is it possible

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Is it possible for the rose to say, 

"I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, 

but I will withhold it from the bad?" 

Or is it possible for the lamp to say, 

"I will give my light to the good people in this room,

 but I will withhold it from the evil people"? 

Or can a tree say, 

"I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me,

 but I will withhold it from the bad"? 

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These are images of what love is about.

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~ Anthony de Mello

from Awareness: The perils and opportunities of reality

by Anthony De Mello

photo by Kathleen Connally

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the question of his own Enlightenment

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On the question of his own Enlightenment the Master always remained reticent, even though the disciples tried every means to get him to talk.

All the information they had on this subject was what the Master once said to his youngest son who wanted to know what his father felt when he became Enlightened.

The answer was:  "A fool."

When the boy asked why, the Master had replied, "Well, son, it was like going to great pains to break into a house by climbing a ladder and smashing a window and then realizing later that the door of the house was open.

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~  Anthony de Mello

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Waking up is unpleasant

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Waking up is unpleasant, you know. 

You are nice and comfortable in bed. 

It is irritating to be woken up. 

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That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up.

 I hope I'm going to be wise here 

and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep.

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 It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times,

 "Wake up!"

 My business is to do my thing, 

to dance my dance. 

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As the Arabs say,

 "The nature of rain is the same,

 but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."

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~ Anthony de Mello

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don't look at things through your concepts

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If you don't look at things through your concepts, you'll never be bored. 

Every single thing is unique. 

Every sparrow is unlike every other sparrow despite the similarities. 

It's a great help to have similarities, so we can abstract, 

so that we can have a concept. 

It's a great help, from the point of view of communication, 

education, science. 

But it's also very misleading and a great hindrance

 to seeing this concrete individual. 

If all you experience is your concept,

 you're not experiencing reality,

 because reality is concrete. 

The concept is a help, 

to lead you to reality, 

but when you get there, 

you've got to intuit or experience it directly.

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~ Anthony de Mello

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