Held tight as it seems to you in the finite, committed to the perpetual rhythmic changes, the unceasing flux of "natural" life– compelled to pass on from state to state, to grow, to age, to die– there is yet, as you discovered in the first exercise of recollection, something in you which endures through and therefore transcends this world of change. This inhabitant, this mobile spirit, can spread and merge in the general consciousness, and gather itself again to one intense point of personality. It has too an innate knowledge of– an instinct for– another, greater rhythm, another order of Reality, as yet outside its conscious field; or as we say, a capacity for the Infinite. This capacity, this unfulfilled craving, which the cunning mind of the practical man suppresses and disguises as best it can, is the source of all your unrest. More, it is the true origin of all your best loves and enthusiasms, the inspiring cause of your heroisms and achievements; which are but oblique and tentative efforts to still that strange hunger for some final object of devotion, some completing and elucidating vision, some total self-donation, some great and perfect Act within which your little activity can be merged. Evelyn Underhill
About This Quote

There are two things that make us human. The first is our desire to be connected. The second is our ability to love. These two things are at the root of everything that we do, say, and feel.

This quote highlights that there is more to life than what we can see or touch. It also reminds us that it takes the entire universe to see the fullness of the universe. According to the words of this quote, there is nothing in ourselves that can't be passed on through time and space.

We are all one part of the whole, so let's learn to love who we are and who others are as well. The purpose of this essay was not to give you an answer but rather to point out some common misconceptions about suicide. Many people believe suicide is preventable, but it is not. Suicide causes pain not only to those who have lost a loved one because of suicide but also those who have witnessed it or even those who have never met anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide.

Suicide does not take into account the pain of those left behind; their grief, anxiety, anger, sadness etc...are all still there whether they know about it or not. Although suicide does not take into account these emotions it does affect them indirectly by having a direct effect on the environment around them (i.e. spreading germs).

The truth is that suicide does happen; it doesn't just "not happen" anymore because we don't talk about it anymore; we simply ignore it like we ignore other health issues like obesity and smoking. The time has come where we need to stop ignoring this issue and start talking about it if for no other reason than to save lives!

Source: Practical Mysticism

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More Quotes By Evelyn Underhill
  1. On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur.
  2. Held tight as it seems to you in the finite, committed to the perpetual rhythmic changes, the unceasing flux of "natural" life– compelled to pass on from state to state, to grow, to age, to die– there is yet, as you discovered in the first...
  3. True contemplation can only thrive when defended from two opposite exaggerations: quietism on the one hand, and spiritual fuss upon the other. Neither from passivity nor from anxiety has it anything to gain.
  4. The night of thought is the light of perception.
  5. Three deep cravings of the self, three great expressions of man's restlessness, which only mystic truth can fully satisfy. The first is the craving which makes him a pilgrim and a wanderer. It is the longing to go out from his normal world in search...
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