A snake in the village had bitten so many people that few dared go into the fields. Such was the Master’s holiness that he was said to have tamed the snake and persuaded it to practise the discipline of non-violence.
It did not take long for the villagers to discover that the snake had become harmless. They took to hurling stones at it and dragging it about by its tail.
The badly battered snake crawled into the Master’s house one night to complain. Said the Master, “Friend, you have stopped frightening people, that’s bad!”
“But it was you who taught me to practise the discipline of non-violence!”
“I told you to stop hurting, not to stop hissing!”
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The Master would often say that Silence alone brought transformation. But no one could get him to define what Silence was. When asked he would laugh, then hold his forefinger up against his tightened lips — which only increased the bewilderment of his disciples.
One day there was a breakthrough when someone asked, “And how is one to arrive at this Silence that you speak of?”
The Master said something so simple that his disciples studied his face for a sign that he might be joking. He wasn’t. He said, “Wherever you may be, look when there is apparently nothing to see; listen when all is seemingly quiet.”
— Anthony de Mello
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