{"id":4685,"date":"2006-03-04T18:30:25","date_gmt":"2006-03-04T18:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4685"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:43:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:43:31","slug":"latest_read_sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4685","title":{"rendered":"Latest Read \u2013 \u201cSadhana\u201d by Anthony de Mello, SJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is actually a re-read of Sadhana<\/strong><\/em>, subtitled A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit spiritual director and writer, prior to his sudden and untimely death in 1987. (For a touching online biography of de Mello by his brother, go here –  Tony deMello, a biography<\/a> ).<\/span><\/p>\n

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I first read Sadhana<\/em><\/strong> probably 12 or 14 years ago. This time, I brought it with me into the hospital as a back-up read, but didn\u2019t start it until I came home. The book is in three sections and divided into 47 \u201cexercises\u201d or short chapters, and should be read over a period of time \u2013 I took almost five weeks, reading one or two exercises a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The three sections are entitled Awareness<\/u>, mostly having to do with various thought, concentration, and breathing exercises. I used exercise five for four weeks (you\u2019ll have to get the book to find out what exercise five is!)<\/span><\/p>\n

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The second section is Fantasy<\/u> but perhaps would be better labeled Imagination, and is somewhat Ignatian. Imagine yourself in a Gospel story, imagine you are dying and say good-bye to your body, the joyful (and sorrowful) mysteries of your life \u2013 stuff like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The last section is Devotions<\/u>, with lessons like The \u201cBenedictine\u201d method, the Jesus Prayer, the Prayer of Intercession. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The book is very good and once read can serve as a sort of reference \u2013 go back and re-use the things you found valuable. Of course the trick is to actually do the exercises over a period of time. Time is important \u2013 it takes time for the value of these approaches to affect you. Or as some would say, to "sink in".<\/span><\/p>\n

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I guarantee that when you finish the book you will NOT be able to levitate, have visions, etc, but you probably will be a calmer and saner person.  Not<\/span> bad. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is actually a re-read of Sadhana, subtitled A Way to God, Christian Exercises in Eastern Form. Anthony de Mello was a Jesuit spiritual director and writer, prior to his sudden and untimely death in 1987. (For a touching online biography of de Mello by his brother, go here –  Tony deMello, a biography ). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9782,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4685\/revisions\/9782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}