In Richard Bach’s best-selling book “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah“, the mysterious hero Donald Shimoda seems to carry the keys to the universe with him as he barnstorms the Midwest in a Travel Air biplane.

Shimoda’s secret is a small book, bound in what appears to be suede, called ‘The Messiah’s Handbook’. This slim volume, which the hero frequently quotes, is said to contain “whatever you need to know.” All Shimoda has to do is hold a question in his mind, close his eyes, open the book at random, open his eyes—and the answer is there. {Amazon}

On that note, here are 25 quotes from “The Messiah’s Handbook“, serving as 25 potent Reminders for the Advanced Soul.

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 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.

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, and 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 false messiah.

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

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 awhile, and watch your answers change.

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

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.

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.

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.

• The original sin is to limit the Is. Don’t.

A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed, it feels an impulsion….this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reason 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 being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, “I’ve got responsibilities.”

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.

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.

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 lifeforms, and they’ll call you crazy.

Everything above may be wrong!