Awareness: On Waking Up
This is an excerpt from Anthony de Mello’s “Awareness.”
His point: WAKE UP!
Last year on Spanish television I heard a story about this gentleman who knocks on his son's door.
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.
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!"
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."
How someone could be so annoying to shout at you to wake you up,
yet knowing that you're awake, or at least believe so that you are.
This is the difficulty...
to embrace the fact of waking up from the comforts of our sleep.
