Remarkable Quotes

Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J.

“If you take a look at the way you have been put together and the way you function you will find that inside your head there is a whole program, a set of demands about how the world should be, how you should be and what you should want.

Who is responsible for the programming? Not you. It isn’t really you who decided even such basics as your wants and desires and so-called needs; your values, your tastes, your attitudes. It was your parents, your society, your culture, your religion, your past experiences who fed the operating instructions into your computer. Now, however old you are or wherever you go, your computer goes along with you and is active and operating at each conscious moment of the day, imperiously insisting that its demands be met by life, by people and by you…

Try this: Imagine you are in a situation or with a person that you find unpleasant and that you would ordinarily avoid. Now observe how your computer instinctively becomes active, insisting that you avoid this situation or try to change it. And if you stay on there and refuse to change the situation, observe how the computer insists that you experience irritation or anxiety or guilt or some other negative emotion. Now keep looking at this unpleasant situation or person until you realize that it isn’t they that are causing the negative emotions. They are just going their own way, being themselves, doing their thing whether right or wrong, good or bad. It is your computer that, thanks to your programming, insists on reacting with negative emotions.”

"The fear we feel oin the face of an event is nothing more than the meaning that our present state of consciousness ascribes to that moment.
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Guy Finley