at home, afraid to go out into public; many of them elderly with few family or friends to check on them.

Others have watched helplessly as nearly 200,000 Americans have succumbed to Covid-19, or complications from the virus. They have watched as dear family and friends have died painful, awful deaths, alone in a hospital room, without anyone even being able to physically touch their skin, or say goodbye. They have grieved their losses relatively alone, without the human support they so desperately need.

Hostilities related to all kinds of situations have boiled up and exploded in recent months, and only seem to be getting worse with each passing day.

As I write this today, I do so without, GOD FORBID, any intention of stirring up yet another political debate. Life is not all about politics. It is about so much more than that.

That is where this idea of spirituality comes in.

I believe that these terrible months we have all endured, if looked at in a positive light, have been an opportunity for every single one of us to get in touch with that spiritual side with which we were born.

That doesnt mean necessarily going to church. Many people cant go to church right now.

It is something more basic than that.

It is getting in touch with a loving Reality that undergirds all the pain and alienation so many of us feel from life, from each other, from ourselves

It is sitting still, quiet, and reaching out to that loving Reality to try to find out more about that Reality, and to find some way to make sense of it all.

Not that we will make sense of it all.

I have found in my life that when we go looking for answers as to why something happened, we might as well be beating our heads against a wall.

We just cannot be assured we will get an answer as to why something happened.

But

We can find meaning in it.often after much time has elapsed.

We can find ways to get grounded in this loving Reality that is eternal the beginning and the end of all things.

We can find ways to acknowledge that we are not isolated beingswe are connected to one another in ways we cannot imagine or explain.

And what happens to one of us, impacts the rest of us.

We can find ways to be the spiritual beings we are.those whose highest priority is to be loving to ourselves and others.those who care about people, animals and the planet.those who know that we are all One, and consciously attempt to honor this Oneness.

those who are kind

SPIRIT MATTERSis a weekly column that examines spirituality in The Times' readership area. Contact Jerrilyn Zavada at jzblue33@yahoo.com to share how you engage your spirit in your life and in your community.

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SPIRIT MATTERS: In matters of the spirit, spirituality matters - LaSalle News Tribune

The Uplands Lifelong Learning Institute is joining with Pleasant Hill Community Church, United Church of Christ, to bring a different kind of program to the area.

Ulli (formerly the Shalom Center for Continuing Education) has sponsored two-day educational programs or short courses meetings for six to eight weeks with live speakers or leaders.

On three days, Friday-Sunday, Dec. 6-8, the Institute and Church will bring the broadcast of an Omega Center Conference Webinar called Love at the Heart of the Cosmos: Living in Relational Wholeness to Pleasant Hill. The sessions will be shown on the large-screen and smaller video screens in Adshead Hall of Fletcher House for Assisted Living.

After each of the lectures, Ulli Group Discussions will be led by Ed Olson and Mark Canfield. Because of the different nature of this program, there will not be a potluck dinner on Friday night, but coffee and a light breakfast will be provided for the morning sessions.

On Friday, Dec. 6, the webinar will begin at 5:30 p.m. with an introduction by Ilia Delio. This webinar is an event committed to Teilhards vision for a new religion of the Earth for a new planet of life.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French idealist philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and is known for his theory that man is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity.

Delio said, Teilhard envisioned a new type of energy flowing from the convergence of world religions, giving rise to a new religion of the Earth and a new ultrahuman community, electronically connected in a rising Cosmic Person.

The lecture beginning at 6 p.m. will be by Ursula King, a German theologian and scholar of religion, who specializes in gender, religion, and feminist theology. She has been a professor of theology and religious studies, president of Catherine of Siena College, and a prominent lecturer.

King received honorary doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh, Oslo and Dayton, OH, as well as research awards from the University of Delhi and Sorbonne, Paris. She is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts.

On Saturday, Dec. 7, from 7:45-8 a.m., a continental breakfast will be followed with the morning lecture by Kathleen Duffy, editor of Teilhard Studies who serves on the advisory boards of the American Teilhard Association and Cosmos and Creation, holding an honorary doctorate from Iona College.

She has published Teilhards Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution.

Following a break, there will be Teilhard & Centering Prayer led by Cynthia Bourgeault from 9:45-11:15 a.m. She is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer and internationally known retreat leader. She is a core faculty member at the Center for Action and Contemplation, a member of the Global Peace Initiative for Women Contemplative Council and recipient of the 2014 Contemplative Voices award from Shalem Institute. Bourgeault is a founding director of both The Contemplative Society and the Aspen Wisdom School and author of several books.

The program will resume again from 4:30-6 p.m. with a lecture by John Haught. A theologian of science and religion, he will provide an analysis of what faith might mean in an age of science.

Haught is a distinguished research professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University and the author of 20 books, more than 100 book chapters and articles as well as hundreds of invited lectures and major academic presentations.

He offers fresh insight into the biblical nature of hope in order to clarify his position about those who differ with his approach the New Atheists and Creationists.

On Sunday, Dec. 8, from 7:45- 9:30 a.m., Ilia Delio will focus on exploring divine action in a world of evolution, complexity, emergence, quantum reality and artificial intelligence.

She earned doctorates in pharmacology from Rutgers University-School of Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences and in historical theology from Fordham University, NY. She is the recipient of a Templeton Course in Science and Religion award and the author of 17 books, many of which have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and German.

Ulli anticipates people will come and go throughout the three days of the conference.

Adshead Hall is on the lower level of the Elizabeth Fletcher House for Assisted Living, 40 Fletcher Dr. in Pleasant Hill off of Church Dr. across from the Community Church.

The webinar is free and open to the public, but donations will be appreciated.

This week in Pleasant Hill:

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2 p.m. Documentary (Retirement Revolution) in Room 4, Pleasant Hill Community Church, United Church of Christ, Main St. and Church Dr.

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 5:30 p.m. Spaghetti supper, 6:15 p.m., and Taize Service in Pleasant Hill Community Church sanctuary, 67 Church Dr.

Wednesdays, 6 p.m. Bible study and prayer at the Pleasant Hill Baptist Mission at 39 Browntown Rd. near Main St.

Thursdays, 2-4 p.m. Fair Trade Room open in Pleasant Hill Community Church. Coffee, tea, chocolate, SERRV crafts from around the world. Supports co-ops and crafters with a fair price for their goods.

Thursday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. Community Bridge at Fletcher House Dining Room. All welcome. Call 931-277-5005.

Friday, Dec. 6 Obed Wild and Scenic River 1.5-mile hike to the high rock outcrop of Lilly Bluff. Meet at 9:15 a.m. in the Aquatic Center parking lot on West Lake Rd. to carpool to the trailhead.

Tuesday, Dec. 10, noon Pleasant Hill emergency siren test.

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 6 p.m. Pleasant Hill Town Council meeting at Pleasant Hill Town Hall, 351 E. Main St. Call 931-277-3813.

Link:
PLEASANT HILL RAMBLINGS: 'Love at the Heart of the Cosmos' webinar set - Crossville Chronicle

This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

The American holiday of Thanksgiving marks the grand opening of the Christmas shopping season. So by now you've been inundated with advertising: print, radio, television, and social media. How amid all this clamor for our money do we maintain our sense of the holy?

You might have heard: "You are not a human being having a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being having a human experience." In other words, what is important is who we are and how we relate to others, not what we have and how we acquired it.

The quote is most often attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. However, he was not the author. The real author gives us the real irony! It was part of an advertisement for Volkswagen, written for the company by motivational speaker Wayne Dyer.

May we all be blessed with the spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude!

Maggid Jim Brul is an ordained Jewish spiritual storyteller. A member of Temple Concord, Brul teaches storytelling and works with congregations and organizations to heal fractures of faith, class and ethnicity.

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CNY Inspirations: Sense of the holy can be found in quote - Syracuse.com

A friend of mine shares this story. She grew up with five siblings and an alcoholic father. The effect of her fathers alcoholism was devastating on her family. Heres how she tells the story:

By the time my father died, his alcoholism had destroyed our family. None of us kids could talk to each other anymore. Wed drifted apart to different parts of the country and had nothing to do with each other.

My mother was a saint and kept trying through the years to have us reconcile with each other, inviting us to gather for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the like, but it never worked. All her efforts were for nothing. We hated each other.

Then, as my mother lay dying of cancer, in hospice, bedridden, and eventually in a coma, we, her kids, gathered by her bedside, watching her die, and she, helpless and unable to speak, was able to accomplish what she couldnt achieve through all those years when she could speak. Watching her die, we reconciled.

We all know similar stories of someone in their dying, when they were too helpless to speak or act, powerfully impacting, more powerfully than they ever did in word or action, those around them, pouring out a grace that blessed their loved ones.

Sometimes, of course, this isnt a question of reconciling a family but of powerfully strengthening their existing unity.Such was the case in a family history shared by Carla Marie Carlson, in her book,Everyday Grace.

Her family was already closely knit, but Carlson shares how her mothers dying strengthened those family bonds and graced all the others who witnessed her dying:

Those who took the opportunity to be with my Mom during that journey have told me that their lives were forever changed. It was a remarkable time, which I will always treasure. Lessons of acceptance and courage were abundant as she struggled with the realities of a dying body. It was dramatic and intense, but yet filled with peace and gratitude.

Most anyone who has ever sat in vigil around a loved one who was dying can share a similar story.

Theres a lesson here and a mystery. The lesson is that we dont just do important things for one another and impact one anothers lives by what we actively do for one another; we also do life-changing things for one another in what we passively absorb in helplessness. This is the mystery of passivity which we see, paradigmatically, played out in what Jesus did for us.

As Christians, we say that Jesusgave his life for usand that hegave his death for us, but we tend to think of this as one and the same thing. Its not. Jesus gave his life for usthrough his activity; he gave his death for usthrough his passivity.These were two separate movements.

Like the woman described earlier who tried for years to have her children reconcile with one another through her activity, through her words and actions, and then eventually accomplished that through the helplessness and passivity of her deathbed, so, too, with Jesus.

For three years he tried in every way to make us understand love, reconciliation, and faith, without full effect. Then, in less than 24 hours, in his helplessness, when he couldnt speak, in his dying, we got the lesson. Both Jesus and his mother were able, in their helplessness and passivity, to give the world something that they were unable to give as effectively in their power and activity.

Unfortunately, this is not something our present culture, with its emphasis on health, productivity, achievement, and power very much understands.

We no longer much understand or value the powerful grace that is given off by someone dying of a terminal illness, nor the powerful grace present in a person with a disability, or indeed the grace thats present in our own physical and personal disabilities.

Nor do we much understand what we are giving to our families, friends, and colleagues when we, in powerlessness, have to absorb neglect, slights, and misunderstanding. When a culture begins to talk about euthanasia, it is an infallible indication that we no longer understand the grace within passivity.

In his writings, Father Henri Nouwen makes a distinction between what he terms our achievements and our fruitfulness.Achievementsstem more directly from our activities: What have we positively accomplished? What have we actively done for others? And our achievements stop when we are no longer active.

Fruitfulness, on the other hand, goes far beyond what we have actively accomplished and is sourced as much by what we have passively absorbed as by what we actively produced. The family described above reconciled not because of their mothers achievements, but because of her fruitfulness. Such is the mystery of passivity.

Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, in his spiritual classic,The Divine Milieu,tells us that we are meant to help the world through both our activities and our passivities, through both what we actively give and through what we passively absorb.

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The grace within passivity - Angelus News

Rob Field, director of Center for Spiritual Wisdom, will be the presenter for the next Sunday gathering at Elk Haven Wellness Center on Oct. 13 at 5 p.m. His topic will be Holy Chaos? Looking for Meaning In Turbulent Times.

The event is open to the public.

Today, many people are asking, Why is our society become so contentious? Why does it feel like things are falling apart? Can anything good come from all the chaos?

Drawing on wise souls, past and present, including Integral Theory founder Ken Wilber, as well as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Field will offer his personal response to these questions.

More than anything, I want to spark the kind of conversation Id enjoy being part of, said Field. My favorite part of these gatherings is the give and take.

Elk Haven Wellness Center is located at 100 Elks Club Road, just off Park Avenue, in Brevard. Doors will open at 5 p.m. for informal conversation and light refreshments.

The presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m., with questions and conversation following at 6 p.m. The gathering will end at 6:30 p.m.

Donations will be accepted at the door, and gifts of $10 or more will be acknowledged with a glass of Green Heart organic juice or a Reason to Bake gluten-free cookie. All donations are welcome, and will help defray the costs associated with the centers Sunday series.

Further information is available at http://www.Center4SpiritualWisdom.org

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'Holy Chaos?' Is Theme For Oct. 13 Event Searching For Meaning In Turbulent Times - The Transylvania Times

Dear Dr. Fox: I have a small white Maltese. He is 8 years old, and in the past year, has started getting brownish red fur wherever he licks face, feet etc. I feel it is allergies, but dont know to what. Otherwise he is healthy. I do give him filtered water.

Have you any suggestions for what I can try? B.M., West Palm Beach, Florida

Dear B.M.: This is a very prevalent problem in dogs, and is especially evident in those with white coats. Red fur staining is caused by a compound called porphyrin. Porphyrins are iron-containing molecules produced when the body breaks down red blood cells. They are removed from the body primarily through feces, but are also in urine, tears and saliva.

Brown fur staining is primarily caused by an infection with the yeast Malassezia. This is the yeast that is responsible for skin and ear infections in dogs.

It is possible that your dog has both conditions. Excessive eye discharge can mean chronic eye infection or blocked tear ducts, while dental problems common in small breeds can lead to excessive salivation. Both secretions carry porphyrins that stain the fur.

Dogs with seasonal allergies may lick their paws and legs, the saliva staining the fur red. Then when brownish discoloration develops in the moist fur, the yeast infection sets in. The yeast thrives where the fur is moist, especially in the external ear canals, under the eyes and around the lower jaws, where the fur is moist from saliva and drinking.

I would advise a good grooming/clipping, and cleaning the affected areas with one part hydrogen peroxide in two parts water. Dry him well, then apply apple cider vinegar, rub it well into his fur, then wipe him semi-dry after 10 to 15 minutes. You may need someone to hold your dog and avoid getting any of these applications near the eyes.

If your dog has not had a recent wellness examination, you should take him in my fear is that he dog has chronic dental issues, and the remedy I offer will not fix the problem.

Dear Readers: Not One More Vet is an online veterinary support group. The group was founded in 2014 by Dr. Nicole McArthur. It has grown into an international group of veterinarians who come together on Facebook to laugh, cry and lend a supportive ear with their colleagues. from the groups website, nomv.org

This is so very important, because the incidence of suicide in this profession is about twice that of the general population. Non-veterinarians working in animal protection, cruelty investigations and rescue work also need support; they, too, experience the burdens of empathy, frustration and despair that can come from dealing with a culture that has so little regard for nonhuman life. Compassion stress and compassion fatigue are among the personal indices of well-being.

As the late Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin famously wrote, We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. By extension, dogs, cats and other sentient life forms are spiritual beings having a dog, cat or other experience, respectively. Accepting this view inspires a sense of reverential respect for all life, and a responsibility to care for all creatures great and small. This means we suffer with, and for, them when they are in need of care. Veterinarians and others in caring professions can indeed experience burnout and depression. Many even consider ending, and actually do end, their own lives an incalculable loss that support groups such as Not One More Vet can help prevent.

Fewer animals being taken into shelters, euthanized: Good news! Factors such as cultural change, an increase in spaying and neutering, pets being returned to owners and a trend toward rescue adoption have reduced the number of animals in big-city shelters that are euthanized by more than 75% since 2009. Though some no-kill shelters report being pushed beyond their capacity, shelters have become more sophisticated and collaborative. (The New York Times, 9/3)

Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Foxs website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.

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Animal Doctor: Fur staining in dogs is caused by porphyrin or infection - Tulsa World

According to Isaac the Syrian, a famous 7th-century bishop and theologian, a person whos genuinely humble gives off a certain scent that other people will sense and that even animals will pick up, so that wild animals, including snakes, will fall under its spell and never harm that person.

Heres his logic: A humble person, he believes, has recovered the smell of paradise and in the presence of such a person one does not feel judged and has nothing to fear, and this holds true even for animals. They feel safe around a humble person and are drawn to him or her. No wonder people like St. Francis of Assisi could talk to birds and befriend wolves.

But, beautiful as this all sounds, is this a pious fairytale or is it a rich, archetypal metaphor? I like to think its the latter, that this is a rich metaphor, and perhaps even something more. Humility, indeed, does have a smell, the smell of the earth, of the soil, and of paradise.

But how? How can a spiritual quality give off a physical scent?

Well, were psychosomatic, creatures of both body and soul. Thus, in us, the physical and the spiritual are so much part of one and the same substance that its impossible to separate them out from each other.

To say that were body and soul is like saying sugar is white and sweet and that whiteness and sweetness can never be put into separate piles. Theyre both inside the sugar. Were one substance, inseparable, body and soul, and so were always both physical and spiritual.

So, in fact, we dofeelphysical things spiritually, just as wesmellspiritual things through our physical senses. If this is true, and it is, then, yes, humility does give off a scent that can be sensed physically, and Isaac the Syrians concept is more than just a metaphor.

But its also a metaphor: The wordhumilitytakes its root in the Latin word,humus,meaning soil, ground, and earth. If one goes with this definition then the most humble person you know is the most earthy and most grounded person you know.

To be humble is to have ones feet firmly planted on the ground, to be in touch with the earth, and to carry the smell of the earth. Further still, to be humble is to take ones rightful place as a piece of the earth and not as someone or something separate from it.

The renowned mystic and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, expressed this sometimes in his prayers. During the years when, as a paleontologist he worked for long stretches in the isolated deserts of China, he would sometimes compose prayers to God in a form he called,A Mass for the World.

Speaking to God as a priest, he would identify his voice with that of the earth itself, as that place within physical creation where the earth itself, the soil of the earth, could open itself and speak to God. As a priest, he didnt speakforthe earth; he spokeasthe earth, giving it voice, in words to this effect:

Lord, God, I stand before you as a microcosm of the earth itself, to give it voice: See in my openness, the worlds openness, in my infidelity, the worlds infidelity; in my sincerity, the worlds sincerity, in my hypocrisy, the worlds hypocrisy; in my generosity, the worlds generosity; in my attentiveness, the worlds attentiveness; in my distraction, the worlds distraction; in my desire to praise you, the worlds desire to praise you; and in my self-preoccupation, the worlds forgetfulness of you. For I am of the earth, a piece of earth, and the earth opens or closes to you through my body, my soul, and my voice.

This is humility, an expression of genuine humility. Humility should never be confused, as it often is, with a wounded self-image, with an excessive reticence, with timidity and fear, or with an overly sensitive self-awareness.

Too common is the notion that a humble person is one who is self-effacing to a fault, who deflects praise (even when its deserved), who is too shy to trust opening himself or herself in intimacy, or who is so fearful or self-conscious and worried about being shamed so as to never step forward and offer his or her gifts to the community.

These can make for a gentle and self-effacing person, but because we are denigrating ourselves when to deny our own giftedness, our humility is false, and deep down we know it, and so this often makes for someone who nurses some not-so-hidden angers and is prone to being passive-aggressive.

The most humble person you know is the person whos the most grounded, that is, the person who knows shes not the center of the earth but also knows that she isnt a second-rate piece of dirt either. And that person will give off a scent that carries both the fragrance of paradise (of divine gift) as well as the smell of the earth.

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The scent of humility - Angelus News

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.We should like to skip the intermediate stages.We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;your ideas mature graduallylet them grow,let them shape themselves, without undue haste.Dont try to force them on,as though you could be today what time(that is to say, grace and circumstancesacting on your own good will)will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spiritgradually forming within you will be.Give Our Lord the benefit of believingthat his hand is leading you,and accept the anxiety of feeling yourselfin suspense and incomplete. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Quotes (Author of ... - Goodreads

A collection of quotes by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on spirituality, joy, faith, love, peace, philosophy, patience, life, trust, wisdom, God and religion.

Quick Facts

Famous As:Philosopher & Jesuit Priest

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a renowned French philosopher, palaeontologist and geologist famous for his unique theory of evolution of man. His theory of evolution threw light on a social perspective which stated that man was evolving mentally and socially towards a spiritual unity. He was known to possess a high intellect in various fields including spirituality and science. He taught physics and chemistry in Cairo and studed theology in Hastings. His first notable work was his essay titled La Vie Cosmique (Cosmic Life) which reflected his scientific and philosophical thoughts and further went on to become a Jesuit. He wrote several essays and even gave lectures at the Catholic Institute. During his stay in China, he travelled extensively to conduct geological expeditions which helped him draw a geological map of China. He also wrote many books on spirituality before writing the most notable book of his life titled Le Phenomena Humaine. He was honoured with the Mendel Medal for his significant contributions in the field of Human Palaeontology. Here is a compilation of quotations and sayings which have been extracted from the vast sea of his work. Go through the most notable and motivational quotes and thoughts by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things...as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It doesn't matter if the water is cold or warm if you're going to have to wade through it anyway.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

You have told me, O God, to believe in hell. But you have forbidden me to think...of any man as damned

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The most telling and profound way of describing the evolution of the universe would undoubtedly be to trace the evolution of love.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

By means of all created things, without excaption, the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact we live steeped in its burning layers

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

By virtue of Creation, and still more the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

God is not remote from us. He is at the point of my pen, my (pick) shovel, my paint brush, my (sewing) needle - and my heart and thoughts.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The whole life lies in the verb seeing.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are one, after all, you and I, together we suffer, together exist and forever will recreate one another.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

He recognized with absolute certainty the empty fragility of even the noblest theorizings as compared with the definitive plenitude of the smallest fact grasped in its total, concrete reality.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Research is the highest form of adoration

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In the end, only the truth will survive.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The most empowering relationships are those in which each partner lifts the other to a higher possession of their own being.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The farther and more deeply we penetrate into matter, by means of increasingly powerful methods, the more we are confounded by the interdependence of its parts.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In the shadow of death may we not look back to the past, but seek in utter darkness the dawn of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The quintessential good and beauty in life is what each has to offer to others valuing the gesture ourselves into confluence with the Word of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It is the destiny of things real to destroy those that are artice.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I am not a human being enjoying a spiritual life, I am a spiritual being enjoying a human life.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

For in the nature of things everything that is faith must rise, and everything that rises must converge.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

As a result, man is the only successful type which has remained as a single interbreeding group or species, and has not radiated out into a number of biologically separated assemblages

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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34 Famous Pierre Teilhard De Chardin Quotes That Will ...