Tag Archives: Father Anthony de Mello

Ideas Vs reality

01 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Business to Buddha

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Recently found an interesting story in a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J.. The story I am referring here is from ‘The prayer of the Frog – Volume 2, Page 113, Part – Human nature

A group of tourists, stranded somewhere in the countryside, were given old rations to eat. Before eating the food they tested it by throwing some of it to a dog who seemed to enjoy it and suggered no after effect.

The following day they learnt that the dog had died. Everyone was panic-stricken. Many began to vomit and complained of fever and dysentery. A doctor was called in to treat the victims for food poisoning.

The doctor began by asking what had happened to the body of the dog. Enquiries were made. A neighbour said casually, “Oh, it was thrown in a ditch because it got run over by a car.”

The author concludes –

Human beings react, not to reality,
but to ideas in their heads…

When the Buddha dies, the schools are born

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Buddha, Business, Business to Buddha

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I wrote earlier about the business of religion, recently found an interesting story on the same and thought to share it here. This story is from a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J.. This book has very interesting stories on religion, spirituality and human relations etc. The story I am referring here is from ‘The prayer of the Frog – Volume 1, Page 95, Part – Religion

The resurrected philosopher
An ancient philosopher, dead for many centuries, was told that his teachings were being misrepresented by his representatives. Being a compassionate and truth-loving individual, he managed, after much effort, to get the grace to come back to earth for a few days.

It took him several days to convince his successors of his identity. Once that was established, they promptly lost all interest in what he had to say and begged him to disclose to them the secret of coming back to life from the grave.

It was only after considerable exertion that he finally convinced them that there was no way he could impart this secret to them and that it was infinitely more important for the good of humanity that they restore his teaching to its original purity.

A futile task! What they said to him was “Don’t you see that what is important is not what you taught but our interpretation of what you taught? After all, you are only a bird of passage whereas we reside here permanently.”

When the Buddha dies, the schools are born.
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These small stories are so interesting that I would refer to them again in future.

When I say business to the Buddha, I mean teachings applied in real life (including Businesses) and not interpreted/misinterpreted by someone (priest) for the common public.