A continuation of the thought of Anthony DeMello, SJ:

"Life is a banquet. And the tragedy is that most people are starving to death. That's what I am really talking about. There's a nice story about some people who were on a raft off the coast of Brazil perishing from thirst. They had no idea that the water they were floating on was fresh water. The river was coming out into the sea with such force that it went out for a couple of miles, so they had fresh water right there where they were. But they had no idea. In the same way we are surrounded with joy, with happiness, with love. Most people have no idea of this whatsoever. The reason: They're brainwashed. The reason: they're hypnotized; they're asleep. Imagine a stage magician who hypnotizes someone so that the person sees what is not there and does not see what is there. That's what it's all about. Repent and accept the good news. Repent! Wake up! Don't weep for your sins. Why weep for sins you comitted when you were asleep? Are you going to cry because of what you did in a hypnotized state? Why do you want to identify with a person like this? Wake up! Wake up! Repent! Put on a new mind. Take on a new way of looking at things! For the 'kingdom is here'! It's the rare Christian who takes that seriously. I said to you that the first thing you need to do is wake up, to face the fact that you don't like being woken up. You'd much rather have all of the things which you were hypnotized into believing are so precious to you, so important to you, so important for your life and survival. Second, understand. Understand that maybe you've got wrong ideas and it is these ideas that are influencing your life and making it the mess that it is and keeping you asleep. Ideas about love, ideas about freedom, ideas about happiness, and so forth. And it isn't easy to listen to someone who would challenge those ideas of yours which have come to be so precious to you.

There have been some interesting studies in brainwashing. It has been shown that you are brainwashed when you take or 'introject' an idea that isn't yours, that is someone else's. And the funny thing is that you'll be ready to die for this idea. Isn't that strange? The first test of wether you've been brainwashed and have introjected convictions and beliefs occurs the moment they're attacked. You feel stunned, you react emotionally. That's a pretty good sign-not infallible, but a pretty good sign-that we're dealing with brainwashing. You're ready to die for an idea that never was yours. Terrorist or saints(so called) take on an idea, swallow it whole, and are ready to die for it. It's not easy to listen, especially when you get emotional about an idea.

And even when you don't get emotional about it, it's not easy to listen.; you're always listening from your programming, from your conditioning or your programming. Like this girl who's listening to a lecture on agriculture and says 'Excuse me, sir, you know I agree with you completely that the best manure is aged horse manure. Would you tell us how old the horse should optimally be?'. See where she's coming from? We all have our positions, don't we? And we listen from those positions. 'Henry how you've changed! You were so tall and you've grown short. You were so well built and you've grown thin. You were so fair, and you've become so dark. What happened to you Henry?'. Henry says, 'I'm not Henry. I'm John.' 'Oh you changed your name, too.' How do you get people like that to listen?

The most difficult thing in the world is to listen, to see. We don't want to see. Do you think a capitolist wants to see what is good in communism? Do you think a communist wants to see what is good and healthy in a capitolist system? Do you think a rich man wants to look at poor people? We don;t want to look, because if we do, we may change. We don't want to look. If you look, you lose control of the life that you are so precariously holding together. And so in order to wake up, the one thing you need most is not energy, or strength, or youthfulness, or even great intelligence. The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new. The chances that you will wake up are in direct proportion to the amount of truth you can take without running away. How much are you ready to take? How much of everything you've held dear are you ready to have shattered, without running away? How ready are you to think of something unfamiliar?

The first reaction is one of fear. It's not that we fear the unknown. You cannot fear something you do not know. Nobody is afraid of the unknown. What you really fear is the loss of the known. That's what you fear.

By way of an example, I made that everything we do is tainted with selfishness. That isn;t easy to hear. But think now for a minute, let's go a little deeper into that. If everything you do comes from self interest, enlightened or otherwise, how does that make you feel about all your charity and all your good deeds? What happens to those? Here's a little exercise for you. Think of all the good deeds you've done, or of some of them. Now understand that they really sprang from self interest, wether you knew it or not. What happens to your pride? What happens to your vanity? What happens to that good feeling you gave yourself, that pat on the back every time you did something you thought was charitable? It gets flattened out, doesn't it? What happens to that looking down your nose at your neighbor who you thought was so selfish? The whole thing changes, doesn't it? "Well', you say, 'my neighbor has coarser tastes than I do'. You're the more dangerous person, you really are. Jesus Christ seems to have had less trouble with the other type than your type. Much less trouble. He ran into trouble with people who were really convinced they were good. Other types didn;t seem to give him much trouble at all, the ones who were openly selfish and knew it. Can you see how liberating that is? Hey, wake up! It's liberating. It's wonderful! Are you feeling depressed? Maybe you are. Isn't it wonderful to realize your no better than anyone else in this world? Isn't it wonderful? Are you disappointed? Look what we've brought to light! What happens to your vanity? You'd like to give yourself a good feeling that you're better than others. But look how we brought a fallacy to light!

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), July 19, 2000

Answers

FS: The above reminded me of this quote...

"The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective, intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life. I have never yet met a man who is quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?" Thoreau

Mar.

-- Not now, not like this (AgentSmith0110@aol.com), July 19, 2000.

"Life is a banquet. And the tragedy is that most people are starving to death."

One of my fiacee's mother's favorite movies is Auntie Mame. Her catchphrase was, "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death. It's a tragedy, a veritable tragedy,". Auntie Mame was a stage play dating back to the late 30's, early 40's. I wonder who said it first, the script writer or Anthony De Mello?

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), July 19, 2000.

You're ready to die for an idea that never was yours.

There are no ownership papers associated with ideas. Claim an idea for yourself and you've instantly succumbed to the stroking of the ego. All ideas are borrowed - plucked from the infinite, rolled around, examined, accepted, rejected, shaped, discussed, debated. And in each instance, each incarnation, the idea is merely a rediscovery of that which has always existed. The concept may seem new to you, but it did not originate within you. The ego, of course, would beg to differ.

The one thing you need most of all is the readiness to learn something new.

This gets to the heart of the matter, IMO. Each of you must ask yourself, "Am I an explorer?" "Does my curiosity about XYZ lead me to explore its size, shape, weight, texture, density?" How does my perception of reality bend in order to accommodate the presence of ABC in my life?" "Am I flexible enough to reconfigure my perceived reality each time I experience something which falls outside the box in which my consciousness sits bound and gagged as a prisoner of ignorance?"

Each of us can and should approach this life with the spirit of an adventurer. The myriad worlds, those we perceive and those we have yet to awaken to, cry out for our attention. How better to learn than through experience? Isn't the learning deeper and more lasting this way?

Yes, Anthony DeMello, I join you in shouting "Wake Up!" Someone, somewhere may be prepared to rise from his or her sleep and slumber. The awakening of a soul is indeed a joyous occasion.

-- Positive Vibration (howe9@shentel.net), July 19, 2000.

I liked this passage particularly because it reminded of so many folks on this board-including myself in time. This is not meant as an insult at all; read it, read it slowly, and you will recognize many of your fellow tb'ers. And the big reason why is that we here are a fairly good representation of society as a whole-though I do believe there are not many african american or hispanic folks here-but anyway, I believe most of what DeMello says here, and his admonishments are well taken any day as far as I am concerned.

Getting groggy. LOL.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), July 19, 2000.

It made me queazy in my stomach

-- edsel fredsel (not@on.yourHeiney), July 19, 2000.

This is wonderful to ponder , thanks.

When you understand how little you know you can then focus on changing that.

-- Will (righthere@home.now), July 19, 2000.

We have a bidet. My wife calls it my brainwasher.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), July 20, 2000.

Nemesis-the master of the one-liner. LOL.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), July 20, 2000.