Soma
Resources => Stories, Writings and Other Snippets [Public] => Topic started by: nichi on November 10, 2006, 01:20:26 AM
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To a distressed person who came to him for help the Master said, "Do you
really want a cure"
"If I did not, would I bother to come to you?"
"Oh yes. Most people do."
"What for?"
"Not for a cure. That's painful. For relief."
To his disciples the Master said, "People who want a cure, provided they
can have it without pain, are like those who favor progress, provided they
can have it without change."
Anthony de Mello, S.J.
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In keeping with his doctrine that nothing be taken too seriously, not even
his own teachings, the Master loved to tell this story on himself:
"My very first disciple was so weak that the exercises killed him. My second disciple drove himself crazy from his earnest practice of the exercises I gave him. My third disciple dulled his intellect through too much contemplation. But the fourth managed to keep his sanity."
"Why was that?" someone would invariably ask.
"Possibly because he was the only one who refused to do the exercises."
The Master's words would be drowned in howls of laughter.
Anthony de Mello, SJ
:D
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A zealous disciple expressed a desire to teach others the Truth and asked
the Master what he thought about this. The Master said, "Wait."
Each year the disciple would return with the same request and each time the Master would give him the same reply: "Wait."
One day he said to the Master, "When will I be ready to teach?"
Said the Master, "When your excessive eagerness to teach has left you."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
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To a disciple who strained after Enlightenment till he became physically weak the Master said, "A ray of light can be grasped -- but not with your hands. Enlightenment can be attained -- but not by your efforts."
The puzzled disciple said, "But did you not tell me to strive to become empty? That is what I am attempting to do."
"So now you are full of effort to be empty!" said the Master through his
laughter.
Anthony de Mello, SJ
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:D :D :D
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A zealous disciple expressed a desire to teach others the Truth and asked
the Master what he thought about this. The Master said, "Wait."
Each year the disciple would return with the same request and each time the Master would give him the same reply: "Wait."
One day he said to the Master, "When will I be ready to teach?"
Said the Master, "When your excessive eagerness to teach has left you."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
I think this is what I am just now learning through viewing my own actions changing slowly over the last year or two. It's almost like, "Who cares?" Don't we all have to find our own true path by ourselves, anyway, irregardless of what we think we have "learned" from others?
Do the so-called lessons which I try to pass on to others really mean a fig? Are my so-called students really just those who are fascinated by all I do for a while and then drift off?
So it seems. I slowly come to think that I have been bullshitting myself all these years and have nothing to offer but myself to myself.
Who will long remember when I pass this earthplane, anyway? A few for a little while, then they go on to more pleasant memories, like I do with my own loved ones who pass.
Ho hum. Life goes on inside my fantasy.
Or have I just been working too many hours lately?
ha.
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Don Juan said that he and Don Genaro were about to leave this earth life and that made me feel uneasy and worried.
"Then we will be what we always have been - the dust on the road, he said. And you better watch up, because one day we might blow right up in your eyes."
Free remembering.
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Say more.
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Who will long remember when I pass this earthplane, anyway? A few for a little while, then they go on to more pleasant memories, like I do with my own loved ones who pass.
Ho hum. Life goes on inside my fantasy.
Or have I just been working too many hours lately?
ha.
If you said "Life goes on in my imagination" you would have put it more to what it actually is, the Dream of the Dreamer (but I know we have been through that idea and you're not fond of it). Anyway, One critical point on the path is when we achieve such momentum as "self-generating", before this is possible to any greater extent we must have "self-rememberance".
To remember self inculdes its many forms, but that is a sidetrack, the important thing is to remember the energy of the essential self . Don Juan and Don Genaro held a significant postion in Carlos life and transformation. What Don Juan says is that even as dead, in another form, he and Don Genaro would be able to be in touch. That possibility makes us connected, connected beyond the present form and context.
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Fantasy and imagination are in the same book to me, just in different chapters. Fantasy interjects maybe the unrealistic hope from being not too content, not knowing this connection you allude to. NOw that I think about it, fantasy wasn't what I really meant to use. My brains' been super tired lately from the changes in my work routine. Have never trained someone to do my job and maybe different brainwaves are being stressed, tiring me. Not working only 3 days at a time anymore. Try 9 - 10.
Anyway, wish me happy birthday. I hit the big 6 0 today.
tom
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Happy birthday, Tom!
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Thanx, man. t
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!
:-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Happy B'Day, T!!
(((((((((((((((you))))))))))))))))
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Happy Birthday Tommy!!! ;) ;) ;)
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Thanx. Yawl ! t
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Happy Birthday to You!
Fine old Tom.
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Happy Happy Belated Birthday.
I hope you had a great day =)
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The Fatal Flaw
There was once a scientist who discovered the art of reproducing himself so perfectly that it was impossible to tell the reproduction from the original. One day he learned that the Angel of Death was searching for him, so he produced a dozen copies of himself. The Angel was at a loss to know which of the thirteen specimens before him was the scientist, so he left them all alone and returned to heaven.
But not for long, for being an expert in human nature, the Angel came up with a clever device. He said, "Sir, you must be a genius to have succeeded in making such perfect reproduction of yourself. However, I have discovered a flaw in your work, just one tiny, little flaw."
The scientist immediately jumped out and shouted, "Impossible. Where is the flaw?"
"Right here," said the Angel as he picked up the scientist from among the reproductions and carried him off.
Anthony de Mello, S.J.
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The Master always left you to grow at your own pace. He was never known to "push." He explained this with the following parable:
"A man once saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon, too slowly for his taste, so he began to blow on it gently. The warmth of his breath speeded up the process all right. But what emerged was not a butterfly but a creature with mangled wings.
"In growth," the Master concluded, "you cannot speed the process up. All you can do is abort it."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
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Insightful man, Anthony De Mello - always something enjoyable to read!
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Yet how different ways of implementing that wisodm can there be!
It sounds so clear, but just try to operationalise it with regard to some particular case!
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The Master and a disciple came upon a blind man sitting on the sidewalk, begging.
Said the Master, "Give the man an alms."
The disciple dropped a coin in the beggar's hat.
Said the Master, "You should have touched your hat as a mark of respect."
"Why?" asked the disciple.
"One always should when one gives an alms."
"But the man was blind."
"You never know," said the Master. "He may have been a fraud."
Anthony de Mello, S.J.
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In keeping with his doctrine that nothing be taken too seriously, not even
his own teachings, the Master loved to tell this story on himself:
"My very first disciple was so weak that the exercises killed him. My second disciple drove himself crazy from his earnest practice of the exercises I gave him. My third disciple dulled his intellect through too much contemplation. But the fourth managed to keep his sanity."
"Why was that?" someone would invariably ask.
"Possibly because he was the only one who refused to do the exercises."
The Master's words would be drowned in howls of laughter.
Anthony de Mello, SJ
:D
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The Master always left you to grow at your own pace. He was never known to "push." He explained this with the following parable:
"A man once saw a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon, too slowly for his taste, so he began to blow on it gently. The warmth of his breath speeded up the process all right. But what emerged was not a butterfly but a creature with mangled wings.
"In growth," the Master concluded, "you cannot speed the process up. All you can do is abort it."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
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I like this one! :D
The Master and a disciple came upon a blind man sitting on the sidewalk, begging.
Said the Master, "Give the man an alms."
The disciple dropped a coin in the beggar's hat.
Said the Master, "You should have touched your hat as a mark of respect."
"Why?" asked the disciple.
"One always should when one gives an alms."
"But the man was blind."
"You never know," said the Master. "He may have been a fraud."
Anthony de Mello, S.J.
-
In keeping with his doctrine that nothing be taken too seriously, not even
his own teachings, the Master loved to tell this story on himself:
"My very first disciple was so weak that the exercises killed him. My second disciple drove himself crazy from his earnest practice of the exercises I gave him. My third disciple dulled his intellect through too much contemplation. But the fourth managed to keep his sanity."
"Why was that?" someone would invariably ask.
"Possibly because he was the only one who refused to do the exercises."
The Master's words would be drowned in howls of laughter.
Anthony de Mello, SJ
As for this one, it is unequaled! :D (do we have similar tastes in stories, V?) ;)
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As for this one, it is unequaled! :D (do we have similar tastes in stories, V?) ;)
I think we do, D! :-*
Isn't he the clever devil, heheh?
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good stuff,
now this one:
"In growth," the Master concluded, "you cannot speed the process up. All you can do is abort it."
You should know that there is another option - what I call, 'clearing away all the little droppings'.
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:D
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The young disciple was such a prodigy that scholars from everywhere sought his advice and marveled at his learning.
When the governor was looking for an adviser, he came to the Master and said, "Tell me, is it true that the young man knows as much as they say he does?"
"Truth to tell," said the Master wryly, "the fellow reads so much I don't see how he could ever find the time to know anything."
Anthony de Mello, SJ
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The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu’s dictum:
Those who know do not say;
Those who say do not know.
When the master entered,
They asked him what the words meant.
Said the master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"
All of them indicated that they knew.
Then he said, "Put it into words."
All of them were silent.
~Anthony DeMello
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When a visitor announced he was leaving because he couldn't take another word the Master said, an older disciple was sympathetic.
"I know how you must feel," he said. "For years I avoided the man because his words were like crates that shipped rampaging wild beasts straight from the jungle into my tidy little garden. I would much, much rather have gone to preachers whose words shipped neat white bones from one graveyard to another."
Anthony de Mello, S.J.