أَعُوذُ بِاللّٰهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the name of ALLAH, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Book “Awareness” By Anthony De Mello

Anthony de Mello (September 4, 1931, Mumbai, India- June 2, 1987, New York, USA) also known as Tony de Mello, was an Indian Jesuit priest and psychotherapist. A teacher and public speaker, de Mello wrote several books on spirituality and hosted numerous spiritual retreats and conferences. De Mello is the author of the bestselling masterpiece, Awareness, along with eleven (11) other books; but he is widely known for his ground-breaking and enduring work that integrates western and eastern spirituality.

Book "Awareness" is a spiritual guide that combines Christian spirituality, Buddhist parables, and Hindu exercises to help readers become more aware and alive to others' needs and potential. De Mello includes a multitude of engaging short stories, analogies, and anecdotes throughout the book to illustrate his key points.

"Awareness" in general is the bedrock of personal growth and social progress. It moves you off autopilot, replacing automatic reactions with intentional choices. On an individual level, it empowers you to manage emotions, recognize behavioral patterns, and align your daily actions with your core values. Beyond personal well-being, awareness serves as the catalyst for broader societal change. Awareness allows you to regulate your emotions, which builds resilience, reduces feelings of overwhelm, and naturally fosters deeper empathy and stronger relationships.

Awareness is understanding one's own personal strengths, weaknesses, and triggers, which can help us make better, more objective choices in both our personal and professional life. Finally, the "Public Awareness" (after all we are humans and being a social animal one needs to have it) is regarding human rights, economic inequality, and environmental issues, which is the critical first step toward mobilizing communities, influencing attitudes, and inspiring policy reforms.

Book "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is about waking up from psychological sleep, dropping attachments, and observing reality without judgment. The author's three suggested levels for such an "Awareness" revolves around "Waking Up From Illusions" ; "The Danger of Attachments"; and "The Power of Observation".

"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is the "Waking Up From Illusions"; which means first to drop "mental sleep"; because most people live on autopilot, controlled by societal conditioning, habits, and fear rather than true consciousness. De Mello then advices to break free of such programming; because 'true freedom' begins when you stop reacting based on what you were taught to desire or fear since childhood.

"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello then enlists "The Danger of Attachments" as a major 'source of suffering'. Human misery comes from clinging to unwanted people, unworked outcomes, undeserved status, and unlimited material things. De Mello then highlights the real curse (especially in these modern times) the 'need for approval' dogma. De Mello explains that chasing praise is like a drug that robs people of their natural joy and inner peace.

"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is advising the need for "Power of Observation" because the transformation happens simply by watching your thoughts and feelings honestly without trying to judge or change them. This means that never fix a perception without making own observation. therefore, one must 'live in the present'. Hence, the "Awareness" means tasting the present moment instead of being lost in past regrets or future worries.

"Awareness" by Anthony de Mello is a spiritual and psychological guide about waking up, dropping illusions, and finding inner peace. The book argues that people live like sleepwalkers trapped by social conditioning, and true happiness requires objective self-observation rather than chasing external approval or material things. The book summarises that 'Spirituality' is not about changing reality, but waking up to the beauty of the present moment instead of living on autopilot. Society programs people from birth to seek praise, status, and emotional drugs like approval, which creates lifelong anxiety. Suffering comes from clinging to people, objects, and labels; true freedom arrives when you let go of needing things to be happy. You must watch your thoughts and emotions without judgment or trying to force a change, allowing negative patterns to naturally fall away. Bliss is your true baseline state; you do not need to acquire anything new, only drop your illusions to experience it.

“That was what his work was all about, waking people up to the reality of their greatness". Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. Don't be surprised and read this story.

A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful

majesty among the powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings. The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth—we’re chickens.” So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.

My dear Reader! “That was what his work was all about, waking people up to the reality of their greatness". Mind you "Awareness" is understanding one's own personal strengths, weaknesses, and triggers, which may help us change our situation and conditions. One may have been born as an "Eagle" but may end up live a life of a "barnyard hen".

"How essential it is for the human being not just to observe himself or herself, but to watch all of reality."

Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son’s door. “Jaime,” he says, “wake up!” Jaime answers, “I don’t want to get up, Papa.” The father shouts, “Get up, you have to go to school.” Jaime says, “I don’t want to

go to school.” “Why not?” asks the father. “Three reasons,” says Jaime. “First, because it’s so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school.” And the father says, “Well, I am going to give you three reasons why you must go to school. First, because it

is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the headmaster.” Wake up, wake up! You’ve grown up. You’re too big to be asleep. Wake up! Stop playing with your toys.

“There’s nothing so important in the world as awakening. Nothing!”

Most people tell you they want to get out of kindergarten, but don’t believe them. Don’t believe them! All they want you to do is to mend their broken toys. “Give me back my wife. Give me back my job. Give me back my money. Give me back my reputation,

my success.” This is what they want; they want their toys replaced. That’s all. Even the best psychologist will tell you that, that people don’t really want to be cured. What they want is relief; a cure is painful. Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It’s irritating to be woken up. That’s the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I’m going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, “Wake up!” My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it, fine; if you don’t, too bad! As the Arabs say, “The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens.”

Greed is a Curse and Ego is Worst

You always empower the demons you fight. But if you flow with the enemy, you overcome the enemy. How does one cope with evil? Not by fighting it but by understanding it. In understanding, it disappears. How does one cope with darkness? Not with one’s fist. You don’t chase darkness out of the room with a broom, you turn on a light. The more you fight darkness, the more real it becomes to you, and the more you exhaust yourself. But when you turn on the light of awareness, it melts. In a fight with demon or evil, many people walk from one side of battle of 'ego' to another, but end up with same situation, at times even more egoistic.

“Are you going to substitute one greed—a spiritual greed—for the other greed? Before, you had a worldly ego and now you’ve got a spiritual ego, but you’ve got an ego all the same, a refined one and one more difficult to cope with. When you renounce something, you’re tied to it.” (this may be called “spiritual narcissism“). “The only tragedy there is in the world is ignorance; all evil comes from that. The only tragedy there is in the world is un-wakefulness and unawareness. From them comes fear, and from fear comes everything else.”

Truth is never expressed in words. Truth is sighted with belief and attitude. So Always show “an openness to the truth, no matter what the consequences, no matter where it leads you and when you don’t even know where it’s going to lead you". If there’s only one evil in the world, fear; then there may only one good in the world, love. There’s not a single evil in the world that you cannot trace to fear. Not one. As the life of awareness settles on your darkness, whatever is evil will disappear. Whatever is good will be fostered. “Nobody does wrong in awareness (except an evil person); because the enlightened person can do no wrong. “There is a difference between knowledge and awareness, between information and awareness".

The core lesson from the book "Awareness" by Anthony De Mello is that most people live mentally asleep on autopilot, and true freedom and happiness come only from waking up and seeing reality as it is. People act out of cultural and social programming, reacting automatically to life instead of truly living. Joy is our natural state; so we do not need to chase it outside ourselves, we just need to drop our illusions.

“There’s nothing so important in the world as awakening. Nothing!” “What you are aware of, you are in control of; what you are not aware of, is controlling you. It’s like when you throw black paint in the air; the air remains uncontaminated. You never color the air black. No matter what happens to you, you remain uncontaminated. You remain at peace. Be in control of yours life, make yours own decision and learn to live happily within yourself. Thats choice is "Awareness". “When you go through life with preferences but don’t let your happiness depend on any one of them, then you’re awake". Living with truth is the ultimate "awareness".