These days, it is far too often assumed that this individual or that is enlightened.
Actually, that level of life is far rarer than so assumed.
Mother Teresa was one of those very rare and precious individuals.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
This must be where Martina McBride got her inspiration for her hit song “Do it anyway” (at least who ever wrote it) I believe it is possible to live that way.Thank you Brahmarshi for the inspiration to try.
Beautiful!
As a result of applying this wisdom from Mother Teresa, I will probably become less ‘unreasonable and self-centered’ in the process : ) Thanks for sharing this.
I just happened to be in London, the weekend of Princess Diana’s funeral, and at St. Martin in the Field tribute concert, when they stopped to announce Mother Theresa’s passing.
Something really opened up in me during that time…those moments. To feel the deep pervasive respect and dignity of the English people, the spiritual consciousness of English and Western society….and look back at America…
Something unsaid, about her life, the example, the sacrifice and commitment, the impact she had on our “spirituality” and collective world views was deeply soul stirring…chilling.
Doesn’t matter to me if she’s enlightened or not, I find wisdom and sweetness in some things she said and some things seem a little out of sync with the challenges of the times that keep us from living a life that is centered around our relationship with God…
Love this final statement: “…it is between you and God.”
However, isn’t that relationship with the divine, God, the Goddess or the Gods, really important in every moment of our lives?
I wondered if Mother Theresa, lived that way…with a deep reverence and humility for the divine?
I don’t know who she was, saint, angel, enlightened, but I know I miss her and her example.
Afterthought: those days in London around Diana and Theresa’s death gave me a quick and deep understanding, into the soul of western spirituality. Yet, while it was spiritually warming and comforting, somehow, simultaneously, it was abysmally empty…
It was as if I’d been given a glimpse into the depth and heights of our collective spiritual consciousness; reverence in all its glory, dignity and humility, and then left standing at the edge to glare into an abyss of uncertainty…a vast landscape still left to explore and understand.
Logan,
You ask “I wondered if Mother Theresa, lived that way…with a deep reverence and humility for the divine?”
You say “Doesn’t matter to me if she’s enlightened or not.”
Understand the contradiction there… The latter is the answer to the former.
Truly, deep reverence and humility is not an attitude or philosophy… it is a state of being.
It is called enlightenment.
Dear Logan,
And to you second comment, “left standing at the edge to glare into an abyss of uncertainty…”
Know that the abyss you speak of is neither empty or uncertain. It is full and unbounded.
Humanity tries to fill the abyss with this emotion or that. Some seek glory, some reverence, some humility or passion… yet what is really longed for transcends all emotion. Those emotions, when fulfilled, become something quite different from what they were. True reverence, true humility, true anything and everything merge into the same one thing… wholeness, fullness, unboundedness. It is what humans long for… what all life strives for. It is the culmination of lifetimes… the return home…
This is a amazing blog ones again even though you didn’t say much
i really enjoy these blogs.
And i never knew even considered she was enlightened.
Maharshi, I heard you say many times in class that “doing good” alone is not going to get people enlightened. When I first read Mother Theresa’s quote, it felt like it could easily be misinterpreted for that. Thanks for clarifying again in your comment to Logan, that enlightenment is a state of being. So is it right to assume then her “doing good” is simply an expression of her nature rather than that she got enlightened as a result of being a good-deed-doer?
I can see how doing good deeds can to a degree help people along in their evolution by cultivating certain aspects of the self that maybe supporting self-exploration and a deeper understanding of other people, but at the same time I would think the less transgradiently integrated one is, the less we can really tell if a so-called “good deed” is truly good with regards to the whole picture. Righteous indignation often creeps in quickly and dogmas are running wild as a result because all that’s accomplished is a re-arranging of the furniture. Still the same room — all surface level.
Thank you, Maharshi, I really appreciate your sincere and reflective response. I see the contradiction, but understanding may take some time. It seems I live with a number of contradictory thoughts in my mind.
I’m still wondering about her statement “…,in the end. it is between you and God.”
How does one live a life “between you and God.”? Does someone have to live the life of a saint or martyr?
Maharshi,
I should say that I’ve wanted to respond to your blog so many times, but never seem to have enough time to properly do so. Your blogs require more reflection than I seem to have time.
I value them deeply. Please do not ever stop!
Your second response is one of those that requires more than I can say here and now. Your closing statement is really moving
“the return home…”
I suspect I’ve been taking the long way home.
When I first posted this blog, I thought to say something about “good deed doing” but decided it did not really fit the tone of the blog and besides, I have said it many times before. Now I see that Marion said it for me anyway. That is good.
Yes, good deed doing is just what Mother Teresa did. It is beautiful but as Marion said, “her ‘doing good’ is simply an expression of her nature rather than that she” was a good deed doing because she was enlightened. Actually, to me, I always felt that as appreciated as she was by the world, her true greatness was overlooked by the world. It is worthwhile to note that she was in fact very tough with people when she felt she needed to be. It is good to remember that personality behavior is not a good indicator of level of consciousness.
On the other hand, if ‘good deed doing’ is understood on a much deeper level, all enlightened people are good deed doers, though society may not comprehend how that is so for many of them. To see it, one would have to not look to the surface of their lives, but at the depth… deeper than most can even see. This is also true of how we evaluate anothers spirituality. Memorization of scripture, doing ‘good deeds’ and going to temple or church every day does not necessarily mean a person is truly spiritual. On the other hand, one who never does any of that could be a profoundly enlightened being.
Mother Teresa was a beautiful person. Still a part of me feels inclined to just leave it at that.
Logan,
You ask: How does one live a life “between you and God.”? Does someone have to live the life of a saint or martyr?
This is not done based upon surface behavior, though that is how most would think it is done. When enlightened, you live spontaneously from that level… everything is between you and God because everything is seen in its depth as God. It is not an attitude or notion you cling to… it just is. ‘Just as you do not need to cling to the notion that your hair is brown… It just is. Established in that state, that level of consciousness, you just do what you do. As she said, people then project their judgements upon it as they do. That is what is meant by the idea that in this Age of Ignorance, the enlightened or kicked around like a football. Ignorance means ignore. The best of who and what people are, i.e. the Divine, is ignored. Why? Because it can not be seen. Why? Because people can not see past the limit of their level of consciousness.
Logan,
Please do not use this as a judgement of yourself. Use it as an inspiration to move forward and awaken to the Divine being you truly are. Everyone is Divine. Their Divinity just lies deeper than they can see… Deeper than their physiology allows them to act directly from. In the end, once enlightenment is attained, you will realized how ridiculously physiologic it is. Not a mood… not an attitude… not a belief… but rather a state of being… a state of physiology.
I understand that Mother Teresa put these Paradoxical Commandments up on the wall of her children’s home in Calcutta. The fact that the commandments were on her wall was reported in a book compiled by Lucinda Vardey, Mother Teresa: A Simple Path, which was published in 1995. As a result, some people have attributed the Paradoxical Commandments to Mother Teresa.
The Paradoxical Commandments are by Dr. Kent M. Keith
Maharshi, I’m sorry if I hijacked the intended message and tone of your blog. I felt compelled to bring it up because a lot of people who are reading your blogs have never been to any of your classes. But still, fertile ground for exploration…thank you!
This comment section got really interesting.
And doing good deed i always had thought its very good for your evolution, probably because of the bible.
And did mother teresa do meditations than??
I think i read it 8 years ago that she teaches meditation but i could be completely wrong.
But i figured it was a other theresa.
And you had a blog i think was something like this.
If you evolve you help to world and if you help the world you evolve.
So i figured good deeds was positive for you evolution.
Wow….i feel so connected right now…i don’t know to what, but feels right.
Thank you Maharshi!
Loved reading about the original author Dr Keith and the mother Teresa connection! Beautiful!
Interestingly, when I was in London during Teresa and Diana’s passing, they kept asking me what’s going on in America…
All I could genuinely say, perhaps to give them some hope, is that a “Silent Revolution” is going on, building.
I had never read about Dr Keith or anythong about a “Silent revolution”…
Also, interestingly, two of his paradoxical commandments were left out from his original:
…”Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership:”
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
You’ll find that there is no such thing as going through a Silent Revolution just for fun.
And…Mother Teresa seems to have added the final analysis about “between you and God.”
Beautiful reminders! Thank you for sharing these words from Mother Theresa. The widow of Tagore once said (Paraphrased) that there is “no moment in this life that you are not preparing for the next.” A friend of mine added recently that one is not only preparing for the next life but also for the next moment! Helpful words when choosing how to react to the passing shadow play of life. So these actions have a direct impact on the progress of the soul which ever seeks union with its own true divine nature.
Mother Theresa taked about seeing the face of Christ in everyone. This, to me, speaks very highly to her level of consciousness, of her enlightenment. Seeing the Divinity in all and that physiologically being the basis for the acts of “good deed doing”. Doing what she did for the masses based upon the reverence and devotion to Divinity she experienced as personified in others.
marion,
you did not hijack the blog. Everything is connected to everything else. When I write or speak I can see endless directions and tangents [all fascinating] that I could go in. But I have to pick one or just a few and leave the others… perhaps for another time.
eri,
You ask, if Mother Teresa meditated. That too is a question that inspires many potential responses. Here are a few:
1] The enlightened are in meditation all the time… i.e. they are always awake to the transcendent.
2] Just because you are in Rome does not mean you know how to tell others how to get to Rome. Though she was in that state, she did not necessarily know how to teach proper meditation. All real spiritual Gurus are enlightened, but all enlightened people are not spiritual Gurus.
3] Though enlightened, she could very well have taught a meditation that did not enable people to transcend. By reflecting on that, you can gain insight into what enlightenment is not.
Erik
I agree.
That is exactly what she did and why.
Why she saw Christ in peoples faces and another enlightened being would see, for example, Krishna involves a deep understanding of just what subtle sight is and how it relates to the structure of existence. It is far beyond just an attitude or mood.
Why she did what she did and another enlightened being would do something very different also reveals deep principles regarding the structure of existence and the nature of the Divine and of life.
It is all very beautiful…
I thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone’s comments on this blog. Thanks Brhamarshi. Thanks everyone.
Really so when your enlightened you are not always a guru, is it not possible to learn to be a guru after enlightenment.
And did she got enlightened by accident? She must had a guru right? A technique or some method?
Maharishi, your comment touches a similar place in me as when you wrote about the thought of a crystal. Exquisite…
eri,
Really so when your enlightened you are not always a guru CORRECT
is it not possible to learn to be a guru after enlightenment. IS IT NOT POSSIBLE FOR A FOOTBALL LINEMAN TO BECOME A BALLERINA?
And did she get enlightened by accident? I DO NOT KNOW HOW SHE GOT ENLIGHTENED.
She must had a guru right? NO. THOUGH MAYBE IN A PAST LIFE IF NOT THE PRESENT ONE.
A technique or some method? USUALLY THAT IS THE CASE, BUT NOT NECESSARILY.
Awesome blog!