Anthony de Mello Quotes
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The Master would insist that the final barrier to our attaining God was the word and concept 'God.'
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The master enjoined not austerity, but moderation. If we truly enjoyed things, he claimed, we would be spontaneously moderate. Asked why he was so opposed to ascetical practices, he replied, 'Because they produce pleasure-haters who always become people-haters - rigid and cruel.'
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The master was never impressed by diplomas or degrees. He scrutinized the person, not the certificate. He was once heard to say, 'When you have ears to hear a bird in song, you don't need to look at its credentials.'
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A good teacher offers practice, a bad one offers theories.
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When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
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The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu's dictum: Those who know do not say; Those who say do not know. When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant. Said the master, 'Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?' All of them indicated that they knew. Then he said, 'put it into words.' All of them were silent.
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Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.
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You will seek for God in vain till you understand that God can't be seen as a 'thing'; he needs a special way of looking - similar to that of little children whose sight is undistorted by prefabricated doctrines and beliefs.
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'Why is everyone here so happy except me?' 'Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere,' said the Master. 'Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?' 'Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.'
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'I wish to become a teacher of the Truth.' 'Are you prepared to be ridiculed, ignored and starving till you are forty-five?' 'I am. But tell me: What will happen after I am forty-five?' 'You will have grown accustomed to it.'
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'What is my identity?' 'Nothing,' said the Master. 'You mean that I am an emptiness and a void?' said the incredulous disciple. 'Nothing that can be labeled.' said the Master.
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To those who seek to protect their ego true Peace brings only disturbance.
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The Master was allergic to ideologies. 'In a war of ideas,' he said, 'it is people who are the casualties.' Later he elaborated: 'People kill for money or for power. But the most ruthless murderers are those who kill for their ideas.'
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My experience is that it's precisely the ones who don't know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life. One sign that you're awakened is that you don't give a damn about what's going to happen in the next life. You're not bothered about it; you don't care. You are not interested, period.
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The Master never ceased to attack the notions about God that people entertain.
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'You are only a disciple because your eyes are closed. The day you open them you will see there is nothing you can learn from me or anyone.' 'What then is a Master for?' 'To make you see the uselessness of having one.'
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'The law is an expression of God's holy will and as such must be honored and loved,' said the preacher piously. 'Rubbish,' said the Master. 'The law is a necessary evil and as such must be cut down to the barest minimum. Show me a lover of the law and I will show you a muttonheaded tyrant.'
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There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law. 'Obedience keeps the rules,' he would say. 'Love knows when to break them.'
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'Name one practical, down-to-earth effect of spirituality,' said the skeptic who was ready for an argument. 'Here's one,' said the Master. 'When someone offends you, you can raise your spirits to heights where offenses cannot reach.'
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A master was once unmoved by the complaints of his disciples that, though they listened with pleasure to his parables and stories, they were also frustrated for they longed for something deeper. To all their objections he would simply reply: 'You have yet to understand, my friends, that the shortest distance between a human being and truth is a story.'
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Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.
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'I seek the meaning of existence.' said the stranger. 'You are of course, assuming.' said the Master, 'that existence has a meaning.' 'Doesn't it?' 'When you experience existence as it is - not as you think it is - you will discover that your question has no meaning.'
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When God means you to be a healer he sends you patients; when he makes you a teacher he sends you pupils; when he destines you to be a Master he sends you stories.
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To a visitor who asked to become his disciple the Master said, 'You may live with me, but don't become my follower.' 'Whom, then, shall I follow?' 'No one. The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.'