Reading Archives (Author)

Effort Does Not Change The Person

Anthony De Mello

Effort may change the behavior but it does not change the person. Just think what kind of a mentality it betrays when you ask, 'What must I do to get holiness?' Isn't it like asking, How m...

Read Passage

16K reads, 19 comments

The World Feeling And The Soul Feeling

Anthony de Mello

For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? —Matthew 16:26 Recall the kind of feeling you have when someone praises you, when you are approved, accepted,...

Read Passage

11K reads, 9 comments

Substituting One Cruelty For Another

Anthony de Mello

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 injust...

Read Passage

14K reads, 8 comments

Three Qualities Of Holiness

Anthony De Mello

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. So it is with holiness.  Holiness i...

Read Passage

18K reads, 6 comments

We Want Relief. Cure Is Painful

Anthony de Mello

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep,...

Read Passage

26K reads, 10 comments

Dropping That Drug

Anthony de Mello

If we really dropped illusions for what others can give us or deprive us of, we would become alert. The consequence of not doing this is terrifying and inescapable -- we lose our capacity to love. If ...

Read Passage

71K reads, 29 comments

Life Before Death

Anthony De Mello

All questions at the public meeting that day were about life beyond the grave. The Master only laughed and did not give a single answer. To his disciples, who demanded to know the reason for his ...

Read Passage

10K reads, 2 comments

Armchair Explorer

Anthony De Mello

"The explorer returned to his people, who were eager to know about the Amazon. But how could he ever put into words the feelings that flooded his heart when he saw exotic flowers and heard the night-...

Read Passage

12K reads

The Job

Anthony De Mello

Enter first applicant. "You understand that this is a simple test we are giving you before we offer you the job you have applied for?" "Yes." "Well, what is two plus two?" ...

Read Passage

6K reads

Absence of Fear

Anthony De Mello

"What is love?" "Total absence of fear," said the master. "What is that we fear?" "Love," said the master. - Anthony De Mello We fear this total absence of fear. Why? Because if we...

Read Passage

9K reads

Thought is a screen not a mirror

Anthony De Mello

"Why are you so wary of thought?" said the philosopher. "Thought is the one tool we have for organizing the world." "True. But thought can organize the world so well...

Read Passage

5K reads

Can You Just Sit?

Anthony de Mello

The disciples were involved in a heated discussion on the cause of human suffering. Some said it came from selfishness. Others, from delusion. Yet others, from the inab...

Read Passage

5K reads