Anthony de Mello, "Awareness": a summary, heroes, main ideas of the work and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Anthony De Mello is a Catholic, priest, mystic, psychotherapist, and most importantly a writer.

The author created books with spiritual content, and they became known all over the world. His works were distinguished by simplicity and accessibility for everyone. They provided: short edifying stories of the peoples of the East, the purpose of which is moralizing for the reader; works devoted to various religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity); jokes, works about Khoja Nasreddin and more.

Religious life

The spiritual positions of de Mello did not go on a par with the Catholic, largely because they appeared under the influence of views characteristic of the Eastern concept of faith. The author's creations were often not accepted by a large number of Christian theologians, but this did not affect their popularity, the texts spread among the followers of this religious doctrine. This also applies to Anthony de Mello's Awareness.

Plan of work with the work

Analysis of the plot of de Mello's book "Awareness" for the reader will take place on the following points:

1. Description.

2. Summary.

3. Heroes.

4. The main ideas of the work.

5. Reader feedback.

6. Additional quotes from the work.

Description

"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is a work whose goal is to wake the reader from an endless sleep, which is clogged with various hardships of real life, and bring him into a state of adequate perception and response to happiness, which in fact is reality. The book captivates, destroys all unreasonable thoughts about one's own unsuitability and instills faith in the true presence of those moments that brighten up the human stay in this world. Recommended reading for those who are involved in the cycle of misfortune. Indeed, after reading the contents of the book, any difficulties will look like ridiculous obstacles that it will not be difficult for absolutely every person to jump over.

The plot of the book "Realization" (summary)

Let's give some fragments from the work, in which one can see the subtle philosophy, the author's ironic attitude in different situations in life:

• Johnny goes to the modeling class at his school for special children, he takes his piece of clay and then starts kneading it. Then he tears off a small fragment from it and goes to the corner of the room to play already.with him. The teacher comes up to him and says, "Hi, Johnny." Johnny greets him: "Hello." The teacher asks, "What is that in your hand?" And Johnny says, "It's a piece of cow dung." The teacher has the following question: "And what do you make of it?" Johnny: "I sculpt the teacher."
• The teacher thought, "Little Johnny is regressing." So he called the director, who was walking past the door at the time, and reported to him, "Johnny has regressed." The director, in turn, approached Johnny and said: "Hello, son." And Johnny answered him: "Hello." Director: "What do you have in your hand?" Johnny: "A piece of cow dung." He: "What are you doing with him?" This one: "Sculpting the Headmaster".
• The director decides to call the school psychologist and asks to send for him, because the psychologist is a smart guy. He comes and turns to Johnny: "Hello." In response to him: "Hello." The psychologist decides to outsmart the boy: "I know what it is in your hand." "What?" "A piece of cow dung." Johnny confirms his words: "Yes, it is." "And I know what you make of it." "What?" "You make a psychologist." "No, I don't have enough manure for that!"

"Course in Spirituality", p. 13. Charity is indeed a selfish masquerade in the form of altruism. "Masquerademercy", p. 19. I'm going to write a book someday, and the title will be: "I'm dumb, you're dumb." Because it is the most liberating, wonderful thing in the world when you openly admit that you are an idiot. It's lovely when people tell me: "You're wrong" - and I answer them: "What can you expect from a fool?"

"Illusion of reward", p. 43. Can a rose say: "I will give my scent to good people who smell me, but I will keep it from bad people"? Or can the lamp say, "I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will keep it from the evil people"? Or can a tree say, "I will give my shadow to the good people who lie beneath me, but I will keep it from my enemies"? These are images that explain what love is

"Obstacles to Happiness", p. 74. Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the state of little children who own the kingdom until they are polluted by the stupidity of society and its culture. You don't have to do anything to find happiness, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anyone know why? Because we already have it. How can you buy what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you have to give up something. You must give up illusions. You don't need to add anything to be happy; you must drop something. Life is easy, life is amazing. It is heavy only for your illusions, yourambition, your greed, your desires. Do you know where these things come from? From being identified with all kinds of labels

Heroes - who are they

The main characters of the book "Awareness" are not certain persons, but those who can truly be called people. Perhaps it would be wrong to identify the main thing in the work with any single object or a group of such objects. After all, as it is worth noting, the book is about everything. Pure esotericism.

Key Ideas

The work reveals the general themes of everyone's life, but with a religious bias. "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is a reasoning book, it is about everything and is tied to everything, and not to something or to someone specific. There is love, and an opinion about ideals, about the concept of happiness, reality, ideology … In general, the book will tell the reader a lot. The presentation of this material is original and is something that will make a thinking person happy, because all of the above is food for thought.

Item five: reviews

One can find numerous reviews of "Realization" by Anthony de Mello

Readers say that the meaning of the book is to show the way to happiness through awareness with a Christian bias. But for many, the book left many questions and internal contradictions. So, many admit: yes, indeed, a book with a Christian bias, but the ideas about awareness seemed new and even unexpected. Most readers are unanimous in the opinion that after reading there are many questions left. But some of them can be foundThe answers are in the book, you should look them up carefully. It is also noted in the reviews that it is written a little blurry about love. But, again, the answers must be sought in the process of thoughtful reading. The general consensus is that the book is worth reading. Especially those who are lost in life.

Additional quotes from the piece

Quotes that literally overwhelm Anthony de Mello's Awareness:

"Hidden Agenda" p. 145. "Step by step, let it all happen. Real change will come when it is not a creation of your ego, but a reality. Awareness releases reality to change you."

"Assorted Land Mines", p. 148. "There is no escape until they see their underlying prejudice."

"Once you start looking at the world through ideology, everything is over. No reality corresponds to ideology. Life corresponds to it. That is why people are always looking for its meaning. But life has no meaning; it cannot have meaning, because meaning is a formula, meaning is what makes sense to the mind, whenever you give meaning to reality, you encounter something that destroys the meaning you are looking for. when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when it is perceived as a mystery and has no meaning to the conceptualizing mind."

Ibid. "Is it possible to be a complete person without experiencing tragedy?The only tragedy in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from it. The only tragedy of mankind is its ignorance. Fear comes from her, and the rest comes from him, but death is not a tragedy at all. Death is amazing, it is terrible only for those people who have never understood life. Only while you are afraid of life are you afraid of death. Only the dead are afraid of death."

"A Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrup, his leader, asking him about the relative value of communism, socialism, and capitalism. Arrup provided him with an excellent answer. He said, "The system is about as good or bad as the people who use it." People with hearts of gold would make capitalism, communism or socialism work beautifully."