from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . 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…
from The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Bring to mind someone towards who you hold negative feelings. Consider that you are, quite conceivably, in the presence of someone who is poor, homeless, crippled, blind or lame, metaphorically if not literally. Open to the possibility that this person is going to reveal yourself to you through a series of revelations that will bring you closer to your true nature, opening your heart…
from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . The first thing I want you to understand (if you really want to wake up) is that you don’t want to wake up. No one does. The first step to waking up is to be honest, to admit to yourself that you don’t like it. You don’t want to be happy. You don’t want to make happiness first and foremost in your life. We want other things…
from The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Sooner or later there arises in every human heart the desire for holiness, spirituality, God, call it what you will. One hears mystics speak of a divinity all around them that is within our grasp, that would make our lives meaningful and beautiful and rich, if we could only discover it. People have some sort of a vague idea as to what this thing…
from The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Take a look at the world and see the unhappiness. See if you can find a single person who is fearless, free from insecurities, anxieties, tensions, worries. What is making you so unhappy, miserable, alienated from yourself, stressed, afraid, at times unkind to others and condemning of yourself? It’s actually not your fault! Who in their right mind would willingly choose to be unhappy….
from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable…
from The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Once, many years ago, I discovered something that revolutionized my life. I met a rickshaw driver in Calcutta named Ramchandra, who, although he was dying of a painful disease and was so poor that he had to sell his skeleton before he died, still he was a man filled with faith and interior joy. He was a man who had reincarnated himself during this…
from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . All mystics – whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindus, Taoists, or Shamans – no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion, they are unanimous on one thing. That all is well. All the mystics tell us that even though everything is a mess, all is well. It’s a strange paradox, to be sure, but it is nonetheless true. Tragically, most people never get to see that…
from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . There’s a lovely saying of Tranxu, a great Chinese sage, that I took the trouble to learn by heart. It goes like this: When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind….
from Awareness by Anthony DeMello . . . We’re always bothered by the problem of evil. There’s a powerful story about a little boy walking along the bank of a river. He sees a crocodile who is trapped in a net. The crocodile says, “Would you have pity on me and release me? I may look ugly, but it isn’t my fault, you know. I was made this way. But whatever my external appearance, I…
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