μετάνοια metanoia

Mesopotamia & Egypt

The court oppresses him (saying), ' Silver and gold for the scribes! Clothing for the servants!' But Amon transforms himself into the vizier, that he may cause the poor man to triumph; the poor man is just and the poor man •overcomes1 the r… Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, Breasted, Religion and Thought Lecture 10 ¶16

I have slain some of them, but worthless men still live, and I did not slay as many as I ought to have done considering my power." To this the gods replied, "Trouble not about thy lack of action, for thy power is in proportion to thy will."… The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians (anthology), Budge, Egyptian Literature Chapter 7 p.7 ¶3b

India

I^cflllsntlon of the non n^cncy of the Self leads to ahHoUition from tfie effects of nil work*. Who then is the wise man that sees rightly ? — Thf answer follows : 17. He who is free from egotistic notion, whose mind is not tainted, — thoug… Bhagavad Gita, Gita (Sastri/Sankara) Discourse 18 p.411 ¶18

That deed is not well done of which a man must repent, and the reward of which he receives crying and with a tearful face. Dhammapada, Dhammapada 67

126 XVI. MAHA PARINIBBANA SUTTANTA. D. ii. 118. the aeon. Live on, O Exalted One ! through the aeon for the good and the happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, for the good and the gain and the weal of gods and men." … Dialogues of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya), DN II XVI. MAHA PARINIBBANA SUTTANTA p.2 ¶191

China & Japan

1. Tsze-chang was learning with a view to official emolument. 2. The Master said, 'Hear much and put aside the points of which you stand in doubt, while you speak cautiously at the same time of the others:-- then you will afford few occasio… Analects, Analects 2.18

6. In the sixth (or topmost) line, undivided, (we see its subject as) the dragon exceeding the proper limits. There will be occasion for repentance. 7. (The lines of this hexagram are all strong and undivided, as appears from) the use of th… I Ching (Yi King, Book of Changes), I Ching p.58 ¶99

King Hwuy died in B.C. 319, and was succeeded by his son, the king Seang. Mencius appears to have had but one interview with him. When he came out from it, he observed to some of his friends : — " When I looked at him from a distance, he di… Mencius, Mencius p.29 ¶54

Persia & Islam

always shining, but sometimes for us His light is eclipsed by some object which intervenes between us and Him. Regarding some adepts it is related that they attain to such a degree of ecstasy that they lose themselves in God. Such was the c… The Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya-yi Sa'adat), Alchemy CHAPTER V p.69 ¶6

Your Lord through all Forgetfulness and Crime, / Here, There, and Everywhere, and through all Time. / But as a Father, whom some wayward Child / By sinful Self-will has unreconciled, / Waits till the sullen Reprobate at cost / Of long Repen… The Conference of the Birds (Mantiq al-Tayr), Bird Parliament ll. 61-80

‘We cannot go out of existence even if we want,” recently declared Sir Oliver Lodge, the famous scientist (a) For an account of the akhirat, vide ‘Studies iu Tasawwaf '; pp, 54, 55 and 204 ina sermon preached at Glasgow ‘“‘we continue as sp… Fusus al-Hikam (Bezels of Wisdom), Fusus (Khaja Khan) p.405 ¶30

Hebrew & Jewish

And they that have loathed my law, while they had yet liberty, and, when as yet place of repentance was open unto them, understood not, but despised it; Apocrypha (Deuterocanonical books: Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Maccabees, ...), 2 Esdras 9:11

And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. The Bible (Old and New Testaments), Genesis 6:6

9. And he said to me: ‘This first is Michael, the merciful and long-suffering: and the second, who is set over all the diseases and all the wounds of the children of men, is Raphael: and the third, who is set over all the powers, is Gabriel… 1 Enoch, 1 Enoch 40:9

Greek & Roman

race, What laws, what barb’rous customs of the place, Shut up a desert shore to drowning men, And drive us to the cruel seas again? If our hard fortune no compassion draws, Nor hospitable rights, nor human laws, The gods are just, and will … The Aeneid, Aeneid (Dryden), Book I ¶35

STRENGTH. Lo, the earth’s bound and limitary land, The Scythian steppe, the waste untrod of men! Look to it now, Hephaestus—thine it is, Thy Sire obeying, this arch-thief to clench Against the steep-down precipice of rock, With stubborn lin… Aeschylus: Tragedies (Oresteia, Prometheus Bound, etc.), Aeschylus Prometheus Bound ¶2

many things which are, as I maintain, unworthy of me—such things as you are accustomed to hear from others. But I did not think at the time that I ought, on account of the danger I was in, to do anything unworthy of a free man, nor do I now… Apology of Socrates, Apology 38e

Hidden streams

*Yet the advantage of its being in a language which you do not immediately associate with the things of every-day life is great, provided always Hat you understand the words and repent thent and pronounce them correctly. go : THE BOOK OF TH… The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage, Abramelin p.89 ¶142

of the Weights , requeuing that wc would in patience waite till the next day, for on the morrow wc muft be prefented to the King.- She being thus Hofpirum departed from us, each of us did what ^'^^ '"^«^ebelt pleafed him. One part viewed ^ … The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, Chymical Wedding p.50 ¶56a

28. And when they heard, they came with one accord. Whereon I say : 1 Cf. K. K., 25 : " Thus speaking God became Imperishable Mind." 2 Cf. the logos, " Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them, and… Corpus Hermeticum, Corpus Hermeticum I.27-29 (Poimandres)

Christian

76. Seeing, then, that we find not the customary order prevailing, be content, Arian, to believe in a miraculous generation of the Son. Be content, I say, and if you believe me not, at least have respect unto the voice of God saying, "To wh… Exposition of the Christian Faith (De fide, to Gratian), Ambrose, On the Christian Faith, Prefatory Note, Chapter XII. ¶4

99. Let us, then, imitate the devotion of Abraham, let us imitate the goodness of Isaac, let us imitate his purity. The man was plainly good and chaste, full of devotion towards God, chaste towards his wife. He returned not evil for evil, y… On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus (De excessu fratris; incl. On Belief in the Resurrection), Ambrose, On the Decease of Satyrus, Three Books on the Duties of the Clergy, Book II. ¶89

112. What shall I say of Joseph? He certainly had a longing for freedom, and yet endured the bonds of servitude. How meek he was in slavery, how unchanging in virtue, how kindly in prison! Wise, too, in interpreting, and self-restrained in … On the Duties of the Clergy (De officiis ministrorum), Ambrose, Duties of the Clergy, Three Books on the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XXIV. ¶8

Modern West

As Mystery and Miracle took charge of the past and the present, Prophecy took charge of the future, and rounded the tenses of faith. It was not sufficient to know what had been done, but what would be done. The supposed prophet was the supp… The Age of Reason, Age of Reason Part I, Chapter 17 ¶15

Some, when they take revenge, are desirous, the party should know, whence it cometh. This is the more generous. For the delight seemeth to be, not so much in doing the hurt, as in making the party repent. But base and crafty cowards, are li… Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, Bacon Of Revenge ¶1b

of the cross, the Spaniard at the sight of the faggot and stake, or of the bull-fight, the present-day Japanese who presses his way to the tragedy, the workman of the Parisian suburbs who has a homesickness for bloody revolutions, the Wagne… Beyond Good and Evil, BGE §229 ¶2