Awareness

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Summary: This book is my everyday bible reading.
Review: I am 44 yrs. old. And since I was 17 I have been searching for my spirituality and found it in this book.

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Summary: The kind of book you recommend to people you love.
Review: This is a book I have read and reread, in bits and pieces, when I want to feel refreshed. It reminds me of what is important in life. Put it on your nightstand, along with the other books that you never reshelve.

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Summary: This book changed my life.
Review: Awesome. DeMello was recently censured by the Roman Catholic Church for dabbling too much in Eastern spirituality, but this book is as valuable to me as the Bible. It just contains so much spiritual wisdom. I have read it several times over and have loaned it to so many people that I finally bought a second copy just to let others read it. Despite what the Church says, if you are the least bit interested in spirituality(Christian or otherwise) this is a must read.

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Summary: excellent self analytical book to help you regain control
Review: ING. EMILIO CRISTANCHO GUEVARA ; [e-mail] This is another excellent book of psychologist A. de Mello , it teaches us how to understand ourselves better in order to be able to modify our behavior , because as he points it out, the things we do not understand , we can NOT modify them, but the things that we do understand , we can then MODIFY them, and that is mainly the majority of the topics explained in this book , A. de Mello teaches us how to understand ourselves better, in order to accomplish our main goal ,which is to Modify our inmature or inappropiate behavior, to be able to live a less stressful and a happier life. This is another of the excellent books that gives you an internal peace of mind, and relieves you of so much accumulated tension, and makes you see things from a different REAL perspective; thus releasing your blocked energy and giving you more free extra energy that you never thought you had, to try to give you control over your life in most of lifes situations; thus I recommended highly this book along with the other books written by A. de Mello, these books will give you a better understanding of yourself, and he mentions that by understanding yourself, then you get better , you can modify yourself and you won't repressed it , so you will solve many of your unsolvable problems by knowning and understanding yourself better, then the reader can accomplish the ideal goal of psychology : to overcome the unreal Illusions that we have about orselves , and also to overcome the distortorted ideas that we have made of the personality of others, and this book will help to achieve this goal. I hope everybody enjoys this book as much as I have enjoy most of his books. By the way, this is one of the books that will help you increase your EMOTIONAL Intelligence. Sincerely : ING. EMILIO CRISTANCHO GUEVARA ; e-mail: [e-mail]

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Summary: A must read for anyone trying to better understand life
Review: We are never taught we have within us, everything we need to be happy well adjusted people. Tony reminds us of this. Read it with an open mind, you will be rewarded.

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Summary: A passionate Krishnamurti.
Review: De Mello's book reminded me instantly of Krishnamurti's writing. Like him De Mello turns our everyday concepts of love, life, our fears and our joys, inside out. Both construct their arguments impeccably and very carefully making you think thoughts you were never going to consider, weaving you in your own web of illusions. Krishnamurti's approach was suave and hypnotic, but De Mello's argument tend to end up with an unexpected slap in the face! You'll soon become quite defensive (if not defenseless) watching him passionately tearing all your thoughts apart, substituting them with something frighteningly real. Its meditative free-floating series of heavy punches is difficult to tackle and can easily leave the reader numb instead of illuminated. It leaves you on your own, which is a drawback, but realistic at the same time. You'll be smiling at the end of it all, but sarcastically you won't know what you're smiling at anymore.

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Summary: de Mello brings a clarity of thought unparalled
Review: A very good friend told me about de Mello's works and I have several of them. This one captured my imagination, my passion, my heart as I sensed Truth in it. There is a Universal ring to it!

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Summary: Getting real pre-supposes you are willing to exist.
Review: De Mello's Awareness reminded me of the EST training of the '70s, which reminded me of Basic Training in the Army--could there have been simple theme here? In Awareness, this late Jesuit/Therapist reminds the mind(and re-mines the mind) to be where its body is[Funny, Tony, you don't look like a Buddhist]. In doing so, he opens the possibility for each of us to live a very powerful life, which, of course, is something none of us really want if we can't keep our hard-won victumhood, scapegoats, and hostage lovers. Yet, to Tony, it seems worth the effort to at least show what might be, what could be, what, in some transforming spots on this enchanting blue and white marble, actually, exits in the life of--perhaps-- the person standing right next to you. The only catch is: YOU HAVE TO BE AWAKE TO KNOW IT!

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Summary: Wake Up!
Review: A Father knocked on the door of his son's bedroom and announced, "Wake up! It's time to go to school". The son replied, "I don't want to go to school". "But you must", answered the Father, "why don't you want to go?" "For three reasons", said the son through the door, "first, I don't like it, second, all the kids tease me and third, it's so dull" "Well", said the Father opening the door, "I'll give you three reasons why you must go: First, it's your duty, second, you're forty-five years old and third, you're the Principal" With stories like these Fr. De Mello explores how all of us, young and old, resist waking up. By helping us examine our own beliefs and thought patterns, he leads us to SEE our ourselves for the first time with all of our flaws and selfishness. And by so doing, liberates us. Fr. De Mello is a Master Teacher. If you are ready to see yourself truly for the first time and awake from the sleepiness you currently believe is your life, you must read this book. It's has plenty of humor and playfulness to match it's intensity. It has been said that the gap between stimulus and response is the area called human awareness. Fr. De Mello helps you to increase your gap and lead to even greater AWARENESS.

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Summary: Thank God for Cardinal Ratzinger
Review: Sometimes I'll read a book and, maybe a couple of times along the way, I'll be forced to stop and just let my mind calm down. Just because something the author has written is so thought-provoking.

With this book I had to do that on almost every page. I don't think it's ever taken me so long to read 184 pages before.

I'm actually glad Cardinal Ratzinger, Chief of the Vatican Thought Police, decided to condemn Fr. de Mello's work. If it wasn't for the ensuing controversy, I might never have become aware of the work of this truly enlightened priest.

I don't approve of censorship, but sometimes these things happen when Catholic priests (or nuns) throw pearls before swine (which is unavoidable in the world of mass market publishing).

No bother. This book would not be appropriate for the handful of people who actually care about anything Ratzinger has to say, anyway. Not because they don't need to wake up reality, mind you -- they're just so enjoying living in a dreamworld, any attempt to disturb their slumber will only irritate them. You don't want to disturb the simple faithful.

Of course, maybe if they were disturbed a little bit, they wouldn't be so simple?