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from Awareness by Anthony De Mello . . .

Are you listening, as most people do, in order to confirm what you already think? Or are you listening in order to discover something new? That is important.

It really doesn’t matter whether you agree with what I’m saying or you don’t. Agreement and disagreement have to do with words and concepts and theories. They don’t have anything to do with truth.

Truth is never expressed in words.  Truth is sighted suddenly, as a result of a certain attitude; an attitude of openness, of willingness to discover something new.

That’s what is important, not your agreeing with me or disagreeing with me. After all, most of what a teacher is giving you is really theories. No theory adequately covers reality.

So, I can speak to you, not of the truth, but of obstacles to the truth. Those can be described. I cannot describe the truth. No one can.

All a teacher can do is give you a description of your falsehoods, so that you can drop them.

All a teacher can do for you is challenge your beliefs and the belief system that makes you unhappy.

All they can do for you is help you to unlearn.

That’s what learning is all about where spirituality is concerned: unlearning, unlearning almost everything you’ve been taught.

Spirituality is listening with a willingness to unlearn.

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