I have an aversion to gadgets, to things that will do things for me. Fancy wine openers. Expensive fruit peelers. Electric dough makers. I like to do what I like to do because I like to do it. I make an exception for my handheld luggage scales, though. They save a lot of faffing around.

The words of Fr Anthony de Mello help to keep me grounded.

If you really enjoy life and the simple pleasures of the senses, you’d be amazed. You’d develop that extraordinary discipline of the animal.

Given the racket the village dogs make when I take my walk, I wonder about that extraordinary discipline.

An animal will never overeat. Left in its natural habitat, it will never be overweight. It will never drink or eat anything that is not good for its health. You never find an animal smoking. It always exercises as much as it needs—watch your cat after it’s had its breakfast, look how it relaxes. And see how it springs into action, look at the suppleness of its limbs and the aliveness of its body. We’ve lost that. We’re lost in our minds, in our ideas and ideals and so on, and its always go, go, go. And we’ve got an inner self-conflict which animals don’t have. And we’re always condemning ourselves and making ourselves feel guilty.

Now that I can certainly identify with. Though not as much in recent years. I have a very clear memory of telling my mother about 20 years ago that I was no longer doing guilt. And while I’m going good on the guilt thing, I’m still working on the condemning, on my self-talk. I’m getting better at it too, though. I’m working on being kinder to myself.

You know what I’m talking about. I could have said of myself what one Jesuit friend said to me some years ago: Take that plate of sweets away, because in front of a plate of sweets or chocolates, I lose my freedom. That was true of me, too; I lost my freedom in front of all kinds of things, but no more! I’m satisfied with very little and I enjoy it intensely.

I am satisfied with very little – and I enjoy it – not intensely – but I enjoy it. I want to get better at this, too.

When you have enjoyed something intensely, you need very little. It’s like people who are busy planning their vacation; they spend months planning it, and they get to the spot, and they’re all anxious about their reservations for flying back. But they’re taking pictures alright, and later they’ll show you pictures in an album, of places they never saw but only photographed. That’s a symbol of modern life. I cannot warn you enough about this kind of asceticism.

Places they never saw but only photographed. Note made to self.

With thanks, as always, to Mark Hofreiter, for making it so easy for me to keep in touch with Anthony de Mello.

Excerpts taken from the 53rd chapter in, “AWARENESS: A de Mellow Spirituality Conference in His Own Words” by Fr. Anthony de Mello, S.J. edited by J. Francis Stroud, S.J., Copyright © 1990 by the DeMello Stroud Spirituality Center.