The irony of the rat race

One day, a boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.( Read more... )

Irish technology joke

An American, a Japanese and an Irishman were sitting naked in the sauna. Suddenly there was a beeping sound. The American pressed his forearm and the beep stopped. The others looked at him questioningly. "That was my pager," he said. "I have a microchip under the skin of my arm."

A few minutes later a phone rang. The Japanese fellow lifted his palm to his ear. When he finished he explained, "That was my mobile phone. I have a microchip in my hand."

Paddy felt decidedly low-tech. So as not to be outdone, he decided he had to do something just as impressive. He stepped out of the sauna and went to the toilet. He returned with a piece of toilet paper hanging from his arse. The others raised their eyebrows and Paddy said, "Would yi fecking believe it, I'm gittin' a fax!!"

Good deMello

On the question of his own Enlightenment the Master always remained reticent, even though the disciples tried every means to get him to talk.

All the information they had on this subject was what the Master once said to his youngest son who wanted to know what his father felt when he became Enlightened. The answer was: "A fool."

When the boy asked why, the Master had replied, "Well, son, it was like going to great pains to break into a house by climbing a ladder and smashing a window -- and realizing later that the door of the house was open."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

Reminds me of the joke about the blonde who had locked her keys in her car and was struggling to unlock the door with a coat hanger. When a passerby noticed that the other door was unlocked and pointed it out to her, she said, "I know -- I've already done that one!"

By the way, I've actually enacted the deMello scenario described above. I'd forgotten my housekey after riding my bike home from work one day, and I had over two hours to wait before my wife came home. I broke the screen in the kitchen window to crawl through and let myself into the house, only to discover that the back door was unlocked when I went to go and put my bike away.

That reminds me, I have to get my spare key back to Jerry. He was a godsend, leaving it in my mailbox on my way home from Calgary last week when I realized that I'd left my housekey on the nightstand in Calgary when my wife was only coming home the following day.

Ramesh, on intention

Can't remember if I've already posted this, but even if I have, it's good enough for a repost. More on my favourite theme of acceptance of the present moment.

In the absence of intention there can be no psychological basis for any involvement with activity and events or their outcome. There is then perfect alignment with whatever might happen, an acceptance of events without any feeling of either achievement or frustration.

-- Ramesh S. Balsekar, from A Net of Jewels, Advaita Press, 1966