Anthony de Mello
Anthony de Mello
Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don’t have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don’t you experience it? Because you’ve got to drop something. You’ve got to drop illusions. You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!
(image source: unknown)
KNOWINGNESS
A Meditation by Anthony de Mello, SJ
There were rules in the monastery,
but the Master always warned
against the tyranny of the law."Obedience keeps the rules,"
he would say.
"Love knows when to break them."
One Minute Wisdom
Vanity
The Master frequently reminded his disciples that holiness, like beauty, is only genuine when unselfconscious. He loved to quote the verse: "She blooms because she blooms, the Rose:Does not ask why,
nor does she preen herself
to catch my eye."
Being A Changed Person, Anthony de Mello, SJ
The Way the World Is, Anthony de Mello, SJ
The Four Steps To Wisdom, by Anthony de Mello, SJ
Are You Sleepwalking? - by Anthony de Mello, SJ
The Most Important Minutes In Your Lives, Anthony de Mello, SJ
The Undiscovered Self, by Anthony de Mello, SJ
Losing Yourself to Find Yourself, by Anthony de Mello, SJ
Come Home to Yourself, Anthony de Mello, SJ
We All Depend Upon Each Other, by Anthony de Mello, SJ
Seeing People As They Are -- Not As I Wish Them To Be, Anthony de Mello, SJ
Is It Real -- Or Just Your Ego?, Anthony De Mello, SJ
Spirituality Means Waking Up, Anthony De Mello, SJ
[Priorities] [Serenity] [Emptiness] [Identity] [Meaning]
[Meditation] [Authenticity] [Listening] [Liberation]
[Motion] [Insanity] [Knowingness] [Growth] [Celebration]
[Surrender] [Divine Language] [Happiness] [True Vision]
[Stop Trying] [Misconception] [Right Here] [Leadership]
[Truth] [Mistakes] [True Freedom] [Let Go] [Liberty]
[Perfection] [Unhappiness] [Reality] [Practicality]
[Tony de Mello's Video on Love ]
Happiness cannot be acquired
Aug2
A religious belief is
not a statement about Reality, but a hint, a clue about something that
is a mystery, beyond the grasp of human thought. In short, a religious
belief is only a finger pointing to the moon. Some religious people
never get beyond the study of the finger. Others are engaged in sucking
it. Others yet use the finger to gouge their eyes out. These are the
bigots whom religion has made blind. Rare indeed is the religionist who
is sufficiently detached from the finger to see what it is indicating —
these are those who, having gone beyond belief, are taken for
blasphemers.
— Anthony de Mello – One Minute Nonsense – p. 134When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger
May2
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. You know — all mystics — Catholic,
Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what
their religion — are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is
well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be
sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well
because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.
— Anthony de Mello – Approaching God – How to PrayThough everything is a mess, all is well!?
Mar12
It’s only when you
become love — in other words, when you have dropped your illusions and
attachments — that you will “know.” As you identify less and less with
the “me,” you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything.
Do you know why? Because you are no longer afraid of being hurt or not
liked. You no longer desire to impress anyone. Can you imagine the
relief when you don’t have to impress anybody anymore? Oh, what a
relief. Happiness at last! You no longer feel the need or the compulsion
to explain things anymore. It’s all right. What is there to be
explained? And you don’t feel the need or compulsion to apologize
anymore. I’d much rather hear you say, “I’ve come awake,” than hear you
say, “I’m sorry.” I’d much rather hear you say to me, “I’ve come awake
since we last met; what I did to you won’t happen again,” than to hear
you say, “I’m so sorry for what I did to you.”
— Anthony de Mello – A Changed Person – Page 96To become love
Jan19
The animals met in assembly and beganYou have all the time in the world, if you would give it to yourself. What’s stopping you?
to complain that humans were always
taking things away from them.
“They take my milk,” said the cow.
“They take my eggs,” said the hen.
“They take my flesh for bacon,” said the hog.
“They hunt me for my oil,” said the whale.
Finally the snail spoke. “I have something
they would certainly take away from me
if they could. Something they want
more than anything else.
I have TIME.”
— Anthony de Mello – The Song of the Bird (page 136)
A Parable on Modern Life
Jan14
“A man who took great pride in his lawn
found himself with a large crop of dandelions.
He tried every method he knew
to get rid of them. Still they plagued him.Finally he wrote the Department of Agriculture.
He enumerated all the things he had tried
and closed his letter with the question:
‘What shall I do now?’In due course the reply came:
‘We suggest you learn to love them.’”
***
He was becoming blind by degrees. He
fought it with every means in his power. When medicine no longer served
to fight it, he fought it with his emotions. It took courage to say to
him, “I suggest you learn to love your blindness.”
It was a struggle. He refused to have
anything to do with it in the beginning. And when he eventually brought
himself to speak to his blindness his words were bitter. But he kept on
speaking and the words slowly changed into words of resignation and
tolerance and acceptance… and, one day, very much to his own surprise,
they became words of friendliness… and love. Then came the day when he
was able to put his arm around his blindness and say, “I love you.” That
was the day I saw him smile again.
His vision, of course, was lost forever. But how attractive his face became!
— Anthony de Mello – The Song of the Bird – Dandelions (page 65-66)
Learn to Love
Jan12
When the Zen master attained enlightenment
he wrote the following lines to celebrate it:
“Oh wondrous marvel:
I chop wood!
I draw water from the well!”
After enlightenment nothing really
changes. The tree is still a tree; people are just what they were before
and so are you. You may continue to be as moody or even-tempered, as
wise or foolish. The one difference is that you see things with a
different eye. You are more detached from it all now. And your heart is
full of wonder.
That is the essence of contemplation: the sense of wonder.
Contemplation is different from ecstasy
in that ecstasy leads to withdrawal. The enlightened contemplative
continues to chop wood and draw water from the well. Contemplation is
different from the perception of beauty in that the perception of beauty
(a painting or a sunset) produces aesthetic delight, whereas
contemplation produces wonder – no matter what it observes, a sunset or a
stone.
This is the prerogative of children. They are so often in a state of wonder. So they easily slip into the Kingdom.
— Anthony de Mello – The Song of the Bird – Pages 16 – 17I Chop Wood!
Jan8
A person is beyond the
thinking mind. Many of you would probably be proud to be called
Americans, as many Indians would probably be proud to be called Indians.
But what is “American,” what is “Indian”? It’s a convention; it’s not
part of your nature. All you’ve got is a label. You really don’t know
the person. The concept always misses or omits something extremely
important, something precious that is only found in reality, which is
concrete uniqueness. The great Krishnamurti put it so well when he said,
“The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never
see that bird again.” How true! The first time the child sees that
fluffy, alive, moving object, and you say to him, “Sparrow,” then
tomorrow when the child sees another fluffy, moving object similar to it
he says, “Oh, sparrows. I’ve seen sparrows. I’m bored by sparrows.”
If you don’t look at
things through your concepts, you’ll never be bored. Every single thing
is unique. Every sparrow is unlike every other sparrow despite the
similarities. It’s a great help to have similarities, so we can
abstract, so that we can have a concept. It’s a great help, from the
point of view of communication, education, science. But it’s also very
misleading and a great hindrance to seeing this concrete individual. If
all you experience is your concept, you’re not experiencing reality,
because reality is concrete. The concept is a help, to lead you to
reality, but when you get there, you’ve got to intuit or experience it
directly.
[...]
How sad if we pass
through life and never see it with the eyes of a child. This doesn’t
mean you should drop your concepts totally; they’re very precious.
Though we begin without them, concepts have a very positive function.
Thanks to them we develop our intelligence. We’re invited, not to become
children, but to become like children. We do have to fall from a stage
of innocence and be thrown out of paradise; we do have to develop an “I”
and a “me” through these concepts. But then we need to return to
paradise. We need to be redeemed again. We need to put off the old man,
the old nature, the conditioned self, and return to the state of the
child but without being a child. When we start off in life, we look at
reality with wonder, but it isn’t the intelligent wonder of the mystics;
it’s the formless wonder of the child. Then wonder dies and is replaced
by boredom, as we develop language and words and concepts. Then
hopefully, if we’re lucky, we’ll return to wonder again.
— Anthony de Mello – the eyes of a child | |
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