Tag: One Minute Wisdom

NON-VIOLENCE

A snake in the village had bitten so many people that few dared go into the fields.  Such was the Master’s holiness that he was said to have tamed the snake and persuaded it to practice the discipline of nonviolence.

It did not take long for the villager to discover that the snake had become harmless.  They took to hurling stones at it and dragging it about by its tail.

The badly battered snake crawled into the Master’s house one night to complain. Said the Master, “Friend, you have stopped frightening people,  that’s bad!”

“But it was you who taught me to practice the discipline of nonviolence!”

“I told you to stop hurting, not to stop hissing!”

Source | Anthony de Mello, SJ, One Minute Wisdom
(Image Books, 1988) page 45

PONDER AND CONSIDER

VIGILANCE

Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?

As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.

Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?

To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.

Anthony de Mello sj, One Minute Wisdom
(Image, 1988) page 11

PONDER AND CONSIDER

  • Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. | Matthew 25:13
  • Are you awake or asleep … distracted or centred and focused?
  • What spiritual exercises do you engage on a daily basis to keep yourself mindful, he artful, alert and attentive?

ESCAPE

The master became a legend in his lifetime.  It was said that God once sought his advice: “I want to play a game of hide-and-seek with humankind.  I’ve asked my angels what the best place is to hide in.  Some say the depth of the ocean.  Others say the top of the highest mountain.  Others still the far side of the moon or a distant star.  What do you suggest?”

Said the Master, “Hide in the human heart.  That is the last place they will think of!”

Source | Anthony De Mello, One Minute Wisdom, page 44

PONDER AND CONSIDER

  • “Looking for God is like seeking a path in a field of snow; if there is no path and you are looking for one, walk across it and there is your path.” | Thomas Merton
  • “Where do we begin?” asks Meister Eckhart. “Begin with the heart.”

 

DEEPER MEANING

The master gave his teaching in parables and stories, which his disciples listened to with pleasure – and occasional frustration, for they longed for something deeper.

The master was unmoved. To all their objections he would say, “You have yet to understand that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.” 

Source | Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom,
(Doubleday, 1986) page. 23

PONDER AND CONSIDER

  • The shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story

ONE MINUTE WISDOM

“Is there such a thing as One Minute Wisdom?”
“There certainly Is,” said the Master.
“But surely one minute is too brief?”
“It is fifty-nine seconds too long.”

To his puzzled disciples the Master later said,

“How much time does it take to catch sight of the moon?”

“Then why all these years of spiritual endeavour?”

“Opening one’s eyes may take a lifetime.
Seeing is done in a flash.”

Source | Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom, page 1.

PONDER AND CONSIDER

  • Very often we see things as we are and not as they really are!  We look at events, people, things and happenings through own own filters and biases thus missing perhaps what is there to be revealed to us.
  • Are you still going through life with “eyes wide shut”?