Lawrence Kushner

Image of Lawrence Kushner
A mystic is anyone who has the gnawing suspicion that the apparent discord, brokenness, contradictions and discontinuities that assault us every day might conceal a hidden unity.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Unity
Image of Lawrence Kushner
Everyone carries with them at least one piece to someone else's puzzle.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Pieces
Image of Lawrence Kushner
...the goal of all spiritual life is to get your ego out of the way - outwit the sucker; dissolve it; shoot it; kill it. Silence the incessant planning, organizing, running, manipulating, possessing, and processing"... "because these activities preclude awareness of the Divine.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Life
Image of Lawrence Kushner
When you see something that is broken, fix it. When you find something that is lost, return it. When you see something that needs to be done, do it. In that way, you will take care of your world and repair creation.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Broken
Image of Lawrence Kushner
God puts you where God needs you. You are where you are supposed to be. The job you are doing may not be any easier on account of this, indeed it may be harder, even more urgent, but now you are centered, focused, clear. So this is where I am supposed to be. I always thought I was supposed to be somewhere else, doing something else, being someone else. But I realize now that I was mistaken. This does not mean that I can't or will not be doing something else. Just right now, I am where God wants me.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Jobs
Image of Lawrence Kushner
The "burning bush" was not a miracle. It was a test. God wanted to find out whether or not Moses could pay attention to something for more than a few minutes. When Moses did, God spoke. The trick is to pay attention to what is going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep. There is another world, right here within this one, whenever we pay attention.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Fall
Image of Lawrence Kushner
The first mystery is simply that there is a mystery, a mystery that can never be explained or understood, only encountered from time to time. Nothing is obvious. Everything conceals something else.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Firsts
Image of Lawrence Kushner
Our tolerance for forms of religious expression we disagree with is a precise barometer of our own spiritual security.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Spiritual
Image of Lawrence Kushner
God does not have hands, we do. Our hands are God's. It is up to us what God will see and hear, up to us, what God will do. Humanity is the organ of consciousness of the universe ... Without our eyes the Holy One of Being would be blind.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Eye
Image of Lawrence Kushner
The only thing truly within our power, may be whether or not we will behave in each moment with arrogance or reverence.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Arrogance
Image of Lawrence Kushner
Hold up your hands before your eyes. You are looking at the hands of God.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Spiritual
Image of Lawrence Kushner
That's what Hanukkah is about: trying to survive the darkness on the far-fetched hope there's still some life and light left in the universe. It's more than just a religious story. The days have been growing shorter, imperceptibly but inescapably darker.... Heading into the night of the winter solstice, every spiritual tradition has some kind of festival of light. We're all just whistling in the dark, hoping against hope that someone up there will see these little Hanukkah candles and get the hint.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Spiritual
Image of Lawrence Kushner
Religion is a more or less organized way of remembering that every ministry points to a higher reality.
- Lawrence Kushner
Collection: Reality