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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 4 -- Buddha; Reading a Story, Pt. 8

Literature & Spirituality

Release Date: 06/02/2015

Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 21 -- Augustine's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 21 -- Augustine's "Confessions"; Reading a Story, Pt. 25 -- How Much Does a Narrator Know?

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Luke 1:63 which reads: "And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all." Our quote today is from Ezra Pound. He said: "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." In this podcast, we are using as our texts: "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt, and "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Our first topic for today is "Spirituality as Quest, Part 21" from the book,...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 20 -- Augustine's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 20 -- Augustine's "Confessions"; Reading a Story, Pt. 24 -- How Much Does a Narrator Know?

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 which reads: "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." Our quote today is from W. H. Auden. He said: "A real book is not one that’s read, but one that reads us." In this podcast, we are using as our texts: "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt, and "Literature: An...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 17 -- Augustine's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 17 -- Augustine's "Confessions"; Reading a Story, Pt. 21 -- Point of View

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Revelation 1:3 which reads: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."   Our quote today is from Gustave Flaubert. He said: "An author in his book must be like God in His universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere."   Our first topic for today is "Spirituality as Quest, Part 17" from the book, "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt.   Today, we're taking a brief look at Augustine.  ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 16 -- Gospel of Luke; Reading a Story, Pt. 20 -- Thinking About Plot show art Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 16 -- Gospel of Luke; Reading a Story, Pt. 20 -- Thinking About Plot

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Exodus 32:15-16 which reads: "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables."   Our quote today is from Arthur Schopenhauer. He said: "Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, ''Lighthouses'' as the poet said...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 14 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 14 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 18 -- John Updike's "A&P" Continued

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is 1 Timothy 4:13 which reads: "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 13 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 13 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 17 -- John Updike's "A&P" Continued

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Job 19:23 which reads: "Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!" ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 12 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 12 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 16 -- John Updike's "A&P" Continued

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Psalm 45:1 which reads: "My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer." ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 11 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 11 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 15 -- John Updike's "A&P"

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is Exodus 32:15-16 which reads: "And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 10 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 10 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 13 -- John Updike

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is 2 Chronicles 35:25 which reads: "And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations." ...

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Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 9 -- Hermann Hesse's Spirituality as Quest, Pt. 9 -- Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"; Reading a Story, Pt. 13 -- Short Story

Literature & Spirituality

Our passage from the Word of God today is 1 Chronicles 29:29 which reads: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." ...

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Our passage from the Word of God today is Luke 1:3 which reads: "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus."

Our quote today is from C. S. Lewis. He said: "Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."

In this podcast, we are using as our texts: "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi (yaw a-do yam-fi) and Mark Ray Schmidt, and "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase any one of these books from our website.

Our first topic for today is "Spirituality as Quest, Part 4 - Buddha" from the book, "Literature and Spirituality" by Yaw Adu-Gyamfi and Mark Ray Schmidt.

Here is our third and last selection from Buddha's Dhammapada.

Chapter XVI (16) - PLEASURE.

He who gives himself to vanity, and does not give himself to meditation, forgetting the real aim (of life) and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who has exerted himself in meditation.

Let no man ever look for what is pleasant, or what is unpleasant. Not to see what is pleasant is pain, and it is pain to see what is unpleasant.

 

Let, therefore, no man love anything; loss of the beloved is evil. Those who love nothing and hate nothing, have no fetters.

From pleasure comes grief, from pleasure comes fear; he who is free from pleasure knows neither grief nor fear.

From affection comes grief, from affection comes fear; he who is free from affection knows neither grief nor fear.

From lust comes grief, from lust comes fear; he who is free from lust knows neither grief nor fear.

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Our second topic for today is "Reading a Story, Part 8" from the book, "Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing" by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.

Another traditional form of storytelling is the parable. Like the fable, a parable is a brief narrative that teaches a moral, but unlike the fable, its plot is plausibly realistic, and the main characters are human rather than anthropomorphized (an-thruh-puh-mawr-fahyz) animals or natural forces. The other key difference is that parables usually possess a more mysterious and suggestive tone. A fable customarily ends by explicitly stating its moral, but parables often present their morals implicitly, and their meanings can be open to several interpretations.

In the Western tradition, the literary conventions of the parable are largely based on the brief stories told by Jesus in His preaching. The forty-three parables recounted in the four Gospels reveal how frequently he used the form to teach. Jesus designed His parables to have two levels of meaning - a literal story that could immediately be understood by the crowds He addressed and a deeper meaning fully comprehended only by His disciples, an inner circle who understood the nature of His ministry. The parable was also widely used by Eastern philosophers. The Taoist sage Chuang Tzu often portrayed the principles of Tao - which he called the "Way of Nature" - in witty parables such as one traditionally titled "Independence."

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