quotes

“He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection. He did not lack anything, that he might be completed by it; rather he is always completely perfect in light. He is illimitable, since there is no one prior to him to set limits to him. He is unsearchable, since there exists no one prior to him to examine him. He is immeasurable, since there was no one prior to him to measure him. He is invisible, since no one saw him. He is eternal, since he exists eternally. He is ineffable, since no one was able to comprehend him to speak about him. He is unnameable, since there is no one prior to him to give him a name. “He is immeasurable light, which is pure, holy (and) immaculate. He is ineffable, being perfect in incorruptibility. (He is) not in perfection, nor in blessedness, nor in divinity, but he is far superior. He is not corporeal nor is he incorporeal. He is neither large nor is he small. There is no way to say, ‘What is his quantity?’ or, ‘What is his quality?’, for no one can know him. He is not someone among (other) beings, rather he is far superior. Not that he is (simply) superior, but his essence does not partake in the aeons nor in time. For he who partakes in an aeon was prepared beforehand. Time was not apportioned to him, since he does not receive anything from another, for it would be received on loan. For he who precedes someone does not lack, that he may receive from him. For rather, it is the latter that looks expectantly at him in his light. “For the perfection is majestic. He is pure, immeasurable mind. He is an aeon-giving aeon. He is life-giving life. He is a blessedness-giving blessed one. He is knowledge-giving knowledge. He is goodness-giving goodness. He is mercy and redemption-giving mercy. He is grace-giving grace, not because he possesses it, but because he gives the immeasurable, incomprehensible light.
(The Apocryphon Of John, NHC II.1)

There is but one Self for all beings, [one Power] that controls all, one Form that creates all forms.
(Katha Upanishad 5.12)

You see, the All had been inside of him, that illimitable, inconceivable one, who is better than every thought.
(Gospel of Thruth, NHC I.3)

It is the hearing of the ear, the thought of the thinking faculty, the spoken word of speech, as also the breathing of breath and the sight of the eye.
(Kena Upanishad 1.2)

It was Time’s morning, When there nothing was; Nor sand, nor sea, Nor cooling billows. Earth there was not, Nor heaven above. The Ginungagap was, But grass nowhere.
(Völuspa 3 (poetic Edda))

He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things.
(Qor’an 57:3/4)

Modern academics have propounded a plethora of theories about the nature and origin of myths. Historians seek in them clues to prehistory. Anthropologists see them as examples of primitive or prelogical thinking. Comparative religionists see them as attempts to explain the forces of nature, and/or as the origin of religious speculation. Psychologists, recognizing their universal character, see them as archetypal concepts rooted in a “collective unconscious.” Psychiatrists, knowing that people live by myths, and dissatisfied with the available Urmyths, which – in their opinion – mankind has outgrown, advocate the creation of private myths for people to live by. It is pertinent that all these theories presuppose an evolutionary process involving the maturation of mankind, a concept alien to all true mythology, which looks back to a “golden age” when men were heroes and the gods walked on earth.

Rama Coomaraswamy in the preface of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy’s The Door In The Sky