Anthony de Mello Quotes

All bad qualities centre round the ego. When the ego is gone, Realisation results by itself. There are neither good nor bad qualities in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only.

A man becomes a Buddha the moment he accepts all that life brings with gratitude.

The Sage has no thinking mind and therefore there are no ‘others’ for him.

Meditation means keeping one mind. You must understand - what is life? What is death? If you keep one mind, there is no life, no death. Then if you die tomorrow, no problem; if you die in five minutes, no problem.

One has to go beyond the mind to experience the spiritual bliss of desirelessness.

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Those who are possessed by nothing possess everything.

Whatever your religion, you have to find internal happiness, which I found.

Enlightenment is the understanding that this is all, that this is perfect, that this is it. Enlightenment is not an achievement, it is an understanding that there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go.

To an experienced Zen Buddhist, asking if one believes in Zen or one believes in the Buddha, sounds a little ludicrous, like asking if one believes in air or water. Similarly Quality is not something you believe in, Quality is something you experience.

To be aflame with silence, with joy, is wisdom. It is not through logic but through love. It is not through words but through a wordless state called meditation or a state of no-mind, satori, samadhi.

Suffering only shows where you are attached. That is why, to those on the path, suffering is grace.

If you can accept the flow of life and give in to it, you will be accepting what is real. Only when you accept what is real can you live with it in peace and happiness. The alternative is a struggle that will never end because it is a struggle with the unreal, with a mirage of life instead of life itself.

When a monk is an arahant, with his fermentations ended - one who has reached fulfillment, done the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, totally destroyed the fetter of becoming, and is released through right gnosis - the thought doesn't occur to him that 'There is someone better than me,' or 'There is someone equal to me,' or 'There is someone worse than me.'

In life, in true life, there can be nothing better than what is. Wanting something different than what is, is blasphemy.

The pure mind is itself Brahman; it therefore follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.

It's much better to become a Buddha than a Buddhist.

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.

Consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain GOD perception.

Seeker, empty the boat, lighten the load, be free of craving and judgment and hatred, and feel the joy of the way.

What does it matter, all is grace.

Even my desire to become free or enlightened is just another craving for fulfillment or completion in the future. So don’t seek to become free or desire or “achieve” enlightenment. Become present.

Religion becomes a state of mind achievable in almost any activity of life, if this activity is raised to a suitable level of perfection.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery, caught in the desire, you see only the manifestations.