Religion (13)

The poet Awhadi of Kerman was sitting on his porch one night, bent over a vessel. The Sufi Shams-e-Tabrize happened to pass by. "What are you doing?" he asked the poet.

"Contemplating the moon in a bowl of water" was the reply.

"Unless you have broken your neck, why don't you look directly at the moon in the sky?"

Words are inadequate reflections of reality. A man thought he knew what the Taj Mahal was because he was shown a piece of marble and told that the Taj was just a collection of pieces like that. Another one was convinced that, because he had seen Niagara water in a bucket, he knew what the Falls were like.

Anthony de Mello

Religion (6)

A wealthy farmer burst into his home one day and cried out in an anguished voice, "Rebecca, there is a terrible story in town - the Messiah is here!"

"What's so terrible in that?" asked his wife. "I think it's great. What are you so upset about?"

"What am I so upset about?" the man exclaimed. "After all these years of sweat and toil, we have finally found prosperity. We have a thousand head of cattle, our barns are full of grain, and our trees laden with fruit. Now we will have to give it all away and follow him."

"Calm down," said his wife consolingly. "The Lord our God is good. He knows how much we Jews have always had to suffer. We had a Pharaoh, a Haman, a Hitler - always some body. But our dear God found a way to deal with them all, didn't he? Just have faith, my dear husband. He will find a way to deal with the Messiah too."

Anthony de Mello

Religion (4)

On a cold winter night a wandering ascetic asked for shelter in a temple. The poor man stood shivering there in the falling snow, so the temple priest, reluctant though he was to let the man in, said, "Very well, you can stay, but only for the night. This is a temple, not a hospice. In the morning you will have to go."

In the dead of night the priest heard a strange crackling sound. He rushed to the temple and saw an incredible sight. There was the stranger warming himself at a fire he had lit in the temple. A wooden Buddha was missing. The priest asked, "Where is the statue?"

The wandered pointed to the fire, then said, "I thought his cold would kill me."

The priest shouted, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what you have done? That was a Buddha statue. You have burned the Buddha!"

The fire was slowly dying out. The ascetic gazed into it and began to poke it with his stick.

"What are you doing now?" the priest yelled.

"I am searching for the bones of the Buddha whom you say I burned."

The priest later reported the incident to a Zen master who said, "You must be a bad priest because you valued a dead Buddha over a live man."

Anthony de Mello

Religion (2)

The Kamakura Buddha was lodged in a temple until one day a mighty storm brought the temple down. Then for many years the massive statue stood exposed to sun and rain and wind and the changes of the weather.

When a priest began to raise funds to rebuild the temple, the statue appeared to him in a dream and said, "That temple was a prison, not a home. Leave me exposed to the ravages of life. That's where I belong."

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (20)

The Guru meditating in his Himalayan cave opened his eyes to discover an unexpected visitor sitting there before him - the abbot of a well-known monastery.

"What is it you seek?" asked the Guru.

The abbot recounted a tale of woe. At one time his monastery had been famous throughout the western world. Its cells were filled with young aspirants and its church resounded to the chant of its monks. But hard times had come on the monastery. People no longer flocked there to nourish their spirits, the stream of young aspirants had dried up, the church was silent. There was only a handful of monks left and these went about their duties with heavy hearts.

Now this is what the abbot wanted to know: "is it because of some sin of ours that the monastery has been reduced to this state?"

"Yes," said the Guru, "a sin of ignorance."

"And what sin might that be?"

"One of your number is the Messiah in disguise and you are ignorant of this." Having said that the Guru closed his eyes and returned to his meditation.

Throughout the arduous journey back to his monastery the abbot's heart beat fast at the thought that the Messiah - the Messiah himself - had returned to earth and was right there in the monastery. How was it he had failed to recognize him? And who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Brother Prior? No, not he; he had too many defects, alas. But then, the Guru had said he was in disguise. Could those defects be one of his disguises? Come to think of it, everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them had to be the Messiah!

Back in the monastery he assembled the monks and told them what he had discovered. They looked at one another in disbelief. The Messiah? Here? Incredible! But he was supposed to be here is disguise. So, maybe. What if it were so-and-so? Or the other one over there? Or . . .

One thing was certain. If the Messiah was there in disguise, it was not likely that they would recognize him. So they took to treating everyone with respect and consideration. "You never know," they said to themselves when they dealt with one another, "maybe this is the one."

The result of this was that the atmosphere in the monastery became vibrant with joy. Soon dozens of aspirants were seeking admission to the Order - and once again the church echoed with the holy and joyful chant of monks who were aglow with the spirit of love.

Of what use is it to have eyes if the heart is blind?

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (16)

When the devil saw a seeker enter the house of a Master, he determined to do everything in his power to turn him back from his quest for Truth.

So he subjected the poor man to every possible temptation: wealth, lust, fame, power, prestige. But the seeker was far too experienced in spiritual matters and was able to fight off the temptations quite easily, so great was his longing for spirituality.

When he got into the Master's presence, he was somewhat taken aback to see the Master sitting on an upholstered chair and the disciples at his feet. "This man certainly lacks humility, the principal virtue of the saints," he thought to himself.

He then observed other things about the Master that he did not like: for one thing, the Master took little notice of him. "I suppose that is because I do not fawn as the others do," he said to himself. Also, he disliked the kind of clothes the Master wore and the somewhat conceited way he spoke. All of this led him to the conclusion that he had come to the wrong place and must continue his quest elsewhere.

As he walked out of the room, the Master, who had seen the devil seated in the corner of the room, said, "You need not have worried, Tempter. He was yours from the very first, you know."


Such is the fate of those who, in their search for God, are willing to shed everything except their notions of what God really is.
People would never sin if they were aware that each time they sin it is themselves they are damaging. Most people are in too much of a torpor, alas, to have the slightest awareness of what they are doing to themselves.

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (15)

Grandpa and Grandma had quarreled and Grandma was so angry she would not speak to her husband.

The following day Grandpa had forgotten all about the quarrel, but Grandma continued to ignore him and still wouldn't speak. Nothing Grandpa did seemed to succeed in pulling her out of her sullen silence.

Finally he started rummaging in cupboards and drawers. After this had gone on for a few minutes, Grandma could stand it no longer. "What on earth are you looking for?" she demanded angrily.

"Praise be to God, I've found it," said Grandpa with a sly smile. "Your voice!"


If it is God you are looking for, look somewhere else.

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (11)

An oyster saw a loose pearl that had fallen into the crevice of a rock on the ocean bed. After great effort she managed to retrieve the pearl and place it just beside her on a leaf.

She knew that humans searched for pearls and thought, "This pearl will tempt them, so they will take it and let me be."

When a pearl diver showed up, however, his eyes were conditioned to look for oysters and not for pearls resting on leaves.

So he grabbed the oyster, which did not happen to have a pearl, and allowed the real pearl to roll back into the crevice in the rock.


You know exactly where to look. That is the reason why you fail to find God.

Anthony de Mello