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About Sufi Aphorisms & Other Sayings

A Sufi is a concept/statement that most often works on many levels. Originally they come from Arabic mystic traditions.  Similar aphorisms are also found in Jewish, Hindu, Zen Buddhist, Confucianism, Existentialism, Neoplatonic and western literature.  Mark Twain can give any of these sufi aphorisms   a run for their money --as you will see below...

A philosopher is one who, being a lover of truth, occupies a place between one who is ignorant and the perfected sage. People who sit around thinking these things up are often called "dervishes".  They can also be thought of as philosophers and/or sages.  Dervishes, are a group of Sufis who perform various feats to earn their salvation (so they think). Some of them whirl around until they just fall into a stupor. Others simply torture themselves. They will eat nails and even break light bulbs to chew and swallow the jagged pieces. Sometimes they will take a sword and plunge it through their cheeks and into their mouth, or pierce their flesh with sharp instruments, torturing themselves in order to reach a higher level of ecstasy.  They blindly think these things will somehow earn them salvation.  Just as a Muslim thinks killing a non-believer will earn them instant salvation --they only deceive themselves, and make the world a better place --only for Satan and his demons...

Some dervishes will give away everything they own and wander as mendicants, with bowls hung around their necks, begging for food from house to house. A mendicant depends on alms for a living.  They live a life of begging.  Much like Buddhist priests and early Christian missionaries.

Think of a Sufi Aphorism as a literary "gem" of wisdom. They can be epigrams, anecdotes, aphorisms, metaphors, analogies, poetic thoughts--or even combinations of these. For the Sufis all things and events perceived by the senses are interrelated, connected, and are but different aspects or manifestations of the same ultimate reality.

BibleProbe Quote: In hindsight, when you think about it clearly -- Sufi Aphorisms may turn out to be the only truth Islamic culture and the Islamic religion have given to the world. Not much recompense for the worldwide death and destruction Islam has brought.  With the Hindus one must wonder why their wondrous insights led to things such as widow burning.

EXAMPLES OF SUFI APHORISMS:

"If I repent now will God forgive me? No, but if God forgives you, you will repent." - Sufi aphorism

"He who tastes, knows" - Sufi aphorism

“The lower self prevents you from remembering god.” - Sufi aphorism

“Freedom is the absence of choice.” - Sufi aphorism

"I think, therefore I am." - Sufi aphorism

"No man has seen God and lived." - Sufi aphorism
Note: above probably taken from the Jewish Torah.  Exodus 33:20 - God said to Moses: “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

"One who discovers his own self, discovers God" - Sufi aphorism

"We cannot steal the fire. We must enter it."- Sufi aphorism

"There would not be counterfeiters if there were not real gold" - Sufi aphorism

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come."- Sufi aphorism

"When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs at what is has gained."- Sufi aphorism

"before we can learn, we need to learn how to learn, and before we can learn how to learn we need to unlearn." - Sufi aphorism

"Who is a Sufi? A Sufi does not ask who a Sufi is."- Sufi aphorism

"The Sufi is the child of his or her time". - Sufi aphorism

Others:

"ishavasyam idam sarvam, yat kinchit jagatyam jagat". This is a philosophical statement in a profound aphorism. That is: all things whatsoever in the universe that move or moves not is indwelt by the lord. One cannot look at the sky, the sun, the stars, oceans, mountains, rivers and the scenic beauty of nature without seeing the secret of what constitutes the body of the lord revealed majestically on a magnificent scale. - Indic Upanishadic seers

"paropkaraya punyaya papaaya parapidanam". This is a philosophical statement in a profound aphorism. It means doing good to others is a virtue, harming others is sin. - Indic Upanishadic seers

“the guerrilla is the fish that swims in the ocean of the people”. - Mao Tse Tung’s


"By giving away food we get more strength. By bestowing clothing on others we gain more beauty. By donating abodes of purity and truth we acquire great treasures." – Buddha

"Be not fond of the dull smoke-colored light from hell." - the Tibetan Book of the Dead

SIMILAR AND EQUALLY GOOD WESTERN THOUGHTS:

Unity is in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity. - Plotinus

"everything represents god, everything is the symbol of the eternal." - Jacob Boehm

"It is within you that the Divine lives."

"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."-- Mark Twain

"The best way to get to heaven is to take it with you. " - Henry Drummond

"You grow to heaven. You don't go to heaven. " - Edgar Cayce

"Your religion is where your love is." - Henry David Thoreau

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven." - Karen Sunde

"We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of hell together." - Mellen Benedict

"All you may know of heaven or hell is within your own self." - Edgar Cayce

"From what may anyone be saved? Only from themselves! That is, their individual hell. They dig it with their own desires." - Edgar Cayce

"Nothing in life is to be feared, only understood." - Madame Marie Curie

"Even a thought, even a possibility, can shatter us and transform us." – Nietzsche

"A mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Day by day we are building for eternity ... Every gentle word, every generous thought, every unselfish deed will become a pillar of eternal beauty in the life to come." - Rebecca Springer

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” – George Herbert

"Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death." - the Gospel of Thomas

"I am I plus my circumstances." - Ortega Y Gasset

“In Hollywood if you don’t have happiness you send out for it.” – Rex Reed

"The heavens call to you and circle around you displaying to you their eternal splendors." – Dante

"Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy." - Louisa May Alcott

"An army of asses led by a lion is vastly superior to an army of lions led by an ass." -- George Washington

"Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter." - T.S. Eliot

"seeing is believing," for the truth of God, "believing is seeing".... Angie Fenimore

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." ---Albert Einstein

“If we knew what we were doing it wouldn’t be research.” – Albert Einstein

"The most dangerous lie, is that which most closely resembles the Truth"
by--- Jan Groenveld (Australian anti-cult activist and ex-member of the Jehovah's witnesses)

"If you lack joy, your Christianity must be leaking somewhere" - Billy Sunday

"Gays (homosexuals) usually bring up the argument about all the straight couples living in 'sham' marriages, but I see no point in dragging the Clintons into this" - Ann Coulter

"What actually happened during the Clinton presidency? No one can remember anything about it except the bimbos, the lies, and the felonies" - Ann Coulter

"The Episcopalians don't demand much in the way of actual religious belief. They have girl priests, gay priests, gay bishops, gay marriages -- it's much like the New York Times editorial board" - Ann Coulter

"Like the Democrats, Playboy just wants to liberate women to behave like pigs, have sex without consequences, prance about naked, and abort children" - Ann Coulter

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, then you will be successful" -Albert Schweitzer

Liberals and Christianity: "The only religion that can be constantly defamed and insulted is the one liberals pretend to be terrified of" - Ann Coulter

The essence of being a liberal: “The absolute conviction that there is one set of rules for you, and another, completely different set of rules for everyone else.”  - Ann Coulter

"There is no surer proof of Christ's divinity than that he is still so hated some 2,000 years after his death"

“Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.” - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)

“It is often wise to reveal that which cannot be concealed for long." – Friedrich von Schiller

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."  Winston Churchill

Islamic terrorism and liberals: "The Times was rushing to assure its readers that 'prominent Islamic scholars and theologians in the West say unequivocally that nothing in Islam countenances the Sept. 11 actions.' (That's if you set aside Muhammad's many specific instructions to kill nonbelievers whenever possible)"   - Ann Coulter

"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." - Groucho Marx

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin

-"Plan for the future because that's where you are going to spend the rest of your life." - Mark Twain

"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

"Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great." - Mark Twain

"The report of my death was greatly exaggerated" - Mark Twain

"To cease smoking is the easiest thing I did. I ought to know because I've done it a thousand times" - Mark Twain

"Always do the right thing. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?" -Mark Twain

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."  -Mark Twain

"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."  -Mark Twain

"When in doubt, tell the truth." -Mark Twain

"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person."  -Mark Twain

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear." -Mark Twain

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."  -Mark Twain

"Let your secret sympathies and your compassion be always with the under dog in the fight -- this is magnanimity; but bet on the other one -- this is business."  -Mark Twain

"Where prejudice exists it always discolors our thoughts."   -Mark Twain

"Whatever satisfies the soul is truth." -Walt Whitman

"Only the dead have seen the end of war" -Plato

"Re-examine all that you have been told... dismiss that which insults your soul." -Walt Whitman

“We simply rob ourselves when we make presents to the dead.” -Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings, First Century B.C.

“As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.” -Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings, First Century B.C.

“Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life.”  -Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, 1932

“After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.” -Cato the Elder (234-149 B.C.)

"Sometimes when you feel little, useless, beaten down and depressed; always remember that you were once the fastest and the most victorious sperm in your group." Unknown author

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".  Unknown author

"The people who count the votes decide everything" Joseph Stalin

"The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted." Psalm 12.8 (KJV)

"Just because you're an old guy, you don't need to sit around sucking your thumb drooling in the corner," says 85 year old former U.S. President George H.W. Bush

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there,” – Will Rogers

“Too many people are thinking security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.”  – James F. Byrnes

 

 
  • “From its beginning, the new continent seemed destined to be the home of religious tolerance. Those who claimed the right of individual choice for themselves finally had to grant it to others.” – Calvin Coolidge, May 3, 1925

    “The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance. Question: Isn’t the real truth that they are intolerant of religion?” - Ronald Reagan, August 23, 1984

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