Spiritual Vanity : What It Is, What It Does.

question answered by Saint-Germain comes from monthly channel broadcast on www,joyandclarity.com

Viewer (paraphrased): I feel that true freedom comes when I can choose anything that I might want to create or experience in life. When I can do whatever I want. But doesn't too much freedom lead to difficulties, too? What about vanity, for one? What are your thoughts about freedom, choice, and vanity?

Saint-Germain: An interesting question. You are asking about freedom of choice here, and here is my short reply, "With freedom comes choice, and in choice you will find your freedom." Yes, there is something very wonderful about freedom of choice. But there is also something very seductive about it, especially if you are unprepared for the experience of being able to do whatever you want. And you have rightly named one of these difficulties. It is called, vanity.

What Is Spiritual Vanity?

Let's talk about a particular kind of vanity now. Let's talk about spiritual vanity. Have you ever met anyone who is spiritually vain? I'm willing to bet that you know one or two of them.

A person is spiritually vain when they take excessive pride in their spiritual accomplishments, and then use this to impress or manipulate others around them. It has “tarnished the halo” of many human angels who would lead others on the Earth today.

Spiritual vanity has consequences, too. Just consider how difficult it is for the spiritually vain person to disentangle himself or herself from this folly. It is a monumental task. It is a stumbling block for many who are on the spiritual path, as they journey back toward remembering their Divinity.

The Folly of Spiritual Vanity

Vanity is a trap, indeed, and here's the reason why:

People on a spiritual path often find themselves moving into higher states of awareness, as they progress along the way. The problem of spiritual vanity arises, however, whenever there is a fascination or fixation on these experiences. It is tempting for some people to believe that just because they had this marvelous experience, that they are somehow better or more enlightened than others. This, of course, is absurd.

What is really happening here is that their egos, which are not yet fully reintegrated into the experience of Divine Remembrance, are playing tricks on them.

Let me give you a silly example to illustrate this point.

Let's pretend that the ego is your local school teacher, and that you are a naive student who is willing to believe just about anything that you are told. Your teacher encourages you to write the following incomplete sentence on the blackboard: “My spiritual experience is...,” and then complete it with the following statement: “...better than your experience, any day of the week, so why not let me tell you about it?”

Then your teacher sends you home to repeat this ridiculous statement to your family, friends, and neighbours, until they are either convinced that you know exactly what you are talking about and should lead them to the Holy Land, or that you are certifiably insane. And so, the false prophet is born.

Know this, my friend: The ego will take hold of anything that is yours, and twist it to its own purposes. It loves to make sure that you, and those around you, stay in ignorance of your Divinity.

Why does the ego believe that it deserves to be recognized by, or to be better than everyone else around it? Because it is secretly uncertain of its place and importance in the world. This makes the ego particularly vulnerable to the experience of inflated pride. And the spiritual variety of this is particularly troublesome.The ego can never take legitimate pride in anything that is really important about you, – such as the Truth of your Divinity, because the ego was born out of your ignorance of this fact.

And This Brings Us Back to Vanity.

Spiritual vanity is nothing more than an ego-sanctioned “recognition” of your Divinity. But it is a false recognition. It's just another way to keep you from truly remembering your Divinity by telling you, and those around you, that you've already done it, when you really haven't. The ego encourages you to accept this fiction, by telling you that if you can just persuade enough people to believe that it is so, then it must certainly be true. And this is the trap of spiritual vanity. It is as much a problem for those who would lead others on a spiritual path, as it is for those who would allow themselves to be lead. So, to make things perfectly clear, I will repeat myself: “With freedom comes choice, and in choice you will find your freedom.”

 

Know this, dear friend, that when you are truly free, you will choose your experiences wisely, just as your Soul does, and that spiritual vanity will not enter into the picture at all.

Instead, your decisions about what to do with your life, your relationships, and anything else of importance to you, – will be in harmony with your Soul's Choices about how best to embody its Divinity as the human you on Earth.

And in this harmonious alignment between what is human about you, and what is Divine, you are going to realize the true meaning of freedom. The true meaning of freedom for you as a human being, is liberating yourself from forgetfulness about Who You Really Are... liberating yourself from ego-driven acts of self-sabotage that keep you in the dark about your Divinity.

Know that as you re-integrate the ego's distorted perceptions about who you are, into a conscious appreciation of your Divinity, that you will find freedom and purpose in everything that you do. And, more importantly, you will understand that your growing spiritual awareness has nothing to do with being better than others, or more highly-evolved. Instead, it places you on equal footing with all humans, and asks you to practice humility daily.

This kind of humility asks you to lead and teach by example, and not by showiness or showmanship; demonstrating to others that living a human life, and acting with Divine Awareness, is possible for them, too.

Remember that humility doesn't ask you to deny the grandeur of your Divinity, or to live timidly. Your Divinity IS grand; and so are you, when you feel inspired by it. Humility simply asks you to live your life without false pride. Without ego.

A Need for Discernment

When you can free yourself from the ego's vanity, then you will no longer feel that you are spiritually superior to others, or more enlightened; or that you need to force your higher perspective on them, for their own good. Nor will you be seduced by the competing messages of those who would try to tell, or sell you this kind of packaged vanity. There is much need for discernment about this today. Instead you will be aware of everyone's need to find their way back to remembering their Divinity, and you will be eager to help them in respectful and appropriate ways, whenever they call upon you.

Thank you, my friend, for asking this question on behalf of all those who are present now, and who may be reading this later.

Saint Germain

Source : "Spiritual Vanity : What It Is, What It Does." A Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay & Dan Bennack, April 4, 2010. Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 

Ophiuchus' Note : Posting this article here to remind myself of the constant need for discernment and balance as I walk my path and experience my journey.  

Recommended Reading : Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa.

Tesla Is Back!

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 - 7 January 1943)

This is an abstract of a recent channelling by Kryon, about the return of Nikola Tesla.

"...In Yugoslavia, there's a famous workshop. Historic it is, for it belongs to the man who thought out of the box, Tesla. In that workshop, there are marks on the ceiling made by the objects that took off from his workbench and went straight up! They shattered, hitting the ceiling hard! Nikola was frustrated, for he had discovered the creation of massless objects and didn't know how! He thought out of the box... the only one in existence to ever give you a blueprint on how alternating current might work. Oh, it's more than 3-D. Study it, for it's elegant.

All of this that Tesla did was created by magnetics, and this was also the basis behind the experiment in his workshop. However, in Tesla's time there were no computers or any of the finite instruments you have today to measure or create tiny fluctuations in magnetic fields. He accomplished the creation of altering the mass of an object, but he couldn't control it, and didn't know exactly how he did it. Frustrated, he was. By the way, he's back. I'm not going to tell you where. Maybe he will read this and know what to do next?..." Kryon.

Source : "Needed Science for the Times" Kryon @ Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 14, 2010.

Ophiuchus' Notes :-

Yipee!!! Tesla is back!!! Best news I've heard in a long time!
Hope he remembers who he is fast! Humanity needs him now!
A man ahead of his time, we didn't recognise his brilliance,the last time he came. Hopefully we would Now!

If not for him, we wouldn't be having our internet, mobile phone or wireless equipment now, not to mention that we are still waiting for the day clean and free energy is made available to humanity....


1st Update : 13 Dec 2010

"Know that without the darkness there could have been no contrast, no point of reference in such a godly pronouncement, and understand how the Creator is just as omnisciently Lord of the Sacred Darkness as of the Blessed Light." The Cosmos of Soul by Patricia Cori.

When I first wrote this entry about Nikola Tesla on 12 April 2010, I wasn't aware of the following information which only became available to me when I recently read the books "Atlantis Rising" by Patricia Cori and "Nothing In This Book Is True, But It's Exactly How Things Are" by Bob Frissell.

In Bob Frissell's book, there's a chapter on The Philadelphia Experiment, which was supposed to be a top-secret military experiment which attempted to make a battleship invisible. This happened in 1943, right in the middle of World War II. Even through, I've heard about this project (but had no idea what it was really about), and had also read about some of the inventions and works of Nikola Tesla - the fact that he's involved in the experiment had missed me all this while and therefore came as a surprise especially after my recent encounter reading about his ancient past in Atlantis as the Chief Alchemist of Atlan.  

When I first borrowed the book "Atlantis Rising" from the library, the first page that fell opened was - Chapter 9, "Tesla, Alchemist of Atlan", looking at me!  Surprised, I just started reading the book from there....I would have loved to rewrite the whole chapter here, but there again, go get the book it's really worth reading....

In it, Nikola Tesla was identified as Akkaeneset - Keeper of the Energy, and how he was assigned by the Annunaki ruling elite and the Dark Priesthood, to the supreme position of Chief Alchemist of Atlan (Atlantis). 

But, it's said that he's not originally from Atlantis, but had journeyed from a galaxy far beyond our understanding of "distance" and "time", to take human form for the first time during the era of the Last Generation of Atlantis..."How his experimentation with the geophysical forces of Earth took place well before our modern times...He performed important experiments with gravity, invisibility, electricity; and how he and his team gave the Priesthood the power to fly crafts at a distance; there were solar ships, time machines and laser rays far more sophisticated than yours"...

"A time traveller, to the 3D framework the Alchemist brought acquired knowledge so far ahead of Earth time that he actually tore a hole in the linear time construct of that reality. He pulled humankind, in a sense, out of time-in-a-line and showed your race glimpses of fourth dimensional reality. Ironically, while providing the Priesthood the means of entraining the minds of your ancestors, he simultaneously gave to humanity the vision of that which lies beyond the constraints of the third dimension. This was a dual nature of his being amongst you; it was his greatest contribution to humankind."...

"Akkaeneset's reappearance in physical reality was determinedly a soul quest to resolve his Atlantean lifetime of dark intent, for his karmic debt was immense. As Chief Alchemist of Atlan, he was not only directly involved in the experiments that brought the destruction of that reality. He was mastermind of the Atlantis Error - its creator - and this he remembered. His tampering with the geophysical forces of Earth and the disruption of human emotional fields simply blew a fuse in the neural networks of Gaia. The sinking of Atlantis and the ensuing global devastation was simply that : Planet Earth was short-circuited and her central nervous system was shut down and lain to rest. Gaia, in essence, reclaimed her power."....

"After the devastation of that lifetime, the soul of Akkaeneset chose not to return to form until that time when he would be provided the opportunity to right the scales of his karmic debt could be released of the burden of the Error. The 'time' was 1856 - a turning point for humanity - the beginning of the Industrial Age. Nikola Tesla passed from the womb of the mother, through the portal and was born, bringing into the incarnation his innate knowledge of the workings of the Cosmos and not-so-remote memory of his Atlantean misdoings"....

"....Dedicated as he was, to exposing humanity to the awesome power of the contrasting and complimentary forces, he returned to form to teach you the ancient lesson - to show you how to utilize the forces of Gaia to serve the light, rather than to amplify the darkness. This was his karmic purpose... We confirm that his early years as Nikola Tesla were indeed, dedicated to bringing free energy to the entire planet, in order to serve humankind at another of its many juncture on the highway of ascension....Tesla was dedicated to gifting humanity with a technology that could corral the forces of Nature for the good of humankind...ending all famine, all suffering in the world. His initial intention was to bring the light of universal wisdom to the expanse of humanity's physical world and to empower the race with what he believed would be utilized for the good of all societies upon your planet...." 

"...His noble idea was to utilize the natural forces of Gaia to bring free energy to the beings of Earth. Unfortunately, that was not the master plan of the power elite, whose marketing strategy for Planet Earth has always been formulated on a much less altruistic foundation....Although his early intentions were those of high purpose, the man, Nikola Tesla, unfortunately still had unresolved ego issues that were easily played by the Power, for this is their meat : the unresolved ego. Tesla knew that harnessing the power of such physiological forces would change the Earth's global reality forever. Unfortunately, his extra-dimensional vision of Gaia's geophysical potential as a source of free energy for all human beings  was rejected by the corporate owners of Earth's resources, for they are already selling you energy....Disenchanted, Tesla began to turn his genius back to the dark side. He soon called upon by the sentinels of the power elite, the military leader, who set about monopolizing his work through extensive financial grants and access to the kind of equipment that only they could provide. This, of course, was part of the scheme to simply remove him form the public arena, where he might get enough attention to upset the plans of the Secret Government....So it was that his energies were redirected and his intention sabotaged, for the Power never intended to gift humankind with such a liberating resource....Nikola Tesla succumbed to his need for recognition, turning his knowledge over to the dark forces of the military. His earlier vision of free energy for all humanity and liberation from linear time were eventually replace with designs of controlling Atlantean devices, memories he brought through to be confronted once again as karmic choice..." 

"...During this period, he reported having perfected a 'death beam' of such intensity that it could pull thousand of aircraft from the skies, just as it could drop entire battalions of enemy soldiers dead in their tracks. He indeed, speaking of that very technology that caused the island to sink into the ocean floor, shaking Earth right down to its core and destabilizing the auric field through to the outer layer of the atmosphere....The soul of the one incarnating as Nikola Tesla had once again chosen power over love; it chose the individual ego over the One Heart...and that choice changed forever the destiny of Planet Earth. As in Atlantis, the knowledge of such power was to shape the existence of all beings on the planet...indeed, of the very planet itself..."

For humanity, it's therefore of great importance that with the return of "Nikola Tesla",  the soul of the one incarnating, will now chose love over power ; and the One Heart over the individual ego for the good of Gaia and all her children.  

2nd Update : 28th May 2011


Found another reference on Nikola Tesla and Atlantis in the book "Atlantis and the Power System of the Gods" : 


"Tesla and the Power System of Atlantis : According to the Unarius Academy of San Diego, California, NikolaTesla was the reincarnation of an Atlantean engineer and inventor who was responsible for the energy supply first used to provide power on a now destroyed island in the Atlantic. In Unarius theory, from the great central pyramid in Atlantis, power beams would be relayed from reflectors on mountaintops into the different homes where these power beams would be converted into light, heat or even to cool the house."

3rd Update :  08 Jan 2012

Just completed re-reading the book "Atlantis Rising" again. With so much going on in the world now, you can't help but see some of the highlights in the book materialising...

"...now that we have a better understanding of how All-That-Is works, isn't it the best time for us to take back our sovereign power ~ to release from the hold to re-establish ourselves : the free-willed, bright stars of Planet Earth. Gaia awaits our revolution - the overturning of all false masters - so that she can journey into the Fourth, healing the wounds and inconsonance of her final hours in the universe of matter. 


We call you to unity, reminding you that you are sovereign beings, each with a time, a season and a rhythm - each with a song, a message and a reason.


It's a return to All-That-Is, the infinite journey of a spark of divine consciousness which, having lurked in the shadows and danced in the sun, eventually finds its way home..."

 



Sources : 
Atlantis Rising, Patricia Cori, Chapter 9 "Tesla, Alchemist of Atlan" pp 105-116
The Cosmos of Soul, Patricia Cori, pp 1 
Nothing In This Book Is True,But It's Exactly How Things Are, Bob Frissell, pp173-188   
The Philadelphia Experiment : 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2382441/Nikola-Tesla-The-Philadelphia-Experiment 

Further Readings :
"Atlantis and the Power System of the Gods" by David Hatcher Childress & Bill Clendenon, pp244.
"There Are No Coincidences" by Ophiuchus on this blog published 20 August 2011. 

Kahlil Gibran on Children, Self-Knowledge, Teaching & Time

On Children
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.


On Self-Knowledge
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.

On Teaching
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.

On Time
You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.
You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.
Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,
And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.
And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.
Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?
And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?
And is not time even as love is, undivided and spaceless?

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,
And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

Source : The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Ophiuchus' Note : I finally got to read this classic. Kahlil Gibran commented on many areas such as Love,Marriage,Giving,Prayer,Religion,Death etc...here I've highlighted 4 areas in the book, which at this point, resonates with me most.

Leave Your Boat on The Beach by Anthony de Mello SJ

Loving people means being completely happy even without them, without fear of injury without a concern to impress, without dreading that they might not like you any more or abandon you. No matter what they say or do, you remain at peace. Don't fill your emptiness with people and call it love.

Love isn't attraction. "I love you more than I love anyone." Translation : I'm more attracted to you than to others. How's that? You attract me more than others. You fit better into my mind's program than other people. That's not very flattering for you, but if my program were different...I'm reminded of people who say, "What does he find in her? Or what does he see in her?" Attraction is blind!

Do you feel attracted by someone or something? When you give in to the attraction, gratification follows. And after gratification, weariness or anxiety: "I hope I can keep this up! I hope someone else doesn't move in!" Feelings of possession, jealousy, fear of loss. That's not love!

Love isn't dependence. It is very good to depend on people. If we didn't depend on one another, we wouldn't have society. Interdependence! We depend on the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, the pilot, the taxi driver, all kinds of people. But depending on one another in order to be happy, that's what's bad.

Sometimes, we see two empty people depending on one another, two incomplete persons propping each other up. Two dominos - one moves and the other falls down. Is that love? Love isn't easing our loneliness! People feel empty inside and rush to fill the emptiness with some one. That isn't love. In order to flee from emptiness and loneliness, people surrender to all kinds of activities, to work, or to someone's arms. But the cure for loneliness isn't contact with human begins ; it's contact with reality.

*******************

In facing loneliness, we discover that it's not there. There isn't any vacuum! Here's something to remember - What we are looking for is inside us. When we face what's inside us, what we are fleeing disappears. And what we are seeking comes to the surface. Love isn't easing our loneliness. When people talk about love, they're usually talking about a good to be bargained over. "You're good to me? I'll be good to you! You're pleasant to me? I'll be pleasant to you! You're not kind to me? Funny, the pleasant feelings I had about you have turned bitter!" Is that love? That's the market for emotions disguised as attitudes of love.

Love isn't desire. Centuries ago Buddha said," The world is full of suffering. The origin of suffering, the root of suffering, is desire. Eliminating suffering consists of eliminating desire." By desire he meant that on whose satisfaction my happiness depends. And our society and culture are continually urging us to increase that desire. We are ever more programmed for unhappiness and lovelessness. The world is full of suffering. The root of suffering is desire.Eliminating suffering goes by way of eliminating desire.

Ambition is a brainwashing that has been done on us! We've been told that unless we have ambition, we won't do anything. The energy and delight in work have been forgotten. When an archer shoots for no particular reason, he applies all his skill. When he shoots to win the gold, he becomes blind, loses his reason, sees two targets. It's not his ability that has changed, but the prize. He is more concerned about winning than about shooting. And the need to win has hollowed out his power. Ambition has taken away his power.

The world is full of suffering, and the root of suffering is desire. Marriages built on desire are fragile, ready to come apart. "I have many expectation of you; you'd better not disappoint me." "You have expectations of me; I'd better fulfil them." Arguments! "You need me! I need you! I need to find my happiness in you! You need to find your happiness in me!" And so the fight begins. That's where the feeling of possession begins. Where that kind of desire exists, there's a threat. And where there's a threat, there's fear. And where there's fear, there's no love. For we always hate what we fear. And perfect love casts out fear! Wherever this kind of desire exists, it always comes accompanied by fear.

Love isn't desire; it's not fixation. Being impassioned is the exact opposite of love, but passion is canonized everywhere. It is an illness that everyone is trying to pass on to us.It can be heard in movies and in love songs. I saw a film where the girl says to the boy, "I love you, I can't live without you!" I can't love without you? Love? That's hunger! When I become impassioned over you, I stop seeing you! Wherever there's a powerful emotion, whether positive or negative, I can't see. Emotion gets in the way and makes me project my own needs on the other.

*******************

We've been speaking thus far about what love is not, and we've come to the end of what can be said about what love is not. It can't be said. When you get rid of your fears, attachments, and illusions, you will know. We walk among illusions.

Love means, at the very least, clarity of perception and precision of response. Seeing the other clearly as he or she is. That is the least that I can ask of love. How can I love you if I don't see you? Usually when we look we don't see one another. We are looking for an image. Does a husband relate to his wife or to an image he has built of her? Does a wife relate to her husband or to an image she has formed of him?

I have an experience of you. This experience is saved in my memory. I make my judgement based on the experience. I carry it with me. I act or react on that basis, not on the basis of what you are now. I look at you through a picture.

When you look at me after a fight and say, "I'm very sorry about that argument," it would be wonderful if I no longer remembered anything. This is what the mystics are talking about when they speak of "purification of the memory" They are not saying forget everything, but empty out the emotion. Be healed of your pain!

You say, "Remember how much in love we were two years ago?" Do you want me to react to that or to you as you are now? When people think of love as investment, they have no idea what love is.

Love is like listening to a symphony, being sensitive to everything in that symphony. It means having a heart sensitive to everyone and to all. Can you imagine that a person would hear a symphony and listen only to the drums? Or value the drums so much that the other instruments would be almost eclipsed? Good musicians, those who love music, listen to each of the instruments; they might have their favourite instruments, but they listen to all of them.

When we are impassioned, when we have a feeling of attachment, an obsession, the object of our passion stands out and other persons are eclipsed.

Love is not a relationship. It is a state of being. Love existed before any human being. Before we existed, love already existed. I've said that when the eye is unobstructed the result is vision. We cannot do anything to get love. If we comprehended our duties, attachments, attractions, obsessions, predilections, inclinations, and if we got rid of them all, love would appear. When the eye is unobstructed, the result is vision. When the heart is unobstructed, the result is love.

Source : Walking on Water, Anthony de Mello. Abstract from chapter 11 - Leave Your Boat on the Beach. p86-90

Ophiuchus' Note : In recent days, having  witnessed scenarios of breakups in relationships and marriages on one end, and on the other spectrum, seeing lonely souls seeking love and marriage to make their lives complete.Then came across this chapter,and feels the message is clear, therefore sharing it here.

Wisdom from Anthony De Mello SJ

* CONTRADICTION :
"What action shall I perform to attain God?" "If you wish to attain God there are two things you must know. The first is that all efforts to attain him are of no avail."
"And the second?" "You must act as if you do not know the first." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel :The act of contemplation creates the thing contemplated.
- Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848)

* DOCTRINE :
To a visitor who claimed he had no need to search the Truth because he found it in the beliefs of his religion, the Master said: "There was once a student who never became a mathematician because he blindly believed the answer he found at the back of his math textbook - and, ironically, the answers were correct." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you. - Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)

* EXPANSION :
The Master sat in rapt attention as the renowned economist explained his blueprint for development. "Should growth be the only consideration in an economic theory?" he asked. "Yes. All growth is good in itself." "Isn't that the thinking of the cancer cell?" said the Master. - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. - Ellen Glasgow

* GENIUS :
A writer arrive at the monastery to write a book about the Master. "People say you are a genius. Are you?" he asked. "You might say so," said the Master, none too modestly. "And what makes one a genius?" "The ability to recognise." "Recognise what?" "The butterfly in a caterpillar; the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : Sincerity is a transparent diamond through which light of God shines in our lives.

* IGNORANCE :
The young disciple was such a prodigy that scholars from everywhere sought his advice and marvelled at his learning. When the governor was looking for an adviser, he came to the Master and said, "Tell me, is it true that the young man knows as much as they say he does?" "Truth to tell," said the Master wryly, "the fellow reads so much I don't see how he could ever find the time to know anything." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : The heart is wiser than the intellect. - Josiah Holland (1819-1881)

* INTERIORITY :
The disciple asked for a word of wisdom. Said the Master, "Go sit within your cell and your cell will teach you wisdom." "But I have no cell. I am no monk." "Of course you have a cell. Look within." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment and you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness. Those who are motivated only by desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do. - Bhagavad Gita 2:49-50

* MANIPULATION :
The Master sat through the complaints a woman had against her husband. Finally he said, "Your marriage would be a happier one, my dear, if you were a better wife." "And how could I be that?" "By giving up your efforts to make him a better husband." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : You cannot raise a man up by calling him down. - William Boetcker

* SIN :
One of the disconcerting - and delightful - teachings of the Master was : "God is closer to sinners than to saints." This is how he explained it : "God in heaven holds each person by a string. When you sin, you cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot and thereby bringing you a little closer to him. Again and again your sins cut the string and with each further knot God keeps drawing you closer and closer." - Anthony de Mello,SJ

Morsel : Guilt is a little prison that keeps you out of big ones. - Alan Harris

Source : Universal Mind, November 2009.





Linking only Part 1 and Part 18 here, the full series in 56 parts of Anthony De Mello's Awareness can be found on the awareness website below.

**Ophiuchus' Notes :
Anthony De Mello S.J. (1931-1987)

Anthony de Mello, a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist, was well known for his writings and spiritual conferences. Born on 4th September 1931, in Bombay, India, he travelled to many states and countries to study and pursue his career. De Mello showed the way of authentic living through his stories and lectures. His spiritual insight and thorough understanding of humanity was well reflected in his teachings. This depth of understanding fetched him world wide recognition. Anthony de Mello served as the director of Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counselling in Poona, India, until his sudden demise on 2nd June 1987, in New York. He was also a member of the Jesuit province of Bombay.

He authored many books in his lifetime. The topics that he dealt with, in his books, included Christian spirituality, Buddhist parables, Hindu breathing exercises and psychological insight about life. Some of his most popular books include ‘Awareness’, ‘The Song of the Bird’, ‘Sadhana: A Way to God’, ‘Wellsprings’, ‘Walking on Water’, ‘The Way to Love’, ‘Contact with God’ and ‘Heart of the Enlightened’.

His Belief
The meditation techniques taught by De Mello were a combination of Eastern religious thought, modern psychology and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order. He strongly believed that most of the people are asleep. They need to be awakened and made to know what is inside and outside them. According to him, human beings should be well acquainted with their feelings, sensations, thoughts and, most importantly, their mind.

In 1998, some of his opinions were condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI, wrote for the Congregation: 'But already in certain passages in [his] early works and to a greater degree in his later publications, one notices a progressive distancing from the essential contents of the Christian faith. ... With the present Notification, in order to protect the good of the Christian faithful, this Congregation declares that the above-mentioned positions are incompatible with the Catholic faith and can cause grave harm.'

After listening to his teachings on "Awareness", one can't help but begin to see the depth of his spiritual insight and thorough understanding of humanity which was well reflected in his teachings. And as such, with the Notification on (Jesuit) Father Anthony de Mello by the Catholic Church, one is reminded of another parallel - one of the Galileo Affair (sometime around 1610), where Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), the famous Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher was condemned by the Catholic Church for his support of Copernican astronomy, which supports the heliocentric view, which placed the Sun at the centre of the universe, instead of the then belief of the church in the theory of geocentrism that the earth was the centre of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II issued a formal apology for all the mistakes committed by some Catholics in the last 2,000 years of the Catholic Church's history, including the trial of Galileo among others.

" Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture...."

– Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) - November 4, 1992



For more info:
http://awareness.tk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_de_Mello
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair