PONDER on THIS for Monday, February 21st, 2011 by Fr. Anthony De Mello in ANTHONY DE MELLO: WRITINGS
"If you want to reform your heart, you must give serious, prolonged thought to four liberating truths. But first choose some attachment that troubles you, something that you are clinging to, or something that you dread, or something you are craving for, and keep this attachment in mind as you listen to these truths.
The first truth: You must choose between your attachment and happiness. You cannot have both. The moment you pick up an attachment, you heart is thrown out of kilter and your ability to lead a joyful, carefree, serene life is destroyed…
The second truth: Where did your attachment come from? You were not born with it. It sprang from a lie that your society and your culture have told you, or a lie that you have told yourself, namely, that without this or the other, without this person or the other you can’t be happy. Just open your eyes and see how false this is…
The third truth: If you wish to be fully alive you must develop a sense of perspective. Life is infinitely greater than this trifle your heart is attached to, and which you have given the power to so upset you. Trifle, yes, because if you live long enough a day will easily come when it will cease to matter…
And so the fourth truth brings you to the unavoidable conclusion that no thing or person outside of you has the power to make you happy or unhappy."
Fr. Anthony De Mello in, "Anthony De Mello: Writings"
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The first truth: You must choose between your attachment and happiness. You cannot have both. The moment you pick up an attachment, you heart is thrown out of kilter and your ability to lead a joyful, carefree, serene life is destroyed…
The second truth: Where did your attachment come from? You were not born with it. It sprang from a lie that your society and your culture have told you, or a lie that you have told yourself, namely, that without this or the other, without this person or the other you can’t be happy. Just open your eyes and see how false this is…
The third truth: If you wish to be fully alive you must develop a sense of perspective. Life is infinitely greater than this trifle your heart is attached to, and which you have given the power to so upset you. Trifle, yes, because if you live long enough a day will easily come when it will cease to matter…
And so the fourth truth brings you to the unavoidable conclusion that no thing or person outside of you has the power to make you happy or unhappy."
Fr. Anthony De Mello in, "Anthony De Mello: Writings"
For more information regarding this book visit Amazon.
A FREE service since 1999, "Ponder on This" benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including "links" to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it. In all instances these links are provided as a convenience,and do NOT generate any type of compensation for Pondercentral.
Individuals interested in a direct subscription to "Ponder on This" are requested to please click here or feel free to forward to a friend. To contact Pondercentral via email, please click here.
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