Research Question #6

How does cherishing nature as a sacred gift benefit us?

We cannot speak thoughtfully of love for God and humanity without including love for nature and our universe. Some people are nature mystics. They sense the Divine behind the tremendous power and beauty of the natural world, from the rising morning sun to the peaceful rhythms of ocean waves. Inner Peace is connected with noticing the sacredness of our own souls, as well as of the natural world in its sheer beauty. This natural world includes the galaxy and all the harmonious mathematical constants and thermodynamic principles that turn many physicists into theists. We have not all realized that nature is a sacred gift, the first and most refreshing revelation of a divine love. Even though we abuse nature, ourselves, and one another, the underlying love and creative energy of the universe is always present in our deepest being in a very special way. We can connect with the creative mind and love through nature, as mystics, philosophers, and theologians suggest and as some leading quantum theorists and cosmologists assert is at least plausible.

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”
—Sir Isaac Newton

“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
An eternity in an hour.”
—William Blake

“In Your love, You gave us Mother Earth, the Wonders of Heaven, and the Beauty of Nature for our enjoyment, where all could live in peace as sisters and brothers of your creation.”
—Prayer for Native American Week

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Endorsement for Stephen G. Post’s book Is Ultimate Reality Unlimited Love?

It takes chutzpah to attempt a book like this. We are such partially-seeing creatures, barely glimpsing splinters of truth, savoring here and there tiny tastes of human love, and in moments of meditation perhaps getting a peek into the Divine Heart of Love—everything melting and moving, flowing, ever changing, ever eluding our grasp. So, hats off to you, Stephen, for helping us to better understand Sir John’s hopes for us to grasp Ultimate Reality. This isn’t simply a book to read. This is Deep Ocean luring us to plunge in.

—Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking

In this beautiful homage to Sir John Templeton, who put unlimited love at the center of his life, Stephen Post reminds us that agape—universal, unconditional love—is an essential quality of the most profound understanding of ultimate reality. Just as when there is a sun, light rays will effortlessly shine on all, without partiality, the realization of the ultimate reality will spontaneously express itself as unlimited love. In showing this in multiple ways, Stephen Post’s work is a precious gift to humanity.

—Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist Monk & Scientist, Recipient of the French Order of Merit, Founder of Karuna-Shechen, author of The Quantum and the Lotus (with Trinh Xuan Thuan)

What is it to be a material success? By any standard, Sir John Templeton embodied the answer. But he also epitomized metaphysical success. In this unprecedented book, Dr. Stephen Post draws on the private words and personal practices of a business icon whose virtues transcend time. What is it to leave a legacy in more ways than one? Read on.

—Prof. Irshad Manji, New York Times bestselling author of Allah, Liberty and Love, and founder, Moral Courage Project

Dr.Howard Thurman said: ‘We are eternally obligated to grapple with great ideas.’ Dr Post is superbly equipped to grapple with one of Sir John’s great ideas. Through this timely publication we can all participate in this creative dialogue.

—Otis Moss, Jr., D.Min, Pastor Emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Internationally renowned Civil Rights advocate, Advisor to Presidents Carter, Clinton and Obama, Chairman Emeritus of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees

As one who worked closely with Sir John and had the precious opportunity to be engaged with his ideas, this thoughtfully written book by Dr. Post captures an essential aspect of Sir John’s thoughts and hopes with regard to Ultimate Reality and Unlimited Love. Sir John’s deep unselfish love for humanity, his bold metaphysical ideas, the humility of a magnificent soul, and his nobility of spirit echoes throughout the pages.

—Rev. Rebekah Alezander Dunlap, Unity School of Christianity Minister and Author

As an act of love and loyalty, Stephen Post helps us understand the mind and spirit of Sir John Templeton. A fierce and passionate man, Sir John, as Post affectionately calls him, had the courage to ask the big questions in the tenacity to seek answers. So is Unlimited Love the Ultimate Reality? Read this with a curious mind and an open heart and you will find yourself experiencing something divine. Love.

—Daniel Gottlieb PhD, Host of Voices in the Family WHYY.FM (Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate), author of the best-selling Letters to Sam and of the forthcoming The Wisdom We’re Born with: Restoring Our Faith in Ourselves

Sir John is very well situated in this book with reference to Unity and New Thought.

—Rev. Glenn R. Mosley, M.Sc., Ph.D., President-CEO Emeritus, Association of Unity Churches International, author of New Thought, Ancient Wisdom, with a “Foreword” by Sir John Templeton

In this book devoted to an exegesis of Sir John Templeton’s thoughts on the prime role of love in the universe, Dr. Post lovingly weaves a reminiscence of his mentor into a compelling narrative filled with erudite associations that may be provocative to the modern ear but are also illuminating. If Erasmus was right and “humility is truth” perhaps we shouldn’t be so fast to foreclose on the possibility that love is the ultimate hidden variable.

—Dr. Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, Director of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School

I love all Stephen Post’s memories and anecdotes of Sir John Templeton. I met him just once, late in his life, sometime in the 90’s when he was in London to give prizes in the essay competition among school children, and I remember vividly the radiance of his face and his kindly disposition. This extraordinary book presents Sir John Templeton’s life-guiding vision of the ardent symbiosis between unlimited love and ultimate reality. Based on his personal knowledge of Sir John, his numerous writings and correspondence, Post has done a marvelous job in conveying the strength and boldness of a vision that can change humanity and create a better future for all.

—Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies University of Bristol; Professorial Research Associate, Department of the Study of Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

This book is written as an almost sacred obligation to honor the dying request of Sir John Templeton that the book he wished he could have written would be written. It has and it surely is as close to the vision Sir John would have written in response to his bold question, “Is ultimate reality unlimited love?” Stephen Post has done a remarkable job in being the faithful voice of this “last book” of what I fondly think of as the mystic of Winchester. Here is the vision of a man whose immense wealth has always been in the service of seeking an answer to what is perhaps the greatest question that can be asked.

—Ralph W. Hood Jr., Former Editor Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Recipient of the William James Award from the Division of Psychology of Religion of the American Psychological Association

The mystical and Eastern dimensions of trailblazing philanthropist Sir John Templeton’s worldview are far too often overlooked. Stephen Post has balanced the record in a scholarly tour de force. Drawing on many unpublished letters and other sources, Post traces influences from Unity spirituality, the perennial philosophy, and Emersonian Transcendentalism, setting them alongside Sir John’s better-known Presbyterian influences. Is Ultimate Reality Unlimited Love offers the fullest integrated view to date of Sir John the man and his mature vision, a vision that continues to live and influence the world through his foundation, writings, and legacy of personal inspiration.]

—Doug Oman, PhD, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley

Sir John Templeton’s remarkable investment acuity is paralleled by his dedication to the scientific understanding of the power of love and to the dissemination of that knowledge. Thank you Sir John.

—Herbert Benson, MD, Director Emeritus, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Mind Body Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, author of The Relaxation Response

Humility, purpose, and love—unlimited divine love—these were the big ideas that animated John Templeton, and which his “surrogate writer,” Stephen G. Post, faithfully conveys on his behalf. By blending intellectual biography with Sir John’s spiritual worldview, Post offers a helpful and hopeful alternative to today’s “me generation.”

—David G. Myers, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Hope College

This is a beautifully written testament to Sir John Templeton in one of the key areas that he was passionate about. It is written by someone who knew Sir John well and has spearheaded efforts to make Sir John’s dream of spreading the message of unconditional love a reality in a world that desperately needs it. This is a “must read” for anyone wishing to do the same.

—Dr. Harold Koenig, MD, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University

Part intellectual biography, part festschrift, part spiritual treatise, Stephen Post has ably captured Sir John’s remarkable vision of unlimited love as the source and foundation of all being. The world needs this redemptive and transformative message now more than ever.

—Jeff Levin, Ph.D., M.P.H., University Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, Baylor University; Editor of Divine Love: Perspectives from the World’s Religious Traditions

Stephen Post captures the essence of the life of one of our truly great spiritual leaders, Sir John Templeton. Dr. Post eloquently elucidates Sir John’s belief that universal love offers the possibility of transforming our focus on material wealth to one of elevating the importance of the spiritual roots that enrich and give meaning to our lives—a critical message for our times.

—Claire Haaga Altman, President & CEO of Volunteers of America-Greater New York

Stephen Post tackles a number of challenges in Is Unlimited Reality Unlimited Love? First, writing about the importance of unselfish love in a well-lived life during an age of greed and narcissism, and second to undertake this discourse in the voice and thoughts of Sir John Templeton is courageous-some might say lunacy. At a time when some many young people are seeking meaning in their lives I can think of no more important subject to address and no more qualified individual to address it than Stephen G. Post.

-Stan Altman, Ph.D., Professor School of Public Affairs and former Dean & Interim President, Baruch College, CUNY