Anthony De Mello is a Catholic, priest, mystic, psychotherapy specialist, and most importantly, a writer.
The author created books with content telling about spirituality, and they became known around the world. His work was notable for its simplicity and accessibility for everyone. They provided: short instructive stories of the peoples of the East, the purpose of which is moralizing for the reader; works dedicated to various religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity); jokes, works about Hodge Nasruddin and so on.
Religious Life
De Mello’s spiritual positions did not go on par with the Catholic ones, largely because they appeared under the influence of the views characteristic of the eastern concept of faith. The author’s creations were often not accepted by a large number of Christian theologians, but this did not affect their popularity, the texts spread among the followers of this religious teaching. This also affected Anthony de Mello's book Awareness.
Work plan with the work
The analysis of the plot of the book by de Mello "Awareness" for the reader will take place on the following points:
1. Description.
2. Summary.
3. Heroes.
4. The main ideas of the work.
5. Reader reviews.
6. Additional quotes from the work.
Description
"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is a work whose purpose is to wake the reader from an endless dream, which is filled with various kinds of hardships of real life, and bring him into a state of adequate perception and response to happiness, which is actually reality. The book carries away, destroys all sorts of unreasonable thoughts about its own unsuitability and instills a belief in the true presence of those moments that brighten up human life in this world. Recommended reading for those involved in the cycle of misfortune. After all, after reading the contents of the book, any difficulties will look like ridiculous obstacles that will not be difficult to jump over absolutely to any of the people.
The plot of the book "Awareness" (summary)
Here are some fragments from the work in which you can see the subtle philosophy, the ironic attitude of the author in different situations in life:
- Johnny goes to a modeling class in his school for special children, he takes his piece of clay, and then begins to knead it. Then he tears a small fragment from him and goes into the corner of the room to play with him already. The teacher comes up to him and says: "Hello, Johnny." Johnny greets him: "Hello." The teacher asks: "What is it in your hand?" And Johnny replies: "This is a piece of cow dung." The teacher has the following question: "And what do you make of him?" Johnny: "I sculpt a teacher."
- The teacher thought, "Little Johnny is regressing." So, he called the director, who was passing the door at that moment, and reported to him: "Johnny regressed." The director, in turn, approached Johnny and said: "Hello, son." And Johnny answered him: "Hello." Director: "What is in your hand?" Johnny: "A piece of cow dung." That: "What are you doing with him?" This: "Sculpt the headmaster."
- The director decides to call a school psychologist and asks to send for him, because the psychologist is a smart guy. He comes and turns to Johnny: "Hello." In response to him: "Hello." The psychologist decides to outwit the boy: "I know what it is in your hand." "What?" "A piece of cow dung." Johnny confirms his words: "Yes, it is." "And I know what you make of it." "What?" "You make a psychologist." "No, I don’t have enough manure for this!"
- Spirituality Course, page 13. Charity is truly a selfish masquerade in the form of altruism. "Masquerade of Mercy", p. 19. I am going to write a book someday, and the title will be: "I'm dumb, you're dumb." After all, this is the most liberating, wonderful thing in the world when you openly admit that you are an idiot. It is charming when people tell me: “You are mistaken”, and I answered them: “What can you expect from a fool?”
- “The Illusion of Reward,” p. 43. Can a rose say, “I will give my fragrance to good people who smell my smell, but I will keep it from the bad ones?” Or can a lamp say: "I will give my light to good people in this room, but I will keep it from evil people"? Or can a tree say: “I will give my shadow to good people who are resting beneath me, but I will keep it from enemies”? These are images that explain what love is.
- “Obstacles to Happiness,” p. 74. Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the state of young children who own the kingdom until they are polluted by the stupidity of society and its culture. To find happiness, you do not need to do anything, because happiness cannot be gained. Does anyone know why? Because we already have it. How can you get what you already have? Then why don't you experience this? Because you have to quit something. You have to drop the illusions. You do not need to add anything to be happy; you have to drop something. Life is easy, life is amazing. It is heavy only for your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your desires. Do you know where these things come from? From identification with all kinds of labels!
Heroes - who are they?
The main characters of the book "Awareness" are not certain people, but those who can truly be called people. Perhaps it would be wrong to identify the main thing in the work with any single object or group of such objects. After all, as it is worth noting, the book is about everything. Pure esotericism.
Main ideas
The work reveals the general themes of everyone’s life, but with a religious bias. "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is a book of reasoning, it is about everything and is attached to everything, and not to something or to someone specific. There is love and an opinion about ideals, the concept of happiness, reality, ideology ... In general, the book will tell the reader a lot. The presentation of this material is peculiar and is what makes a person thinker happy, because all of the above is food for thought.
Point Five: reviews
Numerous reviews can be found on Anthony de Mello's Awareness
Readers say that the purpose of the book is to show the path to happiness through awareness with a Christian bias. But for many, the book left many questions and internal contradictions. So, many admit: yes, indeed, a book with a Christian bias, but the ideas about awareness seemed new and even unexpected. Most readers are unanimous in their opinion that after reading many questions remained. But for some of them you can find the answers in the book, you should carefully look for them. It is also noted in the reviews that a little blurry is written about love. But, again, the answers must be sought in the process of thoughtful reading. The general opinion is that the book is worthy of being read. Especially those who are lost in life.
Additional quotes from the work
Quotes that literally overwhelmed the work "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello:
The Hidden Agenda p. 145. "Step by step, let everything happen. Real changes will happen when they are not the product of your ego, but reality. Awareness frees reality to change you."
"Assorted land mines", p. 148. "There is no salvation until they see their main prejudice."
"As soon as you start looking at the world through ideology, everything will be over. No reality matches ideology. Life corresponds to it. That is why people always look for its meaning. But life does not make sense; it cannot make sense, because meaning is formula; meaning is that which makes sense to the mind. Whenever you give meaning to reality, you come across something that destroys the meaning you are looking for. Meaning can only be found when you go beyond life makes sense only when it is perceived in the form of a mystery, and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind. "
In the same place. "Is it possible to be a full-fledged person without experiencing tragedy? The only tragedy in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from this. The only tragedy of mankind is its ignorance. From it comes fear, and from it comes the rest, but death is not at all a tragedy. "Death is amazing, it is terrible only for those people who have never understood life. Only when you are afraid of life, you are afraid of death. Only the dead are afraid of death."
“The Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrup, his leader, asking him about the relative value of communism, socialism and capitalism. Arrup provided him with an excellent answer. He said:“ The system is about as good or bad as the people who use it ” "People with golden hearts would make capitalism, communism or socialism work beautifully."