Said a despairing client to the psychiatrist, “No matter where I go I have to take myself along – and that spoils everything.”

Both what you run away from – and what you yearn for – is within you.
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A disciple came to the Muslim Master Maruf Karkhi and said, “I have been talking to people about you. The Jews say you are one of their own. The Christians consider you to be one of their saints. And the Muslims look upon you as a glory to Islam.”

Maruf replied, “That’s what they say here in Baghdad. When I lived in Jerusalem, the Jews dubbed me a Christian; the Christians, a Muslim; and the Muslims, a Jew.”

“Then what are we to think of you?”

“Think of me as a man who said this about himself: Those who do not understand me revere me. Those who revile me do not understand me either.”

If you think you are what your friends and enemies say you are, you obviously do not know yourself. (From “The Heart of the Enlightened” by Anthony deMello)