Just another day or Is it?

 

Photo Courtesy of Bruce Thomas Witzel

Love was definitely in the air yesterday. There was the look of love in people’s eyes. Men carrying a bouquet of flowers. Cars are running in slow motion giving pedestrians a chance to cross the street.  I can’t believe that they are actually yielding to us. In turn, I gave them the peace sign instead of giving them the bird.

Valentine’s Day is now over. Yesterday’s red roses are dead. Some are feeling the effect of sugar crash from eating chocolates. I have none of these, but I still feel giddy about meeting people on the road and striking a conversation.

I meet a man on the street who lives two blocks away from me at The Poppy, a residential home for older folks. Still walking with the aid of a walker. I tell you, those walkers are the most significant invention for elderly as a means of their independence just to get around. He is so proud to say that he is 99 years old and can’t wait to reach his centennial year. He has two children. One of them came to visit him to celebrate her 73rd birthday. He proceeded to tell me that his wife died five years ago and they were married for 77 years. He’s happy having his children, grand, and great-great-grandchildren. He doesn’t appear to be that ancient. He seems to be in his 70’s.

We parted and wished me Happy St. Valentine’s Day.

It must be love that keeps him going.

To a disciple who was forever complaining about others the master said, “If  it is peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people.  It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to carpet the whole of the earth.”  ~ Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:    The paradox of control is simple. The more we try to control life, the less control we have.  ~ Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.

 

Photo via TWIST – Picasso, Merton, and Pathways to Peace.

 

What a day. Snow in Vancouver.

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    It hardly snows in Vancouver. Winter is not winter, without snow. Last night it snowed. Calvin:   Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn’t it wonderful? Hobbes: Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand-new! Calvin:   A new year … … Continue reading →

I want, I want, I want

We are put here for a little space
that we may learn
how to bear the beams of love.
…..William Blake

Think about this:

“What is it you seek?” asked the Master of a scholar who came to him for guidance.

“Life,” was the reply.

“If you are to live, words must die.” Said the Master.

When asked later what he meant, he said, “You are lost and forlorn because you dwell in a world of words. You feed on words, you are satisfied with words when what you need is substance. A menu will not satisfy your hunger. A formula will not slake your thirst.”   ~ Anthony de Mello, SJ

Credits on William Blake from:
Image from Todo El Oro Del Mundo
Qoute from Make Believe Boutique

Melting Pot

There is no escaping the traffic. One has to learn to be an aggressive and defensive driver. It seems to be the louder and longer you blow your horn, drivers will allow you to  converge.

Traffic in New Delhi, India

As I look out from the comfort of the bus, I asked Padre what is this area? “Is this the flea market.” The short response was that this is the slum area.

Slum area in New Delhi, India

On the other side of the coin, this is what most people prefer to see, an illusion of history past. This area did not bring any emotional sensation from me in comparison to the traffic and the slum area.

Taj Mahal, India

At the end of the day, our group, all 20 of us from Canada, Philippines and Austria gather for a meal to give thanks to India for opening their doors and converge with them.

Meal time prepared at a Catholic diocese

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Converge.”

Gateway to Silence: Ripen me into fullness

Artist: Tom Miller 2002 donated to VGH Hospital Foundation

When James Finley was a young monk at the monastery of Gethsemane, he shared with Thomas Merton (who was his spiritual director) his frustration at his seemingly inept efforts to experience God’s presence.Merton responded:

“How does an apple ripen? It just sits in the sun.”

Not that we don’t need to continue to seek God, but by our own efforts alone we cannot achieve spiritual maturity. We must bring ourselves to the Light where God’s grace seasons us into juicy, sweet, flavorful ripeness.

An understanding of ripening basically teaches us the wisdom of timing, love, and patience, and allows us to be wise instead of judgmental.

Source: Richard Rohr

 Consider these:

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

 

MORSEL: You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Worth Repeating

Photo of a painting from Fragrant Wood

A disciple confessed his bad habit of repeating gossip.
Said the Master wickedly, “Repeating it wouldn’t be so bad if you did not improve on it.”
~ Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:
To attain Knowledge, add things every day.
To attain Wisdom,remove things every day.
~ Lao Tzu

Dark Silence – It was grand

No power,
No radio,
No phone,
No television,
No internet,
No computer,
Candle flickering,
Sitting in the dark.
All is quiet.
It was grand! 

 “Why are you so wary of thought?” said the philosopher. “Thought is the one tool we have for organizing the world.” 

“True. But thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.” 

To his disciples he later said, “A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.” ~~ Anthony de Mello, S.J. 

 MORSEL: We understand why children are afraid of darkness, but why are men afraid of light? ~~ Plato

 

The Enemy

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 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.  ~~ Anthony de Mello, S.J

MORSEL: I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend. ~~ Lincoln (1809-1865)

BONUS: We have met the enemy, and it is us. ~~Pogo (Walt Kelly, Earth Day, 1971)

Welcome

The Master set out on a journey with one of his disciples.  At the outskirts of the village they ran into the governor, who, mistakenly thinking they had come to welcome him to the village, said, “You really didn’t have to go to all this trouble to welcome me.”

“You are mistaken, your highness,” said the disciple.  “We’re on a journey, but had we known you were coming we would have gone to even greater pains to welcome you.”

The Master did not say a word.  Toward evening he said, “Did you have to tell him that we had not come to welcome him?  Did you see how foolish he felt?”

“But had we not told him the truth, would we not have been guilty of deceiving him?”

“We would not have deceived him at all,” said the Master.  “He would have deceived himself.”

Anthony de Mello, SJ

 

MORSEL: Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them. ~~Thomas Merton

Setting your heart on fire

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Said a traveler to one of the disciples, “I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master, but I find his words quite ordinary.” “Don’t listen to his words. Listen to his message.” “How does one do that?” … Continue reading →

Thought

“Why are you so wary of thought?” said the philosopher. “Thought is the one tool we have for organizing the world.”

“True. But thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.”

To his disciples he later said, “A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.”
~~ Anthony de Mello, S.J.

MORSEL:  We understand why children are afraid of darkness, but why are men afraid of light?   –Plato

At-one-ment

When a man whose marriage was in trouble sought his advice, the Master said, “You must learn to listen to your wife.”

The man took this advice to heart and returned after a month to say that he had learned to listen to every word his wife was saying.

Said the Master with a smile, “Now go home and listen to every word she isn’t saying.”

~ Anthony de Mello, SJ

 

MORSEL:   A pair of good ears will drink dry a hundred tongues. –Benjamin Franklin

 

 

Humanity

Much advance publicity was made for the address the Master would deliver on “The Destruction of the World” and a large crowd gathered at the monastery grounds to hear him.

The address was over in less than a minute. All he said was:

“These things
will destroy the human race:
politics without principle,
progress without compassion,
wealth without work,
learning without silence,
religion without fearlessness
and worship without awareness.”

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:
He who knows the precepts by heart,
but fails to practice them,
Is like unto one who lights a lamp
and then shuts his eyes.

–Nagarjuna

Child vs. Experts

There’s the story of little Johnny who was mentally retarded, so they say.  But he wasn’t.  

Johnny goes to school for special needs children.  In his modeling class, he took a piece of putty and started modeling it.  He takes a little lump and goes to a corner of the room and plays with it.  

The teacher comes up to him and says:

“Hi, Johnny.” 

“Hi” 

“What’s that you’ve got in your hand?”

“This is a lump of cow dung.”   

“What are you making out of it?”

“I’m making a teacher.” 

The teacher thought Johnny is regressing.  So she calls out to the principal and told her that Johnny has regressed. 

So the principal goes up to Johnny and says:

“Hi, Johnny.”

“Hi.”

“What do you have in your hand?”

“A lump of cow dung.”

“What are you making out of it?”

“A principal.” 

The principal thinks that this is a case for the school psychologist.  

The psychologist is a clever guy.  He goes up and to Johnny and says

“Hi, Johnny.”

“Hi”

“I know what you’ve got in your hand.”

“What?”

“A lump of cow dung.”

“Right.”

“I know what you’re making out of it.”

“What?”

“You are making a psychologist.”

“Wrong.  Not enough cow dung!” 

And they called him mentally retarded. 

Excerpt from “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello

Give Me A Word

Desert Wisdom

 

The Master insisted that what he taught was nothing, what he did was nothing.  His disciples gradually discovered that Wisdom comes to those who learn nothing, unlearn everything. That transformation is the consequence not of something done but of something dropped.  ~ Anthony de Mello, SJ 

MORSEL:   In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.  In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.  ~ Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching 

BONUS:   God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction.   ~ Meister Eckhart

This Is Your Life – eBooks

“If you could read a book containing all that has happened and will ever happen in your life, would you? If you choose to read it, you must read it cover to cover.” 

Just don’t feel writing what book that would be, today.  I can only imagine the book will be a Trilogy like Lord of the Rings.  That’s how sometimes I picture myself in book form.  There will be no ending. Fourth booking coming soon. Furthermore, it will be an eBook form. 

Instead let me share this beautiful video which I would prefer to call “Where on Earth is Matt?” instead of “Where the Hell is Matt?”  I find it uplifting. 

Hoping you will enjoy it as much as I did.  Have a good day, everyone. 

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

MORSEL:    The teacher is like the candle which lights others in consuming itself. ~  Giovanni Ruffini (1807-1881)

DP: That Stings! – Flight of a Bumble Bee

Franz Kafka said, “we ought to read only books that bite and sting us.” What’s the last thing you read that bit and stung you?

When was the last time I borrowed a book from the library?  It was such a long time ago.  There is a period in my life that I devour all the books at the library and suddenly BOOM, I stop reading. 

Bite me, I dare you.  Vampire books are enjoyable to read because they bite.  What stings them is that they still have their humanity, the love to be amongst the living.  Ah, love, it makes my heart grow fonder.  It’s lovely to feel the love of the Vampires.  I feel so much love.  Just wait a minute, that doesn’t sting.

There are a couple of books beside me that I pick up to read between TV commercials.  I tell you, I can read a chapter by the time the ads are over, too many commercials on TV.  “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum and “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” by Richard P. Feynman.  These books are filled with humor and they both sting, a little.

The book that I keep on coming back that I never seem to finish reading is titled “Awareness … the perils and … opportunities for reality” written by Anthony de Mello.  This is not an easy read or a romantic novel.  This book cuts through the core, and I bleed just by reading it.

When I picked up the book, it opened on this chapter, and I quote in part:
At a loss for Words:  “God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity.  But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the ready radiance of wonder renewed daily, the source of which is beyond all reason. We don’t have to quarrel about a word, because “God” is only a word, a concept.  One never quarrels about reality; we only quarrel about opinions, about concepts, about judgments.”

 And this is the part the stings, hurts and takes a lot of reflection.

“Drop your concepts, drop your opinions, drop your prejudices drop your judgments; and you will see that.” 

 I fight and struggle with this regularly as I write my post and read others. 

DP: TIME CAPSULE – SURPISE ME.

The year is drawing to a close. What would you put in a 2012 time capsule?

Aaah…. Panic, aaah!  Not enough time; that’s only 21 days from now.  I need more time and notice.  Can we change that to the year 2013, please, Mr. Michelle, please?  OK, fine.

Let me see what I can gather in my treasure chest and a gold mine of ideas.  Think, thank, thonk.  Thonk, it is.

What I can see in my kitchen is a clear plastic bottle of pop, that’s good enough for a time capsule.  In the pantry are dry goods; too big for the pop bottle.  How about catching a genie and imprison it in the bottle.  Be serious, now, thonk!  Oh, a bag. What’s in this bag?  Checking, more bags within the bags, checking the bags within the bags, more bags.  Gosh, I am such a pack rat.  But look what’s in the bags; small plastic bags of seeds.  YES, seeds.  They will fit in the capsule.  Oh, this is so exciting.

Opsey, no name on the seeds.  Well, that would be part of the fun.

These seeds came from my garden, collected them from the community gardens, from friends and families, from travels while on the pilgrim.  They are seeds of flowers, vegetables, and trees.  They are small things that will fit in the bottle, and I will leave instructions on what to do with them by following just six simple steps.

1. Earth (garden soil in a pot or any vacant land will do)
2. Bury the seeds on the earth (not all at once, space them out)
3. Water (don’t drown the seeds)
4. Lots of light and warm temperature
5. Nurture it with love and patience
6. Relax and wait for the seeds to sprout.

The time capsule will be sealed with a kiss, a prayer and a hope that it will be found by someone who will plant the seeds and eventually create a garden, just like mine.  A garden that will attract little creatures like hummingbirds, butterflies, dragonflies.  A garden where one can only be, to pray, be thankful and be grateful to Our God, whomever you may conceive Him to be.

Holy Garden

Once this is done, I will go the beach of English Bay, throw the time capsule in the waters, watch the waves carry the capsules into open waters and whisper Bon Voyage.

One Minute Meditation

The disciple asked for a word of wisdom.
Said the Master, “Go sit within your cell and your cell will teach you wisdom.”
“But I have no cell.  I am no monk.”
“Of course you have a cell.  Look within.” – Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:    Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment, and you will amass the
wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by the desire for
the fruits of action are miserable, for they are always anxious about
the results of what they do.    –Bhagavad Gita 2:49-50