Say your spirituality in one sentence

If you were cast away on a mental desert island and could only bring one spiritual sentence along, what would it be?

Tough choice.

I like words. I read a lot. I write a lot. I enjoy pondering what lies beyond the ponderable. My shelves are filled with many favorite books, each containing favorite lines.

In the end, though, I'd have to stick with what I've called the best one-sentence metaphysics ever written (by Philip K. Dick):

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.

Now, I'm not saying that I believe this sentence. What I like about it is how some great questions are raised in its confident simplicity. That's more important than any answer.

It might be that when belief stops, so does reality – if "belief" is taken to be subjective consciousness, the whole kit and caboodle of thoughts, feelings, sensations, imaginings, and such.

Thus maybe reality amounts to nothing in the absence of belief.

However, experience argues otherwise. The universe seemed to do just fine on its own for the 13+ billion years humans weren't around to believe anything (of course, I wasn't around back then, so can't say for sure).

Anyway, I'd like to know other peoples' favorite spiritual sentence. I use "spiritual" in a broad sense, as encompassing philosophy, religion, metaphysics, mysticism, and meaning of life musings in general.

Comment away, if you like.

Just before I wrote this, I read a comment from Rain on another post. Sounds like her sentence might be, "It's all about love."

Interesting thoughts. It reminds me of many years ago sitting in a Christian church and listening to the pastor say it's all about love. I thought that's too simple. It can't just be that simple. Now, many years later, I would say the same thing. It's all about love. Learning to love in the truest sense, learning what love is, experiencing it and letting it experience me. Understanding that love isn't always giving someone else what they want. It's not ignoring justice but it's loving through it all. Truly learning and experiencing real love is the simplest and hardest thing anyone will ever do.

Comments

[Roger]

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

[tAo]

What? Me Worry?

[tucson]

The great mystery of Life, seemingly so incomprehensible, is simply due to seeking the Truth as an object.

[Brian]

Hey, it's my blog, and I've only used up one of my three sentences (for me, myself, and I).

Here's my others:

"Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to become."
--Brian Hines

"The eye with which I see God is exactly the same eye with which God sees me."
--Meister Eckhart

And a bonus sentence, from someone who emailed me and didn't want to post it as a comment (but I do).

"Nobody knows fuck about fuck."
--Anonymous

[Roger]

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change; for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up.

[John]

I brake for blondes.

Actually, the one sentence I prefer is "Nothing is everything, everything is nothing."

[Rain]

You'd be right about me. I think love has been misunderstood into some kind of sticky gooey thing that isn't really about true love which is about wanting the best for another-- the real best-- and for yourself. One sentence is hard to come up with but maybe like what Jesus said-- love yourself as you love others. It takes a lifetime to really understand and live that-- if someone ever does. It covers all the bases because truly loving is its own reward and you don't care about rewards from others or what comes next. It increases the inner person and their energy level. It just is often mistaken what it is.

[Helen]

I was about to write "practice makes perfect" when my attention was caught by Rain's offering:

*truly loving is its own reward and you don't care about rewards from others or what comes next*

I have only recently comprehended what Rain has written here. As a "truth" it can only be experienced and from my experience it can only be realised by practice.

So. Not one sentance, but many, and both of them completely subjective. Can religion/spirituality be reduced to a soundbite?

[Adam]

love is the very core of your being

[zenjen]

Hi guys,

My spiritual sentence is:

"Who is this who repeats the Master's name"

Cheers
Jen