Anthony De Mello Awareness Quotes

Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling.

These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.

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

Don't ask the world to change....you change first.

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.

The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change.

As the Arabs say, "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.

Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.

We see people and things not as they are, but as we are.

As one man said, "I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it." That's what spirituality is all about, you know: unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.

If you find me charming, it means that right now you’re in a good mood, nothing more.

Don’t try to make them happy, you’ll only get in trouble. Don’t try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it irritates the pig.

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!

The world is right because I feel good. p. 83, Awareness, copyright 1990

You’re never so centered on yourself as when you’re depressed.

The only way someone can be of help to you is in challenging your ideas. If you're ready to listen and if you're ready to be challenged, there's one thing that you can do, but no one can help you. What is this most important thing of all? It's called self-observation.

We were brought up to need people. For what? For acceptance, approval, appreciation, applause - for what they call success. Those are words that do not correspond to reality. They are conventions, things that are invented, but we don't realize that they don't correspond to reality. What is success? It is what one group decided is a good thing. Another group will decide the same thing is bad.

Do you think you help people because you are in love with them? Well, I’ve got news for you. You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person. Take a minute to think about that: You are never in love with anyone, you’re in love with your prejudiced idea of that person.

Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.

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.

People don’t really want to grow up, people don’t really want to change, people don’t really want to be happy. As someone so wisely said to me, “Don’t try to make them happy, you’ll only get in trouble. Don’t try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it irritates the pig.

To know reality you have to know beyond knowing.

Put this program into action, a thousand times: (a) identify the negative feelings in you; (b) understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality; (c) do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go; (d) understand that when you change, everything changes.

True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth is concerned.

What’s the earthly use of putting a man on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?

Happiness is a state of nonillusion, of dropping the illusion.

So you must “receive” your demons, because when you fight them, you empower them.

The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new. The chances that you will wake up are in direct proportion to the amount of truth you can take without running away.

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you. You are always a slave to what you’re not aware of. When you’re aware of it, you’re free from it. It’s there, but you’re not affected by it. You’re not controlled by it; you’re not enslaved by it. That’s the difference.

U krivu sam. Da me bolje poznajete vidjeli biste kako sam �esto u krivu. Što biste drugo mogli o�ekivati od jedne budale?

Life is a banquet. And the tragedy is that most people are starving to death.

Neurotičar je osoba koja brine zbog nečega što se nije dogodilo u prošlosti. On nije kao mi, normalni ljudi, koji brinemo zbog nečega što se neće dogoditi u budućnosti.

See how you attempt to bring about change—both in yourself and in others—through the use of punishment and reward, through discipline and control, through sermonizing and guilt, through greed and pride, ambition and vanity, rather than through loving acceptance and patience, painstaking understanding and vigilant awareness.

How does one cope with evil? Not by fighting it but by understanding it. In understanding, it disappears. How does one cope with darkness? Not with one's fist. You don't chase darkness out of the room with a broom, you turn on a light. The more you fight darkness, the more real it becomes to you, and the more you exhaust yourself. But when you turn on the light of awareness, it melts.

Repentance brings an intense desire for God, deep gratitude, and a growth in self-awareness that increases our freedom to love.

Every sparrow is unlike every other sparrow despite the similarities.

All suffering is caused by my identifying myself with something, whether that something is within me or outside of me.

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you.

Before enlightenment, I used to be depressed: after enlightenment, I continue to be depressed.” But there’s a difference: I don’t identify with it anymore.

When you're on the verge of going insane, raving mad, you're about to become either a psychotic or a mystic.

You want freedom? Here it is: Drop your false ideas. See through people. If you see through yourself, you will see through everyone. Then you will love them. Otherwise you spend the whole time grappling with your wrong notions of them, with your illusions that are constantly crashing against reality.

The root of evil is within you. As you begin to understand this, you stop making demands on yourself, you stop having expectations of yourself, you stop pushing yourself and you understand. Nourish yourself on wholesome food, good wholesome food. I’m not talking about actual food, I’m talking about sunsets, about nature, about a good movie, about a good book, about enjoyable work, about good company, and hopefully you will break your addictions to those other feelings.

No theory adequately covers reality.

The content of your awareness is less important than the quality of the awareness

there’s not a single evil in the world that you cannot trace to fear. Not one.

When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power.

Because agreement and disagreement have to do with words and concepts and theories. They don’t have anything to do with truth. Truth is never expressed in words. Truth is sighted suddenly, as a result of a certain attitude.

When you renounce something, you’re tied to it. The only way to get out of this is to see through it. Don’t renounce it, see through it. Understand its true value and you won’t need to renounce it; it will just drop from your hands. But of course, if you don’t see that, if you’re hypnotized into thinking that you won’t be happy without this, that, or the other thing, you’re stuck. What we need to do for you is not what so-called spirituality attempts to do—namely, to get you to make sacrifices, to renounce things. That’s useless. You’re still asleep. What we need to do is to help you understand, understand, understand. If you understood, you’d simply drop the desire for it. This is another way of saying: If you woke up, you’d simply drop the desire for it.

You want to hope for something better than what you have right now, don’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t be hoping. But then, you forget that you have it all right now anyway, and you don’t know it. Why not concentrate on the now instead of hoping for better times in the future? Why not understand the now instead of forgetting it and hoping for the future? Isn’t the future just another trap?

Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she really is here and now, and not as they are in your memory or your desire or in your imagination or projection, that you can truly love them. Otherwise, it is not the person that you love but the idea that you have formed of this person, or this person as the object of your desire, not as he or she is in themselves.

When your mother got angry with you, she didn’t say there was something wrong with her, she said there was something wrong with you; otherwise she wouldn’t have been angry. Well, I made the great discovery that if you are angry, Mother, there’s something wrong with you. So you’d better cope with your anger. Stay with it and cope with it. It’s not mine. Whether there’s something wrong with me or not, I’ll examine that independently of your anger. I’m not going to be influenced by your anger.

That’s why you’ll never catch me saluting a flag. I abhor all national flags because they are idols. What are we saluting? I salute humanity, not a flag with an army around it.

Like the little girl who says to a little boy, “Are you a Presbyterian?” And he says, “No, we belong to another abomination!

What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you." —Anthony De Mello, Jesuit priest and author

Say your thing and get out of here. And if they profit, that’s fine, and if they don’t, too bad!

You’re never so ready to forget yourself as when you are happy.

As the Japanese Zen masters say, “Don’t seek the truth; just drop your opinions.

if you just suppress your desire, and you attempt to renounce the object of your desire, you are likely to be tied to it.

I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good.

When you fight something, you’re tied to it forever. As long as you’re fighting it, you are giving it power. You give it as much power as you are using to fight it.

Do you know one sign that you’ve woken up? It’s when you are asking yourself, “Am I crazy, or are all of them crazy?

The first reaction is one of fear. It’s not that we fear the unknown. You cannot fear something that you do not know. Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really fear is the loss of the known. That’s what you fear.

Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don’t believe them. Don’t believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. “Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation, my success.” This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That’s all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don’t really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful.

Most people don’t live aware lives. They live mechanical lives, mechanical thoughts—generally somebody else’s—mechanical emotions, mechanical actions, mechanical reactions. As you begin to understand this, you stop making demands on yourself, you stop having expectations of yourself, you stop pushing yourself, and you begin to understand yourself.

But are you listening for what will confirm what you already think? Or are you listening in order to discover something new?

When we talk about self-worth, are we not talking, really, about how we are reflected in the mirrors of other people’s minds?

Before enlightenment I used to be depressed. After enlightenment I continue to be depressed.

That’s what spirituality is all about, you know: unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.

When your illusions clash with reality, when your falsehoods clash with truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.

Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. So stop trying to change reality. That’s crazy! Stop trying to change the other person.

The Japanese have a nice way of putting it: “The day you cease to travel, you will have arrived.

Your attitude should be: “I want to be aware, I want to be in touch with whatever is and let whatever happens happen; if I’m awake, fine, and if I’m asleep, fine.

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.

It is something that I discovered, a kind of symphony, a kind of orchestra that plays one melody in your presence, but when you depart, the orchestra doesn't stop. When I meet someone else, it plays another melody, which is also very delightful. And when I'm alone, it continues to play. There's a great repertoire, and it never ceases to play. That's what awakening is all about.

George Bernard Shaw. He was at one of those awful cocktail parties, where nothing gets said. Someone asked him if he was enjoying himself. He answered, “It’s the only thing I am enjoying here.

Recall those lovely words of Buddha when he said, “Monks and scholars must not accept my words out of respect, but must analyze them the way a goldsmith analyzes gold—by cutting, scraping, rubbing, melting.

The three most difficult things for a human being are not physical feats or intellectual achievements. They are, first, returning love for hate; second, including the excluded; third, admitting that you are wrong.

Charity is never so lovely as when one has lost consciousness that one is practicing charity. “You mean I helped you? I was enjoying myself. I was just doing my dance. It helped you, that’s wonderful. Congratulations to you. No credit to me.

How happy we would be if terrorists would adore their ideology less and question more. However, we don’t like to apply that to ourselves; we think we’re all right and the terrorists are wrong. But a terrorist to you is a martyr to the other side.

A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air. Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.

But to depend on another psychologically—to depend on another emotionally—what does that imply? It means to depend on another human being for my happiness. Think about that. Because if you do, the next thing you will be doing, whether you’re aware of it or not, is demanding that other people contribute to your happiness.

I don’t identify with the feeling. “I” is not that feeling. “I” am not lonely, “I” am not depressed, “I” am not disappointed. Disappointment is there, one watches it. You’d be amazed how quickly it glides away. Anything you’re aware of keeps changing; clouds keep moving. As you do this, you also get all kinds of insights into why clouds were coming in the first place.

Suppose somebody showed us a way whereby we would truly love one another, and be at peace, be at love. Can you think of anything more practical than that? But, instead, you have people thinking that big business is more practical, that politics is more practical, that science is more practical. What’s the earthly use of putting a man on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?

Negative feelings, every negative feeling is useful for awareness, for understanding. They give you the opportunity to feel it, to watch it from the outside. In the beginning, the depression will still be there, but you will have cut your connection with it. Gradually you will understand the depression. As you understand it, it will occur less frequently, and will disappear altogether. Maybe, but by that time it won’t matter too much. Before enlightenment I used to be depressed. After enlightenment I continue to be depressed.

Think of anything that caused or is causing you pain or worry or anxiety. First, can you pick up the desire under that suffering, that there’s something you desire very keenly or else you wouldn’t be suffering. What is that desire? Second, it isn’t simply a desire; there’s an identification there. You have somehow said to yourself, “The well-being of ‘I,’ almost the existence of ‘I,’ is tied up with this desire.” All suffering is caused by my identifying myself with something, whether that something is within me or outside of me.

But to depend on another psychologically — to depend on another emotionally — what does that imply? It means to depend on another human being for my happiness. Think about that. Because if you do, the next thing you will be doing, whether you’re aware of it or not, is demanding that other people contribute to your happiness. Then there will be a next step — fear, fear of loss, fear of alienation, fear of rejection, mutual control. Perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there are no demands, no expectations, no dependency. I do not demand that you make me happy; my happiness does not lie in you. If you were to leave me, I will not feel sorry for myself; I enjoy your company immensely, but I do not cling. Can you enjoy the relationship on a non-clinging basis, where what you really enjoy is not that person; it’s something that’s greater than both you and the other person. It is a kind of symphony, a kind of orchestra that plays one melody in one person’s presence, but when he or she departs, the orchestra doesn’t stop. When I meet someone else, it plays another melody, which is also very delightful. And when I’m alone, it continues to play. There’s a great repertoire and it never ceases to play.

A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air. Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked.

Let me end our discussion of the examen with a story from the Indian Jesuit Anthony de Mello. His book The Song of the Bird includes several marvelous parables about the awareness of God. This one is called “The Little Fish.” “Excuse me,” said an ocean fish. “You are older than I, so can you tell me where to find this thing they call the ocean?” “The ocean,” said the older fish, “is the thing you are in now.” “Oh, this? But this is water. What I’m seeking is the ocean,” said the disappointed fish as he swam away to search elsewhere. “Stop searching, little fish,” says de Mello. “There isn’t anything to look for. All you have to do is look.

FEAR—THE ROOT OF VIOLENCE Some say that there are only two things in the world: God and fear; love and fear are the only two things. There’s only one evil in the world, fear. There’s only one good in the world, love. It’s sometimes called by other names. It’s sometimes called happiness or freedom or peace or joy or God or whatever. But the label doesn’t really matter. And there’s not a single evil in the world that you cannot trace to fear. Not one. Ignorance and fear, ignorance caused by fear, that’s where all the evil comes from, that’s where your violence comes from. The person who is truly nonviolent, who is incapable of violence, is the person who is fearless. It’s only when you’re afraid that you become angry. Think of the last time you were angry. Go ahead. Think of the last time you were angry and search for the fear behind it. What were you afraid of losing? What were you afraid would be taken from you? That’s where the anger comes from. Think of an angry person, maybe someone you’re afraid of. Can you see how frightened he or she is? He’s really frightened, he really is. She’s really frightened or she wouldn’t be angry. Ultimately, there are only two things, love and fear. In this retreat I’d rather leave it like this, unstructured and moving from one thing to another and returning to themes again and again, because that’s the way to really grasp what I’m saying. If it doesn’t hit you the first time, it might the second time, and what doesn’t hit one person might hit another. I’ve got different themes, but they are all about the same thing. Call it awareness, call it love, call it spirituality or freedom or awakening or whatever. It really is the same thing.

We see people and things not as they are, but as we are. That is why when two people look at something or someone, you get two different reactions. We see things and people not as they are, but as we are.

You are never in love with anyone. You’re only in love with your prejudiced and hopeful idea of that person.

Thomas Aquinas puts it nicely when he says, “Every time someone sins, they’re sinning under the guise of good.

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.

It reminds me of the Irish prisoner who dug a tunnel under the prison wall and managed to escape. He comes out right in the middle of a school playground where little children are playing. Of course, when he emerges from the tunnel he can’t restrain himself anymore and begins to jump up and down, crying, “I’m free, I’m free, I’m free! A little girl there looks at him scornfully and says, “That’s nothing. I’m four.

Then say to this person, “I have no right to make any demands on you.” In saying that, you will drop your expectation. “I have no right to make any demands on you. Oh, I’ll protect myself from the consequences of your actions or your moods or whatever, but you can go right ahead and be what you choose to be. I have no right to make any demands on you.

Dying is wonderful; it’s only horrible to people who have never understood life. It’s only when you’re afraid of life that you fear death. It’s only dead people who fear death. But people who are alive have no fear of death.

Father, what you said to me was absolutely true but totally useless.’ 

What is scripture, then? It’s a hint, a clue, not a description. The fanaticism of one sincere believer who thinks he knows causes more evil than the united efforts of two hundred rogues. It’s terrifying to see what sincere believers will do because they think they know.

God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity. But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance of wonder renewed daily, the source of which is beyond all reason.

No one can sin in the light of awareness. Sin occurs, not, as we mistakenly think, in malice, but in ignorance. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” To see this is to acquire the indiscriminate quality one so admires in the rose, the lamp and the tree.

Wisdom occurs when you drop barriers you have erected through your concepts and conditioning. Wisdom is not something acquired; wisdom is not experience; wisdom is not applying yesterday's illusions to today's problems.

..if adoration isn't leading to love, if the liturgy isn't leading to a a clearer perception of reality, if God isn't leading to life, of what use is religion except to create more division, more fanaticism, more antagonism?

An openness to the truth, no matter what the consequences, no matter where it leads you and when you don't even know where it's going to lead you. That's faith.

No event justifies a negative feeling, period. Get that one. There is no situation in the world that justifies a negative feeling. That’s what all our mystics have been crying themselves hoarse to tell us, but nobody hears.

No event justifies a negative feeling, period. Get that one. There is no situation in the world that justifies a negative feeling. That’s what all our mystics have been crying themselves horse to tell us - but nobody hears.

No event justifies a negative feeling, period. Get that one. There is no situation in the world that justifies a negative feeling. That’s what all our mystics have been crying themselves hoarse to tell us - but nobody hears.

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Who determines what it means to be a success? This stupid society! The main preoccupation of society is to keep society sick! And the sooner you realize that, the better. Sick, every one of them. They are loony, they’re crazy. You became president of the lunatic asylum and you’re proud of it even though it means nothing. Being president of a corporation has nothing to do with being a success in life. Having a lot of money has nothing to do with being a success in life. You’re a success in life when you wake up! Then you don’t have to apologize to anyone, you don’t have to explain anything to anyone, you don’t give a damn what anybody thinks about you or what anybody says about you. You have no worries; you’re happy. That’s what I call being a success.

…The first thing you need to understand, is, that the negative feeling is in you. You are responsible for the negative feeling, not the other person.

No event justifies a negative feeling, period. Get that one. There is no situation in the world that justifies a negative feeling. That’s what all our mystics have been crying themselves horse to tell us, but nobody hears.

Pleasant experiences make life delightful. Painful experiences lead to growth.

of you has the power to make you happy or unhappy. Whether you are aware of it or not

No judgment, no commentary, no attitude: one simply observes, one studies, one watches, without the desire to change what is. Because if you desire to change what is into what you think should be, you no longer understand. A dog

We see things and people not as they are, but as we are.

Hạnh phúc là một tình trạng gội sạch ảo tưởng, là sự dứt bỏ ảo tưởng.

Đào thải, đào thải gần như mọi thứ bạn đã học. Nhiệt tình đào thải và nhiệt tình lắng nghe.

Không có góc nhìn cuộc sống nào tốt hơn là nhìn nó từ cái chết.

Người ta muốn biết một người thức tỉnh sẽ như thế nào, nhưng bạn chỉ biết điều đó một khi bạn thức tỉnh.

Đừng biết chân lý, nhưng hãy cảm nếm chân lý. Khi bạn cảm nếm được chân lý, bạn sẽ thay đổi. Còn nếu bạn chỉ biết nó bằng cái đầu của bạn, bạn không thay đổi.

Anh ta cho rằng anh ta không thể sống mà không thuộc về một cái gì. Đa số người ta đã không nghĩ thế đó ư? Anh ta xác tín rằng anh ta phải thuộc về. Nhưng người ta không cần phải thuộc về ai hay cái gì hay nhóm nào. Thậm chí bạn không cần phải có một mối tình. Ai bảo bạn rằng bạn phải cần những thứ ấy - đó chỉ là xúi quẩy. Điều mà bạn cần đó là sự tự do. Điều mà bạn cần là yêu thương. Tất cả là vậy; đó là chân tính của bạn. Thế nhưng thực tế là bạn thú nhận rằng bạn cần được người ta khao khát. Bạn cần được hoan hô, bạn cần lôi cuốn người ta, bạn cần lũ khỉ tội nghiệp ấy chạy theo bạn. Rõ ràng bạn đang phí cả một đời. Tỉnh dậy đi! Bạn không phải cần những thứ ấy đâu. Bạn có thể hạnh phúc trọn vẹn được mà chẳng cần chúng. Người chung quanh bạn sẽ chẳng vui gì khi nghe điều nầy - bởi vì một khi bạn đã mở mắt và hiểu ra, bạn sẽ làm người ta kinh hãi. Làm sao người ta kiểm soát được một người như thế? Hắn không cần mình; hắn không ngán những điều mình bình phẩm về hắn; hắn mặc kệ mình nghĩ hay nói gì về hắn. Hắn cắt phứt mọi dây nhợ; hắn không còn là con rối nữa. Điều đó không khiếp ư? “Thế thì chúng ta phải xử hắn. Hắn nói ra sự thật. Hắn hết còn kiêng nể ai; hắn không còn là người - khi hắn đã phá tan tình trạng nô dịch của hắn, phá tan ngục tù mà người ta giam hãm hắn.

Thực tế là Thiên Chúa bao trùm bạn mà bạn không nhận ra Ngài, bởi vì bạn “biết” về Thiên Chúa. Lá chắn cuối cùng không cho bạn thấy được Thiên Chúa ấy là ý niệm “Thiên Chúa” của bạn. Bạn bắt hụt Thiên Chúa vì bạn cho rằng mình biết. Tai họa của tín ngưỡng là ở đó

Khi nhà hiền triết chỉ mặt trăng thì lũ phàm phu chỉ nhìn thấy ngón tay. Chúng ta thường dùng ngón tay đó để móc chột bao nhiêu con mắt. Điều đó không khủng khiếp sao? Thức tỉnh, thức tỉnh, thức tỉnh đi! Chỉ trong thức tỉnh mới có phương chữa trị; chỉ trong thức tỉnh mới có chân lý, mới có ơn cứu độ, linh đạo, sự trưởng thành, tình yêu, sự tỉnh ngộ. Thức tỉnh đi!

Tại sao khi chúng ta nhìn một cái cây - thì kỳ thực chúng ta không thấy. Chúng ta nghĩ rằng mình thấy, nhưng thực sự là không. Khi nhìn một con người nào đó, thực sự ta không thấy người ấy, ta chỉ nghĩ rằng ta thấy thôi. Cái mà ta đang thấy là một cái gì đó đã được ta uốn nắn cho vừa với đầu óc suy nghĩ của ta. Chúng ta có một ấn tượng và chúng ta căn cứ trên ấn tượng đó; ta nhìn một người xuyên qua lăng kính là ấn tượng đó. Và gần như chúng ta nhìn mọi sự cũng bằng cách đó. Nếu bạn hiểu ra điều đó, bạn sẽ cảm nhận được nét yêu kiều của việc ý thức về mọi vật xung quanh bạn. Bởi vì thực tại là ở đó, Thiên Chúa - nói cho cùng - là ở đó. Tất cả đều ở đó. Chú cá con tội nghiệp ở giữa đại dương đã thốt lên: “Xin lỗi, tôi đang tìm kiếm đại dương. Làm ơn chỉ cho tôi biết đại dương ở hướng nào”. Bạn thấy có tội nghiệp không chứ? Chỉ cần mở mắt ra và nhìn, người ta sẽ hiểu.

Nếu bạn đi trong cuộc đời với đủ thứ xu hướng mà không hề đặt hạnh phúc của mình tùy thuộc vào bất cứ một xu hướng nào, như vậy là bạn đã tỉnh ngộ. Bạn đang tiến về sự thức tỉnh hoàn toàn. Thức tỉnh, hay hạnh phúc - (hay bạn muốn gọi bằng danh từ nào khác) - là tình trạng không đánh lận con đen, là bạn nhìn sự vật không theo chủ quan mà là theo đúng bản chất của chúng - trong khả năng nhận thức của một con người. Hãy bỏ mọi ảo tưởng; hãy nhìn sự vật, nhìn thực tại. Cứ hễ khi nào bạn khó chịu, ấy là vì bạn đã tô vẽ gì đó cho thực tại. Và chính sự tô vẽ này đã làm cho bạn khó chịu. Tôi xin nhắc lại: bạn đã tô vẽ một cái gì đó nên trong bạn mới có phản ứng tiêu cực. Thực tại cung cấp kích thích tố, còn bạn thì làm ra phản ứng. Và trong khi bạn phản ứng, chính là bạn đang tô vẽ. Sự tô vẽ này, nếu được bạn khảo sát, bạn luôn tìm thấy ở đó có một ảo tưởng, một đòi hỏi, một kỳ vọng, một ham muốn. Bao giờ cũng vậy. Và hình thức của ảo tưởng thì thiên hình vạn trạng. Nhưng một khi bạn tiến bước theo cách này, bạn sẽ phát hiện ra những dạng ảo tưởng ấy của mình.

Chúng ta không được mời gọi trở nên trẻ thơ, mà là trở nên như trẻ thơ. Chúng ta không thể níu lấy tình trạng ngây thơ và bám lấy thiên đàng, chúng ta phải phát triển một cái “tôi” chủ thể và một cái “tôi” đối tượng xuyên qua các ý niệm. Nhưng rồi chúng ta cần phải trở lại thiên đàng. Chúng ta cần phải được chuộc lại. Chúng ta cần phải cởi bỏ con người cũ, bản tính cũ, cởi bỏ cái tôi hẹp hòi để trở về với tình trạng của trẻ thơ mà không phải là để làm một đứa trẻ thơ. Một khi chúng ta lên đường, chúng ta sẽ nhìn thực tại với sự ngạc nhiên - nhưng không phải sự ngạc nhiên thuộc trí năng của nhà thần bí - mà đó là sự ngạc nhiên vô hình vô dạng của trẻ thơ. Ngạc nhiên ấy sẽ nhòa dần, tắt hẳn và bị nỗi chán chường choán chỗ - một khi chúng ta lại để cho ngôn ngữ và ý niệm kéo lại bao vây. Nhưng đừng nản; rất có thể chúng ta lại tìm thấy được sự ngạc nhiên đã mất.

Nhiều khi điều tốt nhất có thể xảy ra cho chúng ta - đó là nhờ hoạn nạn bất thần ập tới, chúng ta được tỉnh ngộ trước thực tại, từ đó chúng ta bước vào đức tin.

Tột cùng của tri thức nhân loại về Thiên Chúa: biết rằng mình không biết. Bi kịch đau thương của chúng ta nằm ở chỗ chúng ta biết nhiều quá. Chúng ta nghĩ rằng mình biết, đó là bi kịch; và do đó chẳng bao giờ khám phá ra.

Nếu Thiên Chúa chính là Thiên Chúa mà tôi mường tượng, hẳn Ngài sẽ không hài lòng khi tôi dứt bỏ mối ràng buộc với Ngài! Đúng, đúng,- nếu bạn nghĩ mình không hạnh phúc được trừ phi có được Thiên Chúa, thì “Thiên Chúa” trong ý nghĩ của bạn ấy chẳng dính dáng gì đến Thiên Chúa thật. Bạn đang mơ đấy thôi; bạn đang nghĩ về ý niệm của chính bạn đấy thôi. Nhiều khi người ta phải tống khứ được “Thiên Chúa” thì mới có thể gặp thấy Thiên Chúa thật. Rất nhiều nhà thần bí đã nói với chúng ta điều đó.

Trong tình yêu, trái tim vẫn mềm và nhạy cảm. Nhưng một khi bạn bị cuốn hút một cách bất khả kháng phải đạt được điều này việc nọ, bạn liền trở thành gỗ đá vô hồn. Bạn yêu người ta thế nào được khi bạn cần người ta? Bạn chỉ có thể dùng họ thôi. Nếu tôi cần bạn cho hạnh phúc của tôi, tôi phải dùng bạn, tôi phải xỏ mũi bạn, tôi phải xoay xở để chiếm được bạn bằng mọi giá. Tôi không thể cho phép bạn được tự do... Tình yêu thực chỉ có khi người ta giải phóng cuộc sống mình ra khỏi bất cứ ai. Khi người ta không còn bám víu vào ai nữa, người ta hoàn toàn ở trong sa mạc. Thoạt tiên họ sẽ bất ngờ khám phá ra rằng mình không hề cô đơn chút nào cả. Đó là sự một mình, sự cô độc - và sa mạc ấy bắt đầu nở hoa. Cuối cùng, bạn sẽ biết được tình yêu là gì, Thiên Chúa là gì, thực tại là gì. Sự bám víu, ràng buộc cũng là một thứ ma túy mà việc dứt bỏ nó ban đầu rất trầy trật - trừ khi hoặc bạn có một nhận thức sắc sảo hoặc bạn đã cảm nghiệm đủ về đau khổ. Đau khổ là một cơ hội hay ho lắm đấy. Chỉ khi đau khổ bạn mới thấm thía đau khổ là gì. Bạn có thể dĩ độc trị độc, dùng đau khổ để chấm dứt đau khổ. Thế nhưng phần đông người ta vẫn chỉ biết tiếp tục đau khổ thôi.

Người ta đã nuôi mình sống bằng những ngôn từ rỗng tuếch đúng hơn là sống với thực tại.

Lăng kiếng người ta đã bị nhuộm màu, và họ nhìn đời xuyên qua màu đó. Phải làm gì đây để đưa họ trở lại với thực tại, để giúp họ nhận ra rằng họ đang nhìn thế giới qua tròng kính màu? Chẳng có cách nào khả dĩ cứu được họ trừ khi chính họ nhận ra những định kiến cố hữu của mình. Thật là cố chấp mỗi khi bạn nhìn thế giới xuyên qua một ý niệm. Không có thực tại nào khớp với ý niệm nào. Vì đời sống phong phú hơn các ý niệm của bạn nhiều. Chẳng thế người ta đã không vất vả tìm cho ra một ý nghĩa cho cuộc đời. Có điều là đời sống chẳng hề có ý nghĩa; nó không thể có ý nghĩa bởi vì ý nghĩa chỉ là một công thức, ý nghĩa chỉ là một cái gì được niệm tưởng do trí khôn. Bất cứ lúc nào bạn giản lược thực tại thành ý niệm, bạn sẽ húc phải một cái chi đó có sức phá tan tành ý niệm mà bạn vừa có được. Ý nghĩa chỉ được tìm thấy ở bên kia ý nghĩa. Bạn chỉ hiểu đời sống khi bạn nhìn nhận nó là một huyền nhiệm. Còn trí khôn tư duy của con người chẳng thể nào tóm được đời sống đâu.

Biết bao người đã bỏ cả đời không phải để ăn thực phẩm mà là ăn thực đơn! Một thực đơn chỉ là sự chỉ dẫn về một cái gì đang có sẵn. Bạn hãy ăn cho được món bít tết, đừng ăn mớ danh từ.

Một ảo tưởng khác nữa, đó là cho rằng các biến cố bên ngoài có khả năng làm thương tổn mình, cho rằng những người khác có khả năng làm thương tổn mình. Sự thật thì không phải thế. Chính bạn là thủ phạm đã tặng khả năng ấy cho người nầy việc khác... Một ảo tưởng nữa: Nghĩ mình là tất cả những nhãn hiệu mà người ta hoặc chính mình dán cho mình. Không, bạn không bao giờ là những nhãn hiệu đó. Vì thế bạn không cần phải bám chặt vào chúng.

Rắc rối thường xảy ra với những người mãi lo điều chỉnh những cái mà thậm chí họ không hiểu. Chúng ta luôn luôn táy máy như thế phải không? Chẳng bao giờ chúng ta chịu hiểu cho rằng sự việc không cần điều chỉnh chi cả. Thật sự như vậy. Chúng chỉ cần được hiểu. Và nếu bạn hiểu chúng, tự nhiên chúng sẽ thay đổi. Đây là một sự khai trí cực kỳ vĩ đại.

Lần đầu tiên tôi thoáng nhìn thấy thế giới mới, tôi khiếp hãi. Tôi đã hiểu ra thế nào là cô đơn, là không chỗ gối đầu, thế nào là để cho thiên hạ và để cho chính mình được tự do, thế nào là yêu thương tất cả chứ không sủng ái riêng ai - bởi tình yêu là thế. Trời chiếu nắng trên cả kẻ tốt và người xấu, trời đổ mưa trên tội nhân cũng như thánh nhân. Làm sao hoa hồng có thể nói: “tôi sẽ tỏa hương cho người lành chứ không tỏa hương cho kẻ dữ ngửi tôi”? Hoặc có thể nào ngọn đèn lại nói: “tôi sẽ tỏa ánh sáng cho những người tốt trong phòng này, chứ không cho những kẻ xấu”? Hay một bóng cây, làm sao có thể chỉ che mát cho người tốt và từ chối đối với người xấu? Tình yêu cũng như vậy đó. Tình yêu ấy vẫn luôn có mặt và trực diện chúng ta nơi Thánh Kinh, dù chúng ta chưa bao giờ chú ý ngắm nhìn nó - bởi chúng ta quá đắm chìm trong những thứ mà văn hóa của chúng ta gọi là tình yêu, với những khúc tình ca, những bài thơ tình... nhưng kỳ thực đó không phải là tình yêu mà là đối nghịch với tình yêu. Đó là sự khát khao, sự kiểm soát và chiếm hữu. Đó là sự tính toán đòn phép, và sợ hãi, và lo âu - không phải tình yêu. Người ta bảo chúng ta rằng hạnh phúc là một làn da trắng mịn, là một khu nghỉ mát. Hạnh phúc đâu phải thế, song chúng ta lại có những phương cách khôn khéo để bắt hạnh phúc của chúng ta tùy thuộc vào những thứ khác - cả bên trong lẫn ở ngoài chúng ta. Chúng ta nói: - “Tôi không hạnh phúc được khi còn mang trong người chứng loạn thần kinh”. Tôi báo tin vui cho bạn đây: Bạn có thể hạnh phúc ngay bây giờ đấy, với chứng loạn thần kinh của bạn. Bạn còn đòi gì nữa không? Chỉ có một lý do giải thích vì sao chúng ta không cảm nghiệm được cái mà tiếng Ấn Độ gọi là “anand” - hạnh phúc hoàn toàn trọn vẹn. Chỉ có một lý do vì sao chúng ta không nếm cảm được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn đó ngay trong giây phút hiện tại này - đó là vì ta mải lo nghĩ hoặc bận tâm đến những cái ta không có. Giá bạn đừng lo nghĩ như thế thì hẳn bạn đã có được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn. Bạn bận tâm đến những gì mình không có. Thế mà, ngay chính lúc này bạn đang có mọi sự cần thiết để được hạnh phúc trọn vẹn.

Đức Jesus trò chuyện với những người cùng đinh, đói nghèo về những lẽ khôn ngoan trong đời thường. Ngài báo Tin Mừng cho họ: lẽ khôn ngoan ấy chính là dành cho các bạn. Nhưng ai lắng nghe? Chẳng ai thèm để ý, họ thích ngủ mê hơn.

Người ta không đạt đến Thiên Chúa bằng việc bổ sung thêm cái gì vào linh hồn, nhưng là bằng việc bớt đi. Để được tự do, bạn không cần làm cái gì cả, bạn chỉ cần bỏ đi một cái gì đó thôi. Và bạn được tự do.

Nếu không có ai bảo với bạn rằng bạn sẽ không hạnh phúc nếu không được yêu - thì bạn sẽ không cảm thấy bất hạnh chút nào. Nghĩa là bạn có thể hạnh phúc khi không được ai yêu mến, không được ai khao khát, không lôi cuốn được ai. Bạn đạt được hạnh phúc nơi việc tiếp xúc với thực tại. Lúc nào cũng sống với thực tại, đó là manh mối của hạnh phúc. Thiên Chúa ở đó: hạnh phúc ở đó. Thế nhưng phần đông người ta vẫn còn hồ nghi sự thật ấy.

Thực tế bạn có phải là thiên tài? Bạn là một tên khùng? Một nhà thần bí? Bạn điên? Là gì gì đi nữa thì có thật sự quan trọng không - miễn là bạn không ngừng ý thức, không ngừng sống? Những câu phúc âm đã nói đến điều này một cách vô cùng hay: Hãy xem chim trời: chúng không gieo, không gặt, không tích trữ... Hãy nhìn những bông huệ ngoài đồng... chúng không dệt không đan...

Yet my experience is that it’s precisely the ones who don’t know what to do with this life who are all hot and bothered about what they are going to do with another life.

Terrific or terrifying, depending on your point of view.

And there’s not a single evil in the world that you cannot trace to fear. Not one.

If you seek kicks or thrills, get ready for depression. Do you want your drug? Get ready for the hangover. One end of the pendulum swings to the other.

But what you’re really telling me is that you want to be desired. You want to be applauded, to be attractive, to have all the little monkeys running after you. You’re wasting your life. Wake up! You don’t need this. You can be blissfully happy without it. Your society is not going

Every new idea, every great idea, when it first began was in a minority of one.

You know, a good is never so good as when you have no awareness that you’re doing good. You are never so good as when you have no consciousness that you’re good.

Isn’t it wonderful to realize you’re no better than anybody else in this world?

The lovely thing about Jesus was that he was so at home with sinners, because he understood that he wasn’t one bit better than they were.

Drop your false ideas. See through people. If you see through yourself, you will see through everyone. Then you will love them. Otherwise you spend the whole time grappling with your wrong notions of them, with your illusions that are constantly crashing against reality.

Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.

They are controlled, so manipulated. They are unhappy people, they are miserable people. They don’t enjoy life. They are constantly tense and anxious. Do you call that human? And do you know why that happens? Only one reason: They identified with some label. They identified the “I” with their money or their job or their profession. That was their error.

The unaware life is not worth living.

God is going to be much more pleased by your being transformed into a loving person than by saying, "Lord, Lord.

but God would be much happier, according to Jesus Christ, if you were transformed than if you worshipped. He would be much more pleased by your loving than by your adoration.

There is no explanation you can give that would explain away all the sufferings and evil and torture and destruction and hunger in the world! You’ll never explain it. You can try gamely with your formulas, religious and otherwise, but you’ll never explain it. Because life is a mystery, which means your thinking mind cannot make sense out of it. For that you’ve got to wake up and then you’ll suddenly

Bạn có sẵn sàng đặt cả cuộc sống mình vào một chén bạc không? Lúc nào là lúc bạn dám liều như thế, bạn biết không? Đó là lúc mà bạn hiểu ra, khám phá ra rằng cái mà thiên hạ thường bảo là sự sống thì quả thực không phải là sự sống. Người ta đã lầm khi nghĩ rằng sống là sống cái tấm thân.

(Somebody said about most retreats that we begin them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and we end as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.)

These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness. Anthony de Mello

Every child has a god in him. Our attempts to mold the child will turn the god into a devil. Children come to my school, little devils, hating the world, destructive, unmannerly, lying, thieving, bad-tempered. In six months they are happy, healthy children who do no evil.

The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.

This was Tony de Mello at his best, proclaiming the message of “awareness,” seeing the light we are to ourselves and to others, recognizing we are better than we know.

These people don’t bring delinquency with them; they become delinquent when they’re faced with certain situations here.

The Master made sure the monastery library was well stocked with books on every conceivable subject—politics, architecture, philosophy, poetry, agriculture, history, science, psychology, art . . . and the section he himself used the most, fiction. His one refrain was, "God save us from people who do not THINK, THINK, THINK!" There was nothing he feared more, he said, than the one-track mind, the one-book fanatic. This puzzled the disciples for it was so out of tune with the non-thinking perception, the non-conceptual awareness, that was the mainstay of the Master's teaching. When asked directly, this was his ambiguous reply: "A thorn can be dislodged by means of another thorn, can't it?

YOU don’t even need to be in love. Who told you you do? What you need is to be free. What you need is to love. That’s it; that’s your nature. But what you’re really telling me is that you want to be desired. You want to be applauded, to be attractive, to have all the little monkeys running after you. You’re wasting your life. Wake up! You don’t need this. You can be blissfully happy without it.

The Untethered Soul and Living Untethered by Michael Singer •​Loving What Is by Byron Katie •​Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh •​The Inner Work by Mathew Micheletti and Ashley Cottrell •​Awareness by Anthony De Mello

The one who would be constant in happiness must frequently change.” Flow.

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.

As long as you’re fighting it, you are giving it power. You give it as much power as you are using to fight it.

The fact is that you’re surrounded by God and you don’t see God, because you “know” about God. The final barrier to the vision of God is your God concept.

That is how you bring about change in yourself. Not by condemnation, not by calling yourself names, but by understanding what’s going on. Not by calling yourself a dirty old sinner.

How can you love someone whom you do not even see?

To acquire happiness you don’t have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already.

Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings.

What I’m advocating here is not concentration. That’s not important. Many meditative techniques inculcate concentration, but I’m leery of that. They involve violence and frequently they involve further programming and conditioning. What I would advocate is awareness, which is not the same as concentration at all. Concentration is a spotlight, a floodlight. You’re open to anything that comes within the scope of your consciousness. You can be distracted from that, but when you’re practicing awareness, you’re never distracted. When awareness is turned on, there’s never any distraction, because you’re always aware of whatever happens to be.

Do you want to be happy? Uninterrupted happiness is uncaused. True happiness is uncaused. You cannot make me happy. You are not my happiness. You say to the awakened person, “Why are you happy?” and the awakened person replies, “Why not?” 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.

As one man said, “I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it.

You don’t have to do anything to acquire happiness. The great Meister Eckhart said very beautifully, “God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction.” You don’t do anything to be free, you drop something. Then you’re free.

The highest knowledge of God is to know God as unknowable. There is far too much God talk; the world is sick of it. There is too little awareness, too little love, too little happiness, but let’s not use those words either. There’s too little dropping of illusions, dropping of errors, dropping of attachments and cruelty, too little awareness. That’s what the world is suffering from, not from a lack of religion.

All revelations, however divine, are never any more than a finger pointing to the moon. As we say in the East, “When the sage points to the moon, all the idiot sees is the finger.

Whatever a relationship may be, it certainly entails two things: clarity of perception (inasmuch as we’re capable of it; some people would dispute to what extent we can attain clarity of perception, but I don’t think anyone would dispute that it is desirable that we move toward it) and accuracy of response. You’re more likely to respond accurately when you perceive clearly. When your perception is distorted, you’re not likely to respond accurately. How can you love someone whom you do not even see? Do you really see someone you’re attached to? Do you really see someone you’re afraid of and therefore dislike? We always hate what we fear.

If you aren’t consciously aware, you’re vulnerable to either being brainwashed or being influenced by forces within you that you have no awareness of at all.

A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within. When you are ignored or disapproved of, you experience a loneliness so unbearable that you crawl back to people and beg for the comforting drug called support and encouragement, reassurance. To live with people in this state involves a never-ending tension. “Hell is other people,” said Sartre. How true. When you are in this state of dependency, you always have to be on your best behavior; you can never let your hair down; you’ve got to live up to expectations. To be with people is to live in tension. To be without them brings the agony of loneliness, because you miss them. You have lost your capacity to see them exactly as they are and to respond to them accurately, because your perception of them is clouded by the need to get your drugs. You see them insofar as they are a support for getting your drug or a threat to have your drug removed. You’re always looking at people, consciously or unconsciously, through these eyes. Will I get what I want from them, will I not get what I want from them? And if they can neither support nor threaten my drug, I’m not interested in them. That’s a horrible thing to say, but I wonder if there’s anyone here of whom this cannot be said.

Think of something that you love to do for itself, whether it succeeds or not, whether you are praised for it or not, whether you are loved and rewarded for it or not, whether people know about it and are grateful to you for it or not. How many activities can you count in your life that you engage in simply because they delight you and grip your soul? Find them out, cultivate them, for they are your passport to freedom and to love. Here too you have probably been brainwashed into the following consumeristic way of thinking: To enjoy a poem or a landscape or a piece of music seems a waste of time; you must produce a poem or a composition or a work of art. Even to produce it is of little value in itself; your work must be known. What good is it if no one ever knows it? And even if it is known, that means nothing if it is not applauded and praised by people. Your work achieves maximum value if it becomes popular and sells! So you are back again into the arms and control of people. The value of an action, according to them, is not in its being loved and done and enjoyed for itself, but in its success. The royal road to mysticism and to Reality does not pass through the world of people. It passes through the world of actions that are engaged in for themselves without an eye to success or to gain—or profit actions. Contrary to popular beliefs, the cure for lovelessness and loneliness is not company but contact with Reality. The moment you touch this Reality you will know what freedom and love are. Freedom from people—and so the ability to love them. You must not think for love to arise in your heart, you must first meet people. That would not be love but attraction or compassion. Rather it is love that first springs in the heart through your contact with the Real. Not love for any particular person or thing but the reality of love—an attitude, a disposition of love. This love then radiates outward to the world of things and persons. If you desire this love to exist in your life you must break loose from your inward dependence on people by becoming aware of it and by engaging in activities that you love to do for themselves.

Here is something you must understand: There are two sources for change within you. One is the cunningness of your ego that pushes you into making efforts to become something other than you are meant to be so that it can give itself a boost, so that it can glorify itself. The other is the wisdom of Nature. Thanks to this wisdom you become aware, you understand it. That is all you do, leaving the change—type, the manner, the speed, the time of change—to Reality and to Nature. Your ego is a great technician. It cannot be creative. It goes in for methods and techniques and produces so-called holy people who are rigid, consistent, mechanical, lifeless, as intolerant of others as they are of themselves—violent people the very opposite of holiness and love. The type of “spiritual” people who, conscious of their spirituality, then proceed to crucify the Messiah. Nature is not a technician. Nature is creative. You will be a creator, not a wily technician when there is abandonment in you—no greed, no ambition, no anxiety, no sense of striving, gaining, arriving, attaining. All there is, is a keen, alert, penetrating, vigilant awareness that causes the dissolution of all one’s foolishness and selfishness, all one’s attachments and fears. The changes that follow are not the result of your blueprints and efforts but the product of Nature that spurns your plans and will, thereby leaving no room for a sense of merit or achievement or even any consciousness on the part of your left hand of what Reality is doing by means of your right.

We think the world would be saved if only we could generate larger quantities of goodwill and tolerance. That’s false. What will save the world is not goodwill and tolerance but clear thinking. Of what use is it to be tolerant of others if you are convinced that you are right and everyone who disagrees with you is wrong? That isn’t tolerance but condescension. That leads not to union of hearts but to division, because you are one up and the others one down. A position that can only lead to a sense of superiority on your part and resentment on your neighbor’s, thereby breeding further intolerance. True tolerance only arises from a keen awareness of the abysmal ignorance of everyone as far as truth is concerned. For truth is essentially mystery. The mind can sense but cannot grasp it, much less formulate it. Our beliefs can point to it but cannot put it into words. In spite of this, people talk glowingly about the value of dialogue which at worst is a camouflaged attempt to convince the other person of the rightness of your position and at best will prevent you from becoming a frog in the well who thinks that his well is the only world there is. What happens when frogs from different wells assemble to dialogue about their convictions and experiences? Their horizons widen to include the existence of wells other than their own. But they still have no suspicion of the existence of the ocean of truth that cannot be confined within the walls of conceptual wells. And our poor frogs continue to be divided and to speak in terms of yours and mine, your experience, your convictions, your ideology and mine. The sharing of formulas does not enrich the sharers, for formulas like the walls of wells divide; only the unrestricted ocean unites. But to arrive at this ocean of truth that is unbounded by formulas, it is essential to have the gift of clear thinking. What is clear thinking and how does one arrive at it? The first thing you must know is that it does not call for any great learning. It is so simple as to be within the reach of a ten-year-old child. What is needed is not learning but unlearning, not talent but courage. You will understand this if you think of a little child in the arms of an old, disfigured housemaid. The child is too young to have picked up the prejudices of its elders. So when it snuggles in that woman’s arms, it is responding not to labels in its head; labels like white woman, black woman, ugly, pretty, old, young, mother, servant maid, it is responding not to labels such as these but to reality. That woman meets the child’s need for love and that is the reality the child responds to, not the woman’s name and figure and religion and race and sect. Those are totally and absolutely irrelevant. The child has as yet no beliefs and no prejudices. This is the environment within which clear thinking can occur.