on taking offense and button pushing

[Guest guest]

What I'm about to say will sound a bit pompous, but it's true. What is

coming could be the most important minutes in your lives. If you could

grasp this, you'd hit upon the secret of awakening. You would be happy

forever. You would never be unhappy again. Nothing would have the power

to hurt you again. I mean that, nothing. It's like when you throw black

paint in the air, the air remains uncontaminated. You never color the air

black. No matter what happens to you, you remain uncontaminated. You

remain at peace. There are human beings who have attained this, what I

call being human. Not this nonsense of being a puppet, jerked about this

way and that way, letting events or other people tell you how to feel. So

you proceed to feel it and you call it being vulnerable. Ha! I call it

being a puppet. So you want to be a puppet? Press a button and you're

down; do you like that? But if you refuse to identify with any of those

labels, most of your worries cease.

 

Later we'll talk about fear of disease and death, but ordinarily you're

worried about what's going to happen to your career. A small-time

businessman, fifty-five years old, is sipping beer at a bar somewhere and

he's saying, "Well, look at my classmates, they've really made it." The

idiot! What does he mean, "They made it"? They've got their names in the

newspaper. Do you call that making it? One is president of the

corporation; the other has become the Chief Justice; somebody else has

become this or that. Monkeys, all of them.

 

Who determines what it means to be a success? This stupid society! The

main preoccupation of society is to keep society sick! And the sooner you

realize that, the better. Sick, every one of them. They are loony,

they're crazy. You became president of the lunatic asylum and you're proud

of it even though it means nothing. Being president of a corporation has

nothing to do with being a success in life. Having a lot of money has

nothing to do with being a success in life. You're a success in life when

you wake up! Then you don't have to apologize to anyone, you don't have to

explain anything to anyone, you don't give a damn what anybody thinks about

you or what anybody says about you. You have no worries; you're

happy. That's what I call being a success. Having a good job or being

famous or having a great reputation has absolutely nothing to do with

happiness or success. Nothing! It is totally irrelevant. All he's really

worried about is what his children will think about him, what the neighbors

will think about him, what his wife will think about him. He should have

become famous. Our society and culture drill that into our heads day and

night. People who made it! Made what?! Made asses of

themselves. Because they drained all their energy getting something that

was worthless. They're frightened and confused, they are puppets like the

rest. Look at them strutting across the stage. Look how upset they get if

they have a stain on their shirt. Do you call that a success? Look at how

frightened they are at the prospect they might not be reelected. Do you

call that a success? They are controlled, so manipulated. They are

unhappy people, they are miserable people. They don't enjoy life. They

are constantly tense and anxious. Do you call that human? And do you know

why that happens? Only one reason: They identified with some label. They

identified the "I" with their money or their job or their profession. That

was their error.

 

Did you hear about the lawyer who was presented with a plumber's bill? He

said to the plumber, "Hey, you're charging me two hundred dollars an

hour. I don't make that kind of money as a lawyer." The plumber said, "I

didn't make that kind of money when I was a lawyer either!" You could be a

plumber or a lawyer or a business man or a priest, but that does not affect

the essential "I." It doesn't affect you. If I change my profession

tomorrow, it's just like changing my clothes. I am untouched. Are you

your clothes? Are you your name? Are you your profession? Stop

identifying with them. They come and go.

 

When you really understand this, no criticism can affect you. No flattery

or praise can affect you either. When someone says, "You're a great guy,"

what is he talking about? He's talking about "me," he's not talking about

"I." "I" is neither great nor small. "I" is neither successful nor a

failure. It is none of these labels. These things come and go. These

things depend on the criteria society establishes. These things depend on

your conditioning. These things depend on the mood of the person who

happens to be talking to you right now. It has nothing to do with

"I." "I" is none of these labels. "Me" is generally selfish,

foolish,

childish -- a great big ass. So when you say, "You're an ass," I've known

it for years! The conditioned self -- what did you expect? I've known it

for years. Why do you identify with him? Silly! That isn't "I," that's

"me."

 

Do you want to be happy? Uninterrupted happiness is uncaused. True

happiness is uncaused. You cannot make me happy. You are not my

happiness. You say to the awakened person, "Why are you happy?" and the

awakened person replies, "Why not?"

 

Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little

children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and

contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness

you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does

anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what

you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to

drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add

anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy,

life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your

greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From

having identified with all kinds of labels!

 

 

 

Anthony de Mello, SJ