Snippet-Time

I'm feeling the need to just share some snippets from Anthony deMello, in case anyone out there is so otherwise-occupied that they don't have time to delve into this book ("Awareness") ... and yet also be fed by some life-infused nuggets of spiritual food ... so feast on.

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 living than by your adoration."

It's infinitely more important that you be waking up. That's spirituality, that's everything. If you have that, you have God.

In religion, worship becomes more important than love; the church becomes more important than life. God becomes more important than the neighbor. And so it goes, and that's the danger.

It is extremely important if you want to wake up to go in for what I call "self-observation." Be aware of what you're saying, be aware of what you're doing, be aware of what you're thinking, be aware of how you're acting. Be aware of where you're coming from, what your motives are. The unaware life is not worth living. The unaware life is a mechanical life. It's not human, it's programmed, conditioned. We might as well be a stone, a block of wood.

(& yet ... I find myself wondering if the stone, the block of wood, may not be more alive than we are aware ...?)

People go through life with fixed ideas; they never change. They're just not aware of what's going on. Well, don't listen to people who say to you, "Forget yourself! Go out in love to others." Don't listen to them! They're all wrong. The worst thing you can do is forget yourself when you go out to others in the so-called helping attitude.

What you are aware of you are incontrol 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 controllled by it; you're not enslaved by it. That's the difference.

When I'm listening t you, it's infinitely more important for me t listen to me than to listen to you. Of course, it's important for me to lisent to you, but it's more important that I liseen to me. Otherwise I won't be hearing you. Or I'll be distorting everything you say. I'll be coming at you from my own conditioning. I'll be reacting to you in all kinds of ways from my insecruities, my need to manipulate you, from my desire to succeed, from irritations and feelings that I might not be aware of. So it's frightfully important that I listen to me when I'm listening to you.

(And that part made me go, "woah!")

Just take in what fits ... let go of the rest...

Shalom, Dena