Bernadette Roberts Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

But coming home that day, walking downhill with a panorama of valley and hills before me, I turned my gaze inward, and what I saw, stopped me in my tracks. Instead of the usual unlocalized centre of myself, there was nothing there, it was empty, and at the moment of seeing this there was a flood of quiet joy and I knew, finally I knew what was missing-it was my "self".

Bernadette Roberts
Only God is love, and for this love to be fully realized self must step aside. And not only do we not need a self to love God, but for the same reason we do not need a mind to know him, for that in us which knows God, is God.

Bernadette Roberts
The truest communication with God is absolute, total silence; there is not a single word in existence that can convey this communication.

Bernadette Roberts
This search for perfection — which is a search for divinity — is nothing more than the failure to accept our existence the way it is.

Bernadette Roberts
To be forgiven is not enough; we must put an end to the very need to be forgiven.

Bernadette Roberts
In some ways, all our experiences of God are beyond belief, because all conceptual beliefs pale when compared to the experiential reality.

Bernadette Roberts
The onset of this second movement is characterized by the falling away of self and coming upon "that" which remains when it is gone. But this going-out is an upheaval, a complete turnabout of such proportions it cannot possibly be missed, under-emphasized, or sufficiently stressed as a major landmark in the contemplative life.

Bernadette Roberts
The assumption that the egoless condition, or union of self and God, is man's final goal and ultimate destiny is a great mistake. My purpose here is to affirm that the unitive state is a hidden path in itself, a movement in its own right that ultimately leads to no-self (no true-self and no-union). In short, the unitive state is the hidden path to no-self.

Bernadette Roberts
A point is reached where the self is so completely aligned with the still-point that it can no longer be moved, even in its first movements, from this center. It can no longer be tested by any force or trial, nor moved by the winds of change, and at this point the self has obviously outworn its function; it is no longer needed or useful, and life can go on without it.

Bernadette Roberts
Once beyond the self, however, holiness is no longer possible, because now, there is nothing left to give and no-one left to do the giving.

Bernadette Roberts