‘It doesn’t form when all is running smoothly.’

A precious truth: Gabrielle Scott finds a pearl of wisdom in different faith traditions

‘We don’t have to do formal meditation or sit in a meeting to tune into stillness and the present moment.’ | Photo: arbyreed / flickr CC.

My favourite bit of Advices & queries is from the Postscript at the beginning, written in 1656, ‘for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life’. It brings up the question of how to share a spiritual truth that is beyond words. This is perhaps why various religious traditions use parables, metaphors and sutras, which tend to point to spiritual truths rather than spell them out. They are signposts to something we do not grasp through our conscious mind but come to know experientially at a deeper spiritual level.

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