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Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 17:29:43 -0800
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] ] The monastery of the heart - Stories
Date: January 6, 2013
The monastery of the heart - Stories
"Is there anything I can do to make myself enlightened?" the seeker asked the
teacher. "As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning," the
teacher answered. "Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you
prescribe?" the seeker said. And the teacher responded, "To make sure you are
not asleep when the sun begins to shine."
Some monks came to see Abba Poemen and said to him: Tell us, when we see
brothers dozing during the sacred office, should we pinch them so they will
stay awake? The old man said to them: Actually, if I saw a brother sleeping,
I would put his head on my knees and let him rest.
From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mother
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said: Abba, as much as I am able I
practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer and meditation, and
remain quiet, and as much as possible I keep my thoughts clean. What else
should I do? Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward
heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame. And he said: If you
wish, you can be turned into fire.
A rabbi, upon entering a room, saw his son deep in prayer. In the corner
stood a cradle with a crying baby. The rabbi asked his son, "Can't you hear?
There's a baby crying in this room." The son said, "Father, I was lost in
God." And the rabbi said, "One who is lost in God can see the very fly
crawling up the wall." Abel Herzberg
A disciple asked the master, "What's the difference between knowledge and
enlightenment?" And the master answered, "When you have knowledge, you use a
torch to show the way. When you have enlightenment, you become a torch.
One day the Master told the disciples of meeting a pilot who flew laborers
from China into Burma during World War II to work on jungle roads. The flight
was long and boring so the laborers would take to gambling. Since they had no
money to gamble with, they gambled with their livesthe loser jumped out of
the plane without a parachute! "How terrible!" said the horrified disciples.
"True," said the Master. "But it made the game exciting." Later in the day he
said, "You never live so fully as when you gamble with your lives."
One day Chou-chou fell down in the snow and called out, "Help me up; help me
up."
A monk came and lay down beside him. Then Chou-chou got up and went away.
A cobbler came to Rabbi Isaac of Ger and said, "Tell me what to do about my
morning prayer. My customers are poor people who have only one pair of shoes.
I pick up their shoes late in the evening and work on them most of the night:
at dawn there is still work to be d one if they are to have their shoes ready
before they go to work. Now my question is: "What should I do about my
morning prayer?" "What have you been doing till now?" the Rabbi asked.
"Sometimes I rush through the prayer quickly and get back to my workbut then
I feel bad about it. At other times I let the hour of prayer go by. Then,
too, I feel a sense of loss and every now and then, as I raise my hammer from
the shoes, I can almost hear my heart sigh, "What an unlucky cobbler I am
that I am not able to make my morning prayer." Said the Rabbi, "If I were
God, I would value that sigh more than the prayer."
A Buddhist teacher told this parable: A man was struck by an arrow shot by an
unknown assailant. He became so angry that he refused to allow the arrow to
be removed or his wound treated. "I will not treat the wound until the archer
is located, sees what he has done to me and is properly punished," he said.
Days grew into weeks and weeks into months and the wound festered. Finally
the poison killed him. The Buddha ended the story by asking: Who is
responsible for this man's deaththe unknown assailant or the man himself who
foolishly clung to the arrow? When all were seated, the bishops asked my lord
Nonnus to speak to them, and at once the holy bishop began to speak words for
the edification and salvation of all. Now while we were marveling at his holy
teaching, lo, suddenly there came among us the chief actress of Antioch, the
first in the chorus in the theatre, sitting on a donkey. She was dressed in
the height of fantasy, wearing nothing but gold, pearls, and precious stones,
even her bare feet were covered with gold and pearls . When the bishops saw
her bareheaded and with all her limbs shamelessly exposed with such lavish
display, there was not one who did not hide his face in his veil or his
scapular, averting their eyes as if from a great sin. But the most blessed
Nonnus gazed at her very intently for a long space of time. After she had
gone by, he turned round and still gazed after her. Then he turned towards
the bishops sitting round him and said, "Were you not delighted by her great
beauty?" Still they did not answer, so "Indeed," he said, "I was very greatly
delighted and her beauty pleased me very much. See, God will place her before
the judgment seat and will judge her on her gifts, just as God will judge us
on our Episcopal calling."
The teacher asked his disciples: Can any of you give me an example of
enlightenment or holiness? One disciple stood and told the following story:
"I heard about a saint in the area who, wanting to visit a dying friend and
fearing to travel by night, said to the sun, `In the name of God stay on in
the sky till I reach the village where my friend is dying.' And the sun
stopped dead in the sky till the holy one reached the village." The teacher
thought awhile and replied, "Would it not have been better for the holy
person to overcome his fear of travelling by night?"
It was said about Abba Agathon that for three years he carried a pebble
around in his mouth until he learned to be silent. Desert Mothers and Fathers
The Seeker approached the Disciple respectfully and asked, "What is the
meaning of human life?" The Disciple consulted the Written Works of His
Master and confidently replied with the words of the Master himself: "Human
life is nothing but the expression of God's exuberance."
When the Seeker met the Master himself and asked him the same question, the
Master said, "I do not know."
A neighbor found Nasruddin on his knees searching for something. "What are
you searching for?" the neighbor asked. "My key," Nasruddin said, "I lost
it." Both men got on their knees to search for the lost key. They looked and
looked but to no avail. After awhile the neighbor said, "Where did you lose
the key?" Nasruddin replied, "I lost it at home." The exasperated neighbor
exclaimed, "Good Lord! Then why are you searching for it here?" Nasruddin
looked at him and said, "Because there is more light here.
The devil once went for a walk with a friend. They saw a man ahead of them
stoop down and pick up something from the road. "What did that man find?"
asked the friend. "A piece of Truth," said the devil. "Doesn't that disturb
you?" asked the friend. "No it does not," said the devil, "I shall allow him
to make a religious belief out of it."
The poet-monk Ryokan received a message from his brother. "Come quickly to
visit my home," the brother wrote. "I do not know what to do with my son. He
is always in trouble and I fear that he will soon land in prison. You must
talk to him and set him straight." Ryokan left immediately for his brother's
home. When he arrived he ate dinner with the family but said not a word of
admonition to the boy. He stayed the night and prepared to leave the
following morning. As the wayward boy was helping tie Ryokan's straw sandals,
he felt a warm drop of water on his shoulder. Glancing up, the boy saw
Ryokan, eyes full of tears, looking down on him. Ryokan departed silently,
and the boy soon mended his ways.
A young man knocked on the gate of a monastery and told the abbot that he was
disgusted with his way of life. He was very dissolute and couldn't find
anything worth his passion. Could he enter the monastery? "Surely," said the
abbot, "there is something you have dabbled with in life, at least?" The
young man thought a while and said, "Well, I played chess once or twice." The
abbot called for one of the elders of the monastery, a most saintly man, and
said, "I want you to play chess with this young man. It will be a serious
game because this is the young man's only chance to change his life. Here are
the conditions: if you lose, I will cut off your head. If he loses, I will
cut off his head. Now begin." At first the young man was nervous and made all
sorts of errors, then he began to think of losing his life and started to
concentrate. It soon became apparent that he was a better chess player and
would beat the old monk. But when he looked across the chessboard and saw the
kind face of the old monk he thought, "Why should he die instead of me? He
has led a good life and helped many people. I have wasted my days." So the
young man began to purposely make wrong moves and prepared to die. Suddenly,
the abbot picked up his sword and swung it at the chessboard, cutting it in
two. "Enough," he shouted. Looking at the young man, he said, "You have
learned the two things necessary to be a monk. In playing as if your life
depended on it, you learned concentration. And in reflecting on the fate of
the old monk, you learned compassion. These two thingsconcentration and
compassionare all that's necessary for the monastic life. Welcome.
I thought it good fortune to go the Magic Monastery for Easter. But at the
foot of the hill sat a blind beggar, and when I drew near to him to give him
some money, I heard him ask, "Who will lead me into the heart of God?" I
couldn't go on. Who would lead him into the heart of God? I sat down in front
of him. "Together," I said, "Together we'll go into the heart of God." Tales
from The Magic Monastery by Theophane the Monk
Abba Sisoes the Theban said to the disciple: Tell me what you see in me and
in turn I will tell you what I see in you. His disciple said to him: You are
good in soul, but a little harsh. The old man said to him: You are good, but
your soul is not tough.
Oren Lyons was the first Onondagan to enter college. When he returned to his
reservation for his first vacation, his uncle proposed a fishing trip on a
lake. Once he had his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him,
he began to interrogate him. "Well, Oren," he said, "you've been to college;
you must be pretty smart now from all they've been teaching you. Let me ask
you a question. Who are you?" Taken aback by the question, Oren fumbled for
an answer. "What do you mean, who am I? Why, I'm your nephew, of course." His
uncle rejected his answer and repeated his question. Successively, the nephew
ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onondagan, a human being, a man, a young
man, all to no avail. When his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked
to be informed as to who he was, his uncle said, "Do you see that bluff over
there? Oren, you are the bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore? Oren,
you are that pine. And this water that supports our boat? You are this water."
A handful of wheat grains were found in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian
kings. The grains were five thousand years old. Someone planted the seeds and
watered them. And, to the amazement of all, the grains came to life and
sprouted. After five thousand years!
The story goes that Thomas Aquinas, on of the world's greatest theologians,
suddenly stopped writing towards the end of his life. When he was asked why
he was not completing his theological works, Thomas replied: "When I was
celebrating the liturgy some months ago I experienced something of the
Divine. That day I lost all appetite for writing. In fact, all I have ever
written about God seems to me to be like a straw." Anthony de Mello, SJ
A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into
a deep pit. When the frogs that had escaped the pit saw how deep it was, they
told the two trapped frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs
ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their
might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as
dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying
and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard
as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain
and just die. But he jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got
out, the other frogs said, "Didn't you hear us? Why did you keep trying?" The
frog explained, "I'm deaf. I thought you were cheering for me - telling me
not to give up and encouraging me to jump higher."
The Talmud tells of an old man in the village who kept giving money to
ne'er-do-wells. The villagers were aghast at such wantonness. "Why give these
people money when you know they'll only waste it?" they wanted to know. And
the old man answered, "Shall I be pickier with them than God has been with
me?"
"What is humility?" I asked an old monk. And he replied, "Humility is being
the first to say `I love you.' " --from Tales of a Magic Monastery by
Theophane the Monk
A brother asked an old man: "What is humility?" And the old man said, "To do
good to those who hurt you." The brother said, "If you cannot go that far,
what should you do?" The old man replied, "Get away from them and keep your
mouth shut."
--Saying of the Desert Mothers and Fathers
The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He
prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon
for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to
build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to
store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he
arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the
sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and
anger. "God, how could you do this to me," he cried. Early the next day,
however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the
island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the
weary man of his rescuers. "We saw you smoke signal," they replied.
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs and
wondered how it lived. Then he saw a tiger with game in its mouth approach
the fox. The tiger ate its fill and left the rest of the meat for the fox.
The next day the man watched as the tiger again fed the fox with leftover
meat. The man began to wonder about God's greatness and said to himself, "I,
too, shall just rest in a corner with full trust in the God who will provide
me with all I need." He did this for many days, but nothing happened, and he
was almost at death's door when he heard a voice say, "O you who are in the
path of error, open your eyes to the truth! Follow the example of the tiger
and stop imitating the disabled fox."
Once a famous doctor met one of his patients on the street. Without a word of
greeting, the doctor said, "I told you not to walk on that leg until it
heals." "But it IS healed," said the man. "Impossible!" replied the doctor.
"I saw the wound in that leg. It will take months." The man explained, "I
went to another kind of healer. I went to the mystical rabbi, the one they
call the Baal Shem Tov." The doctor narrowed his eyes, then simply walked
away. A week later, the doctor went to visit Baal Shem Tov. "I hear you claim
to be a healer," the doctor said. The Baal Shev looked at the man who had
knocked on his door and said, "God is the healer, my friend. Come in." The
doctor then issued this challenge: "Let us examine each other. Whoever best
diagnoses the sickness of the other will be proved the better doctor." "The
Baal Shem Tov agreed and the doctor began his examination. For an hour the
doctor poked the rabbi, pinched him, gazed in his ears and tapped on his
knees and then concluded, "You have no sickness that I can find." "I am not
surprised that you could not find my pain," said the Baal Shem Tov. "I so
desire the presence of God that my heart cries out in pain when I cannot feel
it. My sickness is this constant yearning for God." The Baal Shem Tov looked
at the doctor for a long while. "Let me now examine you." He took the
doctor's hands and for a long time gazed into his eyes. At last the rabbi
said, "Have you ever lost something very valuable?" The doctor thought a
moment and replied, "I once had a large jewel, but it was stolen from me."
"Ah, that is your sickness," said the Baal Shem Tov. "What? My missing
diamond?" snickered the doctor. "No," said the rabbi. My sickness is yearning
after God. Your sickness is that you have forgotten that you ever had that
desire." The doctor took a deep breath and, in a moment, a tear flowed down
his cheek. One tear turned to many. Still holding the hands of Baal Shem Tov,
he began to sob. "Please," he said, "teach me how to yearn." "With God's
help," said the Baal Shem Tov, "your healing has already begun."
Mulla Nasruddin went to China. There he gathered a group of disciples whom he
was preparing for enlightenment. As soon as they became enlightened, the
disciples stopped attending his lectures!
A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of
dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they
plagued him. Finally he wrote the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated
all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question, "What
shall I do now?" In due course the reply came: "We suggest you learn to love
them.
I had just one desireto give myself completely to God. So I headed for the
monastery. An old monk asked me, "What is it you want?" I said, "I just want
to give myself to God." I expected him to be gentle, fatherly, but he shouted
at me. I was stunned. He shouted again, "NOW!" Then he reached for a club and
came after me. I turned and ran. He kept coming after me, brandishing his
club and shouting, "NOW, NOW!" That was years ago. He still follows me
wherever I go. Always that stick, always that "NOW!"
---Theophane the Monk - Tales of a Magic Monastery
Reb Chaim was lame. His right leg was of almost no use to him. Yet, when he
prayed he did so with such fervor that he would leap up on his right leg and
dance, totally absorbed in union with God. One day he visited the community
of Reb Naftali and there he cleaved so tightly to God that he hopped and
danced and spun on his bad leg over and over again. The rabbi's wife happened
by and said to her husband, "Why do you let him dance like that on his bad
leg? Tell him to dance on his good leg." Reb Naftali said, "My dear wife, if
Reb Chaim knew on which leg he was dancing, I promise you I would speak to
him as you have suggested. But what am I to do if in his passionate love of
God he no longer remembers he is lame?"
Hasidic Tales - by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
An aged woman had a camel. It was her only source of income. But then it was
stolen. Near to her lived a rich man who had thirty camels. The woman visited
him and among his herd she found her camel. Everyone was amazed. Would a rich
man steal a poor woman's only camel? And how was it possible for her to know
that a certain camel was hers? She insisted it was hers. "But how can you
prove it?" the rich man asked. The woman answered, "I can prove it. Kill her
and open her chest. On her heart you will find a scar." The camel was killed
and there on the heart was a scar. It could be easily seen. Everyone was
astonished. The rich man was ordered to give her two camels as restitution.
"How," he asked, "could you know there was a scar on her heart?" "It was
simple," she said. "Two years ago the son of the camel was killed by a wolf.
The camel was so sad that I knew it must have left a mark on her heart."
--Muslim story
