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Post by Smithee on Aug 10, 2012 10:53:48 GMT 10
When the preacher returned to his Good News theme the Master interrupted him:
“What sort of Good News is it,’ he asked, “that makes it so easy to go to hell and so hard to get to heaven?”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 11, 2012 11:30:54 GMT 10
“All human beings are about equally good or bad,” said the Master, who hated to use those labels.
“How can you put a saint on an equal footing with a sinner?” protested a disciple.
“Because everyone is effectively the same distance from the sun. Does it significantly lessen the distance if you live on top of a skyscraper?”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 12, 2012 16:03:57 GMT 10
The Master once saw a large crowd assembled at the monastery gate singing hymns “at” him and holding up a banner that read, CHRIST IS THE ANSWER.
He walked over to the dour-looking man who held the sign and said, “Yes, but what is the question?”
The man was momentarily taken aback, but recovered quickly enough to say, “Christ is not the answer to a question, but the answer to our problems.”
“In that case, what is the problem?”
Later he said to the disciples, “If Christ is, indeed, the answer, then this is what Christ means: the clear understanding of who is creating the problem, and how.”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 13, 2012 11:43:32 GMT 10
The Master persistently warned against the attempt to encompass Reality in a concept or a name.
A scholar in mysticism once asked, “When you speak of BEING, sir, is it eternal, transcendent being you speak of, or transient, contingent being?”
The Master closed his eyes inj though. Then he opened them, put on his most disarming expression and said, “Yes!”
Later he said, “As soon as you put a name to Reality it ceases to be Reality.”
“Even when you call it ‘Reality’?” asked a mischievous disciple.
“Precisely, even when you call it ‘it’.”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 14, 2012 8:33:17 GMT 10
“What can I do to attain enlightenment?” asked the eager disciple.
“See reality as it is,” said the Master.
“Well, what can I do to see reality as it is?”
The Master smiled and said, “I have good news and bad news for you, my friend.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“There’s nothing you can do to see - it’s a gift.”
“And what’s the good news?”
“There’s nothing you can do to see - it’s a gift.”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 15, 2012 15:32:50 GMT 10
Attachment distorts our perception – this was a frequent theme of the Master’s discourses.
The disciples were once entertained by a perfect example of this when they heard the Master ask a mother, “How is your daughter?”
“My darling daughter! How fortunate she is! She has such a wonderful husband! He has given her a car, all the jewellery she wants, servant galore. He serves her breakfast in bed and she doesn’t get up till noon. What a prince of a man!”
“And your son?”
“Oh the poor boy! What a vixen he has married! He has given her a car, all the jewellery she wants and an army of servants. And she stays in bed till noon! Won’t even get up to give him his breakfast!”
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Post by Smithee on Aug 16, 2012 16:19:54 GMT 10
The Master once gave an address on the DANGERS OF RELIGION, affirming, among other things, that religious people all too easily use God to cover up their pettiness and self-seeking.
This provoked a sharp rejoinder – in the form of a book wherein as many as a hundred religious leaders wrote articles to refute the Master’s words.
The Master smiled when he saw the book. “If what I said was wrong, one article would have been enough,” he said.
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Post by Smithee on Aug 17, 2012 12:53:37 GMT 10
“If you search for God you search for ideas – and miss the reality.” said the Master.
He then told of the monk who complained about the cell he had been given. “I wanted a cell from where I could contemplate the stars. In the one I have a stupid tree blocks out the view.”
Now it was while gazing at that particular tree that enlightenment had come to the previous occupant of the cell.
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Post by Smithee on Aug 18, 2012 15:44:13 GMT 10
“Why are you always at your prayers?” said the Master.
“Because prayer takes a great load off my mind.”
“That is what it is unfortunately wont to do.”
“What’s so unfortunate about it?”
“It distracts you from seeing who put the load there in the first place,” said the Master.
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Post by Smithee on Aug 19, 2012 18:30:01 GMT 10
“You listen,” said the Master, “not to discover, but to find something that confirms your own thoughts. You argue not to find the truth but to vindicate your thinking.”
And he told of a king who, passing through a small town, saw indications of amazing marksmanship everywhere. Trees and barns and fences, had circles painted on them with a bullet hole in the exact centre. He asked to see this unusual marksman. It turned out to be a ten-year old child.
“Easy as pie,” was the answer. “I shoot first and draw the circles later.”
“So you get your conclusions first and build your premises around them later,” said the Master. “Isn’t that the way you manage to hold on to your religion and to your ideology?”
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