The first piece, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the Universe and all its powers and when they realize that at the center of the Universe dwells the Great Spirit and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”
–Black Elk Oglala Sioux
The Great Spirit is in all things: he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground she returns to us.
–Big Thunder (Bedagi) Wabanaki Algonquin
Hasan then replied, “How did you come to know Him?”
Rabi’a al Adawiya said, “You know of the how but I know of the how-less.”
Rabi’a al Adawiya
aham brahmāsmi – “I am Brahman”, or “I am Divine”
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 , Yajur Veda
Hume (p. 83): “Verily, in the beginning this world was Brahma. It knew only itself (âtmânam): ‘I am Brahma!’ Therefore it became the All.”
Radhakrishnan (p. 168): “Brahman, indeed, was this in the beginning. It knew itself only as ‘I am Brahman.‘ Therefore it became all.”
A variant of this mahâvâkya is so ‘ham, “I am that,” which in its inverted form hamsa has connections with the goose used as a symbol of the Srngeri monastery founded by the nondualist master Sankara, and with the Paramahamsa line of ascetics tracing their lineage to him and including nondualist teachers such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
ayam ātmā brahma – “This Self (Atman) is Brahman”
Mandukya Upanishad 1.2, Atharva Veda
