Saturday, September 05, 2009

I'm an ass. You are an ass!

A small excerpt from a speech of Anthony de Mello
This reminds me of this fellow in London after the war. He’s sitting with a parcel wrapped in brown paper in his lap; it’s a big, heavy object. The bus conductor comes up to him and says, “What do you have on your lap there?” And the man says, “This is an unexploded bomb. We dug it out of the garden and I’m taking it to the police station.” The conductor says, “You don’t want to carry that on your lap. Put it under the seat.”

Psychology and spirituality (as we generally understand it) transfer the bomb from your lap to under your seat. They don’t really solve your problems. They exchange your problems for other problems. Has that ever struck you? You had a problem, now you exchange it for another one. It’s always going to be that way until we solve the problem called “you.”


PS: The title is another statement of Anthony de Mello. This, he claims, liberates him from having to forcefully appreciate others and forcefully expect appreciation from others!

3 comments:

Karthik said...

Strongly agree. I appreciate this great post of yours. ;)

Partha said...

thangalin melarntha karuthirku adiyenin thaazhmaiyana nandri! :P

Arul said...

Inspired by you, I started blogging recently.
http://some-events-in-life.blogspot.com/