Anthony De Mello (1931 - 1987) was a Jesuit priest from India who left us with several incredible collections of teaching stories filled with wit and wisdom. The author has good medicine for those of us who suffer from wanting too much and being impatient when we don't get what we want when we want it.

One Minute Wisdom contains more than 200 short parables and lessons. We are edified and lifted up by the mystical insights of both the East and the West. De Mello does not try to turn us around or set us on a new path. He just points out one way to go and we must choose the right one for us.

The teacher here is called the Master. The students and adepts who come to him for answers are turned away from that approach immediately. The message is that we must make our own spiritual journeys and come to our own insights and understandings. De Mello believes that truth is a story:

"The Master gave his teaching in parables and stories, which his disciples listened to with pleasure — and occasional frustration, for they longed for something deeper.

"The Master was unmoved. To all their objections he would say, 'You have yet to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between a human being and Truth is a story.'

"Another time he said, 'Do not despise the story. A lost gold coin is found by means of a penny candle; the deepest trust is found by means of a simple story.' "

Here are two more examples of the wisdom in this paperback:

Projection

" 'Why is everyonehere so happy except me?'

" 'Because they have learned to see goodness and beauty everywhere,' said the Master.

" 'Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?'

" 'Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.' "

Meaning

"Said a traveler to one of the disciples, 'I have traveled a great distance to listen to the Master, but I find his words quite ordinary.'

" 'Don't listen to his words. Listen to his message.'

" 'How does one do that?'

" 'Take hold of a sentence that he says. Shake it well till all the words drop off. What is left will set your heart on fire.' "