Guest guest Posted April 13, 2003 Report Share Posted April 13, 2003 ---------- > Scott Reeves <ScottR > Sat, 12 Apr 2003 00:48:57 -0500 > Spiritus, Spiritus_Org > 46 - THE DEATH OF ME > > > Can one be fully human without experiencing tragedy? The only tragedy > there is in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from that. The only > tragedy there is in the world is unwakefulness and unawareness. From them > comes fear, and from fear comes everything else, but death is not a tragedy > at all. Dying is wonderful; it's only horrible to people who have never > understood life. It's only when you're afraid of life that you fear > death. It's only dead people who fear death. But people who are alive > have no fear of death. One of your American authors put it so well. He > said awakening is the death of your belief in injustice and tragedy. The > end of the world for a caterpillar is a butterfly for the master. Death is > resurrection. We're talking not about some resurrection that will happen > but about one that is happening right now. If you would die to the past, > if you would die to every minute, you would be the person who is fully > alive, because a fully alive person is one who is full of death. We're > always dying to things. We're always shedding everything in order to be > fully alive and to be resurrected at every moment. The mystics, saints, > and others make great efforts to wake people up. If they don't wake up, > they're always going to have these other minor ills like hunger, wars, and > violence. The greatest evil is sleeping people, ignorant people. > > A Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrupe, his superior general, asking > him about the relative value of communism, socialism, and > capitalism. Father Arrupe gave him a lovely reply. He said, "A system is > about as good or as bad as the people who use it." People with golden > hearts would make capitalism or communism or socialism work beautifully. > > Don't ask the world to change -- you change first. Then you'll get a good > enough look at the world so that you'll be able to change whatever you > think ought to be changed. Take the obstruction out of your own eye. If > you don't, you have lost the right to change anyone or anything. Till you > are aware of yourself, you have no right to interfere with anyone else or > with the world. Now, the danger of attempting to change others or change > things when you yourself are not aware is that you may be changing things > for your own convenience, your pride, your dogmatic convictions and > beliefs, or just to relieve your negative feelings. I have negative > feelings, so you better change in such a way that I'll feel good. First, > cope with your negative feelings so that when you move out to change > others, you're not coming from hate or negativity but from love. It may > seem strange, too, that people can be very hard on others and still be very > loving. The surgeon can be hard on a patient and yet loving. Love can be > very hard indeed. > > > > Anthony de Mello, SJ > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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