Anthony de Mello shares 124 stories from a variety of traditions, both ancient and modern, using the age-old medium of parable to illustrate profound contemporary realities about our everyday concerns and our common spiritual quest.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Check your brain at the door
This book was loaned to me with recommendations. The book totally disappointed me. I suppose if one approaches it with a heart of total openness and no discernment for what is true and consistent, it may be viewed positively. However, for the discerning and those who seek truth through evidence and reason, this book is a flop. Let me give specific criticisms:
-The author, Anthony de Mello, criticizes those that seek religion, spirituality, etc. in BOOKS such as the Bible or the Koran. Perhaps the same standard should be applied to his own BOOK.
-The author criticizes the study of WORDS. I wonder if he chose his own WORDS carefully as he wrote.
-The author criticizes thos who might dare to consider their own religion to be RIGHT. I wonder if he thinks his own path to enlightenment, truth, spirituality, etc. to be RIGHT, and if so, should we criticize him for it? If he’s not right, why pay good money for his book?
-His anecdotes and parables, although sometimes interesting, can be totally misleading. For example, in the passage entitled “Good News” he offers a passage of something that Jesus said, but Jesus said no such thing, at least not according to any record we have. If de Mello wants to make stuff up, he should take credit for it himself and not ascribe it to someone else. I wonder if lying is part of his path to enlightenment.
-Where de Mello accurately quotes some of his stories, he picked only the ones that worked for his thesis. You won’t get an accurate understanding of world religions from him.
-He picks out the worst elements of the followers of organized religions and criticizes those, while ignoring the good aspects. What a distortion of reality.
3 Stars Fairly Inspiring
Overall, I like the book, but I guess I was hoping for more inspirational parables and sayings. As a yoga instructor, I have used some of the parables as my participants lay in savasana. I have gotten good feedback from them.
5 Stars Special
My mom gave me this book about 10 years ago. It’s all tattered now but even more loveable. This book is for everyone, of all traditions, faiths, paths and walks of life. It’s the kind of book that you come across while doing something else and when you open it a story speaks to you. This is a special book!
4 Stars Spiritual and Entertaining
For those interested in opening their heart, this is a very good book which gets you to look at things with your heart and not your mind. For those just looking for a good and entertaining read, this is also very good.
5 Stars This book has influenced much of my life
I recieved this book from a Catholic priest in 1986, shortly after it was published. The Song of the Bird is simply a collection of one and two page stories, often told by masters of spiritual wisdom. I still refer to many of the stories and once a year or so reread some of them. I was in bible study 3 mornings ago and we were talking about how to pray. How silly it seems to have a mnemonic such as “ACTS” to pray. I recalled and related to the group the story of a priest who went to a tiny remote island in order to teach a couple of the solated monks there how to pray. He took them out in his boat and started by asking what they knew. They were deeply peaceful men. They recanted their version of the Lord’s Prayer, full of misverbage and some nonsense. The priest chastized them and corrected their errors. They felt badly that they had been praying wrong, and walked on water, back to the shore, where they might practice how to pray correctly.
Every story is simply timeless.
