When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.
Anthony De MelloRead
Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.
Interpretation
Enlightenment involves fully embracing and cooperating with the natural flow of life.
This quote by Anthony De Mello suggests that true enlightenment comes from understanding and accepting the inevitability of life's events. By cooperating with what life presents rather than resisting it, one can achieve a state of peace and wisdom that transcends suffering and confusion.
In practice
In a discussion about personal growth during a life coaching seminar.
When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.
Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.
The master never seemed to have his fill of gazing at his firstborn child. "What do you want him to be when he grows up?" someone asked. "Outrageously happy," said the master.
The genius of a composer is found in the notes of his music; but analyzing the notes will not reveal his genius. The poet's greatness is contained in his words; yet the study of his words will not disclose his inspiration. God reveals himself in creation; but scrutinize creation as minutely as you wish, you will not find God, any more than you will find the soul through careful examination of your body.
What is a loving heart? A loving heart is sensitive to the whole of life, to all persons; a loving heart doesn't harden itself to any persons or things.
Problems only exist in the human mind.
Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.
Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles.
What our generation has forgotten is that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not. It is only because the control of the means of production is divided among many people acting independently that nobody has complete power over us, that we as individuals can decide what to do with ourselves.
Slavery is, as an example of what white America has done, a constant reminder of what white America might do.
Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favor.
The basis of drama is... the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he realises that what kept him from it was, in the lesser drama, civilisation and, in the great drama, the discovery of something that he did not set out to discover but which can be seen retrospectively as inevitable.
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