Taking Flight

Rating:
Summary: Books Can Speak
Review: Following Anthony de Mello's book titled Awareness, I rank this as number two for him. The work being great for those living a life of reflection and contemplation. Before I ever practiced Zen Buddhism, and while I was not Christian either, Anthony de Mello's works were my spirituality. And my were those ever enjoyable and fascinating times. New worlds opened up to my sluggish eyes. De Mello gave me hope, made it appear, "Why yes. Life does have potential you silly ***." This book's in essence a compilation of short to moderately long sections borrowed from various religious traditions and/or philosophical traditions. Following some of these allegories de Mello may add a concise commentary on the piece, at other moments he leaves it up to the reader to truly decipher what had been said.

You are going to love Anthony de Mello. So treat yourself to a great book. Go ahead. Do it. Buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Best of de Mello¿s Story Collections
Review: Of all the collections of meditation and wisdom stories that de Mello has put together I think that this one is the best (followed closely by Song of the Bird, which is equal in quality but has fewer stories). This book contains over 250 stories arranged by topic: Prayer, Awareness, Religion, Grace, The Saints, The Self, Love and Truth. These are real stories not just the didactic aphorisms and sayings (beginning with "The Master said") that are more typical of de Mello's One Minute Wisdom, One Minute Nonsense and More One Minute Nonsense. And the stories are more to some spiritual point, in my judgment, while the companion book, The Heart of the Enlightened, tends to have many that are merely humorous. So while he has a lot of good sayings and stories, were you to pick just one of those books, for my tastes it would be this one.

Rating:
Summary: Stories that changes your outlook
Review: Original Indian title: "Prayer of the Frog, Volume I" ("Heart of the Enlightened" is volume II)

I'll keep this short. "Taking Flight" and "Heart of the Enlightened" are the best books I've ever read.