Anthony De Mello

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."

"What kind of a person does Enlightenment produce?"

Said the Master:

"To be public-spirited and belong to no party,

to move without being bound to any given course,

to take things as they come,

have no remorse for the past,

no anxiety for the future,

to move when pushed,

to come when dragged,

to be like a mighty gale,

like a feather in the wind,

like weeds floating on a river,

like a mill-stone meekly grinding,

to love all creation equally

as heaven and earth are equal to all

— such is the product of Enlightenment."

On hearing these words one of the younger disciples cried, "This sort of teaching is not for the living but for the dead," and walked away, never to return.

"What is love?"

"The total absence of fear," said the Master.

"What is it we fear?"

"Love," said the Master.

The feigning sleeper can delude others — he cannot delude himself. The false mystic, unfortunately, can delude both others and himself.

A disciple was one day recalling how Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed were branded as rebels and heretics by their contemporaries.

Said the Master, Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy.

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."

Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.