
“The root of joy is gratefulness…. It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
David Steindl-Rast (b.1926)
American Benedictine Monk
Our Wisdom of Work 4-week course is open to the community! Online, starting the week of 10/28.
A SCHOOL FOR SELF DISCOVERY
Since its founding in New York in 1964, The School of Practical Philosophy has sought to communicate what the great teachers of mankind have told us about the true nature of humanity, our purpose in the creation, and how we might live a happy, full, and useful life. From the very beginning, the School has drawn men and women of all ages and all walks of life who have w
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“The root of joy is gratefulness…. It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
David Steindl-Rast (b.1926)
American Benedictine Monk
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Why? Because every human being has a root in the Unity, and to reject any part of the Unity is to reject it all.”
Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760)
Founder of Hasidic Judaism
“Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.”
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
American Trappist Monk
“Anything you are exclusively attached to and identify with ends up distorting and limiting awareness.”
Ken Wilber (b.1949)
American Writer
“The question ‘Who am I?’ is not really meant to get an answer. The question ‘Who am I?’ is meant to dissolve the questioner.”
Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)
Indian Sage
“All things arise when the appropriate conditions are present, and all things pass away as conditions change. Behind the process, there is no “self” who is running the show.”
Joseph Goldstein (b.1944)
American Writer and Teacher
“Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
German Writer
Be Silent and Listen
“Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.”
Ramakrishna (1836-1886)
Indian Mystic
Quiet Woman
“When you sit, everything sits with you.”
Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971)
Japanese Zen Monk
“The physical body is acknowledged as dust, the personal drama as delusion. It is as if the world we perceive through the senses were the breath-thin surface of a bubble, and everything else is pure radiance.”
Stephen Mitchell (b.1943)
American Translator and Poet
“Of all the pursuits open to men, the search for wisdom is most perfect, more sublime, more profitable and more joyful.”
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Italian Dominican Friar and Philosopher
Join us as we consider a selection of poems and the light they may shed on the universal wisdom propounded in the Perennial Philosophy.
https://reg.philosophyworks.org/reg/event_page.aspx
“The more deeply we are our true selves, the less self is in us.”
Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
German Theologian
“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Confucius (551-479 BC)
Chinese Philosopher
“Spiritual practice involves acting out of concern for the well-being of others. And it entails transforming ourselves so that we become more readily disposed to do so.”
Dalai Lama (b. 1940)
Tibetan Spiritual Leader