Before the journey began two friends offered me a copy of Anthony De Mello’s Awareness*. I read it along the way, within its content there were important reminders of the consequences of a life lived through unawareness.
“The unaware life is a mechanical life. Its not human, it’s programmed, conditioned. We might as well be a stone, a block of wood.” P.67
This is a strong statement, and although various quotes from mystics, saints and scholars are presented throughout in support of it, the author does not offer (in my view) a discriminating perception of what is being stated. This is not to dismiss the book, for there are levels; many have found and will continue to find his writings helpful.
De Mello on several occasions evokes St. Thomas Aquinas, and the fact that St Thomas declared after what appears to have been a profound mystical or supernatural experience that all he had written was “so much straw in the wind compared to the reality of the divine glory.” I have heard others over the years evoke this saying, however they forget to add that St Thomas also indicated that his writings had not been a wasted effort, they helped to bring him to the encounter he had on December 1273, a few months before his death.
I was touched while reading Awareness to come across the name of, and some quotes from A. S. Neill who established the unique school Summerhill in 1921, and is the author of a book by the same name.
Neill had a beneficial influence on my life, and in the explorations of the meaning and purpose of education. I saw this fine man being laughed at by many, in an audience in Dublin, forty years ago, they may in the light of revelations about violence and abuse over the past two decades have less room now for condemnation of such an explorer. They had little or no understanding of his work, were swayed all too easily by a clever television/radio personality who had even less. Whereas I may not now agree completely with all of A.S. Neill’s views, nonetheless I heartedly recommend the book Summerhill for all who are interested in education and children of all ages.
“Every child has a god in him. Our attempts to mold the child will turn the god into a devil. Children come to my school, little devils, hating the world, destructive, unmannerly, lying, thieving, bad-tempered. In six months they are happy, healthy children who do no evil … There is no violence in those children, because no one is practicing violence on them.” – A. S. Neill, Summerhill
*Anthony De Mello, Awareness, A de Mello Spiritual Conference in HIs Own Words. There are various editions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Neill
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