Is That So?

The Zen master "Hakuin" was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near by his house. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she is pregnent.

This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say.

When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"

-A Zen Story

A Zen Story

Once upon a time there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

Sveta-ketu goes to school (A Story from the Upanishads)

Long ago in India, there was a boy named Sveta-ketu. He was already twelve years old, but he had not yet gone to school. Probably he had no brothers or sisters and there was so much work for him to do at home, helping his parents, that there had been no way for him to go to the house of a learned teacher, which is where the pupils studied in those days. A boy had to live with the teacher and study with him the various branches of knowledge that were taught at that time.

The father of this boy said to him one day, "Sveta-ketu, go to school. You are a brahmin, of a well born family, and no one in our family line has failed to live up to that. A brahmin must be educated and learn how to behave nobly in every respect."

So Sveta-ketu went off to the local teacher's house and studied the great books, called The Vedas, and similar subjects, for twelve years. In that time, of course, he had been able to master many things, so he had quite a good opinion of himself. He walked proudly and smiled very little. When, at the age of twentyfour, he had come back to his parents, they were very happy to have him home again. But his father noticed the proud attitude in the boy and decided that there was only one word for Sveta-ketu: conceited!

One day he said, "Well, my boy, since you consider yourself a very serious person and well educated indeed, let me now test your knowledge. Did you ever ask your teacher for that instruction by which one hears the unhearable, perceives the unperceivable, and knows the unknowable?"

"How, sir," the young man answered, very much surprised, "can there be any such instruction?"

"Why, in this way, my boy: by knowing the nature of one lump of clay, we can know the nature of everything made of clay, can we not? The shapes of other things, such as a pot, a toy elephant, etc., are just names, given to help us talk about them. The reality in them is just the clay, is it not?"

"By knowing the nature of a nugget of gold, the nature of all gold things is known; likewise, by knowing the structure of a nailfile, we understand everything made of iron. The shapes and names we use for convenience. The reality is just the gold, or the iron."

"Yes, Father," said Sveta-ketu. "Surely my revered teachers did not know this; why did they not tell me? So, you please tell me about that."

His father agreed, and the instruction he gave his son, remembered by him and passed on to generations of students, takes up a large part of one of the Upanishads. Let's hear the beginning and a few other portions of that teaching.

"In the beginning, my boy," said the father, "there was just Being and nothing else. Some people said there was Nonbeing and nothing else, and that Being came out of that. But they were foolish! How could Being be produced by NonBeing?"

"It was just the opposite, son: in the beginning, there was just Being and nothing else. That Being felt lonely. It thought, 'Well, let me become many. Let me produce other things.' And so It produced the different elements of this universe, one after another." In this way, Sveta-ketu's father went on to explain to him the various stages of creation.

"There is more to growing up than you may think. Facts, gathered from books and teachers are all very well, but wisdom is to know that they all come from one source."

You are That!

Sveta-ketu's father continued:

"Every night, when they go into a state of dreamless sleep, all creatures enter again into that Being from which they have come. Then, why do they not know it?"

"When the bees make honey by collecting the nectar of different trees and reduce them all to one juice, these nectars cannot say, 'I am the nectar of an orange blossom,' 'I am the nectar of a mango blossom,' etc. In the same way, my boy, all these creatures, though they have entered that Being, they cannot say what they are. When they return again to the waking state, whatever they are in this world -- a man, a tiger, a wolf, a boar, a worm, a fly, or a mosquito -- that is what they become again. They do not know that they have come back from that Being."

"Suppose there is a hidden treasure of gold lying buried in a field. People who do not know about it will walk again and again over that treasure and will not find it. Just so, all of us go, day after day, into the embrace of that divine Being but do not realize it. The Self of this whole universe is the same as the Seed from which it came. And you, O Sveta-ketu, are That!"

"But, sir," asked the son, "that Being has no name or form. So, how could this universe, with all its objects having all these names, come out of that?"

"Bring me a fig from our figtree," his father suggested. Sveta-ketu went out and came back with a fig from the tree.

"Now break it."

"Yes, it is broken."

"What do you see now?"

"Seeds -- hundreds of them."

"Now break one of the seeds, son."

"That is difficult, sir. But here, it is done."

"Do you see anything inside?"

"No, sir, there is nothing inside."

"Sveta-ketu, just because you cannot see it, that does not mean that there is not a fine principle at work in the seed, which is the cause of the whole fig tree. Believe me, my boy, the Self of this whole universe is the same as the tiny seed from which it came. And you are That!"

Now Sveta-ketu was puzzled and had a doubt in his mind: if some principle, called Being is the cause of all this world, why do we not see that? So, he asked his father, who replied:

"Here is a lump of salt. Put this lump in a vessel of water, and I will see you again in the morning." His son did so. Next morning, when he came, his father asked him to bring him that lump of salt. Sveta-ketu looked into the vessel, but of course the salt had dissolved.

"Taste some water from the surface of the vessel," said his father, "and tell me how it is."

"Salty," Sveta-ketu said.

"Now taste a little from the other side and tell me how that is."

"Salty, Sir."

"Now carefully pour off most of the water and try a little from the bottom of the pot." This done, Sveta-ketu replied that it tasted salty too.

"You could not perceive the salt with your eyes, you had to apply the sense of taste. So, also, in this body of ours -- that Being is not perceived by eyes or tongue or any of the senses, but it is here nevertheless. It has to be discovered by a different means."

( Later he will explain the means: meditation and discrimination.)

"The Self of this whole universe is the same as the tiny seed it came from. And you, O Sveta-ketu, are That!"

-Chhandogya Upanishad

Alissa Bucolin

finally found Alissa's pic (Andre Gide's Wife Madeleine Rondeaux). he had married his cousin Madeleine, in the novel "strait is the gate" Jerome represents Andre Gide & Alissa represents his wife Madeleine.

A Short story

Once upon a time there was a monk who after 20 years, finally achieved self-realization and heard the call to write a book. He had never forgotten that as a young monk, he had been confused and upset by ponderous and misguided religious writings. One day in his despair, he vowed that when he finally understood LOVE, he would write something true, something heartfelt and something that would actually assist people in their journey.

For he felt that LOVE, although talked about, was greatly misunderstood, so he sat down to write his book. He took out the first page and right in the middle with perfect focus and concentration and a truly loving intent, he wrote the word LOVE.

Immediately, across the street, a woman put down the phone and comforted her crying child. Next door, two children gave each other a hug. Across time, a family picked up their new dog. Three thousand miles away, an unexpected wind arose and blew away the city smog.

With the same focus and concentration, with peace and sincere intent, the monk wrote LOVE in the middle of the second page.

Immediately, several blocks away, a child was conceived and a woman who had been contemplating death, decided instead, to risk truly living. Many people in the city just felt happy for no apparent reason. In the capital, an attemp by the government to cover up a scandalous misuse of money was unsuccessful.


The monk pulled out a third page and in the middle, wrote LOVE with the same feeling and intent as before.

Not far away, a woman from a dysfunctional family suddenly, effortlessly, forgave her parents and in that moment ended the cycles of pain that had dogged her family for generations. In the city, a businessman asked a depressed colleague for lunch and a mother bent down to give her tired child a piggyback. Across the world, a rich man gave a poor man, one hundred dollars, a fortune in that country.

In the middle of the fourth page, the monk completed the writing of LOVE.

Nearby, a woman with small children chose to meditate for 5 minutes rather than let her irritation run things. A child in a coma from a car accident and not expected to live, opened her eyes. A man and woman destined to become lovers, met for the first time and a wise and gentle healer felt a tumor dissolve beneath her hands.

The monk did this 365 times, for each day of the year. He really wanted to remind people about LOVE since he'd found LOVE to be the true key to happiness and self-realization.

At first, several publishers returned his manuscript but the monk still felt it had changed the world. Naturally being the monk, he gave away copies or showed people how to write it themselves. The manuscript became so widespread and so well-known and had such an impact on people, it changed the world again.

The monk became even happier and more loving. Such is the power of LOVE.

-about the author of this story (After spending her 20's as a journalist, publishing in Canada, the US and in Europe, Janet Hobbs' life changed when her son experienced a miraculous healing from terminal Leukemia. This experience sent her on the path of healing and study with aboriginal and East Indian spiritual masters.)

Faust

Here is one more western classic "Faust" (both oedipus & Faust are not original works by the authors.. both the plays are stage adaptation of existing legends)

Summary:

Original legend:

Despite his scholarly eminence, Faust is bored and disappointed. He decides to call on the Devil for further knowledge and magic powers with which to indulge all the pleasures of the world. In response, the Devil's representative Mephistopheles appears. He makes a bargain with Faust: Mephistopheles will serve Faust with his magic powers for a term of years, but at the end of the term, the Devil will claim Faust's soul and Faust will be eternally damned.

During the term, Faust makes use of Mephistopheles in various ways. In many versions of the story, Mephistopheles helps him to seduce a beautiful and innocent girl, usually named Gretchen, who is destroyed. However, Gretchen's naive innocence saves her in the end and she enters Heaven. However, Faust is irrevocably corrupted; when the term ends, the Devil carries him off to Hell.

Goethe's version:

Faust Part One is a complex story. It takes place in multiple settings, the first of which is heaven. Mephistopheles makes a bet with God: he says that he can deflect God's favourite human being (Faust), who is striving to learn everything that can be known, away from righteous pursuits. The next scene takes place in Faust's study where Faust, despairing at the vanity of scientific, humanitarian and religious learning, turns to magic for the showering of infinite knowledge. He suspects, however, that his attempts are failing. Frustrated, he ponders suicide, but rejects it as he hears the echo of nearby Easter celebrations begin. He goes for a walk with his assistant Wagner and is followed home by a stray poodle (the term then meant a medium-to-big-size dog, similar to a sheep dog).

In Faust's study, the poodle transforms into the devil (Mephistopheles). Faust makes an arrangement with the devil: the devil will do everything that Faust wants while he is here on Earth, and in exchange Faust will serve the devil in Hell. Faust's arrangement is that if during the time while Mephistopheles is serving Faust, Faust is so pleased with anything the devil gives him that he wants to stay in that moment forever, he will die in that instant.

When the devil tells Faust to sign the pact with blood, Faust complains that the devil does not trust Faust's word of honor. In the end, Mephistopheles wins the argument and Faust signs the contract with a drop of his own blood. Faust has a few excursions and then meets Margaret (also known as Gretchen). He is attracted to her and with jewelry and help from a neighbor, Marthe, the devil draws Gretchen into Faust's arms. Faust seduces Gretchen and they sleep together. Gretchen's mother dies from a sleeping potion, administered by Gretchen to obtain privacy so that Faust could visit her. Gretchen discovers she is pregnant. Gretchen's brother condemns Faust, challenges him and falls dead at the hands of Faust and Mephistopheles. Gretchen drowns her illegitimate child and is convicted of the murder. Faust tries to save Gretchen from death by attempting to free her from prison. Finding that they cannot free her, Faust and the devil flee the dungeon, while voices from Heaven announce that Gretchen shall be saved.

Oedipus

Reading "Oedipus the king".. it has striking similarities with a story told by my grandmother..

Summary:

(Background)

Much of what constitutes the myth of Oedipus takes place before the opening scene of the play. In his youth, Laius was a guest of King Pelops of Elis, and became the tutor of Chrysippus, youngest of the king's sons, in chariot racing. He then violated the sacred laws of hospitality by abducting and raping Chrysippus. This cast a doom over him and his descendants.

The protagonist of the tragedy is the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. After Laius learns from an oracle that "he is doomed/To perish by the hand of his own son", he tightly binds the feet of the infant Oedipus together with a pin and orders Jocasta to kill the infant. Hesitant to do so, she demands a servant to commit the act for her. Instead, the servant abandons the baby in the fields, leaving the baby's fate to the gods. A shepherd rescues the infant and names him Oedipus (or "swollen feet"). Intending to raise the baby himself, but not possessing of the means to do so, the shepherd gives it to a fellow shepherd from a distant land, who spends the summers sharing pastureland with his flocks. The second shepherd carries the baby with him to Corinth, where Oedipus is taken in and raised in the court of the childless King Polybus of Corinth as if he were his own.

As a young man in Corinth, Oedipus hears a rumour that he is not the biological son of Polybus and his wife Merope. When Oedipus calls them out on this, they deny it, but, still suspicious, he asks the Delphic Oracle who his parents really are. The Oracle seems to ignore this question, telling him instead that he is destined to "Mate with [his] own mother, and shed/With [his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire". Desperate to avoid his foretold fate, Oedipus leaves Corinth in the belief that Polybus and Merope are indeed his true parents and that, once away from them, he will never harm them.

On the road to Thebes, he meets Laius, his true father. Unaware of each other's identities, they quarrel over whose chariot has right-of-way. King Laius moves to strike the insolent youth with his sceptre, but Oedipus throws him down from the chariot and kills him, thus fulfilling part of the oracle's prophecy. Shortly after, he solves the riddle of the Sphinx, which has baffled many a diviner: "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three in the evening?"

To this Oedipus replies, "Man" (who crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright later, and needs a walking stick in old age), and the distraught Sphinx throws herself off the cliffside. Oedipus's reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes from her curse is the kingship and the hand of Queen Dowager Jocasta, his biological mother. The prophecy is thus fulfilled, although none of the main characters know it.

(The action of the play)

A priest and the chorus of Thebans arrive at the palace to call upon their King, Oedipus, to aid them with the plague. Oedipus had sent his brother-in-law Creon to ask help of the oracle at Delphi, and he returns at that moment. Creon says the plague is the result of religious pollution, caused because the murderer of their former King, Laius, had never been caught. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused.

Oedipus summons the blind prophet Tiresias for help. When Tiresias arrives he claims to know the answers to Oedipus's questions, but refuses to speak, instead telling Oedipus to abandon his search. Oedipus is enraged by Tiresias's refusal, and says the prophet must be complicit in the murder. Outraged, Tiresias tells the king that Oedipus himself is the murderer. Oedipus cannot see how this could be, and concludes that the prophet must have been paid off by Creon in an attempt to undermine him. The two argue vehemently and eventually Tiresias leaves, muttering darkly that when the murderer is discovered he shall be a native citizen of Thebes; brother and father to his own children; and son and husband to his own mother.

Creon arrives to face Oedipus's accusations. The King demands that Creon be executed, however the chorus convince him to let Creon live. Oedipus's wife Jocasta enters, and attempts to comfort Oedipus, telling him he should take no notice of prophets. Many years ago she and Laius received an oracle which never came true. It was said that Laius would be killed by his own son, but, as all Thebes knows, Laius was killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi.

The mention of this crossroads causes Oedipus to pause and ask for more details. He asks Jocasta what Laius looked like, and suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias's accusations were true. Oedipus then sends for the one surviving witness of the attack to be brought to the palace from the fields where he now works as a shepherd. Jocasta, confused, asks Oedipus what is the matter, and he tells her.

Many years ago, at a banquet in Corinth, a man drunkenly accused Oedipus of not being his father's son. Bothered by the comment Oedipus went to Delphi and asked the oracle about his parentage. Instead of answers he was given a prophecy that he would one day murder his father and sleep with his mother. Upon hearing this he resolved to quit Corinth and never return. While travelling he came to the very crossroads where Laius was killed, and encountered a carriage which attempted to drive him off the road. An argument ensued and Oedipus killed the travellers, including a man who matches Jocasta's description of Laius.

Oedipus has hope, however, because the story is that Laius was murdered by several robbers. If the shepherd confirms that Laius was attacked by many men, then Oedipus is in the clear.

A man arrives from Corinth with the message that Oedipus's father has died. Oedipus, to the surprise of the messenger, is made ecstatic by this news, for it proves one half of the prophecy false, for now he can never kill his father. However he still fears that he may somehow commit incest with his mother. The messenger, eager to ease Oedipus's mind, tells him not to worry, because Merope the Queen of Corinth was not in fact his real mother.

It emerges that this messenger was formerly a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron, and that he was given a baby, which the childless Polybus then adopted. The baby, he says, was given to him by another shepherd from the Laius household, who had been told to get rid of the child. Oedipus asks the chorus if anyone knows who this man was, or where he might be now. They respond that he is the same shepherd who was witness to the murder of Laius, and whom Oedipus had already sent for. Jocasta, who has by now realized the truth, desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking questions, but he refuses and Jocasta runs into the palace.

When the shepherd arrives Oedipus questions him, but he begs to be allowed to leave without answering further. Oedipus presses him however, finally threatening him with torture or execution. It emerges that the child he gave away was Laius's own son, and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside. This was done in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill its father.

Everything is at last revealed, and Oedipus curses himself and fate before leaving the stage. The chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate, and following this, a servant exits the palace to speak of what has happened inside. When Jocasta enters the house, she runs to the palace bedroom and hangs herself there. Shortly afterward, Oedipus enters in a fury, calling on his servants to bring him a sword so that he might kill himself. He then rages through the house, until he comes upon Jocasta's body. Giving a cry, Oedipus takes her down and removes the long gold pins that held her dress together, before plunging them into his own eyes in despair.

A blind Oedipus now exits the palace and begs to be exiled as soon as possible. Creon enters, saying that Oedipus shall be taken into the house until oracles can be consulted regarding what is best to be done. Oedipus's two daughters (and half-sisters), Antigone and Ismene, are sent out, and Oedipus laments that they should be born to such a cursed family. He asks Creon to watch over them and Creon agrees, before sending Oedipus back into the palace.

On an empty stage the chorus repeat the common Greek maxim, that no man should be considered fortunate until he is dead.

source-Wikipedia

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where --' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took,
but how many moments took your breath away
- shing xiong

A Reincarnation Story

this is a true story written by "Jo Leonard"

I’d been working at the international headquarters of a spiritual organization in Menlo Park, California. As most of the employees were members of the organization, lunch table conversations naturally centered on subjects inherent to the teaching, subjects such as dreams, past lives, and the shortest path home to God.

One day, as she nibbled on a carrot stick, a co-worker I had nicknamed Zeta told me of a past life recall she’d had. She remembered flying in a one person aircraft, seeing herself as both the pilot and a bombardier. A white cloth was tied around her head. She was horrified as she watched herself dropping bombs on people who were going about their lives in an open plaza in Atlantis.

At the time, some of my managerial duties included providing oversight to a department that was editing video recordings from a recent conference. We had hired an outside production company to help record the event and to assist our own folks with assembling the material for eventual distribution to the membership.

One day in casual conversation, one of the production assistants from the outside company confided in me that she was still troubled by a dream she’d had years ago. Before going any further, however, she made it perfectly clear that she did not believe in any of the things we believed in—things such as prophetic dreams, reincarnation or karma. Slightly red-faced from knowingly being in contradiction to her own belief system, she told me her dream.

It seems that she had been walking across a plaza where there were lots of people milling about doing what people do on pleasant days. A deafening sound descended, quite literally, out of the blue. The crowd began to run in all directions as dozens of low-flying planes roared into sight and began dropping bombs, creating small, but effective explosions. The production assistant recalled that the pilots wore (drum roll here) white headbands.

If your logical mind is asking how someone on the ground could tell what the pilots were wearing, I can only say that dreams do not play out like our lives in the physical universe. In dreams, you can be present in your all-knowing, 360-degree soul body as an observer.

I imagine my mouth must have hung open as I listened to her story. Two people I knew who didn’t know one another had the same dream from different perspectives. As they say, something was afoot in all of this.

Hesitantly, I asked the production assistant if she would like to meet someone who had told me about a similar dream. She nodded. “Stay right here,” I said as I spun on my heel and started off in the direction of Zeta’s cubicle.

Zeta and the production assistant exchanged stories as they stood in the back hallway. Hardly able to breathe, I watched in silence and astonishment. This was one of those momentous moments in time and space that somehow get orchestrated to resolve a longstanding karmic debt. The disturbing memory of that day in Atlantis, lodged deeply within both their hearts, was about to be removed with the precision of a surgeon’s knife.

How simply the karma played itself out. Zeta looked at the production assistant, tears swimming in her eyes, and said, “I’m sorry.” The production assistant nodded her acceptance and a debt was paid.

The world began to spin again.

Not all karma gets to be worked out in such a simple and straightforward manner. And who knows, perhaps the two of them have been meeting and working toward this moment for centuries. The moral of the story, however, is to stay awake. Watch for those moments when you can consciously finish unfinished business and make further spiritual progression possible for all. If you miss a moment, it might be a long time coming before all the circumstances and conditions for resolution get so perfectly lined up once again.

The bottom line: live consciously, resolve, grow.

Einstein's theory of life

"Everything-is-determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."-Albert Einstein.

Poor Florentino's one way love

it really touched me. i hope this will touch u people also.. ( a part from chapter 5 of Love in the Time of Cholera )

One night he went to Don Sancho’s Inn, an elegant colonial restaurant, and sat in the most remote corner, as was his custom when he ate his frugal meals alone. All at once, in the large mirror on the back wall, he caught a glimpse of Fermina Daza sitting at a table with her husband and two other couples, at an angle that allowed him to see her reflected in all her splendor. She was unguarded, she engaged in conversation with grace and laughter that exploded like fireworks, and her beauty was more radiant under the enormous teardrop chandeliers: once again, Alice had gone through the looking glass.

Holding his breath, Florentino Ariza observed her at his pleasure: he saw her eat, he saw her hardly touch her wine, he saw her joke with the fourth in the line of Don Sanchos; from his solitary table he shared a moment of her life, and for more than an hour he lingered, unseen, in the forbidden precincts of her intimacy. Then he drank four more cups of coffee to pass the time until he saw her leave with the rest of the group. They passed so close to him that he could distinguish her scent among the clouds of other perfumes worn by her companions.

From that night on, and for almost a year afterward, he laid unrelenting siege to the owner of the inn, offering him whatever he wanted, money or favors or whatever he desired most in life, if he would sell him the mirror. It was not easy, because old Don Sancho believed the legend that the beautiful frame, carved by Viennese cabinetmakers, was the twin of another, which had belonged to Marie Antoinette and had disappeared without a trace: a pair of unique jewels. When at last he surrendered, Florentino Ariza hung the mirror in his house, not for the exquisite frame but because of the place inside that for two hours had been occupied by her beloved reflection.

sri krishna uvacha

1. There has never been a time when you and I have not existed, nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist. As the same person inhabits the body through childhood, youth, and old age, so too at the time of death he attains another body. The wise are not deluded by these changes.

2. At the time of death, according to the thinking, feeling and willing of the mind, which is involved in fruitive activities, one receives a particular body. In other words, the body develops according to the activities of the mind. Changes of body are due to the flickering of the mind, for otherwise the soul could remain in its original, spiritual form.

3. Fear Not. What is not real, never was and never will be. What is real, always was and cannot be destroyed.

4. No work stains a man who is pure, who is in harmony, who is master of his life, whose soul is one with the soul of all.

5. Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed.

6. Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as the embryo rests deep within the womb, wisdom is hidden by selfish desire.

In Search of Truth

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.

"What did he find?" asked one of the friends.

"A piece of Truth," answered the devil.

The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man�s soul - one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.

"Aren't you worried?" said one of his companions. "He found a piece of Truth!"

"I'm not worried," answered the devil.

"Do you know what he'll do with the piece?"

The devil replied, "as usual, he'll create a new religion. And he'll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth."

-Paulo Coelho

no work

As soon as he dies, Juan found himself in a very beautiful place surrounded by all the comforts and beauty he had ever dreamed of. Someone dressed in white came up to him:

"You are entitled to whatever you wish: any food, pleasure, entertainment," he said.

Enchanted, Juan did everything he had dreamed of during his life. After many years filled with pleasure, he sought out the person in white:

"I've already tried everything I wished for. Now I need a job so that I can feel useful."

"I'm so sorry," said the person in white. "But that is the only thing that I cannot manage for you; there is no work here."

"How terrible!" said Juan in irritation. "I shall spend eternity dying of tedium! I'd prefer a thousand times to be in hell!"

The creature in white came over to him and said in a low voice:

"And where do you think you are?"

-A story by paulo coelho