They do exist!

They do exist!

We have people in the world like this.

No matter what scholars and priests and theologians tell you,

there are and have been people who have no quarrels, no jealousies, no conflicts, no wars, no enmities, none!

They exist in my country, or, sad to say, they existed until relatively recently.

I've had Jesuit friends go out to live and work among people who, they assured me, were incapable of stealing or lying.

One Sister said to me that when she went to the northeast of India to work among some tribes there, the people would lock up nothing.

Nothing was ever stolen and they never told lies until the Indian government and missionaries showed up.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Living or just keeping the body alive?

Living or just keeping the body alive?

People don't live, most of you, you don't live,

you're just keeping the body alive.

That's not life.

You're not living until it doesn't matter a tinker's damn to you whether you live or die.

At that point you live.

When you're ready to lose your life, you live it.

But if you're protecting your life, you're dead.

If you're sitting up there in the attic and I say to you,

"Come on down!" and you say,

"Oh no, I've read about people going down stairs.

They slip and they break their necks; it's too dangerous."

Or I can't get you to cross the street because you say,

"You know how many people get run over when they cross the street?"

If I can't get you to cross a street, how can I get you to cross a continent?

And if I can't get you to peep out of your little narrow beliefs and convictions and look at another world, you're dead, you're completely dead; life has passed you by.

You're sitting in your little prison, where you're frightened;

you're going to lose your God, your religion, your friends, all kinds of things.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Life Style

Do you call this life?

All the other methods we use for self change could be compared to pushing a car.

Let's suppose you have to travel to a distant city.

The car breaks down along the way.

Well, too bad; the car's broken down.

So we roll up our sleeves and begin to push the car.

And we push and push and push and push, till we get to the distant city.

"Well," we say, "we made it."

And then we push the car all the way to another city! You say,

"We got there, didn't we?"

But do you call this life?

You know what you need?

You need an expert, you need a mechanic to lift the hood and change the spark plug.

Turn the ignition key and the car moves.

You need the expert - you need understanding, insight, awareness you don't need pushing.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

The Effect of words

The Effect of words

A guru was once attempting to explain to a crowd how human beings react to words, feed on words, live on words, rather than on reality.

One of the men stood up and protested; he said, "I don't agree that words have all that much effect on us."

The guru said, "Sit down, you son of a bitch."

The man went livid with rage and said,

"You call yourself an enlightened person, a guru, a master, but you ought to be ashamed of yourself."

The guru then said, "Pardon me, sir, I was carried away.

I really beg your pardon; that was a lapse; I'm sorry."

The man finally calmed down.

Then the guru said,

"It took just a few words to get a whole tempest going within you;

and it took just a few words to calm you down, didn't it?"

How many people spend their lives not eating food but eating the menu?

A menu is only an indication of something that's available.

You want to eat the steak, not the words.

Words, words, words, words,

how imprisoning they are if they're not used properly.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Patriotism!

Patriotism!

I was told a lovely story about a farmer in Finland.

When they were drawing up the Russian-Finnish border, the farmer had to decide whether he wanted to be in Russia or Finland.

After a long time he said he wanted to be in Finland, but he didn't want to offend the Russian officials.

These came to him and wanted to know why he wanted to be in Finland.

The farmer replied,

"It has always been my desire to live in Mother Russia,

but at my age I wouldn't be able to survive another Russian winter."

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Enculturation

Enculturation

Nowadays, in Third World countries, we talk a great deal about "enculturation."

What is this thing called "culture"?

I'm not very happy with the word.

Does it mean you'd like to do something because you were conditioned to do it?

That you'd like to feel something because you were conditioned to feel it?

Isn't that being mechanical?

Imagine an American baby that is adopted by a Russian couple and taken to Russia.

It has no notion that it was born American.

It's brought up talking Russian; it lives and dies for Mother Russia; it hates Americans.

The child is stamped with his own culture; it's steeped in its own literature.

It looks at the world through the eyes of its culture.

Now, if you want to wear your culture the way you wear your clothes, that's fine.

The Indian woman would wear a sari and the American woman would wear something else, the Japanese woman would wear her kimono.

But nobody identifies herself with the clothes.

But you do want to wear your culture more intently.

You become proud of your culture.

They teach you to be proud of it.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

Words value

Cultural conditioning

Something more about words.

I said to you earlier that words are limited.

There is more I have to add.

There are some words that correspond to nothing.

For instance, I'm an Indian.

Now, let's suppose that I'm a prisoner of war in Pakistan, and they say to me, "Well, today we're going to take you to the frontier, and you're going to take a look at your country."

So they bring me to the frontier, and I look across the border, and I think,

"Oh, my country, my beautiful country.

I see villages and trees and hills. This is my own, my native land!"

After a while one of the guards says,

"Excuse me, we've made a mistake here.

We have to move up another ten miles."

What was I reacting to?

Nothing.

I kept focusing on a word, India.

But trees are not India; trees are trees.

In fact, there are no frontiers or boundaries.

They were put there by the human mind; generally by stupid, avaricious politicians.

My country was one country once upon a time; it's four now.

If we don't watch out it might be six.

Then we'll have six flags, six armies.

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.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello

The right note

I've found it!

One day Nasr-ed-Din was strumming a guitar, playing just one note.

After a while a crowd collected around him (this was in a marketplace) and one of the men sitting on the ground there said,

That's a nice note you're playing,

Mullah, but why don't you vary it a bit the way other musicians do?"

"Those fools," Nasr-ed-Din said,

"they're searching for the right note.

I've found it.

Awareness

Anthony de Mello