i don't know why you'd want to go
back into the mystic maze

Messiah's Handbook
Reminders for the Advanced Soul

by Richard Bach


Perspective --
Use It or Lose It.
If you turned to this page,
you're forgetting that what is going
on around you is not reality.
Think about that.
Remember where you came from,
where you're going, and why you created
the mess you got yourself into in the first place.
You're going to die a horrible death, remember.
It's all good training, and you'll enjoy it
more if you keep the facts
in mind.
--
Take your dying with some seriousness, however.
Laughing on the way to your execution
is not generally understood by less-
advanced life-forms, and they'll
call you crazy.

*

Learning
is finding out
what you already know.
Doing is demonstrating that
you know it.
Teaching is reminding others
that they know just as well as you.

You are all learners,
doers, teachers.
--
Your only
obligation in any lifetime
is to be true to yourself.
Being true to anyone else or
anything else is not only
impossible, but the
mark of a fake
messiah.
--
The
simplest questions
are the most profound.
Where were you born? Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about
these once in a while, and
watch your answers
change.

*

You
teach best
what you most need
to learn.

*

Live
never to be
ashamed if anything you do
or say is published
around the world
even if
what is published
is not true.

Your friends
will know you better
in the first minute you meet
than
your acquaintances
will know you in
a thousand
years.

The
best way
to avoid responsibility
is to say, "I've got
responsibilities."

*

You are led
through your lifetime
by the inner learning creature,
the playful spiritual being
that is your real self.
Don't turn away
from possible futures
before you're certain you don't have
anything to learn from them.

You're always free
to change your mind and
choose a different future, or
a different
past.

*

There is
no such thing as a problem
without a gift for you
in its hands.

You seek problems
because you need
their gifts.

*

The bond
that links your true family
is not one of blood, but
of respect and joy in
each other's life.

Rarely do members
of one family grow up
under the same
roof.

*

Argue
for your limitations,
and sure enough,
they're
yours.

*

Imagine
the universe beautiful
and just and
perfect,

Then be sure of one thing:
the Is has imagined it
quite a bit better
than you
have.

*

A cloud does not know
why it moves in such a
direction and at such
a speed,
It feels an impulsion... this is
the place to go now. But the sky knows
the reasons and the patterns
behind all clouds,
and you will know, too, when
you lift yourself high enough
to see beyond
horizons.

*

You are
never given a wish
without also being given the
power to make it true.
You may
have to work for it,
however.

*

The world
is your exercise book, the pages
on which you do your sums.
It is not reality,
although you can express reality
there if you wish.
You are also
free to write nonsense,
or lies, or to tear
the pages.

*

The
original sin is to
limit the Is.
Don't.

*

If
you will
practice being fictional
for a while, you will understand
that fictional characters are
sometimes more real than
people with bodies
and heartbeats.

*

Your conscience is
the measure of the
honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it
carefully.

*

Every person,
all the events of your life
are there because you have
drawn them there.

What you choose
to do with them is
up to you.

*

The
truth you
speak has no past
and no future.

It is,
and that's all it
needs to be.

*

Here is
a test to find
whether your mission on earth
is finished:
If you're alive,
it isn't.

*

In order
to live free and happily,
you must sacrifice
boredom.
It is not always an easy
sacrifice.

*

Don't be
dismayed at good-byes.
A farewell is necessary before
you can meet
again.

--And meeting
again, after moments or
lifetimes, is certain for
those who are
friends.

*

The mark
of your ignorance is the depth
of your belief in injustice
and tragedy.
--What the caterpillar
calls the end of the world,
the master calls a
butterfly.

*

Everything
in this book
may be
wrong.


-end-