Awareness: A De Mello Spirituality Conference in His Own Word

Ben Greenfield Fitness
26 Dec 2019 
Awareness, by Anthony de Mello, is one of the 24 must-read books recommended by Eckhart Tolle, and I\'m finding it incredibly enlightening. This one-of-a-kind, how-to-do-it book responds to the longing that, sooner or later, arises in every human heart for a greater connection to life, to our own spirit, to God. One of my favorite parts so far?
“…continue to be aware, to live life from moment to moment. How marvelously it is described in those words of the gospel: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns … Consider the lilies of the field … they neither toil nor spin.” That’s the real mystic speaking, the awakened person. So why are you anxious? Can you, for all your anxieties, add a single moment to your life? Why bother about tomorrow? Is there a life after death? Will I survive after death? Why bother about tomorrow? Get into today. Someone said, “Life is something that happens to us while we’re busy making other plans.” That’s pathetic. Live in the present moment. This is one of the things you will notice happening to you as you come awake. You find yourself living in the present, tasting every moment as you live it. Another fairly good sign is when you hear the symphony one note after the other without wanting to stop it.”
Damn.


From Anthony de Mello to Eckhart Tolle
Anthony de Mello had been my starting point on this journey thanks to a friend’s recommendation but many of his audios and films on YouTube referenced Eckhart Tolle as another worth knowing better.

I looked him up and found him to be a giant in the field of self awareness. 35 million people tuned in to watch a series of Webinars with Oprah Winfrey and him in 2008 and Watkins Review named him as the most spiritually influential person in the world in 2011. I had never heard of him.


That’s not quite true. Someone I knew had sent me a book months ago which has sat on my Kindle doing nothing. That book was called ‘The Power of Now‘. Its author? Eckart Tolle.

I had mistaken it for yet another motivational book about how we can achieve anything blah – more fool me!

Eckart Tolle’s base approach is pretty much identical to Anthony De Mello’s but perhaps Tolle came of age at a time when the internet was spreading and De Mello had recently died.

I’d almost believe that Tolle plagiarised de Mello’s work but it is also perfectly possible that this was a Darwinian moment where two people come to the same conclusion without ever having come into contact with each other.

Tolle’s story is that he was on the verge of suicide when he realised the thought “I can no longer live with myself” made him realise there were two (the self and I). De Mello claims to have come to that realisation through scriptures.

What is most interesting is Tolle’s belief that this philosophy represents the next phase of human evolution and so the increasing number of people waking up to it  is no coincidence.

Tolle claims we have reached a point as a race where we will either wake up to self awareness or wipe ourselves out – either through war or by completely buggering up the planet in our ever increasing appetite for material possessions which we have persuaded ourselves (and which industry through continuous advertising helps keep persuading us) will make us happy.

Tolle is definitely more to the point than De Mello but sometimes that is an issue in itself. De Mello moves slowly to help people like me wrap their heads around something they have never considered before.

Tolle is fast and can leave some people on the offensive. Take this comment from someone on Eckhart Tolle’s Wikipedia Page talk area:

Poof !! Your depression is already gone. Nothing like awareness that its all make believe that you are going through.

Its a sarcastic response which means the person writing it is angry. But why be angry?

Well Tolle is a lot to take on board and it is a bit annoying to have suffered from something for years and then for someone to turn up and say “Its very easy to get rid of that” because it almost points out your own stupidity. Why didn’t you see it.

Imagine if you had hobbled around for years and someone told you if you took the stone out of your shoe you would be able to walk properly. Anthony de Mello would warm you up to the idea that it might be worth looking in your shoe and almost make you feel like you spotted the stone – even though he knew full well it was there all along. Tolle just says “You’ve got a stone in your shoe, take it out and you’ll walk fine”.

My advice then is to put your pride to one side before you take on Tolle and you will learn a great deal very quickly.

Its also worth pointing out that neither De Mello or Tolle came to sudden revelations and then were instantly great spiritual teachers. Both studied for many, many years in order to put their initial revelations in context.

If you like Eckhart Tolle…, Part II: More about The Happy Wanderer, Anthony deMello
January 11, 2014 by Catherine Leave a Comment
I have taken a good long break from writing, and not sure exactly why.   Shoot, my last post was about the election of Pope Francis, and look at all he’s done since then!  That tells you how long of a writer’s break I’ve taken.

But from time to time I’ll check stats here and I’ve noticed that the most popular, most viewed post by far is this one:  “If you like Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, With a Touch of Bill Hicks… You’ll love Anthony deMello.”   It makes me think that people get to the end of books like The Power of Now and realize there’s a whole other world out there where it may be possible to let go of attachments, be one with the present moment, and accept what is.

I hope that some people have been drawn to Anthony deMello as a result of reading that post.    He is so accessible, so light and yet so deep.   Since my last post, I learned that his brother, Bill deMello, wrote a biography about him.  It is called The Happy Wanderer, and it is a great, loving account of the road that “Tony” deMello took in his journey to mystic awareness.   But I will talk more about that later.

I’ve explored other deMello books in the meantime as well:  The Way to Love:  The Last Meditations of Anthony deMello and Sadhana:  A Way to God.  

The Way to Love is a series of short chapters, or meditations on topics such as how to unloose the false beliefs that keep us from happiness; dealing with feelings of insecurity, how essential it is to cleave ourselves from our attachments before we can love.
Sadhana:  A Way to God is a more structured series of spiritual exercises, described by Amazon as “Truly a one-of-a-kind, how-to-do-it book, this small volume responds to a very real hunger for self-awareness and holistic living. It consists of a series of spiritual exercises for entering the contemplative state — blending psychology, spiritual therapy, and practices from both Eastern and Western traditions.”  Apparently the word Sadhana means “A means of accomplishing something.”    Very useful tool.
Once you’ve read a couple of these books, you may be inspired to check out the credentials of the author.  After all, f you want to learn to paint, you look to Picasso.  If you want to learn to build a building, you look to Frank Lloyd Wright.  If you want want spiritual awareness and enlightenment, you look to one who has walked the walk.

And that’s where Bill deMello’s The Happy Wanderer comes in.  Bill gives us a window into the life of his extraordinary brother, but he does not rely on just his memory or experience with him.  He was just a young boy when his brother left home, so Bill has done extensive research and conducted interviews with friends and colleagues in the Jesuit community who knew his brother in order to give us an accurate and multi-dimensional picture of who he was. At the same time, Bill’s love and appreciation for his brother shines through the book, which becomes both tribute to Tony and spiritual inspiration for the reader.

“The Happy Wanderer” title comes from a song deMello loved.  And it is an apt title for how he lived his life, as a person with no attachments, a wanderer in God’s world;  joyfully inspiring us to pick up our knapsacks and bask in the beauty of every moment.  His books take us with him on that journey.


If You Like Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, With a Dash of Bill Hicks…
February 7, 2011 by Catherine 24 Comments
…you will certainly enjoy Anthony de Mello.

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist.   If his being Catholic leads you to believe that perhaps his view of faith might be different from yours, look further.  He didn’t preach dogma, he preached awareness, which was actually the title of one of his most famous books:  Awareness:  The Perils and Opportunities of Reality.

Reading him is like reading a little Eckhart Tolle (dying to the ego and disidentifying with thoughts), a little Byron Katie (accepting what is) and even Meister Eckhart (detachment). Overall, he embodies the wisdom of the sages and saints throughout time.

His approach is a little different–he’s part Aesop, part Joseph Campbell, part Bill Hicks--making his points with parables, fables and jokes (admittedly his jokes were a little cleaner than those of Bill Hicks).  His reading style is very easy, because many of the books he has “authored” are simply transcripts of seminars he gave to increasingly expanding audiences, up until he died prematurely at the age of 56.

There are some conspiracy theories about his death–he, like Thomas Merton, died an untimely death just when their popularity could be construed as a threat to the strict teachings of the Church.  Both Merton and de Mello melded Buddhism with Christian faith.  De Mello also often drew in teachings of the Bagavad Gita and other sacred teachings of his native India.  I don’t personally have any opinions as to the cause of his death:  as he himself would say, who cares?  But I only mention it because it shows how he, like many spiritual leaders who are most interested in the truth, defied fitting into a box based on ideology or religious precepts.

I read Awareness some time ago, and loved it then.  I don’t know why, but I was compelled to go back and read a little more–I guess as part of my New Year’s resolution to increase my mindfulness.

So, you know how when you go to Amazon, they say, “If you enjoyed THAT book, you might enjoy THIS book”?  Well, if you enjoy Eckhart Tolle quotes, you might enjoy this de Mello quote:

As you identify less and less with the “me”, you will be more at ease with everybody and with everything. Do you know why? Because you are no longer afraid of being hurt or not liked. You no longer desire to impress anyone. Can you imagine the relief when you don’t have to impress anybody anymore? Oh, what a relief. Happiness at last!

If you like Byron Katie quotes, you might enjoy this de Mello quote:

Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality when your falsehoods clash with the truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.

And if you like Bill Hicks, you might enjoy this bit of de Mello stand-up: