Anthony de Mello

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Spirituality Expert

Anthony de Mello Quick Facts

Main Areas: Spirituality; Christianity; Awareness
Best Sellers: “Awareness”; “The Way to Love”; “Sadhana: A Way to God”
Career Focus: Author; Jesuit Priest; Workshop/Seminar Leader; 1931-1987

Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit priest from India, known for his writings and spiritual conferences. He was the director of the Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India, as well as a member of the Jesuit province of Bombay. De Mello challenged people to encounter the God behind all words, concepts, and religious formulas.

De Mello taught meditation techniques that are a blend of Eastern religious thought, modern psychology, and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order. De Mello claimed that most people are asleep and need to wake up, open up their eyes, and see what is real—both inside and outside of themselves. He insisted that the greatest human gift is to be aware and be in touch with your body and mind.

De Mello was the author five best-selling books, including Awareness, which combines Christian spirituality, Buddhist parables, Hindu breathing exercises, and psychological insight. In it, he insists that to become aware, we must realize the needs and potential of others. Today, his retreats, workshops, seminars on prayer, and therapy courses are still widely known in many English-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries.

Other Programs & Highlights

Rev. J. Francis Stroud, S.J. is the executive director of the De Mello Spirituality Center, also called The Center for Spiritual Exchange. His teaching course consists of applying Anthony de Mello’s spiritual principles to students’ experiences of film and television.

Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Anthony de Mello

• As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life...Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.

• Obedience keeps the rules. Love knows when to break them.

• People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it...

• Problems only exist in the human mind.

• These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.

Getting Started With Anthony de Mello

The best way to get started with Anthony de Mello is to read his book, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality. Awareness is a short but very influential book. In it, de Mello uses humor and compassion to teach you to welcome the challenge of knowing yourself and living the “aware” life.

In the first chapter, de Mello had me thinking, laughing, and hungry for more. Here is the beginning, Chapter 1 titled “On Waking Up”:

Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics—Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology—are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare.

De Mello incorporates elements of Buddhist and Hindu traditions (i.e.—emphasis on awareness, mindfulness) and combines them with elements of Christianity (i.e.—emphasis on love). His book has been described as one that “provokes a revolution in outlook and attitude that can only be pondered over a lifetime.” So wake up and get Awareness!