Samantha Johnson's Reviews > Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
by Richard Bach
by Richard Bach
One of my all time favorite books. Author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Metaphysics and airplanes.
Rise into your own reality. Believe, create...
Do what makes you happy.
Here is how it begins...
"Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.
The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going it's own way, knowing only it's own crystal self.
Each creature in it's own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah come to save us all!'
And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Out true work is this voyage, this adventure."
But they cried the more, 'Savior!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Savior."
And [the Messiah] said unto them, "If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God answered and told him what he must do, should the man do as he is told?"
"Of course, Master!" cried the many. "It should be pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of hell itself, should God ask it!"
"No matter what those tortures, no matter how difficult the task?"
"Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned, if so be that God has asked," said they.
"And what would you do," the Master said unto the multitude, "if God spoke directly to your face and said, 'I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.' What would you do then?" And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood."
Metaphysics and airplanes.
Rise into your own reality. Believe, create...
Do what makes you happy.
Here is how it begins...
"Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.
The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going it's own way, knowing only it's own crystal self.
Each creature in it's own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah come to save us all!'
And the one carried in the current said, "I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Out true work is this voyage, this adventure."
But they cried the more, 'Savior!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Savior."
And [the Messiah] said unto them, "If a man told God that he wanted most of all to help the suffering world, no matter the price to himself, and God answered and told him what he must do, should the man do as he is told?"
"Of course, Master!" cried the many. "It should be pleasure for him to suffer the tortures of hell itself, should God ask it!"
"No matter what those tortures, no matter how difficult the task?"
"Honor to be hanged, glory to be nailed to a tree and burned, if so be that God has asked," said they.
"And what would you do," the Master said unto the multitude, "if God spoke directly to your face and said, 'I COMMAND THAT YOU BE HAPPY IN THE WORLD, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE.' What would you do then?" And the multitude was silent, not a voice, not a sound was heard upon the hillsides, across the valleys where they stood."
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