"Awareness" by the late Anthony de Mello

I'm most of the way through reading Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, by Anthony de Mello. Here's an excerpt I enjoy:

"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.”

Here’s what the book jacket has to say about the author:



“Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest known throughout the world for his writings and spiritual conferences. He died suddenly in 1987. Among his many books are Sadhana and [/b]The Song of the Bird.”[/b]

His teachings are simple yet challenging. It’s a good book to keep lying around the house or in the glove box of your car (if you have one).

Sweet!

Have you watched any of the de Mello videos on the web?

Anthony de Mello - Awareness pt.1 on waking up





It's too bad that the teachings of Jesuit priest de Mello were marginalized by the Catholic Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_de_Mello

Thanks for posting the video, Gozen. I guess the book is a verbatim transcript of this series of talks.

The official stance of the Catholic Church is hardly ever the position of the people. I received a B.A. in religious studies from Marylhurst University, which was founded by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. I was pleasantly surprised at how open the program is to people of differing religious affiliations. There were Buddhists, Neo-pagans, Lutheran's, and agnostics in the program, as well as in the M.Div. program. I'm pretty sure my old professors would have been thrilled that I picked up a book by de Mello.

And then, of course, there's the Vatican... :-x

Yes, the people -- laity, priests, nuns, professors -- are often far ahead of the Vatican in so many ways. I was raised Roman Catholic; my parents are daily communicants. Their views, and the views of some of the priests I've spoken with, are quite different from the official view than comes down from the throne of St. Peter. And thank God for that!