Quote

The way to really live is to die. The passport to living is to imagine yourself in your grave. Imagine you're lying in your coffin....Now look at your problems from that viewpoint. Changes everything, doesn't it?

Anthony de Mello

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Anthony de Mello
Age: 55 †
Born: 1931
Born: September 4
Died: 1987
Died: June 2
Philosopher
Priest
Psychologist
Theologian
Writer
Bombay
Way
Doesn
Grave
Change
Graves
Problem
Changes
Coffin
Live
Problems
Viewpoint
Look
Imagine
Passport
Everything
Dies
Passports
Looks
Lying
Coffins
Really
Living
Viewpoints

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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A disciple, in his reverence for the Master, looked upon him as God incarnate. Tell me, O Master, he said, why you have come into this world. To teach fools like you to stop wasting their time worshiping Masters.
Anthony de Mello
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The words of the scholar are to be understood. The words of the master are not to be understood. They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird. They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge.
Anthony de Mello
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The day you are happy for no reason whatsoever, the day you find yourself taking delight in everything and in nothing, you will know that you have found the land of unending joy called the kingdom.
Anthony de Mello
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There were rules in the monastery, but the Master always warned against the tyranny of the law. 'Obedience keeps the rules,' he would say. 'Love knows when to break them.'
Anthony de Mello
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Step by step, let whatever happens happen. Real change will come when it is brought about, not by your ego, but by reality. Awareness releases reality to change you.
Anthony de Mello
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You can will an act of service but you cannot will love.
Anthony de Mello
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The only way to change is by changing your understanding.
Anthony de Mello
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What is love? The total absence of fear, said the Master What is it we fear? Love, said the Master.
Anthony de Mello
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Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.
Anthony de Mello
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If you don't look at things through your concepts, you'll never be bored. Every single thing is unique.
Anthony de Mello
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Love springs from awareness.
Anthony de Mello
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Think of a flabby person covered with layers of fat. That is what your mind can become - flabby, covered with layers of fat till it becomes too dull and lazy to think, to observe, to explore, to discover ... not wanting to be disturbed or questioned into wakefulness.
Anthony de Mello
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A disciple was one day recalling how Buddha , Jesus , Mohammed were branded as rebels and heretics by their contemporaries. Said the Master, Nobody can be said to have attained the pinnacle of Truth until a thousand sincere people have denounced him for blasphemy .
Anthony de Mello
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There's only one reason why you're not experiencing bliss at this present moment, and it's because you're thinking or focusing on what you don't have....But, right now you have everything you need to be in bliss.
Anthony de Mello
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A Jesuit once wrote a note to Father Arrupe, his superior general, asking him about the relative value of communism, socialism and capitalism. Father Arrupe gave him a lovely reply. He said, A system is about as good or as bad as the people who use it. People with golden hearts would make capitalism or communism or socialism work beautifully.
Anthony de Mello
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A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within.
Anthony de Mello
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Both what you run from- and what you yearn for - are within you.
Anthony de Mello
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There comes a point in your life when you become stark raving insane, commit suicide or become a mystic.
Anthony de Mello
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Because everyone is the same distance from the sun. Does it really lessen the distance if you live on top of a skyscraper?
Anthony de Mello
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The disciples were absorbed in a discussion of Lao-Tzu's dictum: Those who know, do not say Those who say, do not know. When the master entered, they asked him what the words meant. Said the master, Which of you knows the fragrance of a rose? All of them indicated that they knew. Then he said, Put it into words. All of them were silent
Anthony de Mello