Simone Weil

Some of the things she says don't make sense. "The good seems to us as a nothingness, since there is no thing that is good. But this nothingness is not unreal. Compared with it, everything in existence is unreal." The good seems as a nothingness? Since no thing is good? I think there are lots of things that are good. And most good doesn't seem as a nothingness not a somethingness.
"If we find fullness of the joy in the thought that God exists, we should find the same fullness in the knowledge that we ourselves do not exist, for it is the same thought." This doesn't make very much sense to me either, what does she mean we don't exist? And I don't find fullness in that knowledge, I feel a lot of emptiness instead from that thought. We exist because of God, and God MUST exist because we exist.
I really like when she says "Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer." We should be able to take time out of our day to stop thinking about ourselves and everything going on in our life and just give all of our attention to God. It's not fair that we can give unmixed attention to the television but not in prayer.
And I really really like when she talks about perfect and infinite joy existing in God. And nothing can change this infinite joy, it's always there. It's like God is always there and God will always love us and have joy to share with us.

Bakhya Ibn-Pakuda

Well first of all, why did it have to be a girl who devotes everything to God in the first paragraph? Why not a guy? And I don't like where it says "devoting herself entirely to him, loving him, and trusting him completely. Every action she performs is for his sake. Every thought she has is of him.." And he keeps going. I think God gave us the ability to have our own thoughts and make mistakes so we can do so. If He wanted to be so selfish and have everyone do everything in honor of Him everyday and every minute, then He wouldn't have given us the ability to do otherwise. I don't mean that we shouldn't think about Him or thank Him everyday, but I don't think that he meant for every moment of our lives to be devoted to Him, maybe the ideas he taught so we can do good in the world for other people. So I guess in that way we could be doing things in honor of Him. I just think he'd be happier if we were out doing something like feeding or clothing the needy while thinking of Him, instead of spending all of our time in a church praying to Him.

Kuei-Shan

I would like to meet a Zen Master just to see if they really seem so honnest "without deceit or delusion." A lot of people can seem honnest and true but it'd be nice to see what honnest and true really looks like. I think trustworthy people have a welcoming glow about them but sometimes they end up not being so trustworthy, but a Zen Master would be so I think it'd be cool to be in the presence of one.

Isaac of Ninevah

I really like the first paragraph, God love in unconditional and never ending. I like to think that he'll never stop loving us no matter how much we sin or drift away, as long as we come back to him we'll always have a spot in his heart. And that kind of love is hard to find, not even all parents can love their children that way.
I liked the second paragraph as well. Especially when he says "who gives us more than we ourselves could ask for or even imagine." Maybe if we can see the big picture, everything God gives us in life, all of the blessings and difficulties, are meant to be to make us better people. The difficulties are actually blessings, we just have to trust God enough and let things happen and take whatever experience we can from it. He makes a good point, most people only pray when they want something, but no one ever prays to thank him except on Thanksgiving. The truth is everyday should be treated like Thanksgiving, thank God for every day and everything in life, give thanks for even having a life and having the people in that life. But it's very hard to trust God with our whole heart and not ask for things in our prayers, we're human and all we do is think about things we want, but I think we should try and remember to thank God at least once every day. And if we could stop asking for things, I think that goes along with that hes saying in the third paragraph about humility, "When he is completely hidden to himself in himself, he is completely with God." We should stop wanting and starting thanking and being more humble, and that way we can be closer to God.

Abu Abdallah Al-Harith Al- Muhasibi

"..when solitude is combined with secret intercourse with the Beloved, the joy of that intercourse overwhelms the mind, so that it is no longer concerned with this world and what is in it." For some reason this quote really stands out to me. It makes me think that once you find God then you'll be happy and everything in life will have a different meaning because you'll see it differently because you'll be so consumed and surrounded by God that you can't help but be happy. By using the world "secret" it made me think of Sunday school when the teachers would tell me that you shouldn't do good to show off or expect anything from it, you should do good in secret so only yourself and God will know the good you've done. You shouldn't donate money towards an organization so you can have your name and picture published, instead you should make it annonymous so you're only doing it for the good it will do.
Another quote that really stuck out was when he says,"When love is established in the heart of a servant of god, there is no place there for remembrance of men or demons or of Paradise of Hell, or for anythings except the remembrance of the Beloved and his grace." It goes back to being so overwhelmed by joy once you find God that nothing in this world matters and you forget about everything. I think he also means that if you have faith in God then bad things mean nothing because you know you'll be taken care of in the end. Just keep focusing on all the good.

Hugh of St. Victor

"..it is as if we were sailing over the waves, until we find the calm that is inside us." I don't think we'll find God outside of ourselves and no one can really explain him to us, we must really look inside ourselves and also know ourselves in order to know and understand God. Since God is in each of us, if we want to get to know God then why not start with ourselves. It's pretty simple when you think about it that way. "But when a man, through the senses of his flesh, goes out to visible things, desiring what is transitory and perishable, he descends from the dignity of his natural condition to what is unworthy of his desire." We won't find God or be happy by buying things or aiming to have the most luxurious life. "Happy is he who escapes unharmed from that storm-tossed sea, and reaches the safety of the port!" And safety is with God within ourselves.

Symeon The New Theologian

I don't like the last part that says "Our mind is pure and simple. When it is emptied of thought, it enters the pure and simple light of God, and finds nothing but the light." It sounds like something people at church would tell people to make them become zombies. It makes me think that you need to empty your mind from your own thoughts to have someone else thoughts pushed into your head and not think for yourself. If God didn't want us to think for ourselves then he never would have given us the ability to do so.

I really like the first paragraph that describes the man walking knee deep into the water and being able to see about him. But when he dives in, he can see nothing but the waster surrounding in. It's like seeing everything in a whole new way and if the water is God, than in ways he's seeing everything in a better way and through the eyes of God.