Repartee of the Wise

A disciple asked his Master, “Why do we have to go through so much suffering?”

The Master explained with the following story, “A bird in a desert would take shelter every day in the withered branches of a tree. One day, a whirlwind uprooted the tree, and the poor bird was forced to fly a hundred miles in search of another shelter. The bird had to go through several obstacles until it finally found a forest of fruit-laden trees. If the withered tree had survived, the bird would not have been driven to fly out to another home; it would have remained in the same dry surroundings. In the same way, it is through pain and suffering that we evolve and achieve enlightenment.”

A Master once told his devotees, “What is it that stands higher than words? Action. What is it that stands higher than action? Silence.”

A disciple asked his spiritual teacher, “You are spending most of the night in meditation and all day long you work. How long can you go on doing this?” And to this, the teacher replied, “At night, I pursue God and during the day God follows me.”