Tony deMello speaks

Are You Sleepwalking? – Text

October 20, 2007 by goldspice

by Anthony de Mello sj.

The scriptures are always hinting of that, but you’ll never understand a word of what the scriptures are saying until you wake up. Sleeping people read the scriptures and crucify the Messiah on the basis of them. You’ve got to wake up to make sense out of the scriptures. When you do wake up, they make sense. So does reality. But you’ll never be able to put it into words. You’d rather do something? But even there we’ve got to make sure that you’re not swinging into action simply to get rid of your negative feelings. Many people swing into action only to make things worse. They’re not coming from love, they’re coming from negative feelings. They’re coming from guilt, anger, hate; from a sense of injustice or whatever. You’ve got to make sure of your “being” before you swing into action. You have to make sure of who you are before you act. Unfortunately, when sleeping people swing into action, they simply substitute one cruelty for another, one injustice for another. And so it goes. Meister Eckhart says, “It is not by your actions that you will be saved” (or awakened; call it by any word you want), “but by your being. It is not by what you do, but by what you are that you will be judged.” What good is it to you to feed the hungry, give the thirsty to drink, or visit prisoners in jail?Remember that sentence from Paul: “If I give my body to be burned and all my goods to feed the poor and have not love . . .”

It’s not your actions, it’s your being that counts. Then you might swing into action. You might or might not. You can’t decide that until you’re awake. Unfortunately, all the emphasis is concentrated on changing the world and very little emphasis is given to waking up. When you wake up, you will know what to do or what not to do. Some mystics are very strange, you know. Like Jesus, who said something like “I wasn’t sent to those people; I limit myself to what I am supposed to do right now. Later, maybe.” Some mystics go silent. Mysteriously, some of them sing songs. Some of them are into service. We’re never sure. They’re a law unto themselves; they know exactly what is to be done. “Plunge into the heat of battle and keep your heart at the lotus feet of the Lord,” as I said to you earlier.Imagine that you’re unwell and in a foul mood, and they’re taking you through some lovely countryside. The landscape is beautiful but you’re not in the mood to see anything. A few days later you pass the same place and you say, “Good heavens, where was I that I didn’t notice all of this?” Everything becomes beautiful when you change. Or you look at the trees and the mountains through windows that are wet with rain from a storm, and everything looks blurred and shapeless. You want to go right out there and change those trees, change those mountains. Wait a minute, let’s examine your window. When the storm ceases and the rain stops, and you look out the window, you say, “Well, how different everything looks.” 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.

Remember that sentence from scripture about everything turning into good for those who love God? When you finally awake, you don’t try to make good things happen; they just happen. You understand suddenly that everything that happens to you is good. Think of some people you’re living with whom you want to change. You find them moody, inconsiderate, unreliable, treacherous, or whatever. But when you are different, they’ll be different. That’s an infallible and miraculous cure. The day you are different, they will become different. And you will see them differently, too. Someone who seemed terrifying will now seem frightened. Someone who seemed rude will seem frightened. All of a sudden, no one has the power to hurt you anymore. No one has the power to put pressure on you. It’s something like this: You leave a book on the table and I pick it up and say, “You’re pressing this book on me. I have to pick it up or not pick it up.” People are so busy accusing everyone else, blaming everyone else, blaming life, blaming society, blaming their neighbor. You’ll never change that way; you’ll continue in your nightmare, you’ll never wake up.

Put this program into action, a thousand times:

1 Identify the negative feelings in you;

2 Understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality;

3 Do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go;

4 Understand that when you change, everything changes

Posted in anthony de mello, awareness, sleepwalking, text | 5 Comments »

Embracing Imperfection

i got this in the form of an email from Shivleen kaur. Thanks Shivleen.
CD


Embracing Imperfection - a story by a girl

When I was a little girl, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his toast, smile at my mom, and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite! When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said. 'Baby, I love burned toast.'

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night, and I asked him if he really liked his toast burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, 'Debbie, your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides-a little burnt toast never hurt anyone! You know, life is full of imperfect things...and imperfect people. I'm not the best housekeeper or cook.'

What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is the one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. Burnt toast should never be a deal breaker. We could extend this to any relationship in fact - as understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!!"

Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - but into your own.

People will always forget what you do, and they will always forget what you say, but they will never, ever forget the way you make them feel

jonathan livingston seagull

i dont know if any of you has ever read 'jonathan livingston seagull' by richard bach. its a story about succcess and thinking out of box. here is a link that might give you a taste enough to want to buy the book

http://www.suchitnanda.com/inspiration/JonathanLivingStoneSeagull.html

i think this link gives about three chapters from book.
the whole book can be dowloaded in pdf format. if you google 'jonathan livingston seagull' you will find it.

Brief video of Tony deMello

If you want to have an idea of Fr Tony deMello sj try this brief youtube video of him called WAKE UP.
Click on the link below. If it does not click, copy/paste the address into your browser.

a blog for lovely and meaningful stories

try this blog site for very nice, deep and sometimes scary stories like 'the bag lady' for example!

http://storiestogrow.wordpress.com/

CD

Deep Truths

I got this in the form of an Email entitled 'one of the best Emails ever' from Rukma to whom i remain grateful. These are deep truths and i put them here because they are in keeping with the philosophy of ADMI.

T R U S T

TRUST is a very important factor for all relationships. When trust is broken, it is the end of the relationship. Lack of trust leads to suspicion, suspicion generates anger, anger causes enmity and enmity may result in separation. A telephone operator told me that one day she received a phone call. She answered, "Public Utilities Board." There was silence. She repeated, "PUB." There was still no answer. When she was going to cut off the line, she heard a lady's voice, "Oh, so this is PUB. Sorry, I got the number from my Husband's pocket but I did know whose number it is." Without mutual trust, just imagine what would have happened to the couple if the telephone operator answered with just "hello" instead of "PUB". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NO POINTING FINGERS A man asked his father-in-law, "Many people praised you for a successful marriage. Could you please share with me your secret?" The father-in-law answered in a smile, "Never criticize your wife for her shortcomings or when she does something wrong. Always bear in mind that because of her shortcomings and weaknesses, she could not find a better husband than you." We all look forward to being loved and respected. Many people are afraid of losing face. Generally, when a person makes a mistake, he would look around to find a scapegoat to point the finger at. This is the start of a war. We should always remember that when we point one finger at a person, the other four fingers are pointing at ourselves. If we forgive the others, others will ignore our mistake too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREATING PERFECT RELATIONSHIPS? A person visited the government matchmaker for marriage, SDU, and requested "I am looking for a spouse. Please help me to find a suitable one." The SDU officer said, "Your requirements, please." "Oh, good looking, polite, humorous , sporty, knowledgeable, good in singing and dancing. Willing to accompany me the whole day at home during my leisure hour, if I don't go out. Telling me interesting stories when I need companion for conversation and be silent when I want to rest." The officer listened carefully and replied, "I understand you need television." There is a saying that a perfect match can only be found between a blind wife and a deaf husband, because the blind wife cannot see the faults of the husband and the deaf husband cannot hear the nagging of the wife. Many couples are blind and deaf at the courting stage and dream of perpetual perfect relationship. Unfortunately, when the excitement of love wears off, they wake up and discover that marriage is not a bed of roses. The nightmare begins. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NO OVERPOWERING Many relationships fail because one party tries to overpower another, or demands too much. People in love tend to think that love will conquer all and their spouses will change the bad habits after marriage. Actually, this is not the case. There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "It is easier to reshape a mountain or a river than a person's character." It is not easy to change. Thus, having high expectation on changing the spouse character will cause disappointment and unpleasantness. It would be less painful to change ourselves and lower our expectations.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHT SPEECH There is a Chinese saying which carries the meaning that "A speech will either prosper or ruin a nation." Many relationships break off because of wrong speech. When a couple is too close with each other, we always forget mutual respect and courtesy. We may say anything without considering if it would hurt the other party. A friend and her millionaire husband visited their construction site. A worker who wore a helmet saw her and shouted, "Hi, Emily! Remember me? We used to date in the secondary school." On the way home, her millionaire husband teased her, "Luckily you married me. Otherwise you will be the wife of a construction worker." She answered,"You should appreciate that you married me. Other wise, he will be the millionaire and not you." Frequently exchanging these remarks plants the seed for a bad relationship. It's like a broken egg - cannot be reversed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- PERSONAL PERCEPTION Different people have different perception. One man's meat could be another man's poison. A couple bought a donkey from the market. On the way home, a boy commented, "Very stupid. Why neither of them ride on the donkey? "Upon hearing that, the husband let the wife ride on the donkey. He walked besides them. Later, an old man saw it and commented, "The husband is the head of family. How can the wife ride on the donkey while the husband is on foot?" Hearing this, the wife quickly got down and let the husband ride on the donkey. Further on the way home, they met an old Lady. She commented, "How can the man ride on the donkey but let the wife walk. He is no gentleman." The husband thus quickly asked the wife to join him on the donkey. Then, they met a young man. He commented, "Poor donkey, how can you hold up the weight of two persons. They are cruel to you." Hearing that, the husband and wife immediately climbed down from the donkey and carried it on their shoulders. It seems to be the only choice left. Later, on a nar row bridge, the donkey was frightened and struggled. They lost their balance and fell into the river. You can never have everyone praise you, nor will everyone condemn you. Never in the past, not at present, and never will be in the future. Thus, do not be too bothered by others words if our conscience is clear.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BE PATIENT This is a true story which happened in the States. A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint of the truck. The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital. Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?" The father went home & committed suicide. Think about this story the next time someone steps on your feet or u wish to take revenge. Think first before u lose your patience with someone u love. Trucks can be repaired.. Broken bones & hurt feelings often can't. Too often we fail to recognize the difference between the person and the performance. We forget that forgiveness is greater than revenge. People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us forever.

The power of your mind

This story was sent to me by D. Fernandes and i am very grateful to her. i investigated on the net and found this site and thought someone or other may like this one because Iann Legg is passionate about the power of the mind (as i am too!).
the site is : http://www.chriscade.com/2010/04/a-boat-called-freedom-spiritual-story-by-iain-legg/
A lot of free courses are offered for anyone interested.
Happy reading
CWD

Current Article

A Boat Called Freedom - Spiritual Story By Iain Legg

By Chris Cade on Apr 9, 2010 in Spiritual Development

Special thanks to Iain Legg of Super Mind Evolution System and Evolution Ezine for sharing his story!

I was coughing, spluttering. Salty seawater filled my mouth. I looked up and everywhere there were people swimming. There must have been thousands of people …a multitude of arms and legs kicking, all moving in one huge anti clockwise circle, the size of an athletic track. In the center was a small desert island with a few palm trees and a person who was throwing food to the swimmers.

What was going on? How had I got here?

I was quickly halted from my thoughts as a jolt of pain shot up my leg. Some guy aged about 50 had blindly kicked me as he swam by. I tried to call out but he didn’t seem to hear me.

I started to panic a little and tried to grab other people’s attention but everyone just kept on swimming, and I was blocking the way. Other people hit me and kicked me as they struggled to get around so I had to either swim with them or drown (…or so I thought at the time…)

So I started swimming along but was still looking around frantically for a face I might recognise. It was difficult as most people seemed to swim with their faces in the water. Eventually I saw a friend who was swimming close to me and asked him why we were here. He didn’t hear me amongst all the splashing and foaming water.

I pulled his arm. “What’s with all this swimming?” I shouted.

“What are you talking about?” he shouts back as if I’m crazy… “we’re swimming the circles and getting fed, this is what we do …why do you question it again my friend” he smiled…

This seemed familiar as if we’ve had this conversation a thousand times. I felt frustrated. Alone.

…there must be more to life…

But then out of the corner of my eye I saw someone waving. It was a lady in a boat and she was beckoning me to come over to her. But she was away from the other swimmers. A long way, and I felt a little scared. Maybe it was just safer to stick with the majority…

…but something inside urged me to swim across even though she was right outside the circle of swimmers, and a very long way from the island that fed people. So I took a deep breath and started swimming across the lanes of people.

It took a while to get across and felt like the bravest thing I’d ever done …but strangely it wasn’t that difficult. Once I’d made up my mind, swimmers seemed to slow down and speed up almost as if they were moving out of the way for me. 10 minutes later and I reached the lady.

She was sitting in a simple small wooden rowing boat smiling down at me. Her pale blue eyes seemed to sparkle like sunlight on the water and her long silver hair blew gently in the breeze. I was thinking that she must be about 60 …but somehow she seemed much older and wiser.

I grabbed the side of the boat and gathering my breath I asked “why did you wave to me?”.

“….because you were looking for answers.” she replied.

I was about to ask what her name was when I felt something cold and metallic beneath my hand. I looked down and saw 9 small silver letters attached to the side of the boat spelling out the name I-N-T-U-I-T-I-O-N

“Am I dreaming all this? All I can remember is suddenly having seawater in my mouth” I asked.

“This is not a dream, you’ve woken up.” the lady softly replied.

My head was now in a real spin. This didn’t feel real… I spluttered “but what about the others… why do they constantly just swim round and round in circles?”.

She leaned forward and whispered sadly, “Because this is all they know. They have been taught from a very early age that they must swim round the island to be fed.”

The thought of doing this forever somehow terrified me… “How do I escape? I don’t want to spend the rest of my life going around in circles.”

“Well you need to know clearly what you do want, not what you don’t want…” she replied with a smile.

I knew deep down what I really wanted. Life was about being free – experiencing things, exploring, growing, having fun, being happy …and sharing this with other people…

I thought about the poor exhausted people whose life revolved around an island (literally) …I told the lady “I want freedom”.

“Ok you need to picture it clearly in your mind in perfect detail.” she replied. “You must feel gratitude and happiness bursting from your heart as if you have this freedom now…and you must feel these emotions every day …then let your intention go and KNOW it will happen.”

“Along the way you may feel hunches or gut feelings prompting you to take certain actions. Listen to these feelings, they are my whispers in the wind to guide you. Understand this, take action and you’ll find your freedom…”

I listened to her words and imagined a beautiful sailing boat with sky blue coloured sails with a golden trim. The hull was a dark brown wood and in the corner, painted in small white letters, was the name …’Freedom’.

No sooner had I seen this when the wind picked up and salty water blew across my face. I blinked my eyes and when they opened Freedom was gone, along with the lady in the boat … and I was suddenly back swimming in circles, seawater choking in my mouth…

Every day for a week I thought about the silver haired lady and her words of wisdom. Every day I’d pictured the boat called Freedom, and every day I’d imagined how gloriously happy I’d be if I could see this boat in reality.

I needed to see this boat.

How could I live a life of mediocrity and boredom when I knew a better life existed? …A better life was actually possible …and I’d really believed it was, I was desperate to believe it was possible …but to be honest, I was now starting to have a few niggling doubts…

I’d seen no signs of success and it was frustrating – my friend just smiled as usual… in that ‘told you so’ kind of way. (Or maybe my friend just felt sorry for me for having these ‘far out’ beliefs that there could be more to life?)

Ever since I was a small child I remember being told that our life involved swimming around a huge island. We apparently had to do this to get fed. People wasted the best years of their lives going around in circles. Trapped to the system.

Trapped by their beliefs.

And even though I’d accepted this system as the only way of life up until recently – now it seemed crazy …or maybe I was going crazy? Sometimes it’s hard to keep believing…

The wind started to pick up a little and the waves got bigger making it harder to swim – but nobody seemed to notice. They just carried on their long monotonous circle – an infinite loop of broken dreams. But then I heard her voice in the wind… my intuition…

“You see your Freedom from afar and that is why it stays away. You must imagine yourself sailing your boat, feel the emotions as you look around …you must picture and feel Freedom from within.”

“You see your Freedom as a need. Therefore you stay in a emotional state of lack and Freedom will always be lacking, just out of your grasp. You must know your Freedom is already yours. You must feel the gratitude and joy as if you have Freedom now.”

“You see your Freedom every minute of your every waking hour. Your energy, your power that contains your dream must be released so its magic can work.”

“But if I let go of my dream aren’t I giving up?” I asked.

“When you release your dream you must already KNOW in your heart it will manifest …Then you must take action …your boat won’t float right up to you!”

I smiled, and asked “What action do I take?”

“listen to your intuition…” the words slowly faded as the wind dropped and the sea was calm again.

So I visualized being within my boat called Freedom…

…the sky blue sails flapped gently in the sea breeze. I was capturing the magic of the moment as I sat aboard looking out to the horizon. Gulls flew overhead mixing their song with the gentle splashing of the ocean. The sun was beginning to set and was casting it’s beautiful orange rays across the evening sky. Life was good…

…until choking seawater abruptly awakened me from my visualization/daydream. Yet regardless of the difficulties going on all around me in my current temporary reality, I persisted with this exercise every day. Then on the 7th day I remembered the lady telling me to release the power …so I imagined a ball of pure white energy that contained my passport to Freedom – and I let it shoot from the palm of my hand into the starlit sky (…and I’m sure a star twinkled just at that moment…)

And that was it – I heard nothing for months, no signals, no whispers in the wind…

…but I never stopped believing.

Then one sunny day I heard the whispers telling me to swim and follow the wind. I didn’t need to be told twice and started swimming, my guide - the wind and the waves. I swam until I could almost swim no more, and then in the distance I saw it -

A beautiful sailing boat with sky blue coloured sails with a golden trim. The hull was a dark brown wood and in the corner, painted in small white letters, was the name …’Freedom’.

It was getting late and the sun was setting on the horizon …casting it’s beautiful orange rays across the evening sky. I swam up to the boat and climbed aboard – exhausted but exhilarated.

My dream had come true, but now out of my comfort zone, I thought to myself “Where shall I go? What shall I do?”

I heard the sound of laughing behind me and turned round to see a beaming face with sparkling blue eyes. Intuition, the wisest friend you’ll ever meet.

“You can go anywhere, do anything”, she smiled.

“…you always could…”

Iain Legg has been studying Mind Power for many years and is passionate about making these very powerful tools and techniques available to all that can benefit from them.

He has created a free eCourse which anyone can access by visiting Super Mind Evolution System. He is also responsible for the birth of Evolution Ezine - a website dedicated to providing Articles, Free Courses, Free Training, Free Gifts, Videos and other Resources designed to Inspire and Educate, Mind, Body and Spirit.