This remains one of my favourite quotes. There is so much wisdom in it, especially in these fractious and intolerant times……
“….in this journey of the spirit, I and others still walk that steep uphill road….And all our religious edifices, which serve first as staffs to help us on our way, in the end become crutches which we must discard….And the doctrines which we espouse and which we hold dear are only smooth shining stones which we pick up on the road and place in our baggage. With each new dogma and doctrine, the baggage grows heavier, until we discard these pebbles, one by one, leaving them on the roadside for others to find and carry a little further. And in the end we have need of neither doctrine nor creed, nor to name that which we worship – for it is beyond all image and words….”
(pp 120-121 Women in Search of the Sacred by Anne Bancroft (Penguin Arkana 1996)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Search-Sacred-Arkana-Bancroft/dp/0140194940
********************************************
150 words copyright Anne Bancroft/Anne Whitaker 2012
Licensed under Creative Commons – for conditions see Home Page