from Wellspring by Anthony DeMello I think of myself as quite a decent person, good-hearted and respected, with minor sins and failings, until it dawns on me that the greatest sinners are the ones who sin in ignorance. I see the well intentioned damage “love” inflicts on helpless children. I see the marks of cruelty in fervently religious people. I see fair-minded Pharisees assess the evidence against Jesus and consider it their duty to do…
From The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Everywhere in the world people are in search of love, for everyone is convinced that love alone can save the world, love alone can make life meaningful and worth living. But how very few understand what love really is, and how it arises in the human heart. It is so frequently equated with good feelings toward others, with benevolence or nonviolence or service. But these things…
from Wellspring by Anthony DeMello When I try to change what I dislike in me by fighting it I merely push it underground. If I accept it, it will surface and evaporate. What I resist will stubbornly persist. I consider the example of Jesus, who sets himself the task of moving mountains and battles with exasperating foes. Yet even in his anger he is loving—he combines a keen desire for change with an acceptance of…
From The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Has it ever struck you that you have been programmed by society to be unhappy and so, no matter what you do to become happy, you are bound to fail? If you wish to be happy the first thing you need is not effort or even goodwill or good desires but a clear understanding of how exactly you have been programmed. This is what happened to…
from Wellspring by Anthony DeMello God says, “Give me your heart.” And then, in answer to my puzzlement, I hear him say, “Your heart is where your treasure is.” My treasures—here they are: persons … places … occupations … things … experiences of the past … the future’s hopes and dreams. I pick each treasure up, say something to it, and place it in the presence of the Lord. How shall I “give” these treasures to…
If you take a look at the way you have been put together and the way you function you will find that inside your head there is a whole program stamped into you, a set of demands about how the world should be, how you should be and what you should want. Who is responsible for the programming? Not you. It isn’t really you who decided even such basics as your wants and desires and…
from Wellspring by Anthony DeMello Jesus says, “The Kingdom is like a mustard seed which a man sowed in his field. Mustard is smaller than any other seed but let it grow and it becomes bigger than any garden plant; it is like a tree, big enough for the birds to come and nest among its branches.” I hold this tiniest of seeds … then I see the full-grown tree it has become, strong enough…
from Wellspring by Anthony DeMello . . . I set out in search of the source of happiness. I look minutely at the life of a happy person who is poor, then talk with him, attempting to discover what makes this person happy. I think of a joyful person in poor health, in physical pain, and talk again, searching for what it is that makes her joyful. I do the same with a happy person…
from Rediscovering Life by Anthony DeMello . . . The world is full of sorrow? Agreed. The root of sorrow is desire. Well— all right. Now, what are you going to conclude, that the uprooting of sorrow is desirelessness? So you are going to be a vegetable? I mean, how do you live without desires? Let me give you a better translation. I don’t think Buddha would be so foolish and stupid as to say that we ought…
From The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello . . . Left to its own devices life would never produce love, it would only lead you to attraction, from attraction to pleasure, then to attachment, to satisfaction, which finally leads to wearisomeness and boredom. Then comes a plateau. Then once again the weary cycle: attraction, pleasure, attachment, fulfillment, satisfaction, boredom. All of this mixed with the anxieties, the jealousies, the possessiveness, the sorrow, the pain, that make…
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