WISE WORDS       PAGE 2

If you cannot see
the inherent perfection in all things
and in all aspects of your life,
Simply make yourself larger.
Expand your perspective
until the full perfection
of everything
becomes visible.

**********************

I probably shouldn't be here, but this was the only universe that had a vacancy!

**********************

I was shown a jigsaw puzzle scattered all over a huge table. I watched as the puzzle was being put together and I saw how each piece fitted into its rightful place perfectly. I heard the words :

When you are in your rightful place doing your own specific part, there can be no conflict and My plan can unfold in true perfection.

**********************
"It's easy to feel grateful when we receive a raise,
meet the love of our life, or watch our children succeed,
but spiritual gratitude is not circumstantial.
It arises from a true knowing that God is our Source.
We can feel thankful for every day,
even in the middle of life's challenges."

-- Mary Manin Morrissey

*******

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable."

-- Benjamin Franklin

******

A woman in great distress over the death of her son came to the Master for comfort.
He listened to her patiently while she poured out her tale of woe.
Then he said softly, "I can not wipe away your tears, my dear. I can only teach you how to make them holy."

Anthony de Mello, S.J.

*********
MORSEL: The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in justice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly. -- Richard Bach

*****

"...conscious change is brought about by the two qualities inherent in consciousness: attention and intention. Attention energizes, and intention transforms. Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Whatever you take your attention away from will wither, disintegrate, and disappear. Intention, on the
other hand, triggers transformation of energy and information.
Intention organizes its own fulfillment."

-- Deepak Chopra

*****

How shall I attain Eternal Life?"
"Eternal Life is now. Come into the present."
"But I am in the present now, am I not?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because you haven't dropped your past."
"Why should I drop my past? Not all of it is bad."
"The past is to be dropped not because it is bad but because it is dead."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

******
MORSEL: Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

********
"There are three stages in one's spiritual development," said the Master. "The carnal, the spiritual and the divine."

"What is the carnal stage?" asked the eager disciples.
"That's the stage when trees are seen as trees and mountains as mountains."
"And the spiritual?"
"That's when one looks more deeply into things -- then trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains."
"And the divine?"
"Ah, that's Enlightenment," said the Master with a chuckle, "when trees become trees again and mountains, mountains."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

*****
MORSEL:

How wonderful! How wonderful!
All things are perfect  Exactly as they are!

--Buddha

*************

"What must I do to attain holiness?" said a traveler.
"Follow your heart," said the Master.
That seemed to please the traveller.
Before he left, however, the Master said to him in a whisper, "To follow your heart you are going to need a strong constitution."

Anthony de Mello, S.J.

MORSEL: The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the
condemned man who is proud of his large cell. --Simone Weil

******
"Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality."---Bashar

*****

"If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit,
since whatever happens to the beasts
also happens to the man.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the sons of the earth."

-- Chief Seattle, 1855

************

To a disciple who depended overmuch on books the Master said:
"A man came to the market with a shopping list and lost it.  When to his great joy he found it again, he read it eagerly, held on to it till he had done his shopping -- then threw it away as a useless scrap of paper."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:   Wisdom is not in words. Wisdom is meaning within words. --Khalil Gibran

*************

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage
and belief that human history is shaped.
Each time a person stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others,
or strikes out against injustice,
s/he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current which can sweep down
the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

-- Robert Kennedy from his speech on 6 6, 1966 at the University of Capetown in S. Africa

**********
"It seems to me that one of the most basic human experiences, one that is genuinely universal and unites - or, more precisely, could unite - all of humanity, is the experience of transcendence in the broadest sense of the word."

-- Vaclav Havel    President, Czech Republic

**********
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, But beautiful old people are works of art."
-- unknown

**********
"And for support of this declaration and with a firm reliance
on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

-- Thomas Jefferson In the final, beautiful part of the Declaration of Independence

**********
MORSEL:   The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the   better you hear what is sounding outside of you. --Dag Hammarskjold
***********
"Live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view,
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song
for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute
when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning
give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks,
the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and nothing,
for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled
with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep
and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song
and die like a hero going home."

-- Chief Tecumseh
    Shawnee Nation, 1768?-1813

*******

"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on --
have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear -- what remains?
Nature Remains."
-- Walt Whitman

******

"If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up people together to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long for the sea."

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

********
"I do not know what I am to the world,
but to myself, I am but a small boy,
playing on the seashore, searching for
an ever more perfect pebble or seashell,
while before me lies the great ocean of truth."

-- Sir Isaac Newton

***********
"You are not here merely to make a living.
You are here in order to enable the world
to live more amply, with greater vision,
with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.
You are here to enrich the world,
and you impoverish yourself
if you forget the errand."

-- Woodrow Wilson~

**********
"There is no path to Peace.     Peace is the path."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

************

"In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
While looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
'O Beloved, where is the Beloved?'"

-- Maulana Jalalu'ddin Rumi    Sufi mystic and poet, 1207-1273

*************
"The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings."

-- Henri Frederic Amiel    Swiss critic (1821-1881)

*************
To the disciples' delight the Master said he wanted a new shirt for his birthday.  The finest cloth was bought.  The village tailor came in to have the Master measured, and promised, by the will of God, to make the shirt within a week.
A week went by and a disciple was dispatched to the tailor while the Master excitedly waited for his shirt.  Said the tailor, "There has been a slight delay.  But, by the will of God, it will be ready by tomorrow."
Next day the tailor said, "I'm sorry it isn't done.  Try again tomorrow and, if God so wills, it will certainly be ready."
The following day the Master said, "Ask him how long it will take if he keeps God out of it."

Anthony de Mello, SJ


MORSEL:   Expectation is the greatest impediment to living.  In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.   -- Seneca

********

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
Who looks outside, dreams, Who looks inside, Awakens."
-- Carl Jung

*********
To the disciples who were always asking for words of wisdom the Master said, "Wisdom is not expressed in words. It reveals itself in action."
But when he saw them plunge headlong into activity, he laughed aloud and said, "That isn't action. That's motion."

Anthony de Mello, SJ
*******

MORSEL:
Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you're being right now.
--Neale Donald Walsch

****************
"Focusing on strife sends messages to the Universe that you want more
strife, which causes more strife within one's life experience! Focusing upon
the joy sends joyful messages to the Universe, and one's life is then filled
with love instead."

*************
"Our fledgling worldview is still almost invisible, yet is it drawing to it brilliant minds
in every field and function who hold the mysterious sense of hope for the future."
-- Barbara Marx Hubbard

******

"When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision,
then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."
-- Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

**********

A young man squandered all his inherited wealth.  As generally happens in
such cases, the moment he was penniless he found that he was friendless too.
At his wit's end, he sought the Master out and said, "What is to become of
me?  I have no money and no friends."
"Don't worry, son.  Mark my words: All will be well with you again."
Hope shone in the young man's eyes.  "Will I be rich again?"
"No.  You will get used to being penniless and lonely."

Anthony de Mello, SJ


MORSEL:  Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not
required to buy one necessity of the soul.   ---Henry David Thoreau
"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."

Anthony De Mello, SJ


MORSEL:  Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

************

"Simple joys
And blessings without end
And one of the greatest joys in life
Is to have a friend."

************

*QUOTES OF ALBERT EINSTEIN ON SPIRITUALITY*

Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more
certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie

through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but
through striving after rational knowledge.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes
convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit
vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our
modest powers must feel humble.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The scientists' religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous
amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence
of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking
and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
++++++++++++++++++++++
There is no logical way to the discovery of elemental laws. There is
only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order
lying behind the appearance.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift.
++++++++++++++++++++++
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious; It is the
source of all true art and science.
++++++++++++++++++++++
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of
course, powerful muscles, but no personality.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
++++++++++++++++++++++
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
God does not play dice with the universe.
God is subtle but he is not malicious.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival
of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as
meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a
little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the
ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that
someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It
does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the
child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books---a
mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates
the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this
mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.
What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend
only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a
feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has
nothing to do with mysticism.

The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein
lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this
feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a
state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenatrable for us
really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most
radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor
faculties - this knowledge, this feeling ... that is the core of the
true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank
 myself amoung profoundly religious men.
The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to
denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.

++++++++++++++++++++++++
True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's
  goodness and righteousness.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Intelligence makes clear to us the interrelationship of means and ends.
But mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental
ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations and to set
them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely
the most important function which religion has to form in the social
life of man.

And to emphasise that Einstein's views are perhaps more mystical and far broader than religion, are these couple of quotes:


"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a
lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a
personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly.
If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the
unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science
can reveal it."
[From a letter Einstein wrote in English, dated 24 March 1954.

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy,
education and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man
would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death."

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us, universe. a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest. A kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and for affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison by widening our circle of passion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole nature in its beauty."
(Albert Einstein)

"What if we are all just random thoughts within the mind of God."
(Albert Einstein)

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
(Albert Einstein)

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the unlimitable superior who reveals Himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our
frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God."
(Albert Einstein)

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not,
however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world."
(Albert Einstein)

I want to know the thoughts of God, the rest are just details.
(Albert Einstein)

******

If God seems to be far away, guess who has moved?

Seen on a church board (UK).

******

"No God, No Peace.
Know God, Know Peace."

**************

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)

**********

MORSEL:  It is not what we do that makes us holy, but we ought to make holy what we do. --Meister Eckhart

************
"It is in the silence of the heart that God speaks." -- Mother Teresa

*************

"War is Over    If You Want It." -- John Lennon, Beatle, Visionary

*********

The Master would often say that Silence alone brought transformation.
But no one could get him to define what Silence was. When asked he would
laugh, then hold his forefinger up against his tightened lips — which only
increased the bewilderment of his disciples.
One day there was a breakthrough when someone asked, "And how is one to arrive at this Silence that you speak of?"
The Master said something so simple that his disciples studied his face for
a sign that he might be joking. He wasn't. He said, "Wherever you may be,
look when there is apparently nothing to see; listen when all is seemingly
quiet."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:   I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a
butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
--Chuang-tzu (c.369-c.286 BC)

********
The Master was an advocate both of learning and of Wisdom.
"Learning," he said when asked, "is gotten by reading books or listening to
lectures."
"And Wisdom?"
"By reading the book that is you."
He added as an afterthought: "Not an easy task at all, for every minute of
the day brings a new edition of the book!"

Anthony de Mello, SJ

**************
Your vision will become clear only when You can look into your own heart.  Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. Carl  Jung

***************
" Enjoy whatever you receive today, it's come into your life for a reason."

*************
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

*************
The discussion among the disciples once centered on the usefulness of
reading. Some thought it was a waste of time, others disagreed.
When the Master was appealed to, he said, "Have you ever read one of those texts in which the notes scrawled in the margin by a reader prove to be as illuminating as the text itself?"
The disciples nodded in agreement.
"Life," said the Master, "is one such text."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

***********
Even with its hassles, life seems to be the best thing they've come up with yet.  --Alan Harris

****************
"If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging." -- Will Rogers
*************
"What I spent I had. What I saved I lost. What I gave I have." -- Old German Motto

*************
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do than by the things you did.
So throw off the bowlines.Sail away from the safe harbor. Explore. Dream."
-- Mark Twain -

*************
Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired,
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger
and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers,
the genius of its scientists,
the hopes of its children....
Under the cloud of threatening war,
it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower    US President and WW ll General

*************
"Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait." -- George Harrison

**********
"Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts."
-- Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662  philosopher and mathematician

***************
"In this new century, we must start from the understanding
that peace belongs not only to states or peoples,
but to each and every member of those communities.
The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a
shield for gross violations of human rights.
Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence
of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all,
because it is the condition for every member of the
human family to live a life of dignity and security."

-- Kofi A. Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
From "The Nobel Lecture" he gave in Oslo, on the occasion of his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, December 10, 2001

*******************

"I want to be with God in prayer."
"What you want is an absurdity."
"Why?"
"Because whenever you are, God is not; Whenever God is, you are not. So how could you be with God?"
Later the Master said:
"Seek aloneness. When you are with someone else, you are not alone. When
you are 'with God,' you are not alone. The only way to really be with God
is to be utterly alone. Then, hopefully, God will be and you will not."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:  The way to use life is to do nothing through acting,The way to use life is to do everything through being.   -- Lao Tzu

*********

The Seven Wonders of the World

A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes:

Egypt's Great Pyramids Taj Mahal Grand Canyon Panama Canal Empire State Building St. Peter's Basilica and China's Great Wall.

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one quiet student hadn't turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having trouble with her list.The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind because there were so many.

"The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help."The girl hesitated, then read,

"I think the Seven Wonders of the World are:

1. to touch    2. to tast    e 3. to see    4. to hear (She hesitated a little, and then added:)

5.to feel    6.to laugh     7. and to love.

"The room was so full of silence you could have heard a pin drop.

******

When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was felt that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on her simple, but eloquent, poem and this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the authoress of this "anonymous" poem winging across the Internet. Goes to show that we all leave "SOME footprints in time.

            A Crabbit Old Woman

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply,
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.....
Who, resisting or not, Lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of ten ... with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.

A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.

A bride soon at twenty-my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home

A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.

At fifty, once more babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old woman ... and nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.

I think of the years ... all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; look closer, see ME!!

WISE WORDS  PAGE 3

(  BACK TO PAGE 1 )

                                                BACK TO MAIN ARTICLES PAGE