Lent Series - The Darkness

I think of myself as quite a decent person, good-hearted and respected, with minor flaws and failings, until it dawns on me that the greatest spiritual failings are the ones committed in ignorance. I see the well-intentioned damage “love” inflicts on helpless children. I see the marks of cruelty in fervently religious people. I see fair-minded Pharisees assess the evidence against Jesus, and consider it their duty to do away with him.

Transcript

Hello. This D'Mello podcast is part of a six-part series. Each podcast consists of three parts. The first part is a talk given by Anthony D'Mello that's roughly five minutes long. The second part invites you to do a five-minute meditation at the end of his talk. And the third part is a spiritual story of one to two minutes that relates back to the talk that D'Mello just gave. Transformation only comes when we cease to delude ourselves and we dare to see the evil in our heart. That is the theme of this exercise called The Darkness. You probably think of yourself as quite a decent person, Good-hearted and respected, With minor sins and failings, Until it dawns on you that the greatest sinners are the ones who sin in ignorance. Look at the damage that loving parents inflict on helpless children with the best will in the world. Look at the cruelty one finds in sincerely religious people. Look at those fair-minded Pharisees while they assess the evidence against Jesus and consider it their duty to do away with Him, Convinced that they are doing a service to God and to their holy religion. Does it frighten you to think that you may be suffering from the same sickness of the chief priests and the Pharisees? They were so certain of themselves, So convinced that they were right, So closed to other viewpoints and to change. Now think of people whom you know to be like that, And then think of yourself. The Pharisees were given to judging. People to them were either good or bad, And there was never any good in someone who their prejudice said was bad. Now think of people you know who seem to be like that. Think of yourself. Make a list of the so-called bad people whom you know. Who knows if at heart they are not far better than you are? The Pharisees were men of the establishment. They feared to rock the boat. Are you like that too? The Pharisees loved power. They would force you to be good for your own sake. They could not leave you free. Now think of yourself. Finally, The Pharisee conformed. He might see this accused person before him as not being guilty, But he lacked the courage to stand up to his peers and speak his mind. Are you too one of those who fear to give offense, To disagree? One of those who have a compulsive need to please other people? Only you are no great improvement on the men who killed the Savior. When you realize this, All you can say is, Lord, I am a sinner. Be merciful to me. Then you hear Him answer gently, You are precious to my heart, My child. What ever could he mean by that? Make use of those eyes of his to find out exactly what it is he sees in you, That even while he knows your sinfulness, He says, You are precious to my heart. Then with those same eyes, Look at the so-called sinners of this world, The Hitlers and the Stalons of our times. Look at people whom you dislike, People whom you reject. Maybe you need those eyes of his to bring you to compassion and to save you from the Pharisee that lurks in each of us. You are precious to me, My child. What ever could he mean by that? Make use of those eyes of his to find out exactly what it is he sees in you, That even while he knows your sinfulness, He says, You are precious to my heart, My child. What ever could he mean by that? Make use of those same eyes of his to find out exactly what it is he sees in you, That even while he knows your sinfulness, He says, You are precious to me, My child. What ever could he mean by that? Make use of those same eyes of his to find out exactly what it is he sees in you, That even while he knows your sinfulness, He says, You are precious to me, My child. Here's a story from Anthony D'Mello about what it means to be a Christian. A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still, They plagued him. Finally, He wrote the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things that he had tried and closed his letter with the question, What shall I do now? In due course, The reply came, We suggest you learn to love them. Anthony D'Mello writes, I too had a lawn. I prided myself on it, And I was plagued with dandelions that I fought with every means in my power. So learning to love them was no easy matter. I began by talking to them each day, Cordial, Friendly. They maintained a sullen silence. They were smarting from the war I had waged against them and were suspicious of my motive. But it wasn't long before they smiled back and relaxed, And soon we were good friends.

Reviews

As always, thank you for bringing Anthony DeMello’s recordings to Insight Timer. Even with the poor audio quality, I’d rather have more Anthony DeMello with poor audio than no Anthony at all. what a gift he has been in my life and I did not learn about him until after he passed away

There is much wisdom here. Thank you for this teaching.