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When the sage points at the moon, all that the idiot sees is the finger.

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
Idiot
Sees
Fingers
Moon
Pointers
Sage
Finger
Points

More quotes by Anthony de Mello

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If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future.
Anthony de Mello
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Understand your darkness and it will vanish then you will know what light is. Understand your nightmare for what it is and it will stop then you will wake up to reality. Understand your false beliefs and they will drop then you will know the taste of happiness.
Anthony de Mello
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As soon as you look at the world through an ideology, you are finished. No reality fits ideology.
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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No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.
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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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
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What is the work of a Master? said a solemn-faced visitor. To teach people to laugh , said the Master gravely.
Anthony de Mello
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There is yet another illusion, that it is important to be respectable, to be loved and appreciated, to be important. Many say we have a natural urge to be loved and appreciated, to belong. That’s false. Drop this illusion and you will find happiness. We have a natural urge to be free, a natural urge to love, but not to be loved.
Anthony de Mello
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Nothing has changed but my attitude, therefore, everything has changed.
Anthony de Mello
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the greatest learning of the ages lies in accepting life exactly as it comes to us.
Anthony de Mello
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Whatever is truly alive must die. Look at the flowers only plastic flowers never die.
Anthony de Mello
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We live in a flash of light evening comes and it is night forever. It's only a flash and we waste it. We waste it with our anxiety, our worries, our concerns, our burdens.
Anthony de Mello
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When God means you to be a healer he sends you patients when he makes you a teacher he sends you pupils when he destines you to be a Master he sends you stories.
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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We're crazy, We're living on crazy ideas about love, about relationships, about happiness, about joy, about everything.
Anthony de Mello
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What is my identity ? Nothing, said the Master. You mean that I am an emptiness and a void? said the incredulous disciple. Nothing that can be labeled. said the Master.
Anthony de Mello
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Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come!
Anthony de Mello
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Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
Anthony de Mello
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When the eye is unobstructed, the result is sight. When the ear is unobstructed, the result is hearing. When the mind is unobstructed the result is truth. When the heart is unobstructed, the result is joy and love.
Anthony de Mello