Tag Archives: Change

“Whatever period of life we are in is only good to the extent we make use of it, that we live it to the hilt, that we continue to develop and understand what it has to offer us and what we have to offer it. The rewards for each age are different in kind, but they are not necessarily different in value or in satisfaction.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

7 Jan

From Lara Setrakian’s 2018 New Year’s email.

“If I were aware of what the snake was, I wouldn’t brush it off my arm; it would get brushed off through me. – That’s the change I am talking about. You don’t change yourself; it’s not me changing me. Change takes place through you, in you. – You see change take place in you, through you, in your awareness, it happens. You don’t do it.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“We’re always dying to things. We’re always shedding everything in order to be fully alive and to be resurrected at every moment.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“You will never understand yourself if you seek to change yourself. The harder you try to change yourself, the worse it gets. You are called upon to be aware.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“The only way to change is by changing your understanding.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“That is how you bring about change in yourself. Not by condemnation, not by calling yourself names, but by understanding what’s going on.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“Do you want to enjoy a symphony? Don’t hold on to a few bars of the music. Don’t hold on to a couple of notes. Let them pass, let them flow. The whole enjoyment of a symphony lies in your readiness to allow the notes to pass.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“Pleasant experiences make life delightful, but they don’t lead to growth in themselves. What leads to growth is painful experiences. Suffering points up an area in you where you have not yet grown, where you need to grow and be transformed by change.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

“Your depressions and your thrills have nothing to do with happiness. Those are the swings of the pendulum.”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

P. 111 “Understand another illusion, too, that happiness is not the same as excitement, it’s not the same as thrills”

“Four steps to wisdom. The first thing you need to do is get in touch with negative feelings that you’re not even arware of. – The second step is to understand that the feeling is in you, not in reality. – The third step: Never identify with that feeling. It has nothing to do with the “I”. – The fourth step: How do you change things? How do you change yourselves?”

16 Nov

Anthony de Mello in “Awareness”

On expanding the third step; never identify with negative feelings:

  • P. 80 “If you want to say depression is in there, that’s fine; if you want to say gloominess is in there, that’s fine.  But not: I am gloomy.”
  • P. 80 “Your depression and your thrills have nothing to do with your happiness.  Those are the swings of the pendulum.”
  • P. 81 “You don’t even need to be in love.  Who told you you do? What you need is to be free.  What you need is to love.  That’s it; that’s your nature.  But what you’re really telling me is that you want to be desired.  You want to be applauded, to be attractive, to have all the little monkeys running after you. You’re wasting your life.  Wake up! You don’t need this.  You can be blissfully happy without it.”

The 4 Steps to Wisdom repeated again on P. 89: “Put this program into action, a thousand times:

  • (a) identify the negative feelings in you;
  • (b) understand that they are in you, not in the world, not in external reality;
  • (c) do not see them as an essential part of “I”; these things come and go;
  • (d) understand that when you change, everything changes.