Religion (15)

A drunk was staggering across a bridge one night when he ran into a friend. The two of them leaned over the bridge and began chatting for a while.

"What's that down there?" asked the drunk suddenly.

"That's the moon," said his friend.

The drunk looked again, shook his head in disbelief and said, "Okay, okay. But how the hell did I get way up here?"

We almost never see reality. What we see is a reflection of it in the form of words and concepts which we then proceed to take for reality. The world we live in is mostly a mental construct. People feed on words, live by words, would fall apart without them.

Anthony de Mello

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 (12)

Pilot to passengers in midflight: "I regret to inform you we are in terrible trouble. Only God can save us now."

A passenger turned to a priest to ask what the pilot had said and got this reply: "He says there's no hope!"

Anthony de Mello

Religion (11)

A traveler was walking along the road one day when a man on horseback rushed by. There was an evil look in his eyes and blood on his hands.

Minutes later a crowd of riders drew up and wanted to know if the traveler had seen someone with blood on his hands go by. They were in hot pursuit of him

"Who is he?" the traveler asked.

"An evil-doer," said the leader of the crowd. "And you pursue him in order to bring him to justice?"

"No," said the leader, "we pursue him in order to show him the way."

Reconciliation alone will save the world, not justice which is generally another word for revenge.

Anthony de Mello

Religion (10)

A priest ordered his deacon to assemble ten men to chant prayers for the recovery of a sick man.

When they had all come in, someone whispered into the ear of the priest, "There are some notorious thieves among those men."

"All the better," said the priest. "When the Gates of Mercy are shut, these are the experts who will open them."

Anthony de Mello

Religion (9)

Mullah Nasruddin's house was on fire, so he ran up to his roof for safety. There he was, precariously perched on the roof, when his friends gathered in the street below holding a stretched-out blanket for him and shouting, "Jump, Mullah, jump!"

"Oh no I won't," said the Mullah. "I know you fellows. If I jump, you'll pull the blanket away just to make a fool of me!"

"Don't be silly, Mullah. This isn't a joke. This is serious. Jump!"

"No," said Nasruddin. "I don't trust any of you. Lay that blanket on the ground and I'll jump."

Anthony de Mello

Religion (8)

An atheist fell off a cliff. As he tumbled downward, he caught hold of the branch of a small tree. There he hung between heaven above and the rocks a thousand feet below, knowing he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer.

Then an idea came to him. "God!" he shouted with all his might.

Silence! No one responded.

"God!" he shouted again. "If you exist, save me and I promise I shall believe in you and teach others to believe."

Silence again! Then he almost let go of the branch in shock as he heard a mighty Voice booming across the canyon. "That's what they all say when they are trouble"

"No, God, no!" he shouted out, more hopeful now. "I am not like the others. Why, I have already begun to believe, don't you see, having heard your Voice for myself. Now all you have to do is save me and I shall proclaim your name to the ends of the earth."

"Very well," said the Voice. "I shall save you. Let go of that branch."

"Let go of the branch?" yelled the distraught man. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

It is said that when Moses threw his wand into the Red Sea the expected miracle did not take place. It was only when the first man threw himself into the sea that the waves receded and the water divided itself to off a dry passage to the Jews.

Anthony de Mello

Religion (7)

Goldstein, aged ninety-two, had lived through pogroms in Poland, concentration camps in Germany, and dozens of other persecutions against the Jews.

"Oh, Lord!" he said, "isn't it true that we are your chosen people?"

A heavenly voice replied, "Yes, Goldstein, the Jews are my chosen people."

"Well, then, isn't it time you chose somebody else?"

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 (5)

Tetsugen, a student of Zen, resolved on a mighty undertaking: the printing of seven thousand copies of the sutras, which till the were available only in Chinese.

He traveled the length and breadth of Japan to collect funds for this project. Some wealthy people offered him as much as a hundred pieces of gold, but mostly he received small coins from peasants. Tetsugen expressed equal gratitude to each donor, regardless of the sum of money given.

After ten long years of travel, he finally collected the funds necessary for the task. Just then the river Uji overflowed and thousands were left without food and shelter. Tetsugen spent all the money he had collected for his cherished project on these poor people.

The he began the work of raising funds again. Again it was several years before he got the money he needed. Then as epidemic spread all over the country, so Tetsugen gave away all he had collected to help the suffering.

Once again he set out on his travels and, twenty years later, his dream of having the scriptures in the Japanese language finally came true.

The Printing block that produced this first edition of the sutras is on display at the Obaku Monastery in Kyoto. The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen got out three editions of the sutras in all; and that the first two are invisible and far superior to the third.

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 (3)

Dov Ber was an uncommon man. When people came into his presence, they trembled. He was a Talmudic scholar of repute, inflexible, uncompromising in his doctrine. And he never laughed. He believed firmly in self-inflicted pain and was known to fast for days on end. Dov Ber's austerities finally got the better of him. He fell seriously ill and there was nothing the doctors could do to cure him. As a final resort, someone made a suggestion: "Why not seek the help of the Baal Shem Tov?"

Dov Ber agreed, even though at first he resisted the idea because he strongly disapproved of Baal Shem whom he considered to be something of a heretic. Also, while Dov Ber believed that life was only made meaningful by suffering and tribulation, Baal Shem sought to alleviate pain and openly preached that is was the spirit of rejoicing that gave meaning to life.

It was past midnight when Baal Shem answered the summons and drove up dressed in a coat of wool and a cap of the finest fur. He walked into the sick man's room and handed him the Book of Splendour, which Dov Ber opened and began to read aloud.

He had hardly read for a minute when, so the story goes, Baal Shem interrupted. "Something is missing," he said "Something is lacking in your faith."

"And what is that?" the sick man asked.

"Soul," said the Baal Shem Tov.

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

Religion (1)

Weary traveler: "Why in the name of heaven did they build the railway station three kilometers away from the village?"

Helpful porter: "They must have thought it would be a good idea to have it near the trains, sir."

An ultramodern station three kilometers away from the track is as much of an absurdity as a much-frequented temple three centimeters away from life.

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (21)

A prisoner lived in solitary confinement for years. He saw and spoke to no one and his meals were served through an opening in the wall.

One day an ant came into his cell. The man contemplated it in fascination as it crawled around the room. He held it in the palm of his hand the better to observe it, gave it a grain of two, and kept it under his tin cup at night.

One day it suddenly struck him that it had taken him ten long years of solitary confinement to open his eyes to the loveliness of an ant.

When a friend visited the Spanish painter El Greco at his home on a lovely spring afternoon, he found him sitting in his room, the curtains tightly drawn.
"Come out into the sunshine," said the friend.
"Not now," El Greco replied. "It would disturb the light that is shining within me."

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 (19)

The priest of a fashionable parish had his ushers greet the people after Sunday service. His wife persuaded him to take on this task himself. "Wouldn't it be awful if, after some years, you were not to know the members of your own parish?" she said.

So the following Sunday the priest took up his post at the church door after service. The first one out of church was a woman in plain clothes, evidently a newcomer to the parish.

"How do you do? I am very glad to have you here with us," he said, offering her his hand.

"Thanks you," said the woman, somewhat taken aback.

"I hope we will see you often at our services. We are always glad to see new faces, you know."

"Yes, sir."

"Do you live in this parish?"

The woman seemed at a loss what to say.

"If you give me your address, my wife and I will call on you some evening."

"You wouldn't have to go far, sir. I'm your cook."

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (18)

A famous Viennese surgeon told his students that a surgeon needed two gifts: freedom form nausea and the power of observation.

He then dipped a finger into some nauseating fluid and licked it, requesting each of the students to do the same. They steeled themselves to it and managed it without flinching.

With a smile, the surgeon then said, "Gentlemen, I congratulate you on having passed the first test. But not, unfortunately, the second, for not one of you noticed that the finger I licked was not the one I dipped into the fluid."

Anthony de Mello

Awareness (17)

A drunkard was walking down a street with blisters in both of his ears. A friend asked him what had happened to cause the blisters.

"My wife left her hot iron on, and when the phone rang I picked up the iron by mistake."

"Yes, but what about the other ear?"

"The damned fool called back!"

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