One Minute Wisdom

One Minute Wisdom 

"Is there such a thing as One Minute Wisdom?"
"There certainly is," said the Master.
"But surely one minute is too brief?"
"It is fifty-nine seconds too long."


To his puzzled disciples the Master later said,
"How much time does it take to catch
sight of the moon?"
"Then why all these years of spiritual endeavor?"
"Opening one's eyes may take a lifetime.
Seeing is done in a flash."

ONE MINUTE WISDOM

Anthony de Mello

Simplicity

Simplicity

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

Nothing is better than simplicity—nothing can make up for excess, or for the lack of definiteness.

Leaves of Grass (Preface)

Walt Whitman

Be my friend!

Be my friend!

How beautiful it would be if we remained friends!
Every woman needs a friend's hand
Needs to hear good words
Be my friend!
I need sometimes to walk with you in a park
To read together poems
I - as a woman - I am happy to hear you
Be my friend!
My hobbies are little
My interests are small
And all my ambition lies:
to walk for hours with you under the rain
When the melody makes me cry
And I'm in sorrow
So why are you interested only in my appearance
And don't look to my brain?
I am very much in need of a harbour of peace...
I am bored of love stories and news
Talk!
Why do you forget half of the words when you meet me?
Be my friend!
There is no diminution of masculinity
However, the men don't accept but the main role!

Suad al-Sabah

Poet, economist, publisher, activist in social change affecting women and children.

Suad Muhammad al-Sabah (also spelled Souad alSabah or Suʿad al-Sabah) was born in 1942 in Kuwait as a member of the ruling family. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences at Cairo University in 1973. She obtained a doctorate in economics from Sari Guilford University in the United Kingdom in 1981. She later returned to Kuwait and established the Suad alSabah Publishing and Distribution House. She has published several books of poetry and established a literary prize that carries her name. She also has written hundreds of economic and political essays as well as popular articles in several Arabic local and international newspapers and magazines. Her poetry has been translated into many languages, including English.
Al-Sabah is the director of Kuwait Stock Exchange and a member of the Higher Council for Education, the executive committee of the World Muslim Women Organization for South East Asia, and the board of trustees and the executive committee of the Arab Intellect Forum. She is also a founding member of the Arab Cultural Establishment, the executive committee of the Arab Human Rights Organization, and the Arab Council for Childhood and Development. Her poetry has captured the attention of popular artists as well as university researchers in many countries. Her literary publications include Wamdatt Bakira (Early blinks) and Lahathat min Umri (Moments of my life, 1961). Her scientific works in English include Development Planning in an Oil Economy and the Role of the Woman (1983) and Kuwait: Anatomy of a Crisis Economy (1984).

Concurrence

Competition

That award was a result of competition, which can be cruel if it is built on hatred of oneself and of others.
People get a good feeling on the basis of somebody getting a bad feeling; you win over somebody else.


Isn't that terrible? Taken for granted in a lunatic asylum!

There's an American doctor who wrote about the effect of competition on his life.
He went to medical school in Switzerland and there was a fairly large contingent of Americans at that school.
He said some of the students went into shock when they realized that there were no grades, there were no awards, there was no dean's list, no first or second in the class at the school.
You either passed or you didn't.
He said, "Some of us just couldn't take it. We became almost paranoid. We thought there must be some kind of trick here."
So some of them went to another school.
Those who survived suddenly discovered a strange thing they had never noticed at American universities: students, brilliant ones, helping others to pass, sharing notes.
His son goes to medical school in the United States and he tells him that, in the lab, people often tamper with the microscope so that it'll take the next student three or four minutes to readjust it.

They have to succeed, they have to be perfect.
And he tells a lovely little story which he says is factual, but it could also serve as a beautiful parable.

There was a little town in America where people gathered in the evening to make music.
They had a saxophonist, a drummer, and a violinist, mostly old people.
They got together for the company and for the sheer joy of making music, though they didn't do it very well.
So they were enjoying themselves, having a great time, until one day they decided to get a new conductor who had a lot of ambition and drive.
The new conductor told them, "Hey, folks, we have to have a concert, we have to prepare a concert for the town."
Then he gradually got rid of some people who didn't play too well, hired a few professional musicians, got an orchestra into shape, and they all got their names in the newspapers.
Wasn't that wonderful?
So they decided to move to the big city and play there:
But some of the old people had tears in their eyes.
They said, "It was so wonderful in the old days when we did things badly and enjoyed them."
So cruelty came into their lives, but nobody recognized it as cruelty.

See how lunatic people have become!

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Eschatology

Eschatology

Of the great Zen Master Rinzai
it was said that each night the last thing he did before he went to bed was let out a great big belly laugh that resounded through the corridors and was heard in every building of the monastery grounds.
And the first thing he did when he woke at dawn was burst into peals of laughter so loud they woke up every monk no matter how deep his slumber.
His disciples asked him repeatedly to tell them why he laughed but he wouldn't.
And when he died he carried the secret of his laughter with him to the grave.


The Master was in an expansive mood so his disciples sought to learn from him the stages he had passed through in his quest for the divine.
"God first led me by the hand," he said, "into the Land of Action and there I dwelt for several years.
Then He returned and led me to the Land of Sorrows; there I lived until my heart was purged of every inordinate attachment.
That is when I found myself in the Land of Love whose burning flames consumed whatever was left in me of self.
This brought me to the Land of Silence where the mysteries of life and death were bared before my wondering eyes."
"Was that the final stage of your quest?" they asked.
"No." The Master said,
"One day God said.
Today I shall take you to the innermost sanctuary of the Temple, to the heart of God himself.'
And I was led to the Land of Laughter."

THE PRAYER OF THE FROG 1

Anthony de Mello