I thought this meditation on the eve of Christmas was appropriate:

The Advent

The events of history were controlled for my coming to this world
no less than for the coming of the Saviour.

The time had to be ripe, the place just right, the circumstances ready, before I could be born.

God chose the parents of his Son and endowed them with the personality
they needed for the child that would be born.

I speak to God about the man and woman that he chose to be my parents
until I see that they had to be the kind of human beings they were
if I was to become what God meant me to be.

The Christ child comes, like every other child, to give the world a message.
What message have I come to give?
I seek guidance from the Lord to express it in a word or image.

Christ comes into this world to walk a certain path, fulfil a certain destiny.
He consciously fulfilled what had been "written" for him.
As I look back I see in wonder what was "written" and has thus far been fulfilled in my on life,
and for each part of that script, however small, I say, "Thanks" to make it holy with my gratitude.

I look with expectation and surrender at all that is to come and, like the Christ,
I say, "Yes. Let it be done."

Finally I recall the song the angels sang when Christ was born.
They sang of the peace and joy that give God glory.
Have I ever heard the song the angels sang when I was born?

I see with joy what has been done through me to make the world a better place,
and I join those angels in the song they sang to celebrate my birth.

Anthony deMello-Wellsprings. Gujarat Sahitya Prakash. booksgsp@gmail.com

The recent siege in Sydney, Australia prompts me to share my two cents worth. I contemplated keeping my mouth shut…However, when I thought about it, I felt that if others shared the same sentiments me and passed them on maybe- just maybe we could all change attitudes.

I notice that someone came up with the brilliant idea of- “I’ll ride with you tag”. Great! This indicates that we support one another and don’t dump everyone into the ‘rotten apple’ basket along with the other rotten apples.

Now, here are my thoughts- If we think like Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, or Agnostics we are bound to offend. 

I am NONE of the above. In fact there is no religion I wish to follow or subscribe to. I AM A HUMAN BEING. Everything else- religion, caste, nationality, status, wealth, whatever- doesn't matter one iota!

I realise not everyone can subscribe to this and yet, I accept you just as you are...without reservations. Will you now accept me with no strings attached?

Considering that I do not belong to or follow any of the above mentioned categories... would you ride with me?

And if you don’t- I’ll still ride with you if you want me to.

If you agree, share with others!

Peace……… 

Another Swansong review. Only available at www.tonydemello.com

Swansong. Anthony deMello's Last Seminar.

I can see that you have done an excellent job, Bill, of transcribing the participants' notes from Tony's last retreat in India. I thank you for doing so. To me Swansong is a distillation of Tony's most poignant and powerful teachings. The book is jam-packed with Tony's wonderful wisdom, warmth and humour.
To me Swansong demonstrates how Tony was the best at succinctly arriving at the essence of the world's great spiritual teachings, especially those of Jesus and Buddha.
You convey in Swansong how Tony clearly practised what he preached, speaking with courage and conviction. I especially appreciate how you captured at the end of the retreat Tony putting forth the concepts of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness (suffering), and not-self, the three characteristics of all existence, how understanding these leads to insight and seeing clearly, in Tony's words: “In the one who sees – there is only love. And in that love there is great beauty. And you will find God.”
For the lucky reader Swansong brings forth the culmination of Tony's journey into and through the world's great spiritual truths. It contains the heart of Tony's wise and compassionate teachings, such a feast for those who know Tony's work, as well as for the newcomer to Tony wanting to know what this modern day mystic was all about.
A final note: the book title is perfect for Tony. It harkens back to his early story meditation books, Song of the Bird and Taking Flight, as well as to the wonderful compilation on Tony by Aurel Brys and Joseph Pulickal, We Heard the Bird Sing. I am sure Tony glides above smiling down at you and your wonderful accomplishment.
Thank you so much, Bill, for your painstaking effort, your labour of love, in bringing forth Tony's last retreat in India for the world to see.
Sincerely,
Richard Hennessey.
Hawaii.

This post from Silent Entry says it all.

http://silententry.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/if-you-like-eckhart-tolle-part-ii-more-about-the-happy-wanderer-anthony-demello/#respond

Swansong- Another review.

I was more than delighted to receive Swansong. Quite evidently, Bill transcribed the seminar on which the book is based with the love and attention that only a brother can lavish.

Fr Tony’s last seminar may have been his swan song but what he says is a mighty clarion call to us all to open our eyes and wake up. As a true master, Fr Anthony De Mello shows us “where to look” but never tells us “what to see”.

An oriental sage once said : “If a blind man walks a thousand miles to ask of another man where light is, he will tell him: ‘If you had eyes, light was there also where you came from. Without eyes, light will not be, no matter where you go’. Light is wherever eyes are - else there is nothing but darkness”.

But it is inherent in the human conditon, in this matrix we live in, that most of us are blind. We need a master to point us in the right direction. We then choose whether to follow the path to peace that passes all understanding or continue to exist within the confines of our conditioning.

As a human (mechanical) being I’d say that Anthony De Mello was taken away from us far too soon but deep in my heart I know that he sang all of his song and he sang it beautifully. Could he have given us further insights, untrammelled by rigid, doctrinal, lifeless formalisms had he lived longer? Perhaps. But what does it matter, his joyful voice still rings clear. Swansong exudes his humour and his love for humanity – the beauty of his being is still with us.

Barry Long said, “The living master never returns. He teaches the truth, he is in his own body, his own time. When that is finished, all that he had to say and do is said and done. If it weren't, he would not die. The body is the precise time allotted. There can be no return of J. Krishnamurti, Meher Baba, Ramana Maharshi or any living master of his time. The master never needs more time.”

Fr Tony’s teachings live on in his stories, books and the few, alas, videos we have of him dancing his dance. He was a floodlight of wisdom and divine inspiration for this world. He touched the hardest hearts, the confused, the dogmatic, the seeker. He continues to do so.

So I can only offer a big THANK YOU to his dear brother Bill (and his generous correspondents) for gifting us, in Swansong , with the authentic words of a rare mystic.

Franco.

Swansong, Anthony deMello’s Last Seminar has been available through Tony's website www.tonydemello.com for some months. I have yet to receive a negative review of this seminar.

This review is no exception; but it is in many ways special. Because the man who wrote  it was a novice in the Jesuit seminary when Tony was Rector of the house (see Anthony deMello SJ, The Happy Wanderer)

He gives me great credit for transcribing this last seminar but I humbly claim none. Unless pre-arranged and agreed to by Tony, his seminars were never taped or filmed. Therefore his last seminar, delivered in May 1987, in Pune, India, would be but a blissful memory for those who attended it, never to be accessed by the wider community. I attribute all credit to the sister (who still wishes to remain anonymous) and Fr. Joaquim Tellis, who shared their notes on this seminar which they attended, with me.

The review:

Bill,

Towards the end of last month I completed 3/4 century, aided by not regretting the past and not being bothered about the future. 

 

And you know what?!  On my birthday, I gave out presents: A copy each, in fancy wrapping, of SWANSONG. with a sticker, signed by me, on the first page, saying: " This is to share with you,  thoughts expressed by my guru, that keep me enlightened, and to admit I am able to keep sane because of the questionable company I keep. Like in the case of Jesus—see Mk 2:15f and also Lk 7:33."

You certainly did a great job transcribing the seminar and I will not be the only one to say that.  Tony followers all over will be highly indebted, for they will have Tony's final thoughts and feelings about what really matters in life.  You must have taken great pains over the transcriptions and you certainly edited them expertly for when I read SWANSONG I felt as if I was hearing Tony himself, just as I remember him.  The flow of words, the aptness of the illustrations and jokes, the depth of mystical understanding, the forthrightness of speech, and the simplicity and clarity of everything---all that is associated with Tony---came out strongly through what you gifted all of us.  You have our undying gratitude.

A million, trillion thanks for SWANSONG!

 

 

Albert SJ

I asked Tony whether it was absolutely necessary that I enter a church to communicate with God. I asked him why it was necessary to spend so much money on structures when there were millions around the world who had no food or shelter.

His answer:

Once upon a time there was a forest where the birds sang by day and the insects by night. Trees flourished, flowers bloomed and all manner of creatures roamed about in freedom.

And all who entered there were led to Solitude which is the home of God who dwells in Nature’s silence and Nature’s beauty.

But then the Age of Unconsciousness arrived when it became possible for people to construct buildings a thousand feet high and to destroy rivers and forests and mountains in a month. So houses of worship were built from the wood of the forest trees and from the stone under the forest soil. Pinnacle, spire and minaret pointed towards the sky; the air was filled with the sound of bells, with prayer and chant and exhortation.

And God was suddenly without a home.

God hides things by putting them before our eyes!

Anthony deMello-Prayer of the Frog Volume I.

The untethered mind.

The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself,

because the self is the product and a part of the total process of human existence. To

transform oneself, self-knowledge is essential; without knowing what you are, there is no

basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself there cannot be transformation.

One must know oneself as one is, not as one wishes to be, which is merely an ideal and

therefore fictitious, unreal; it is only that which is that can be transformed, not that which

you wish to be. To know oneself as one is,  requires an extraordinary alertness of mind,

because what is,  is constantly undergoing transformation, change; and to follow it swiftly

the mind must not be tethered to any particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern

of action. If you would follow anything, it is no good being tethered. To know yourself,

there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all

beliefs, from all idealization, because beliefs and ideals only give you a colour, perverting

true perception. If you want to know what you are, you cannot imagine or have belief in

something which you are not. If I am greedy, envious, violent, merely having an ideal of

nonviolence, of non-greed, is of little value....The understanding of what you are,

whatever it be—ugly or beautiful, wicked or mischievous—the understanding of what

you are, without distortion, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is essential, for it gives

freedom.
Jiddu Krishnamurti-The Book of Life.

A friend sent me this very interesting interview. I like this guy's style. There are a couple of corrections I would make to Tony's background as depicted by him but they are negligible and unimportant in the context of the interview. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did:

Michael McCullough’s Interview Series: An interview with Anthony de Mello on the 24th anniversary of his death

The following is a fictional interview between the author and Anthony de Mello, inspired by A Course in Miracles, and is intended for informational or communicative purposes only. All references to Anthony de Mello, other than direct quotations, are purely fictional and the creation of the author. 

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest from India who gained international acclaim in the 1980’s for his teachings on spirituality. His lectures and writings continue to be an inspiration to many people around the globe.

Q: Is there anything you would like to say to the world?
A: Yes, quite a bit in fact! It delights me to see people all over the world studying my teachings and also to see the Sadhana Institute still operating in India. My life on earth was dedicated to spiritual awakening and, really, it was the face-to-face contact that I enjoyed the most. I liked to speak to people; to see them question and ponder—that’s the way human beings learn best. You have to get your hands dirty while building your life on earth. You see, most people are trained not to think about why they have so many problems in their lives and why they cannot escape the same old thinking that put them in that position. I liked to challenge that paradigm because this is the true meaning of the Gospels. Jesus did not do all the work for mankind once and for all; he was a way-shower. He gave us a diagram of how to think about the world and our place in it—all we have to do is read what he said! This is why human beings have free will and self-determination. I found that most people need a wake-up call before they can appreciate any spiritual teaching. This usually comes in the form of sickness or despair, but it could simply be the experience of unhappiness or irritation about life in general. It’s rare to find a person who doesn’t get to this place at some point. Some people hide it well and you would never know, but it always comes out.
Q: Most of your writings and lectures were very practical—how to deal with the “here and now”—and didn’t focus much on the soul. Why was that?
A: Well, I would have to disagree with you on that point. The concept of the soul is usually understood in the Catholic Church as the innermost and spiritual principle in man which is created immediately by God. The physical body is then animated by the activities of the "mind," which is responsible for the conscious state, and the "soul" which is responsible for both the conscious and unconscious states. The belief in an animating principle in some sense distinct from the body is an almost inevitable inference from the observed facts of life.If the soul is the spiritual principle in man then the most important question you need to ask yourself is this:  what is spirit? People say that they are “spiritual,” but what does this really mean? Many people believe that spirit is some force in the universe that has no interaction with the physical world. In essence, it is some sense of “other-worldliness” that guides them but is not a part of them. This is not the understanding of spirit in the teachings of Jesus. As I said before, Jesus was a way-shower, much like the Buddha. He showed us a path to enlightenment based upon how we think about our purpose in this world and them by living it. Most people forget about the second part. Theories and platitudes are easy to come by, but action is much more difficult to find in the world. Jesus was a man of action. If spirit is anything then it is a force in your mind that can guide you in the right direction—spirit is your true identity. The impulse that keeps you stuck in this world with a sense of despair and fear is your “programming.” I used the word “programming” in the 1980’s to describe this phenomenon because it was the early days of computers and everyone was new to the idea of “programmed” language. The more precise scientific term would be the Freudian concept of the “ego,” but Freud’s idea of the ego was so filled with pejoratives that it was impractical to use, but this is the impulse I was referring to in my work. It’s a harbinger of fear and anger and resentment.It is true that I didn’t focus my teachings much on the concept of evil because the concept puts the emphasis on forces outside of your control. Your programming or ego, whichever you prefer, is outside of your control whenever you are not conscious of its influence on your thinking. However, once you become conscious that your programming is the source of your fear then you have power over it. Isn’t it amazing how it works! Life then becomes a conscious choice between fear and love. The true nature of the human mind is love. Love is what brings you the greatest experience of joy in the world. This is the experience of God in the physical world—it’s heaven. When you are fearful and don’t know how to get out of this feeling, then your only choice is to turn to the Holy Spirit who guides you towards God’s love. Now, the difficult part for most people is that your ego has its own definition of love that competes with God’s love. The ego’s interpretation of love is attachment and dependence. It’s a watered-down concept of love based upon worldly desires. It’s just another one of the ego’s tools. True love has no attachment and is applied universally to everyone and everything. And it must be applied this way. The only way to reach God in this world is through your interactions with your brothers and sisters. As long as you are fearful of another person, as long as you judge him or condemn her, you are separating yourself from God. “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
Q: You mentioned both Jesus and Buddha as if they were equals. Did you believe in the exclusivity of Christian doctrine?
A: The teachings of Jesus are universal teachings; they don’t have special significance to any one church or group. There are many ways to reach the peace and love of God. The Christian teachings were the ones that I grew up with but others cultures have their own teachings. If you look only at the words spoken by Jesus in his lifetime, then you will have no problem finding support for this view. The Sermon on the Mount is the Christian manifesto and it’s all right there in that one sermon. For years I studied the bible and preached the Gospels as if they were exclusive teachings, but the words did not penetrate me. It’s as if I was sleeping my whole life and then suddenly I woke up! And I did. At its core, Christianity is a religion of love and peace. Jesus showed us the way to experience this love here and now by practicing forgiveness. Forgiveness is the understanding that everyone is suffering from the same programming that blinds them from accepting the peace and love of God which is the natural state of being.
Q: How is it you became aware of your own ignorance of the Christian message?
A: In 1961, I was ordained a Catholic priest in India. I had joined the seminary in Bombay in 1947 when I was 16 years old. This was a time of great turbulence in Indian society due to the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of the British Raj. My father was a railway worker and I was the older of two sons. It would have been a great help to my family if I would have taken a job with the railway, after I completing my studies, and earned an income for the family. This was not my calling. I had a spiritual yearning that led me to the seminary and I was very headstrong about it—a trait that did not always endear me to my elders throughout my life, but this was my constitution. I studied in Bombay then went to Spain and then came back to Poona, India. Thereafter, I became a parish priest in Bombay and taught the Gospels as I understood them. Then, one day I was having lunch with a friend of mine who was a Sufi scholar. Sufism is still practiced in India, as it is in the Middle East. My Sufi friend asked me why the Catholic Church seemed so controlling of the minds of its followers and made such great claims of exclusivity. I had to think about it for a minute and I could not come up with a legitimate answer. He then asked me if the teachings of the Catholic Church were construed to perpetuate this control. I had never thought about this before. He rightly pointed out that salvation in the Church could only be found in the teachings of the Church and not in the mind of man. This seemed so contrary to Jesus’s teachings and it really woke me up! So I started to read the Gospels again, and, there it was right there on the pages! It was hidden behind all the dogma! It was a great liberation for me. St. Paul said, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
Q: Then what is the relationship between the spirit and the physical body?
A: There is none, in the sense that the spirit exists independent of the body. Spirit is the part of your mind that accepts only peace and love; it transcends the body and is the eternal aspect of every person. This is what makes the spirit so strong compared to the weakness of the body. Jesus said, “If the flesh exists because of the spirit, it is a miracle but if the spirit exists because of the body it is a miracle of miracles. I marvel at how such great wealth established itself amid this poverty.” It’s so true! The only trick the body has is to convince the mind that it is subservient to the body and not the other way around. This is the result of programming by society. The world of bodies will program your ego to accept that your body and other bodies are the only things that matters. This is the trick. Once you buy into this view of life, then all of the spiritual teachings in the world will not help you escape unless you are willing to look at the spirit. You need to be woken up to the spirit. This is what Jesus did. Isn’t it amazing?
Q: Then how do you find peace in a world of chaos and disorder?
A: By just accepting it! Peace is always with you every moment of every day, and all you have to do is accept it. Most people spend their days finding ways to reject peace through judgment and through fear. By not judging other people, by not condemning them, you can see things for what they are. We don’t have to accept injustice but we don’t have to give up our own peace to get there. Why should you sacrifice your own peace and happiness because of the actions of other people or because of circumstances in the world? You can change the world or deal with injustice as long as you don’t disturb your own peace. What good is there in getting angry? Has it ever helped anyone in any situation? Does it make your actions more justified or even more effective by displaying anger or irritation? I can assure you it does not. You never have to accept injustice but you should never let it disturb your peace either.
Q: But, doesn’t that just make us happy victims?
A: No, it does not. You are not a victim unless you think of yourself that way. In reality, you should never “do” anything in the world because you feel the need to justify or validate your fear or anger. If you are peaceful and loving, then it does not matter whether you take action or not—most of the time you will probably not take any action. For example, if somebody speaks badly about you behind your back, then you can choose to confront the person or not. But, if you are a peaceful person, and you don’t find the need to confront the person, then how does it matter if you do or do not? It simply becomes a choice, but nothing compels you other than your own reason.
Q: Then what is the world? Why would God create a world when we have to struggle against injustice and cruelty?
A: There are too many assumptions in your question to even offer a useful answer. First, start by realizing that nobody knows what God is. Hence, you cannot decide to take any action in the world because you believe it is what God desires. The only meaningful experience you can have in the world is what is experienced in your own mind. The mind is the repository of your experiences; of love or fear, of peace or uneasiness, of heaven or hell. Heaven and hell are a state of mind. Heaven is the experience of complete peacefulness and is the natural state of the mind. Hell is the relinquishment of this peace which is the result of conditioning by society; it’s the obstacle that stands in the way of experiencing the peace and love of God. In the world, you experience these obstacles as distractions—the “I have to” experiences, such as “I have to get a job,” “I have to make a lot of money,” or “I have to get married.” This is all rubbish. The only thing you have to do in the world is to realize your true nature—this is heaven. Everything else is a choice, but don’t let those choices distract you from reality. The shift from the unconscious desires of the world to the conscious desire for truth is the resurrection of the sprit. “When will the kingdom come?” they asked Jesus. He replied, “It will not come when it is expected. They will say, ‘Look here,’ or ‘Look there.’ Rather the kingdom of the father is spread out on the earth and people do not see it.”You must do things that bring peace and love into your life. Peace and love give you the most happiness in your life and also bring you greater clarity of thought. Did you ever notice that peaceful and happy people don’t hurt each other or create problems in the world? Peace and love just work in the world because they give you the greatest experience of the world around you. So, why would anyone choose anything else? Only because you are programmed to think that choosing fear and anger are in your best interests. It’s insane, isn’t it? But this is what you are taught by the world. It’s your conditioning by society, by your parents, by your teachers. And it not their fault because this is what the world taught them. It takes a miracle to break this cycle, but that’s just the miracle that Jesus is offering you.
Q: Do you think that the world of pain and suffering is real? Some people would say that the physical world is an illusion.
A: I don’t think it is necessary to go that far. Nobody knows what the physical world is and why it is the way it is. Could it be an illusion? Sure. Is it necessary to look at the world in this way? No. You can get along fine in the world by choosing peace and love even if you think what the world is offering is real. Regardless of what the world is, your only choice is how to react to it. This you can control, and must control. Otherwise, your conditioned mind will control you. It’s the choice between heaven and hell. Heaven is the choice for peace and love; hell is the choice for fear and anger. That’s all there is! It’s quite simple.
Q: What is the biggest obstacle to dropping our belief in fear and anger?
A: Unfortunately, religion itself is the biggest obstacle for most people because religion becomes part of the social programming that keeps you rooted in the world. When religion loses its mystical quality then watch out! Remember, it’s always the religious and pious people in any society who commit the gravest acts of hatred. How do you know when religion has gone bad? The answer is when it cares more about institutions than the spiritual message. The teachings of Jesus are about the individual experience of the peace and love of God here and now! Not sometime in the future or in the next life. Salvation is no longer attainable through a religion when the institutions become more important than the souls of the people. Jesus said, “He who knows all but fails to know himself lacks everything.” Education, worldliness, prestige, and honor are all meaningless. An uneducated peasant with a little bit of common sense and some intelligence knows more than the wisest scholar about happiness. You must know yourself. This means you must know what controls the thoughts in your mind. Is it your ego? Then your life will be a mess. Is it your spirit? Well, then you will do very well indeed. Forget about your attachments to the world. “Become passersby.”

Keywords: 

ACIM A Course in MIracles interview John Lennon Michael McCullough

Simple, Easy Spiritual Health: Anthony de Mello's One Minute Wisdom

I have already made it very clear that I do not belong to any church or follow a religion invented by man. The Vedas(whoever wrote them) Buddha, Jesus, followed by Mohamed and a host of other holy men, prophets of their time, were very clear about one thing-Love one another as I have loved you. Of course, they had a lot of other wise things to pass on but I think the common factor they all preached was Love.
I received an interesting article today and feel compelled to post it on my blog; not to gloat that it was posted by a Catholic priest but to make the point I have made before- organised religion excludes those who don't belong to 'The Club'.
So dear friends, take some time to read not only the article but also the comments.
Here is the link:
http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=2459#comment-18428

Hello Franco,It is MY pleasure  to be corresponding with YOU! My goodness, I am but a mere mortal. Please don't put me on a pedestal.
Thank you for your very prompt reply. Rather than being bored by your email, I was delighted to read of yet another Tony disciple who appreciates his work.
You will have read in the Happy Wanderer, that I was a very late starter with his work. Once I got started however, I devoured all I could get. So I was delighted to receive notes that were taken at his last seminar, by two attendees. Thereafter I worked toward transcribing the notes and producing a book(Swansong) which you have no doubt found either on Facebook or the website(Link below this email)


Franco, if your shell is hard to crack, mine is made of granite! I experience occasional spasms of joy but not Anand. What I experience are thrills, as Tony would call them. Anand is reserved for Mystics like my brother, who are totally carefree and devoid of all need to possess anything; to those beings who live life without judging others. I am unfortunately only too human. I'm working on it though, in my 70th year! :)


Rest assured Franco, I will continue to share Tony's wisdom as best I can.  It is indeed a very troubled world. I wish some of those madmen in troubled areas of the world could just sit and think how stupid it is to claim the world and lose their souls!
Thank you again, for writing and I hope we can continue corresponding.
With love to you and yours,
Bill.

I am always delighted to receive mail from people who appreciate my brother's work
More than 27 years after he died, I see Tony reaching out to so many people.
Thank you Franco for your very kind words and continuing interest.
Dear Bill,
Thank you so much for your personal e-mail confirming my purchase.




What an honour it is for me to be writing directly to Fr Tony’s brother!! And what joy it is to see your efforts to keep his work alive and spread new material, hence my interest in Swansong.
I have bought all known published works by and about your brother and they are my most prized books (I even bought the same books twice because they had different titles for the US and the rest of the world, silly me).
I also enjoyed immensely your very well written biography Happy Wanderer. Thank you.
I do not wish to bore you with too long an e-mail but I’d like to tell you that I came across your brother’s life work through a reference in one of Wayne Dyer’s works. Wayne Dyer being impressed by a Jesuit? This I had to explore. I saw Fr Tony for the first time on YouTube and I was hooked for life. This man was special. He spoke in a way I had never heard before, and believe me here in Malta we are full of Catholic priests and churches - I myself was brought up in Catholic schools and come from a Catholic family. But no one spoke about religion, spirituality and the human condition like Fr Tony. He was a true mystic. He truly understood things that ordinary mortals find hard to grasp.
On a personal note, despite my years of listening to him, watching him on video (Awareness CDs, Rediscovery of Life, A Way to God for Today and Wake Up) and reading his works, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, continually finding new insights in what he says, I still haven’t tasted the Anand that special persons like your brother derive from the unknowable. Perhaps my shell is particularly hard to crack or, as he says in one of his humorous asides, I like living in a cesspool, just don’t make waves please.
Please do continue shedding Fr Tony’s light on this troubled world with any new material you encounter.
With utmost respect and love to you and your family,
Franco,

My brother delivered a seminar in Poona, India, in May 1987, just a few days before he departed India to conduct a satellite seminar in the USA, where he died before that seminar began.
The India retreat would have been lost forever, were it not for a couple of disciples who took meticulous notes of this seminar. I received these notes from them some months ago and I have transcribed this seminar. It is now available by writing to Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Tony's official publisher in India. booksgsp@gmail.com
I hope that you, followers and friends of Tony, will avail yourselves of this book.
I will continue to do my best to post on this page( Anthony deMello-Call to Love Facebook page) as often as I can, in the hope that all who visit here, enjoy snippets of my brother's Wisdom.
My thanks to all who visit and send me messages of encouragement.

In case you did not notice, I'm posting another article by Michael Barnes SJ. The Jesuits in Britain have devoted each month of this year to a prominent Jesuit who is no longer with us.


http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/anthony-de-mello-sj

Twenty seven years after he died, Tony is still revered and talked about by scores of people.
The following article is very interesting:
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/anthony-de-mello-fire

I didn't watch Joe Hockey deliver his budget last night; but from what I am reading today, It appears it's going to hurt a lot of people.
Maybe someone who reads this blog could pass this post on to Hockey. It would show him millions of dollars of savings in Medicare. Instead of slugging people for a visit to the GP, Medicare could reap millions more if the guidelines on referrals were revised and adapted.
Recent health problems I have experience and the number of visits to my GP to obtain referrals to specialists, prompted me to think and share my concerns with a few people about this system which can and should be changed. Instead of targeting those who can least afford it( Pensioners, the unemployed, struggling families and a number of other Australians) I wonder if Hockey knows he is sitting on a gold mine. Do a bit of digging Joe. Who knows, you may discover a diamond mine as well!
Please do spend a bit of time to read and listen to the short clip on the link below:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-13/annual-specialist-referrals-wasting-millions-say-gps/5447822

Does Friendship replace Love?

It’s not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Friedrich Nietzsche.

I read this quote a few days ago and have since been thinking about the truth in this statement. Mr Nietzsche makes a good point; but I believe the same applies to families in general, not only married couples.

I have also read somewhere that friendship comes at a cost. But why does it have to? Suppose us humans left everyone free - to be themselves. Do you know what that would produce? It produces free people with no fear of reprisals and it produces another thing-Friendship.

Within a family, one tends to become possessive, even aggressive at times and to demand that the other comply with our views and likes and dislikes, thus taking away the freedom of thought, speech and action from another. I plead guilty to all of the above!  This attitude produces conflict and unhappiness.

I have thought long and hard about the wisdom in words written by my brother Anthony (Tony) deMello, in a posthumously published book titled, Call to Love. Gujarat Sahitya Prakash (booksgsp@gamil.com). The book contains 31 meditations on daily living-In Freedom! Nietzsche I think would agree with Tony. Particularly with the meditation I quote:

MEDITATION 6

CLINGING IS DYING

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

M t. 8, 20

Here is a mistake that most people make in their relationships with others. They try to build a steady nesting place in the ever moving stream of life.

Think of someone whose love you desire. Do you want to be important to this person, to be especial and make a difference to his/her life?

Do you want this person to care for you and be concerned about you in a special way? If you do, open your eyes and see that you are foolishly inviting others to reserve you for themselves, to restrict your freedom for their benefit, to control your behaviour, your growth and development so that it will suit their interest.

It is as if the other person said to you, “If you want to be especial to me then you must meet my conditions. Because the moment you cease to live up to my expectations, you will cease to be especial.” You wanted to be especial to someone, didn’t you? So you must pay a price in lost freedom. You must dance to the other person’s tune just as you demand that other persons dance to yours if they want to be especial to you.

Pause now to ask yourself if it is worth paying so much for so little.

Imagine you say to this person whose special love you want, “Leave me free to be myself, to think my thoughts, to indulge my taste, to follow my inclination, to behave in ways that I decide are to my liking.”

The moment you say those words you will understand that you are asking for the impossible. To ask to be especial to someone means essentially to be bound to the task of making yourself pleasing to this person. And therefore to lose your freedom. Take all the time you need to realize this.

May be now you are ready to say, “I’d rather have my freedom than your love.” If you could either have company in prison or walk the earth in freedom all alone, which would you choose?

Now say to this person, “I leave you free to be yourself, to think your thoughts, to indulge your taste, follow your inclinations, and behave in any way that you decide is to your liking.”

The moment you say that you will observe one of two things:

Either your heart will resist those words and you will be exposed for the clinger and exploiter that you are (so now is the time to examine your false belief that without this person you cannot live or cannot be happy);

Or your heart will pronounce the words sincerely and in that very instant all control, manipulation, exploitation, possessiveness, jealousy will drop. “I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, and behave in ways that you decide are to your liking.”

And you will notice something else:

The person automatically ceases to be especial and important to you.

And he/she becomes important the way a sunset or a symphony is lovely in itself, the way a tree is especial in itself and not for the fruit or the shade that it can offer you. Your beloved will then belong not to you but to everyone or to no one like the sunrise and the tree.

Test it by saying those words again: “I leave you free to be yourself... “

In saying those words you have set yourself free. You are now ready to love. For when you cling, what you offer the other is not love but a chain by which both you and your beloved are bound. Love can only exist in freedom. The true lover seeks the good of his beloved which requires especially the liberation of the beloved from the lover.

Need I say more? 

I know...........I have been absent from this blog for ages. Health issues and other matters left me somewhat drained and uninterested.
But I'm back and I hope I can engage you to participate too. Here's a new post for 2014! Long live Liberty- of speech, or anything and of course(something no one can control-THOUGHT!

Onward Christian Soldier?

I don’t normally buy a national newspaper; I’m content to browse the pages of my ‘Free’ local paper, The Manly Daily. Yesterday, I happened to be the recipient of The Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy of our ex-neighbour. She has moved on to another home in the area and sent me a text message to say I was welcome to take possession of her copy of the Sydney Morning Herald, which I did. I then proceeded to ‘browse’ the pages of the publication.

For those who are unfamiliar with the political scene and goings on in Sydney Australia- A little over a week ago, Sydney siders were shocked to learn that our ‘squeaky clean’ ex-Premier Barrie O’Farrell had resigned from the premiership having been ‘caught out’ over a bottle of very expensive wine. Turns out, a lobbyist had ‘gifted’ him a bottle of Grange worth AUD 3000/- no doubt expecting favours in return. It so happened that Barrie did no such thing (good on him) and I am led to believe that the lobbyist then dobbed poor Barrie in to the ICAC. That’s Independent Commission against Corruption (for those who don’t know). When asked about it, he said he could not recall having ever received it. Mind you, the lobbyist paid attention to detail, in that the Grange in question was bottled on O’Farrell’s birthday- 1959 and on the exact day of Barrie’s birth-I forget now, which date that was but who cares anyway. It’s sad really; to lose a position of such importance and responsibility over a bottle of wine; no matter how expensive the drop.

Anyway, enter Mike Barid, the new Premier. He is my local(Manly) member of parliament and from all outward appearances, a nice enough fellow. I pass him by often when I am on my early morning walk along the sea front and he has on occasion, returned my smile and nod of G’day. I often saw Bruce Baird (Mike’s father) walking his dog along the said sea front, even after he had moved from NSW state politics to the Federal arena. The tradition it seems, continues in the family.

Back to the issue of the SMH 26^th April 2014 and page three with a picture of Mike Baird and the caption, “Onward Christian soldier- a premier’s faith”. The article goes on to describe Barid junior as a family man with religious Christian beliefs. In fact it reports that he even considered becoming an Anglican minister before entering politics.

For those interested, please access the article with the following link:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/onward-christian-soldier-a-premiers-faith-20140425-379pp.html

No harm in this religious fervour. I sincerely hope though, that young Mike has considered that every religion believes “their God” created the Universe and controls all forms of life-and for that matter death and the afterlife too. So hopefully Mike Baird will be astute and compassionate enough as Premier, to recognise that we are human beings first and foremost-nothing else matters. I hope he is sincere when he says he will govern the state of New South Wales for everyone. That he will not personally discriminate or be influenced to by his team of reportedly fervent Christians, against people of other faiths and that includes people of NO religious faith too!

I read with interest, comments reportedly made by Mike’s chief of staff, Bay Warburton, ''I've served Jesus in a number of different jobs and now I'm serving Jesus as a chief of staff,'' Mr Warburton said. ''And Mike, who's the Treasurer - he believes he's serving Jesus as the Treasurer of the state. He believes that he has a great opportunity to help people by making responsible decisions about the money from this state.''

He said he prayed for guidance before taking a job to make ''wise choices''. ''And how do you do that? Well, you read your Bible … and you understand what God's plan for your life is and how he wants us to make choices and what sort of criteria we should use to make those choices.''

Mr Warburton told the students they were privileged to learn about ''the Lord of the universe who put stars in the sky, who created the world, who created every single part of what we live in, who created each and every one of us''.

I’d like to remind Mr Warburton, that people of other religious inclinations believe (as mentioned earlier) that “Their Lord, is the Lord of the Universe”. Try convincing them otherwise. I hope you are not going to impose ‘your Lord’ on all these people of other religious faiths, Mr Warburton. And what about those who simply don’t believe in any “Lord of the universe”?

Reverend Freddy Nile would be pleased by all this Christian spirit in the upper echelons of the NSW parliament. Consider what the article further reports:

Mr Warburton is not the only like-minded colleague in Mr Baird's inner circle. A notable addition to cabinet is his close friend Rob Stokes, the new environment minister, who holds a diploma in Bible studies. During Wednesday's swearing-in ceremony Mr Stokes omitted the words ''under God''.

He later said the decision was guided by Matthew's gospel in which Jesus frowned upon the swearing of oaths.

Jesus frowned on many things. Barrie learnt a bitter lesson when he misled ICAC on that very expensive bottle of Grange. And Jesus would have frowned on that no doubt! But unlike ICAC, Jesus would have also forgiven Barrie. The ICAC didn’t- that’s only human! J

The article reveals even more of what’s to come into the parliament of NSW:

New finance minister Dominic Perrottet - a former protégé of one-time ''religious right'' faction leader David Clarke - attended Redfield College in Dural, a school run by the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei.

Mr Clarke, whose wife Maria-Louise is an Opus Dei member, remains parliamentary secretary for justice.

Throw into the mix the deputy Premier and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner - who attends the evangelical C3 church - and the Baird/Stoner government is shaping as the most devout in living memory.

Mike, the good citizens of NSW don’t need devout leaders. What they need are honest men and women to act in the interests of ALL citizens no matter what their race, colour or religious persuasions; if any.

Let me be fair in also transcribing (from Sean Nicholls’ article) what Mike said about his (Mike Baird’s) religious convictions and faith:

But Mr Baird rejected the notion his government would be influenced by the strength of religious belief in his office or his cabinet. ''I'm not going to hide who I am and what's important to me, but I govern for everyone,'' he said.

He said faith ''is a matter for the individual''. ''My position has been clear in the Parliament,'' Mr Baird said.

''I don't go into Parliament and seek to legislate that. I'll respond on the basis of conscience.''

It’s nice to know this fact Mike. But is the next little tit bit true?

Mr Baird is on the record as opposing same sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research and same sex adoption. However, he committed to allowing Liberal MPs a free vote on such matters, as did Mr O'Farrell.

I wonder if Jesus would have frowned on Gays, Lesbians or same sex marriage. Jesus is reported to have said to a blood thirsty mob of self-righteous (so called) stalwarts of the law, “Let he who is free of sin, cast the first stone!

Mike, please consider our Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, gay, lesbian brothers, sisters and people of all walks of life, living in NSW and the world, when you make decisions concerning their welfare. You have been entrusted with a very important job. I sincerely hope your religious beliefs (Faith and belief are not the same thing, Mike) do not interfere with the general welfare of the people of NSW on religious grounds.  Religion and Politics don’t mix. Remember Mike, Jesus is also reported to have said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s”!

Bless you J!

Both major political parties in Australia have invested so much energy and resources in the past, present and planning for the future to "TURN BACK THE BOATS" coming from Indonesia, with a human cargo of desperate people, fleeing their war torn or religiously bigoted countries, seeking refuge and safe haven on our shores. The following article suggests that instead of cold heartedly turning these ...desperate people away, we in Australia would be better served to welcome them and enrich ourselves in the bargain. Those in government as well as the others who strongly oppose the boats should consider that they are migrants as well. Most migrants came here by choice(self included)-the ancestors of some of our politicians came here in chains........on what? Convict BOATS! Please do read on:

UK without Immigrants for just 24 hours: What would happen?
Mehdi Hasan
I have a modest proposal for the likes of Ukip, MigrationWatch, the Home Secretary, David Goodhart, Paul Dacre and, of course, the BNP. Why not call for "A Day Without Immigrants?" Wouldn't that demonstrate, once and for all, that neither our economy nor our society needs migrants? That they are a burden, rather than a blessing?
"A Day Without Immigrants" was the name given to a rather innovative series of protests in the US in 2006, which brought more than a million Latinos on to the streets of 50 cities, from New York to Los Angeles. They boycotted shops, schools and their places of work to try to highlight the plight of undocumented migrant workers.
But here's how I'd implement a similar boycott here: anyone in the UK born abroad or with a parent born abroad would stay at home for 24 hours. Any business or organisation founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant would close for the day.
Britain would be transformed - but, regrettably for the immigration-bashers, in a wholly negative way. In fact, I suspect it would be a pretty awful 24 hours for most Britons, dark and dystopian, even. Think Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later - but without migrants, rather than with zombies.
Let's start with the trivial stuff. Who would serve you in restaurants or coffee shops? Who would make your sandwiches and wraps at lunchtime? What would be the point of going out to eat in the evening if there were no longer any Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Japanese, Turkish, Lebanese, Persian, Italian, Spanish and, yes, French restaurants open?
How about your health? Who'd patch you up and prescribe your medicines? Ministers and their outriders in the right-wing press like to scaremonger about the spiralling costs of so-called health tourism (which amounts to a shocking 0.01% of the £109billion NHS budget) and exaggerate the numbers of migrant families that turn up expecting free treatment in our overstretched A&E departments. The reality, as the chair of the council of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Clare Gerada, has pointed out, is that "you are much more likely to have an immigrant caring for you than sitting up in front of the emergency department". About 30 per cent of the doctors and 40 per cent of the nurses working in the health service were born abroad. Put simply, the NHS could not survive 24 hours without its migrant workforce.
The same applies to the social-care sector. If you have a sick parent living in a care home, you might have to take the day off to look after them. In 2009 a fifth of all care assistants and home carers - 135,000 people in total - were foreign-born; in London, 60 per cent of care workers were migrants. Speaking of taking the day off, neither the Deputy Prime Minister nor the leader of the opposition would have to turn up to Westminster for PMQs - Nick Clegg is the son of a Dutch mother and half-Russian father; Ed Miliband is the child of Polish refugees.
Meanwhile, the Chancellor would have to go to the Commons to warn that "A Day Without Immigrants" would, if extended over a year, force him to introduce a further £7billion of spending cuts and/or tax rises. Why? Migrants boost the British economy by £7billion a year, according to an OECD study published in June. That's the equivalent of an extra 2p on the basic rate of income tax.
Sticking with the economy, we'd have to board up iconic British stores such as Marks & Spencer (co-founder: Michael Marks of Belarus), Selfridges (founder: the American Harry Gordon Selfridge) and Tesco (founder: Jacob Kohen, son of Avram, a Polish migrant). UK holidaymakers would have to cancel their cheap flights on easyJet (founder: the Greekborn Stelios Haji-Ioannou).
Our universities, a multibillion-pound export industry, would take a hit, too, if foreign students stayed away. One in ten students in British universities comes from outside the EU and the fees that students from other countries pay are a bigger source of income for most universities than research grants.
What about sport? Imagine going to watch a Premier League game midweek as a Liverpool fan. Luis Suárez wouldn't be playing. If you're a Man United fan, you'd miss out on the ball skills of Robin van Persie; if you're a Man City fan, it'd be Yaya Touré on strike. Chelsea fans? Say goodbye to Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.
Incidentally, if you were planning on using the Tube to go to watch Chelsea play, you'd find it in a pretty filthy state, the train platforms tagged with graffiti and strewn with rubbish: 95% of London Underground cleaning staff are foreign-born. It wouldn't just be the District Line that was dirty, it would also be your place of work: 89% of office cleaners in the capital are migrants.
But the countryside would be fine, right? Wrong. Imagine all those unpicked crops and the effect: the rise in food prices, supermarkets opting for (cheaper) foreign over domestic produce, fruit farmers on their knees. The truth is that "native" Brits have not been interested in fruit-picking for years and, as the Home Office's own Migration Advisory Committee warned in May, many of the UK's fruit-picking businesses could close without new migrant workers from outside the EU.
On immigration, we hear constantly that voters don't trust the official statistics or studies (a recent Ipsos MORI poll found that the public thinks that immigrants make up 31% of the population -when the official figure is 13%).
So this may be the only way to win hearts and minds. A great boycott. A one-day strike by immigrants and their children across the UK, coupled with a ban on the use of immigrant-founded businesses by the "indigenous" population.
For a mere 24 hours. Let's do it. And if it doesn't transform public opinion, well, at least I'll have had the day off work.

Mehdi Hasan is the political director of the Huffington Post UK and a contributing writer for the New Statesman.

TRUST

The Master would frequently assert that holiness was less a matter of what one did than of what one allowed to happen.

To a group of disciples who had difficulty understanding that, he told the following story:

There was once a one-legged dragon who said to the centipede. “How do you manage all those legs? It is all I can do to manage one.”

“To tell you the truth.” said the centipede. “I do not manage them at all.”  Anthony deMello-One Minute Wisdom.