I do my thing for Our Father, and the joy of his love.  If it benefits you, congratulations brother, but no thanks to me.  - me

"The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens." - Arab Proverb

A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen.
The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did,
thinking he was a barnyard chicken.
He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled.
And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a
magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky.
It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents,
with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.

The old eagle looked up in awe. "Who's that?" he asked.

"That's the eagle, the king of the birds," said his neighbor.
"He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth--we're chickens."
So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that's what he thought he was.
-- Fr. Anthony de Mello, Jesuit Priest (died in 1987, RIP)

---  Lao-Tzu Quotes  ---

Life

Life only makes sense when you perceive it as a mystery.

Growth and Enlightenment

"Calamities can bring growth and Enlightenment," said the Master.

And he explained it thus:

"Each day a bird would shelter in the withered branches of a
tree that stood in the middle of a vast deserted plain. One day
a whirlwind uprooted the tree, forcing the poor bird to fly a
hundred miles in search of shelter ~ 'till it finally came to a
forest of fruit-laden trees."

And he concluded: "If the withered tree had survived, nothing
would have induced the bird to give up its security and fly."

True Solitude

Master: As the fish dies on the land, so you die in the
midst of worldly business. To live again, the fish returns
to water. You must return to solitude.

Disciple: Must I therefore leave my business
and go into a monastery?

Master: Certainly not. Hold on to your business and
go back to your heart.

Credentials (Authenticity) The Master was never impressed
by diplomas or degrees. He scrutinized the person, not the certificate.

He was once heard to say, "When you have ears to hear
a bird in song, you don't need to look at its credentials.

Liberation

"How shall I get liberation?"

"Find out who has bound you,"
said the Master.

The disciple returned after a week and said,

"No one has bound me."

"Then why ask to be liberated?"

That was a moment of Enlightenment for the disciple,
who suddenly became free.

Emptiness
Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors
and the Silence of the monastery would be shattered.

This would upset the disciples;
not the Master, who seemed just as content
with the noise as with the Silence.

To his protesting disciples he said one day,
"Silence is not the absence of sound,
but the absence of self."

The Message (Meaning)

Said a traveler to one of the disciples,
"I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master,
but I find his words quite ordinary."

"Don't listen to his words.
Listen to his message."

"How does one do that?"

"Take hold of a sentence that he says.
Shake it well till all the words drop off.
What is left will set your heart on fire."

Identity

"How does one seek union with God?"

"The harder you seek, the more distance you create
between Him and you."

"So what does one do about the distance?"

"Understand that it isn't there."

"Does that mean that God and I are one?"

"Not one.
Not two."

"How is that possible?"

"The sun and its light,
the ocean and the wave,
the singer and his song
-- not one.
Not two."

Warning

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Potential

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.