Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Free advice

I thought it might be a good time to re-run these three passages from One Minute Wisdom by Anthony de Mello:

The monks of a neighboring monastery asked the Master’s help in a quarrel that had arisen among them. They had heard the Master say he had a technique that was guaranteed to bring love and harmony to any group.

On this occasion he revealed it: “Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting all the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practice this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.”

Having said that, he was gone...

To a disciple who begged for wisdom the Master said, “Try this out: Close your eyes and see yourself and every living being thrown off the top of a precipice. Each time you cling to something to stop yourself from falling, understand that it is falling too.”

The disciple tried it out and never was the same again.

"How shall I get liberation?

“Find out who has bound you,” said the Master.

The disciple returned after a week and said, “No one has bound me.”

“Then why ask to be liberated?”

That was the moment of Enlightenment for the disciple, who suddenly became free.