Anthony de Mello - Awareness

Anthony de Mello - Awareness pt. 1 and the rest

Peace

Once upon a time there were two monks who had lived together for 40 years and never had a squabble. Not even once. One day, one monk said to the other: "Don't you think it's about time we had a squabble, even if it's just once?"
"Sure," replied the other monk. "Let's get started right away. About what shall we squabble?"
"About this piece of bread perhaps?" the first monk offered.
"Ok, let's have a squabble over this bread. How are we going to go about this?" Asked the other again.
"This bread is mine, and mine alone," said the first monk.
"Oh yeah? Well you can keep it," said the second monk.

From Anthony de Mello: The way of Silence

Sin

Once there was a woman of who was told she had visions of God. She went to the bishop to ask for advice. "Maybe you are only imagining it," he told her. "You have to understand that only me, as bishop of the bishopric, can determine if your visions are real, or fake.
"Yes, monseigneur."
"That is namely one of my responsibilities and duties."
"Of course, monseigneur."
"So you have to do as I say."
"I certainly will, monseigneur."
"All right then, listen. The next time God appears to you, as he has according to you done before, you have to perform a test wherefrom I can determine if it really was God.
"Agreed, monseigneur. And what kind of test?"
"Ask then from God: "Would you please tell me what sins the bishop has in secret?" If it really is God that appears to you, he will definitely tell you my sins. Then come to me and tell me, but nobody else, which those are."
"I will, monseigneur."
A month later the woman schedules another appointment with the bishop. "And, did God appear to you again?" he asked her.
"I believe so, monseigneur."
"And what did God say?"
"God said: "Tell the bishop I've already forgiven his sins."

From Anthony de Mello: The way of Silence

Anthony De Mello Quotes

This is a real interesting man, he talks about belief systems too, have to share (& check out) more. Thanks again Earth Evolution 101!

A disciple said to him, "I am ready, in the quest for God, to give up anything: wealth, friends, family, country, life itself. What else can a person give up?"
The Master calmly replied, "One's beliefs about God."

As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.

To a visitor who asked to become his disciple the Master said, "You may live with me, but don't become my follower."
"Whom, then, shall I follow?"
"No one. The day you follow someone you cease to follow Truth."

Is there life before death? —that is the question!

"Help us to find God."
"No one can help you there."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason that no one can help the fish to find the ocean."

"I wish to become a teacher of the Truth."
"Are you prepared to be ridiculed, ignored and starving till you are forty-five?"
"I am. But tell me: What will happen after I am forty-five?"
"You will have grown accustomed to it."

If you just swallow everything I am telling you, I am brainwashing you.

A thought is a screen, not a mirror; that is why you live in a thought envelope, untouched by Reality.

All I did was sit on the riverbank handing out river water. After I'm gone, I trust you will notice the river.

Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.

Is it possible for the rose to say, "I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?" Or is it possible for the lamp to say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I'll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad"? These are images of what love is about.

Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy.

People who want a cure, provided they can have it without pain, are like those who favour progress, provided they can have it without change.

Suffering is a sign that you're out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality when your falsehoods clash with the truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.

The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-tzu’s dictum: "Those who know do not say; Those who say do not know."
When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant.
Said the master, "Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose?"
All of them indicated that they knew.
Then he said, "put it into words."
All of them were silent.

The important thing is not to know who "I" is or what "I" is. You'll never succeed. There are no words for it. The important thing is to drop the labels.

You know you are a Mystic when you wake up one day and ask, am I crazy or are they?

Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.

"You are only a disciple because your eyes are closed. The day you open them you will see there is nothing you can learn from me or anyone."
"What then is a Master for?"
"To make you see the uselessness of having one."

The Inevitable Unknown

"Enlightenment is absolute cooperation with the inevitable"
Anthony de Mello (a JESUIT, *gasp* :p but he did butt heads with RATzinger)
Thanks Earth Evolution 101

"Response-Ability... the ability to respond creatively to the unknown."
Antero Alli

"People are so fearful of the unknown... 'Whatever it is, I'm against it.'" :p
Eckhart Tolle

"Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our encounter with the Unknown."
Don Juan (Carlos Castaneda)

"Faith is, above all, open-ness - an act of trust in the unknown."
Alan Watts