Awareness: Conversations with the Masters

Father Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest. This book is based on a retreat he led on the subject of awareness. Other reviewers have described the content very well, so I will only discuss what the book means to me. It’s easy to read, but hard to understand. It’s hard to understand because understanding requires “deprogramming.” The reader needs to be able to set aside all the nonsense they learned growing up in a self-centered, consumer culture. The reader needs to unlearn all the nonsense they learned from their parents, their education and even from their religion. If there’s such a thing as a freethinking Catholic priest it’s Anthony de Mello. Some of his teachings remind me of Buddhism, Daoism, the ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti, and even Roman Stoicism. Anthony de Mello is a priest who even quotes the British philosopher and skeptic Bertrand Russell. And he manages to sneak in a little Jesus-talk here and there. According to a Wikipedia article, the Roman Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith determined that Anthony de Mello’s later teaching is incompatible with the Catholic faith and could be gravely harmful. That was enough to convince me to buy the book. This great book is a keeper that deserves multiple readings.

I thank God for this book. It changed my life. At 21 years of age I was so lost in the world and confused. It brought everything together into an integrated whole, a "oneness". It told me things I already knew to be true but had forgotten. It challenged me, and yet at the same time encouraged and helped me. I feel very deeply thankful for Anthony de Mello and his writings. I feel very connected to him, like he is here helping me in life. His writing is so honest and true that every word and every sentence is full of purpose and meaning. It speaks about even silence has great purpose and meaning. I remember reading it for the first time and not being able to put the book down. I had an inner smile and a hunger for this kind of refreshing insight into life. It speaks directly to your heart, bypassing your mind. It speaks with living words, not just pointing a direction but taking you down that road, almost carrying you. I must have read it 3 times to begin with and then only pulling it out when I needed some encouragement and to remember how to live. I reached a point where as it said at the end of the book that you will come to a point where you don't need it anymore, and I felt I didn't. I have lost my way many times since, but I can keep coming back because it planted and nourished a seed of awareness within me. I started listening to Allan Watts and Eckhart Tolle after words. I appreciate all of their teachings, but there is something about this book that is like my first true love in life, that it will always be special to me, innocent. I have matured much since my first true love but I will always remember and be thankful for that experience. I am currently ordering this book for a friend who I think will find a treasure trove in "Awareness" here. Whatever you are doing in life, do it well. If you are sweeping the street, be the best street sweeper in the world. If you are walking down the hall of your house walk it as the best hall walker in the world, when you breath, breath as the best breather in the world. Stay connected to your source. (recent Julia Roberts movie) - "Smile with your mouth, smile with your whole body, even smile with your liver." Love your self first. Then when Love given to you by the Universe overflows your cup, let it flow out to others and it will be unconditional as you are not in "need" of anything at all. It's when we give all that we have to others first that we become depleted and unfulfilled, and thus have to be conditional with our giving as we try to allocate our limited energies and Love to give to those around us, as we are in a state of "need" ourselves. Love yourself and let yourself become filled with Love first, only then can the Love that flows from you be with out selfish need, unconditional and true.

Opened my eyes on attachments. I did not understand the difference between I and me. Something we should all explore.

This book was a fundamental tool on my journey to self-awareness! I'd recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about awareness.

It would be easy for someone reading, “Awareness: By Anthothy DeMellow”, for the first time to not know that this book is actually a transcript from multiple seminars that Tony gave on the topic of, “waking up.” I find that fitting because that is the nature of reality itself. A stream of wonderfully random events that come together to form a complex symphony. I was first introduced to the works of DeMellow through a friend when we where out to coffee one morning and she left her copy of, “The Way To Love”, on the table before going to retrieve our order from the counter. I am not dramatizing it when I tell you that I opened the small pocket book to some random page and read two sentences that caused soft tears to form in the corners of my eyes. Up to that point in my life I had not read anyone who articulated a perspective of reality that resonated so deeply with my own. He was the mentor I had been waiting for. Seeing that I was moved, my friend and I spent the rest of that mornings conversation talking about Tony's other work, “Awareness”. She said she had been reading it once a year since it found her and everytime she did something new jumped from the page deeper into her heart, where it would later grow into fruitful mentality. After our date I download the audiobook on my phone and began to give it a listen. I highly recommend you give it a listen. Getting to hear Anthony speak his truth adds so much depth to the knowledge he has to share. He was a witty man, full of life, and sensitivity coming through every statement. After I had finished the audiobook I went online and order my first paperback copy. I would proceed to spend the next year vandalizing each page with blue and orange highlighter strokes, and fill half a spiral notebook with my own thoughts, in an effort to mine as much knowledge as I could from its reserve. When I tell you this work will change your life I mean it. Though not in the way you may think. Most of the time when I read a book I seek to understand how it can add to my existing network of knowledge to help aid in this crazy beautiful thing called life. However with Awareness I found less of a compounding effect in its words and more of a stripping. A clarifying of what I thought I knew about myself and the nature of reality. An opportunity that should be considered with extreme caution. For once you wake there is no go back to sleep. The idea of “waking up,” is not as simple as saying, “Awareness is…”. For the truths laid out in these pages do not come from one man, but from the very breathe of our Creator. Whispering that can only be heard by those willing to still the noise of the ego. Anthony DeMellow is but one in a long line of spiritual guides who has found the key to living well and invites the reader to walk through that door. He offers himself as a teacher to inspire action over apathy, consciousness over conditioning, participation over programming. If you are ready to live a bulletproof exist as a human-BEing than I recommend giving “Awareness: by Anthony DeMellow”, your complete attention.

This is the second book of Anthony De Mello's talks that I have read. While it has inspired me to read more books about the Zen philosophy, I think that I will keep referring back to Awareness, as I will need frequent reminders to focus on the "real" world, as opposed to the illusory one that most of us create by adding our emotions and prejudices to everything. He recommends that we step outside of ourselves and be a dispassionate observer of all that we see, hear and say. He promises that if we do that, our lives witll change for the better. With this attitude of detachment we will learn a lot abut ourselves and we will also know how to love everyone. We will no longer be vulnerable because our "self esteme" will not depend upon compliments and we will not be hurt by criticism.. He suggests we start with admitting that; "I'm an ass, you're an ass". He also asks that we face the fact that we often want to demand that other people change. Once we face this honestly it will affect all of our interactions. We don't have the right to demand that, but we do have the right to protect ourselves from anyone who would manipulate us. Anthony DeMello's words are much more convincing than mine. So if you are currently experiencing pain in your life, read this book. I have worked as a social worker for many yrs. and been to many seminars on all kinds of behavioral and psychological issues. I found this book to be more helpful than all of them combined.

I read several books a week. This one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s tight in your face with truths about your existence. Please do not read this book if your sure you know it all, are sure your religion is the only path to heaven and / or believe the news is factual. No, this book doesn’t condemn religion nor the media. It will rock you in ways you’ve never even dreamt of. It may just get you to see when you open your eyes and become the Eagle that you’ve always been. Or you can be the Eagle raised with chickens that knows he’s a chicken and dies a chicken. This book will help you you understand waking up, the risks and benefits in being awake. And it is so worth the journey. 👍🏻

I thank God every day for Anthony de Mello. He was a remarkable person, and he truly has changed my life forever! There are so many wonderful points he makes in this book I don't even know where to start! I especially love the audible version, it is the actual workshop recording of Awareness from the 80's which I am so grateful was recorded so it will endure forever. It is my go to in the car on my commute, I have listened to it over and over again and it still inspires me each and every day. Hearing his voice calms me and his teachings inspire me. As I said earlier, a true life changer! Thank you Anthony!