Anthony De Mello's Spirituality Means Waking Up - Part One, How To Wake Up

Listening is not as easy as you might think. Why? Because we’re always listening from fixed concepts, fixed positions, fixed prejudices. The kind of listening I am referring to means holding the intention to listen with a fresh mind, without prejudices, without judging, without fixed formulas. When you do that, you’ve taken another major step toward awakening.

Mystics tell people that life is extraordinary, life is delightful: “You could enjoy it,” they say. “You wouldn’t have a minute of tension, not one. No pressure. No anxiety. Would you want that?” the mystics ask. The usual response is: “Not possible. Never been done. Can not be done.” That’s the condition of people everywhere. They don’t hear it. They won’t listen.

People don’t want to get out of the mess. They don’t want happiness; they want money, they want fame, they want power, they want approval, they want their comforts. They want the little things that society has falsely taught them are essential for happiness. Those are the things that are creating the mess.

Look inside and then at what surrounds you. Love is there; Joy is there; God is there. It’s all there. But we’re like the poor little fish in the ocean that says, “Excuse me, I’m looking for the ocean. Can you tell me where I can find it?” That’s most of us. If we would just open our eyes and see, then we would understand that all is well. It’s like a stage magician who hypnotizes someone so that the person sees what is not there and does not see what is there.

The trouble with people is that they’re busy fixing things they don’t even understand. It never strikes us that things don’t need to be fixed. They really don’t. This is a great illumination. Do you know what they need? They need to be understood. If they understood them, they’d change.

When things are not under your control, or the future is uncertain, your brain insists that you experience anxiety, tension, or worry. Then you expend a lot of energy coping with these negative emotions by expending even more energy trying to rearrange the world around you so that the demands of your brain will be met. If that happens, you will be granted a measure of precarious peace; it’s precarious because at any moment, some trifle—a plane delay, a device that doesn’t work, a document that hasn’t arrived, a spot on your tie or blouse. Who is responsible for the programming? Not you. A Year with Anthony De Mello You name it—it's going to be out of conformity with your computer’s programming, and the computer will insist that you become upset again. Who is responsible for the programming? Not you.

Holiness is the essence of what you are and are becoming increasingly. That’s what matters. Holiness is not an achievement; it is a grace. A grace called awareness, a grace called looking, observing, understanding. If you would only switch on the light of awareness and observe yourself and everything around you throughout the day, you would experience all sorts of marvelous changes coming about in you.