Anthony de Mello Quotes

"What is my identity?" "Nothing," said the Master. "You mean that I am an emptiness and a void?" said the incredulous disciple. "Nothing that can be labeled." said the Master.

The Master once referred to the Hindu notion that all creation is "leela" — God's play — and the universe is his playground. The aim of spirituality, he claimed, is to make all life play. This seemed too frivolous for a puritanical visitor. "Is their no room then for work?" "Of course there is. But work becomes spiritual only when it is transformed into play."

The master never let a statement about God go unchallenged. All God statements were poetic or symbolic expressions of the Unknowable; people, however, foolishly took them as literal descriptions of the divine.

Before creation Love was. After creation love is made. When love is consummated, creation will cease to be, and Love will be forever.

"What is the work of a Master?" said a solemn-faced visitor. "To teach people to laugh," said the Master gravely.

Look for competence not claims.

"Name one practical, down-to-earth effect of spirituality," said the skeptic who was ready for an argument. "Here's one," said the Master. "When someone offends you, you can raise your spirits to heights where offenses cannot reach."

One year of life is worth more than twenty years of hibernation.

Some people write to make a living; others to share their insights or raise questions that will haunt their readers; others yet to understand their very souls. None of these will last. That distinction belongs to those who write only because if they did not write they would burst... These writers give expression to the divine — no matter what they write about.

"The law is an expression of God's holy will and as such must be honored and loved," said the preacher piously. "Rubbish," said the Master. "The law is a necessary evil and as such must be cut down to the barest minimum. Show me a lover of the law and I will show you a muttonheaded tyrant."

Wisdom can be learned. But it cannot be taught.

A disciple asked, "Who is a Master?" The Master replied, "Anyone to whom it is given to let go of the ego. Such a person's life is then a masterpiece."

To those who seek to protect their ego true Peace brings only disturbance.

My commitment is not to consistency but to the Truth.

"What is the secret of your serenity? Said the Master "Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable."