Anthony de Mello

A Jesuit priest from Bombay, Anthony de Mello built his retreats out of two toolkits at once: the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and the breathing and stillness practices he had studied in Hindu and Buddhist teaching. Born on 4 September 1931, he entered the Society of Jesus at sixteen, was ordained in 1961, trained in psychology in the United States, and in 1972 set up the pastoral counselling institute at Poona that later took the name Sadhana. His first book, Sadhana: A Way to God, appeared in 1978, followed by short story collections such as One Minute Wisdom. He died of a heart attack in New York on 2 June 1987, aged 55. Awareness, issued in full as Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality, was assembled after his death from transcripts of his talks and became his most widely read title. In 1998 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared parts of his teaching incompatible with Catholic belief, a judgement his defenders still contest.