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.
Check out our bookshelf below for previous and future reading.
The Perils of Labels
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 Labels, de Mello explains,
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. As the Japanese Zen masters say, ‘Don’t seek the truth; just drop your opinions.’ Drop your theories; don’t seek the truth. Truth isn’t something you search for. If you stop being opinionated, you would know. Something similar happens here. If you drop your labels, you would know.
What do I mean by labels? de Mello explains, “Every label you can conceive of except perhaps that of a human being. … But when you say, ‘I am successful,’ that’s crazy. Success is not part of the ‘I.’ Success is something that comes and goes; it could be here today and gone tomorrow.”
Selected Passages
What I’m about to say will sound a bit pompous, but it’s true. What is coming could be the most important minutes in your lives. If you could grasp this, you’d hit upon the secret of awakening. You would be happy forever. You would never be unhappy again. Nothing would have the power to hurt you again. I mean that, nothing. It’s like when you throw black paint in the air; the air remains uncontaminated. You never color the air black. No matter what happens to you, you remain uncontaminated. You remain at peace. … Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels! […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
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Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. So stop trying to change reality. That’s crazy! Stop trying to change the other person. We spend all our time and energy trying to change external circumstances, trying to change our spouses, our bosses, our friends, our enemies, and everybody else. We don’t have to change anything. Negative feelings are in you. No person on earth has the power to make you unhappy. There is no event on earth that has the power to disturb you or hurt you. No event, condition, situation, or person. Nobody told you this; they told you the opposite. … But it’s self-evident. Let’s suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or you? […]
— Anthony de Mello, Awareness
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To lose the self is to suddenly realize that you are something other than what you thought you were. You thought you were at the center; now you experience yourself as satellite. You thought you were the dancer; you now experience yourself as the dance. These are just analogies, images, so you cannot take them literally. They just give you a clue, a hint; they’re only pointers, don’t forget. So you cannot press them too much. Don’t take them too literally. […]
— 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!
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