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Post by Smithee on Jul 20, 2012 10:50:58 GMT 10
“There are, indeed, two types of human beings: the pharisees and the publicans,” said the Master after reading the parable of Jesus.
“How does one recognize the pharisees?”
“Simple. They are the ones who do the classifying!” said the Master.
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Post by Smithee on Jul 21, 2012 11:51:08 GMT 10
One day the Master looked at the preacher sitting there in front of him, smug in his beliefs, self-righteous in his good deeds and he said, "My friend, I sometimes feel that when you come to die, you will die without ever having lived - it will be as if life has passed you by."
Then, as an afterthought, he added, "No - it's worse than that: Life and you have gone in opposite directions."
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Post by Smithee on Jul 22, 2012 10:10:42 GMT 10
To a couple anxious about the upbringing of their children, the Master quoted a rabbinical saying:
“Do not limit your children to your own learning, for they have been born in another age.”
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Post by Smithee on Jul 23, 2012 12:13:09 GMT 10
The pessimist said, "Life is so awful, it would have been better not to have been born."
"Yes," replied the Master, with a twinkle in his eye, "but how many have that kind of luck? One in ten thousand maybe."
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Post by Smithee on Jul 24, 2012 8:38:58 GMT 10
A disciple put it to the Master point blank one day: “Have you attained holiness?”
“How should I know?” was the reply.
“Who would know, if you didn’t?”
Said the Master: “Ask a normal person if he is normal and he will assure you he is. Ask a crazy person if he is normal – and he will assure you he is!”
And with that he gave a mischievous laugh.
Later he said: “If you realize you’re crazy, you’re not so crazy after all, are you? If you suspect you’re holy, you’re not so holy after all, are you? Holiness is always unselfconscious.”
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Post by Smithee on Jul 25, 2012 9:26:23 GMT 10
Said the Governor, “Is there any advice you can give me in the exercise of my office?”
“Yes, Learn how to give orders.”
“How?”
“So that others can receive them without feeling inferior,” said the Master.”
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Post by Smithee on Jul 26, 2012 19:30:51 GMT 10
When someone announced he had become a doctor of theology the Master, who was quite a a tease, said with an innocent air, "A doctor of theology? What kind of disease is that?"
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Post by Smithee on Jul 28, 2012 16:24:47 GMT 10
Enthralled at hearing the Master chant Sanskrit verses in a melodious voice, a Sanskrit scholar said, "I have always known that there is no language on earth like Sanskrit for the expression of things divine."
"Don't be an ass," said the Master. The language of the divine isn't Sanskrit. It is Silence."
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Post by Smithee on Jul 29, 2012 15:46:26 GMT 10
When asked how Scripture is to be used the Master told of the time he was a school teacher and set the students this question: "How would you determine the height of a building by means of an aneroid barometer?'"
One bright young fellow replied, "I would lower the barometer on a string and measure the string."
"Resourceful in his ignorance," was the Master's comment.
Then he added: "Such is the resourcefulness and the ignorance of those who use their brain to understand Scripture which can as well be 'understood' by the brain as can a sunset or the ocean or the murmur of the night wind in the trees."
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Post by Smithee on Jul 30, 2012 15:56:49 GMT 10
A newcomer, dissatisfied, said to one of the disciples, "I really must know if the Master is holy or not."
"Why should it matter?" said the disciple.
"Why should I follow him if he himself has not arrived at holiness?"
"And why should you follow him if he has? According to the Master, the day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth."
Then he added, "Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it."
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