Summoning the Gods Quotes

“All this Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan stuff, it’s all bollocks. Enlightenment doesn’t exist. We are all enlightened, we just don’t realize it. The great mystery is to be alive now. Nothing else is as important and incredible as being alive. It’s an incredible mystery. What more do we need to look for?”
― Collin Cleary, Summoning the Gods

“But what is the greatest evil? If you’re going to epitomize evil, what is it? Is it the [atomic] bomb? The greatest evil that one has to fight constantly, every minute of the day until one dies, is the worst part of oneself.”
― Collin Cleary, Summoning the Gods

“And all eventually fail, including man. However, traditional man rose above this fate by choosing it: by consciously choosing to live toward death; to create a glorious life for himself and a glorious death, which would be sung about and celebrated by future generations.”
― Collin Cleary, Summoning the Gods

“We must make a space within ourselves and within our world in which numinous and uncanny things may again show themselves.”
― Collin Cleary, Summoning the Gods

“While polytheism, through the worship of many gods, affirms the life and mystery of the world in all its complexity, monotheism declares the world to be a mere artifact, the product of God’s making, and thus about as living and mysterious as a thumbtack. The transition from polytheism to monotheism is the “De-Godding” of the different aspects of the world. Monotheists therefore progressively cede the complexity of creation to the natural scientist. The entire material world becomes understandable by science on its own terms, and eventually the scientist steps in to take God’s place.”
― Collin Cleary, Summoning the Gods