my picture

i like this pic - taken by asma at rishikesh (on the way from raam jhula to lakshman jhula alongside the ganges) in march 06.

today

- entered a micro-fabrication clean room for the first time.
- saw the season finale of "grey's anatomy". it was the best two hours of a tv series i ever saw.

one minute wisdom II

Listing a few more related to enlightenment:

"What did enlightenment bring you?"
"Joy."
"And what is joy?"
"The realization that when everything is lost you have only lost a toy."

An affluent industrialist said to the Master, "What do you do for a profession?"
"Nothing," said the Master.
The industrialist laughed scornfully. "Isn't that laziness?"
"Heavens no. Laziness is mostly the vice of very active people."
Later the Master said to his disciples, "Do nothing and all things will be done through you. Doing nothing really takes a lot of doing. Try it!"

"What must I do for enlightenment?"
"Nothing."
"Why not?"
"Because enlightenment doesn't come from doing? It happens."
"Then can it never be attained?"
"Oh yes it can."
"How?"
"Through non doing."
"And what does one do to attain non doing?"
"What does one do to go to sleep or to wake up?"

It always pleased the Master to hear people recognize their ignorance.
"Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance," he claimed.
When asked for an explanation, he said, "When you come to see you are not as wise today as you thought you were yesterday, you are wiser today."

The master would frequently assert that holiness was less a matter of what one did than of what one allowed to happen.
To a group of disciples who had difficulty understanding that he told the following story:
"There was once a one-legged dragon who said to the centipede,
'How do you manage all those legs?
It is all I can do to manage one.'
'To tell you the truth,' said the centipede,
'I do not manage them at all.'"

The master once told the story of a priceless antique bowl that fetched a fortune at a public auction. It had been used by a tramp who ended his days in poverty, quite unaware of the value of the bowl with which he begged for pennies.
When a disciple asked the Master what the bowl stood for, the master said, "Your Self!"
Asked to elaborate, he said, "All your attention is focused on the penny knowledge you collect from books and teachers. You would do better to pay attention to the bowl in which you hold it."

one minute wisdom I

Came across this nice little book titled One Minute Wisdom by Anthony de Mello.

Its a collection of short conversations between a master and his disciples. Am listing a few of them related to worldly affairs:

The visiting historian was disposed to be argumentative.
"Do not our efforts change the course of human history?" he demanded.
"Oh yes, they do," said the Master.
"And have not our human labors changed the earth?"
"They certainly have," said the Master.
"Then why do you teach that human effort is of little consequence?"
Said the Master, "Because when the wind subsides, the leaves still fall."

To a woman who complained about her destiny the Master said, "It is you who make your destiny."
"But surely I am not responsible for being born a woman?"
"Being born a woman isn't destiny. That is fate. Destiny is how you accept your womanhood and what you make of it."

The disciples were involved in a heated discussion on the cause of human suffering.
Some said it came from selfishness. Others, from delusion. Yet others, from the inability to distinguish the real from the unreal.
When the Master was consulted, he said, "All suffering comes from a person's inability to sit still and be alone."

A newly married couple said, "What shall we do to make our love endure?"
Said the Master, "Love other things together."

"Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so," the Master said.
When asked to explain he said, "A man cheerfully observed a religious fast seven days a week. His neighbor starved to death on the same diet."

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."