World Religions / Faiths quotations and quotes

If the truth is told it is Philosophy (Pythagoras and Socrates / Plato) rather than Religion that is seen as having the strongest tradition of endorsing a "Tripartite Soul" view of Human Nature BUT the increasing availability of translations of Central world faiths texts allows for a presentation of the consistent way in which several important world faiths also strongly endorse the existence of a "Tripartite" complexity in Human Natures!!!

That is to say that the FIVE World Religions which have the most adherents, (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism), represent Spirituality - as being "relative" - to "Desire" and to "Wrath". On this basis it is surely not entirely unreasonable to suggest that Spirituality, tendencies toward experiencing Desires, and potentialities for Wraths, are all present, to some degree or other, in innate Human Nature.

The World Faiths tend to exhort us to follow courses of Spirituality and Holiness - rather than of Desire, or of Wrath.

Desireous and Wrathfulful impulses presumably tend to arise, (according to circumstances?), from Human Nature and the World Religions are probably not wrong in advising us that following them inappropriately, and inadvisably, could lead us away from "the straight and narrow" path of (relative) righteousness.


Click on these links to review quotations about
Spirituality and Human Nature
drawn from these World Faiths sources :-

A more "in-depth" page about Comparative Religion studies
is available at our partner site ~ www.age-of-the-sage.org :-


  Jesus' keynote teaching is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Inherent to the Sermon on the Mount is an undeniable assertion, in Jesus' own words, of the relativity of our personal capacities for spiritual expression and progress.

The Sermon on the Mount

An invocation towards leading a spiritually centred life


An encouragement of mild forbearance


A litany against materialistic worldliness

An invocation towards leading
a spiritually centred life

Jesus Matthew 5: 1-19

An encouragement of mild forbearance

Jesus Matthew 5: 38-48

A litany against materialistic worldliness

Jesus Matthew 6: 24-34

  See also the other "Central" teaching of Jesus:-

The Parable of the Sower is, perhaps, the most "Enlightenment" related teaching of Jesus!!!

   Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times."

Then Jesus said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." ...


... Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.
He said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear."
Jesus' teaching ~ as set out in St Mark's gospel Chapter 4


The Parable of the Sower actually features in three of the four, primary, "Canonical" Gospels - such that it is possible to attempt to derive deeper meaning by presenting the following alternative ending ~

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open."
~ as set out in St Luke's gospel Chapter 8

This "Parable of the Sower" could be said to suggest that Enlightenment does not appear to be Intellectual but may principally arise from keeping to spiritual teachings!!!

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  The Masnavi of Jalaluddin Rumi is an overtly religious work formed within an Islamic context more than seven hundred years ago.

  In the Masnavi there are several passages which suggest that personal spirituality is relative ~

  The monk said, "I am searching everywhere for a man
Who lives by the life of the breath of God."
The other said, "Here are men the Bazaar is full;
These are surely men, O enlightened sage!"
The monk said, "I seek a man who walks straight
As well in the road of anger as in that of lust.
Where is one who shows himself a man in anger and lust?
In search of such an one I run from street to street.
If there be one who is a true man in these two states,
I will yield up my life for him this day!"

Masnavi Book 5 Story 10

  The Ka'ba is a singularly important Islamic shrine which stands in the court of the Great Mosque of Mecca and is a site of pilgrimage for all Muslims.

  The Ka'ba, whose renown waxes greater every moment,
Owes its foundation to the piety of Abraham.
Its glory is not derived from stones and mortar,
But from being built without lust or strife.

Masnavi Book 4 Story 2

[It is widely known that Allah's faithful are expected to pray five times a day, and it is widely believed that they are expected to face the city of Mecca in doing so.
It is actually the case that it is the Ka'ba, and not the city, that is the (global) focus of those countless prayers-to-Allah]!


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  Hinduism or Vedanta is another of the World Faiths which imputes a multi-faceted character to human "existential being".

In the Bhagavad Gita we read ~

Arjuna spoke.
   But by what is a man impelled, O Varshneya! when he commits sin even against his will, as if compelled by force?

The Holy One spoke.
   It is lust: it is wrath, born from the "passion" mode: know that this, all-devouring, all-defiling, is here our foe.

Bhagavad Gita 3: 36-37

and again ~

... the pleasures that come from the world bear in them sorrows to come. They come and they go, they are transient: not in them do the wise find joy.
But he who on this earth, before his departure, can endure the storms of desire and wrath, this man is a Yogi, this man has joy.
He has inner joy, he has inner gladness, and he has found inner Light. This Yogi attains the Nirvana of Brahman: he is one with God and goes unto God.
Holy men reach the Nirvana of Brahman: their sins are no more, their doubts are gone, their soul is in harmony, their joy is in the good of all.
Because the peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.

Bhagavad Gita 5: 22-26

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  Buddhism also joins with Christianity, Islam, and Vedanta in suggesting that human behaviors have several identifiable tendencies ~

  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who does not cling to pleasures, like water on a lotus leaf, like a mustard seed on the point of a needle.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who, even here, knows the end of his suffering, has put down his burden, and is unshackled.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana whose knowledge is deep, who possesses wisdom, who knows the right way and the wrong, and has attained the highest end.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who keeps aloof both from laymen and from mendicants, who frequents no houses, and has but few desires.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who finds no fault with other beings, whether feeble or strong, and does not kill nor cause slaughter.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with fault-finders, and free from passion among the passionate.
  Him I call indeed a Brâhmana from whom anger and hatred, pride and envy have dropt like a mustard seed from the point of a needle.

Dhammapada V. 401-407

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  Sikhism proves to be yet another major religion which suggests that human behaviors have three identifiable tendencies ~

  With lust and with anger,
The city, that is thy body
Is full to the brim.
Meet as saint and destroy
That lust and that anger.

From Sohila-Arti ~ a bed-time prayer
This section of which is attributed to Guru Ram Das

and again ~


  Root out the choking weeds
Of lust and anger;
Loosening the soil,
The more thou hoest and weedest,
The more lovely grows thy soul;

Rag Basant, page 1171

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