This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Our motive for prayer must be the divine will, not our own.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, aka Vatican II
The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions… In Hinduism, men probe the mystery of God and express it with a rich fund of myths, and a penetrating philosophy… In the various forms of Buddhism the basic inadequacy of this changing world is recognized and men are taught with confident application how they can achieve a state of complete liberation… The Church also regards with esteem the Muslims who worship the one, subsistent, merciful and almighty God… They venerate Jesus as a prophet… Given the great spiritual heritage common to Christians and Jews, it is the wish of this sacred Council to foster and recommend a mutual knowledge and esteem.
Church | Esteem | God | Knowledge | Men | Mystery | Nothing | Philosophy | Sacred | World | Worship | God |
The glories of our blood and state are shadows, not substantial things; there is no armor against fate; death lays his icy hand on kings, sceptre and crown must tumble down, and in the dust be equal made with the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation.
Regret |
Leo Tolstoy, aka Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Tolstoi
A religious man is guided in his activity not by the consequences of his action, but by the consciousness of the destination of his life.
Action | Consciousness | Consequences | Life | Life | Man |
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
The primary factor in creation is consciousness. Our state of consciousness creates our world. Consciousness itself is timeless and therefore does not evolve. Consciousness is the intelligence, the organizing principle behind the arising of form. Although the unmanifested realm of pure consciousness could be considered another dimension, it is not separate from this dimension of form. Form and formlessness interpenetrate. The unmanifested flows into this dimension as awareness, inner space, Presence.
Awareness | Consciousness | Intelligence | Space | World |
A vision is to be esteemed the more noble the more intellectual it is, the more it is stripped of all image and approaches the state of pure contemplation.
Contemplation | Vision |
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
How “spiritual” you are has nothing to do with what you believe but everything to do with your state of consciousness. This, in turn, determines how you act in the world and interact with others.
Consciousness | Nothing | World |
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now.
Consciousness | Future |
In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow, you set into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you, by realizing your oneness with it, you can so open yourself to its more abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions - effects - will respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly or more tardily, depending entirely on yourself.
Body | Disease | Health | Individual | Life | Life | Nature | Oneness | Power | Spirit | Strength | Will |
Only a goal that transcends the self and reaches beyond this world can create a true state of happiness in a person.
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
Not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness.
Consciousness | Destiny |
Eckhart Tolle, born Ulrich Leonard Tolle
If you can neither enjoy nor bring acceptance to what you do – stop. Otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness. And if you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life.
Acceptance | Consciousness | Life | Life | Responsibility |
Without faith a prayer has only form. Without faith a prayer has no heart or flame.
Religion is not necessary to give meaning to life, thought it is necessary to any claim that there is one state or being of supreme intrinsic value, and there is one overridingly important human purpose and that is an objective, morally ordered pattern.
Important | Life | Life | Meaning | Purpose | Purpose | Religion | Thought | Thought |
We live in a world where the unethical actions of a single CEO can leave hundreds, thousands and even millions of people in a state of complete economic devastation.