Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST (Join here), Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life. (A space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living!)
This Friday continues our exploration of Anthony de Mello’s book Awareness: Conversations with the Masters. Learn more about the life and teachings of Anthony de Mello here. I’ll be out of town for the next couple of weeks, but thankfully, my friend Simon Drew from The Walled Garden is stepping in to facilitate!
Check out our bookshelf below for previous and future reading.
On Finding Yourself
Anthony de Mello (1931 – 1987) was an Indian Jesuit priest and psychotherapist. A spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker, de Mello wrote several books on spirituality and hosted numerous spiritual retreats and conferences.
In a chapter titled Finding Yourself, de Mello explains,
The great masters tell us that the most important question in the world is: “Who am I?” Or rather: “What is ‘I’?” What is this thing I call “I”? What is this thing I call self? You mean you understood everything else in the world and you didn’t understand this?
Who is the person doing the understanding? That’s the foundation of everything, isn’t it? “You are listening to me,” stressed de Mello, “but are you picking up any other sounds besides the sound of my voice as you listen to me? Are you aware of your reactions as you listen to me?”
Selected Passages
That’s painful. In fact, when you’re beginning to awaken, you experience a great deal of pain. It’s painful to see your illusions being shattered. Everything that you thought you had built up crumbles and that’s painful. That’s what repentance is all about; that’s what waking up is all about. So how about taking a minute, right where you’re sitting now, to be aware, even as I talk, of what you’re feeling in your body, and what’s going on in your mind, and what your emotional state is like? […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
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Listen to this: Am I my thoughts, the thoughts that I am thinking? No. Thoughts come and go; I am not my thoughts. Am I my body? They tell us that millions of cells in our body are changed or are renewed every minute, so that by the end of seven years we don’t have a single living cell in our body that was there seven years before. Cells come and go. Cells arise and die. But “I” seems to persist. So am I my body? Evidently not! […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
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Anytime you have a negative feeling toward anyone, you’re living in an illusion. There’s something seriously wrong with you. You’re not seeing reality. Something inside of you has to change. But what do we generally do when we have a negative feeling? “He is to blame, she is to blame. She’s got to change.” No! The world’s all right. The one who has to change is you. […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
If you are available on a Friday (at Noon EST), feel free to drop into one of our Reading & the Good Life meetups (Join here). It’s a casual space for connection and conversations on the art of living.
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Thank you for reading; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
P.S. As always, feel free to comment, ask questions, or suggest future reads!
I believe he is onto something here, We do create needless sufferings but you have to be extremely disciplined to not have illusions along with expectations that are unrealistic if your not intentional we will rely on our default programming given to us via the world. Which means we’re back to what we have been taught by others as to what success or so the good life is so to speak. You do have to understand the “I” doesn’t change regardless of what we do or where we go! The “me” attaches itself which if we’re not careful becomes our identity! I’ve discovered the “I” once you do that it’s easier to stay grounded in a world that is constantly changing ! I really enjoy your time and effort that you give to the podcast and writings making them a little easier to understand!