A warm welcome to this workbook by Father Anthony De Mello. Let me offer a few suggestions that may help even before you start. First, skimming or speed-reading does not help in anything written by Tony De Mello. You don’t want to miss the mysteries and challenges waiting for you. I can assure you that a patient reading will bring some rich rewards. Second, and just as important as the first, prepare for surprises. If you don’t encounter any, better to go back and read that paragraph or chapter again. At times, the familiar contains the surprise. At other times, it will be something far from customary or something that’s even disturbing. Tony’s stories are chosen not only for their entertainment value but because, in Tony’s own words, “a story is the shortest distance between a human being and the truth.” Children always want to hear a story more than just once. And some adults feel the same way. That could explain why our Lord’s stories like the prodigal son or the good shepherd, for example, are so precious to us millennia after he uttered them. And Tony makes no apologies for stories from different cultures and different countries. They have much to tell us about our human nature. That’s no surprise. What may come as a surprise is Tony’s warning about accepting or rejecting his statements. It is really part of the work when dealing with this workbook. Here is Tony’s admonition: you must not accept my words out of respect but should analyze them the way the Buddha advised seekers, “the way the goldsmith analyzes gold—by cutting, scraping, rubbing, melting.” That is the attitude Tony wished the reader to have when evaluating anything he wrote. For him, the argument from authority will not be used. To require such high standards from his readers might qualify in itself as a surprise. One final question may be occurring to you as you start reading—or should I say working through—this book: Will it be worth my effort? Am I really going to be free from what seems like a program of endless self-improvement? Or is this just the same old search that leads me nowhere? Good question! And one impossible to answer with promises or guarantees. My own experience, for example, is no guarantee of what your experience or anyone else’s might be. Even two similar people might respond differently to Tony’s suggestions and challenges. So there is no absolutely guaranteed, predictable outcome that can be offered for......