ANTHONY DE MELLO: SADHANA MEDITATION
Dych (1999: 7-27) reports that Indian priest, Father Anthony de Mello (1931-1987), was a Jesuit spiritual director and retreat leader who held workshops, conferences, and seminars all over the world. His writings are said to have a mystical thread and yet his methods are simple and concrete, consisting of easily doable exercises that silence the mind and allow the yearnings of the spirit to surface. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss de Mello's use of Sadhana meditation.
Rajagopalachari (2005: 1-2) notes that Sadhana in its essential form is a meditation and cleansing prayer in which one sits and waits, patiently and prayerfully, for an experience of the Divine. It is said to be a purification of one's nature and a consecration of one's being. Sadhana, as practice by Eastern religions, opens the inner mind in such a way that contact can be made with the Presence of God. In more Eastern terms, this might be viewed as a means of ego surrender in which the individual consciousness is widened into the cosmic Consciousness and the self is surrendered to the Self that encompasses all.
De Mello's (1984:28-56) perspective of Sadhana is one in which the eastern is infused with Christianity in general and Christian mysticism in particular. He provides for his readers several concrete exercises by which they can engage in Sadhana meditation as a means to experience the Divine Presence. De Mello views these (28-56) as a means of engaging the entire person in prayer, body, mind, and soul. He also utilizes the power of the imagination to make the focus more concrete, more personally meaningful, and more involving.
De Mello (1984: 72-92) points out that many Catholic have a hunger for God, that they yearn for His Presence so strongly that the desire cannot be shaken no matter how strenuously one might argue for a person's unworthiness as a sinner. It is a said to be an inner nee...