Ruah Quotes

The Greek terminology for the Trinity, which includes the neuter term for spirit (pneuma) virtually requires that the third “Person” of the Trinity be asexual. But the author of the Secret Book has in mind the Hebrew term for spirit, ruah, a feminine word; and so concludes that the feminine “Person” conjoined with the Father and Son must be the Mother.

To be truly man means to be fully oneself. The confirmation is the confirmation of man in his own, unique "personality". It is, to use again the same image, his ordination to be himself, to become what God wants him to be, what he has loved in me from all eternity. It is the gift of vocation. If the Church is truly the "newness of life" - the world and nature as restored in Christ - it is not, or rather ought not be, a purely religious institution in which to be "pious,” to be a member in "good standing,” means leaving one's own personality at the entrance - in the "check room” - and replacing it with a worn-out, impersonal, neutral "good Christian" type personality. Piety in fact may be a very dangerous thing a real opposition to the Holy Spirit who is the Giver of Life - of joy, movement, and creativity - and not of the "good conscience" which looks at everything with suspicion, fear, and moral indignation. Confirmation is the opening of man to the wholeness of divine creation, to the true catholicity of life. This is the "wind,” the ruah of God entering our life, embracing it with fire and love, making us available for divine action, filling everything with joy and hope...

We read in Bereshit (Genesis 1:2), in the Story of Creation, ruah elohim mirahefet al p’nei ha-mayim. This is typically translated as: “a wind from God hovered (or swept) over the face of the water.” The word that is translated as hovered or swept is mirahefet. Mirahefet is a word of ancient Hebrew poetry. It is rarely found in Torah, but we do read it in Deuteronomy (32:11) where mirahefet refers to a mother eagle beating her wings in place, over the nest of her young, in order to feed them. And so I translate mirahefet as “fluttering.

A great scholar named Hans Walter Wolff wrote a classic study of how the Old Testament writers understood personhood. He said that the word flesh stands for humanity’s bodily form with its mortality, physical strength, and limitations. Ruah, the Hebrew word for “spirit,” speaks of human beings as they are empowered — human existence with breath and will and inspiration. Wolff’s chapter on nephesh — the Hebrew word for “soul” — he titled “Needy Man.

This premise can be applied to life on the planet today. The more oxygen life can consume, the more electron excitability it gains, the more animated it becomes. When living matter is bristling and able to absorb and transfer electrons in a controlled way, it remains healthy. When cells lose the ability to offload and absorb electrons, they begin to break down. “Taking out electrons irreversibly means killing,” wrote Szent-Györgyi. This breakdown of electron excitability is what causes metal to rust and leaves to turn brown and die. Humans “rust” as well. As the cells in our bodies lose the ability to attract oxygen, Szent-Györgyi wrote, electrons within them will slow and stop freely interchanging with other cells, resulting in unregulated and abnormal growth. Tissues will begin “rusting” in much the same way as other materials. But we don’t call this “tissue rust.” We call it cancer. And this helps explain why cancers develop and thrive in environments of low oxygen. The best way to keep tissues in the body healthy was to mimic the reactions that evolved in early aerobic life on Earth—specifically, to flood our bodies with a constant presence of that “strong electron acceptor”: oxygen. Breathing slow, less, and through the nose balances the levels of respiratory gases in the body and sends the maximum amount of oxygen to the maximum amount of tissues so that our cells have the maximum amount of electron reactivity. “In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy,” said Szent-Györgyi. The moving energy of electrons allows living things to stay alive and healthy for as long as possible. The names may have changed—prana, orenda, ch’i, ruah—but the principle has remained the same. Szent-Györgyi apparently took that advice. He died in 1986, at the age of 93. •

London mengumpulkan bijih-bijih perak dan bahasa-bahasa dari selu­ruh dunia dalam jumlah melimpah ruah, serta menghasilkan kota yang le­bih besar, lebih berat, lebih cepat, dan lebih terang dari yang dimungkinkan oleh alam. London kota yang rakus, menggemuk karena harta rampasan, tetapi, entah mengapa, masih kelaparan. London kaya tiada tara, sekaligus miskin tiada terperi.

As the Holy Spirit indwells New Testament believers, there is also something similar in the lives of Old Testament believers provided by ruah!.

A héberek hajjé saah-t és hajjé olamot különböztetnek meg. Az előbbi az időélet, élet itt a földön a születéstől a meghalásig. Az utóbbi a világélet, amelynek mértéke nem az idő. Olam egyébként azt is jelenti, hogy örök. Minden nyelv tele van szavakkal, amelyek arról beszélnek, hogy az emberi lét egy időtérben több méretkört él. A bennünk egyidejűleg jelenlevő és láthatatlan. Nefes, ruah, nesamah, thymos, psyché, pneuma, spiritus, anima, buddhi, manas, ātman. Az emberi léttel adott nehézség, hogy az egyik a másik nélkül nincs. Megkísérelték megkerülni és a szellemi létezést, vagy a természetet tagadásba vették. A baj ilyen esetekben mindig, hogy a tagadás a valóságon nem változtat, de a tagadó maga rámegy. Legyen az ember, nép, vagy korszak. Ezúttal ismét, miután több száz évig, rossz lelkiismerettel, kötelező volt a földön szenvedni, most még rosszabb lelkiismerettel kötelező az életnek örülni. Mit jelent örülni? Vitális lehetőségeket kizsákmányolni. Ahhoz képest, hogy másokat mennyire raboltak ki, elenyészett, hogy önmagukat mennyire kirabolták. Az élet önmagában véve szomorú. Nincs szomorúbb, mint a merő életöröm, a paloták, a ruhák, az ékszerek, archeológiai sírzsákmány, kacér Szűzmáriák, kisportolt Krisztusok, múzeumi szenzációk, lakomák és persze meztelen nők. Nyert, aki új élvezetet talált ki. És amíg Firenzében, vagy a Louvre-ban, vagy a Buckingham-palotában éltek, még ment valahogy, de amikor az életet elkezdték követelni az altisztek és a külvárosok és az életkirályt nem Borgiának hívták, hanem Oscar Wilde-nak és az életélvezetre való igényét minden meggazdagodott ószeres bejelentette, a dolog elkezdett bizarr lenni.