This little book by Anthony DeMello has found me again.
I've read it several times over the past six years,
and each time it finds me in a new way...in a new place, perhaps.
It's been nice to collect pieces of the readings on my blogsite, as a way of remembering Tony's words during this season of my life.
Adding a fitting Cut-Up has been a fun reminder that
everything does belong,
be it scripture, the thoughts of a Jesuit priest, a Cut-Up,
or even a recent vacation photo.
Here are highlights from the past several readings:
1-18-2012
What Must I Do?
"Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?"
Matthew 19:16
Now you will move through life living from one moment to the other,
wholly absorbed in the present, carrying with you so little from the past that
your spirit could pass through the eye of a needle; as little distracted by
the worries of the future as the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.
your spirit could pass through the eye of a needle; as little distracted by
the worries of the future as the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.
You will be attached to no person or thing,
for you will have developed a taste for the symphony of life.
You will find yourself traveling unencumbered and free as a bird in the sky,
always living in the Eternal Now.
And you will have found in your heart the answer to the question,
"Master, what is it that I must do to get eternal life?"
(Listening to wonderful FM106.5 including FOX news.)
10-23-2012
No Stone Will Be Left
"When his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the
temple, he answered them 'You see all these, do you not?
temple, he answered them 'You see all these, do you not?
Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here
one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.'"
Matthew 24:1-2
So watch, observe, question, explore and your mind will come alive
and shed its fat and become keen and alert and active.
Your prison walls will come tumbling down
till not one stone of the Temple will be left upon another,
and you will be blessed with the unimpeded vision of things as they are,
the direct experience of Reality.
No comment
10-24-2012
How to Give?
"When you give alms, do not let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing."
Matthew 6:3
It is with charity as with happiness and holiness.
It is not possible for you to say that you are happy because
the moment you become conscious of your happiness
you cease to be happy.
What you call the experience of happiness is not
caused by some person, thing or event.
True happiness is uncaused.
You are happy for no reason at all.
And true happiness cannot be experienced.
It is not within the realm of consciousness.
It is unself-consciousness.
Nature is not a technician.
Nature is creative.
10-25-2012
Serpents and Doves
"So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
Matthew 10:16
Observe the wisdom that operates in doves
and in flowers and trees and the whole of Nature.
It is the same wisdom that does for us what our brain could never do:
It circulates our blood, digests our food, pumps our hearts, expands our lungs, immunizes our bodies and heals our wounds while our conscious minds
are engaged in other matters.
This kind of Nature-wisdom we are only now beginning to discover
in so-called primitive peoples who, like the dove, are so simple and wise.
When you are too long separated from Nature,
your spirit withers and dies because it has been wrenched from its roots.
10-27-2012
Men of Violence
"The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,
and men of violence take it by force."
Matthew 11:12
Compare the serene and simple splendor of a rose in bloom
with the tensions and restlessness of your life.
The rose has a gift that you lack: It is perfectly content to be itself.
It has not been programmed from birth, as you have been, to be dissatisfied
with itself, so it has not the slightest urge to be anything other than it is.
That is why it possesses the artless grace and absence of inner conflict
that among humans is only found in little children and mystics.
When Nature destroys, it is not from ambition or greed or
self-aggrandizement, but in obedience to mysterious laws that seek
the good of the whole universe above the survival and well-being of the parts.
10-28-2012
Show No Partiality
"Teacher," they said, "we know that you speak and teach rightly,
and show no partiality."
Luke 20:21
Look at your life and see how you have filled its emptiness with people.
As a result they have a stranglehold on you.
See how they control your behavior by their approval and disapproval.
Love is to be found only in fearlessness and freedom.
It is next to impossible to be dependent, to be a slave,
when one constantly observes the folly of one's dependence.
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.
...the road 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.
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.
The moment you touch this Reality you will know
what freedom and love are.
Freedom from people--and so the ability to love them.
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