LITTLE GIDDING

From Verse 5  From T S Eliots Poem
'LITTLE GIDDING' 
From 'THE FOUR QUARTETS'

"  ....................With the drawing of 
this love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."

Little Gidding is the fourth and final poem of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets a series of poems that discuss time, perspective, humanity, and salvation. Little Gidding focuses on the unity of past, present, and future, and claims that understanding this unity is necessary for salvation. The full poem is well worth reading.
What interests me is that the ideas regarding unity are relevant in a spiritual sense be that Buddhist or Christian. Also relevant from a comparative religious point of view are these two sets of much quoted lines - 

"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

 - Which is a statement regarding the spiritual quest, i.e. What we are longing for is on our doorstep, within our lives now ..... we just don't recognise it - which is very much a Buddhist concept.

And:

"And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well." -

- Which are the words of Julian of Norwich an English Christian mystic which were incorporated into the poem by T. S. Eliot. Julian of Norwich preached that "sin" should be seen as a part of the learning process of life, not a malice that needed forgiveness. These words of hers are interesting because they mirror a similar Buddhist approach, that is -  The suffering of this world is required for human spiritual development. Patience, compassion, long suffering, forgiveness, reconciliation are grown within a world of suffering - The Buddhist Lotus flower blooms in stark contrast to the muddy 'Samsara' that it grows in. 'Sin' and 'Samsara' must both be transcended.