Customer Reviews

Heart of the Enlightened

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Anthony de Mello's books generally fall into three groups - guided meditations; cross-cultural, interreligious, traditional teaching tales; and sayings of the Master in context. This book falls into the second category - traditional teaching tales. Fr. de Mello has categorized the stories into seven chapters: spirituality, education, authority, human nature, relationships, service and enlightment. Most of the stories are told without any "editorial" comments i.e. the author trusts the power of story. The selection is excellent coming from a wide variety of traditions and ages, including modern jokes such as "where do you plug it in?" when faced with a piano.

You can read the book straight through and get a lot of laughs or you can read it as intended, pondering the stories and risking having your life changed. The latter is the intend of the author.

Anthony DeMello is a master of story telling. Here are more than two hundred of his stories belonging to various cultures, countries and centuries. They are classified under seven heads of Spirituality, Education, Authority, Human Nature, Relationships, Service and Enlightenment. The author takes credit for only stringing them together. They are highly thought provoking and illuminating. Nobody can resist a story and sometimes a story can change one's life.

Anthony DeMello was one of the great spiritual masters of our time. He was a Catholic priest of the Jesuit order, hailing from India. He died in New York on June 2nd, 1987. He has left behind a body of literature, which will continue to influence the world profoundly in the years to come.

To begin, this is the companion to "Taking Flight" ++filled with Marvelous, possibly Life-Changing Stories. In India, these are called "The Prayer of the Frog" Volumes 1 and 2.

Next, De Mello's "Wake Up to Life" is a Live Conference; the only full-length Conference he ever allowed to be recorded. It is incredibly Powerful, possibly Life-Changing. He is with a Live Audience and telling many, many stories; so that is another Recommendation.... Blessings

For those interested in opening their heart, this is a very good book which gets you to look at things with your heart and not your mind. For those just looking for a good and entertaining read, this is also very good.