Mister God, This Is Anna: The True Story of a Very Special Friendship

Anna and Inside/OutsideWe have a gift from an unlikely place from a little girl named Anna. Her story comes to us as Mister God, This is Anna. She gives us a wonderful insight into our situation--- what has happened, and what needs to happen. Anna helps us to better understand Swamiji. She helps us relate more easily to this idea of Self. And that is what it is all about: making it more relevant.This book is all about Anna’s growing understanding and discoveries about the nature of Mister God. And one of her discoveries was that the purpose of life was to become like Mister God. And she was trying to do this in her own way.As Vedantists we soon understand that the Mister God Anna is talking about is Sat (pure Being). Sat is short for Satchitananda: Being/Consciousness/ Joy--- or Bliss, Delight, Love, Peace, Beauty. Sat Chit Ananda : Being, consciousness of Being, Delight in our consciousness of Being. Ananda Chit Sat. Satchitananda. Joy in our consciousness of Being. Being Consciousness Joy. What could be more relevant than that? It’s all psychological, as well as spiritual. Satchitananda is Brahman. And to be like Mister God is to become Satchitananda. She understood this at five or six years old, from her own questioning and the understanding she came to.In the very beginning of the book we are confronted with our human situation, as discovered by Anna, the human predicament, our peculiar condition, and this is clarified at the very end of the book.Quote: There is a question for Anna. “What is the difference between a person and an angel?” Her answer: “The difference between an angel and a person is easy. An angel is mostly in the inside. A person is mostly on the outside.”You might find it very odd that a child of six or seven is being asked such a question, or even that her answer should be helpful to us.How could a child answer such a question? Or anyone? Unless she knew something we don’t? This child is obsessed with wanting to know more about Mister God. She asks questions and gets answers. By the end of the book we find Anna, still a child, but very self assured about life and reality. And she knows that she knows much more than others about Mister God . Fynn, the author is part of her investigations and learning from Anna. His life was changed.Ashram: What this place is. Two things. Inside/Outside.Anna gives us a wonderful insight into our present situation, which is a predicament--- what has happened and what needs to happen. In the very beginning we get this image: Inside/Outside. This is a very useful distinction.We need to remember this image, this distinction, this condition: Inside/Outside. It comes up again and again as Anna discovers more and more about the nature of Mister God. It is very helpful for understanding our human condition.(We will find later that Eckhart Tolle is telling us the same thing that she discovered but in different words.)Near the end of the book the understanding of Inside/Outside becomes clear, and how this relates to Faith and strengthening FaithWhat is wrong with us? This is the picture. We are on the Outside, that is we are in our heads all of the time instead of being Inside, living in our Being, our souls. Inside is pure Being and that is where Mister God is. Being Inside means being who we truly are--- Satchitananda, our Self. Nothing to fear; your heart full of life, love and joy. That is what we are after. And for Anna the whole purpose of life is be become like Mister God, become pure Being, Inside. We could say, to become Divine. She saw this. But instead we are “mostly on the Outside”, in our heads, immersed in ego, and this is a peculiar condition.When we are Inside, that is where the Stillness is, no thought, just our Beingness, our I am-ness. The vast and silent you, no thinking, just being oneself, quiet inside. Inside is home. It’s where we go in deep sleep. But on the contrary, we (people) are mostly on the outside, with our myriad desires, obsessions, formations, concerns, preoccupations ---all Outside in our heads, instead of Inside in our Being, our Divinity, our Reality (Satchitananda), our soul.Bits of our Being (heart area) are transformed into mind stuff (head) and these lost bits leave holes in our Being. Like a sieve. Lots of holes. And robs us of our power. What is left for the power of Faith?If we are not in the Self (Inside) then we are in our mind stuff, our egos (Outside in our heads), as with nearly everyone in the world. And that is where all the trouble and suffering originates. The Self is the nature of Oneness and harmony. Ego is all about separation and the rest.Quote Mister God p. 182Our condition on the Inside, as Fynn describes it, is that we are full of holes, our substance is full of holes, like certain types of cheese, our Beingness, our Reality is full of holes. We are in our heads instead of being in our Consciousness (Sat) and our Consciousness (Inside) has been converted to mind stuff in our heads, leaving holes in our Consciousness Inside. Our heads are full of mind stuff: desires, obsessions, fears, formations, our egos, all of which has left holes in our substance: our Being/Consciousness/Bliss, Satchitananda, Brahman, our Reality. Our Reality, our Consciousness has gone into head stuff, being in our heads, and that is Outside.Power comes from Being (Satchitananda). There is no Being in mind stuff (Outside) Yet we identify with what is Outside, in our heads, our mindstuff, our egos, and there is no Being there. We identify with non-being. Therefore we are cut off, we cut ourselves off from our power source, from Being ( from Satchitananda) from divinity Itself. We cut ourselves off. From Self. Which leaves us with a bunch of holes, little power, partially empty shells. Little strength. We live in non-Being. We need to be Inside. And that is why we are here on the planet, to become Inside, to become transformed into the Divinity that we really are, to become like Mister God, to be our Selves (with a capital “S”). And this is the Self Swamiji (Swami Vivekananda) is telling us to put our Faith in. Inside is Self (capital S) Outside is ego, small self, and mind stuff.This is why Sri Aurobindo is so harsh about desires; they do damage to the spiritual seeker. He calls them a menace and an enemy Fynn describes the action of a desire on his Being (Inside) as leaving a gaping hole. Our need is to refill those holes inside with Being, with Consciousness, to become full of Being/Consciousness/ Delight, to become fully ourselves, our real Selves.How do we get Inside? In Fynn’s case thru a lot of self examination, looking at all of that head stuff, at all of those desires, thinking of Mister God, probably praying a lot (since he had been thinking to be a priest while younger, but became a scientist instead). Maybe he got into meditation too. But that’s how we transform our head stuff back into Consciousness, back into Sat, pure Being, Inside, Being/Consciousness/ Bliss, back into Satchidananda, our divinity. Eckhart is saying the same thing in his Power of Now, and it is amazing (an understatement) that Anna had discovered this same thing while still a child, simply thru her own questioning and unwillingness to let go of a question until an answer came to her. She became a spiritually advanced soul.Quote Eckhart: Power of Now p. 92So we need to get back, from mind stuff to Consciousness, from being in our heads all the time to being Inside, where our Reality is, like an angel who is mostly on the Inside. To get out of our egos, small self (outside), back to our Selves, Inside (capital “S”) “The difference between a person and an angel is easy. An angel is mostly in the Inside, a person is mostly on the outside.”When we clearly see the difference between Outside and Inside it is easier to opt for Inside (Being). Because this truly our Self interest. (Self with a capital “S”)And heaven is where” everybody is inside themselves”. p. 182This is where strength is.

Beautiful story. I happen to think it's literally true - but either way, the author was a real man and HE believed it. I think the ultimate beauty and point is --- there's an Anna in every one of us. We've just forgot! And the fact that this piddly little love story is still being bought . . . I think that's testimony to . . . ;)

I read this book in high school and it seriously changed my spiritual life forever!I would highly recommend buying "Anna's Book" by Fynn when you purchase "Mister God, This Is Anna"

AMAZON review: I bought eight new copies of this universally-beloved little book. I'm a Unitarian Universalist and picked up a dog-eared copy of it for 25 cents at my church's last book sale. That's the one I'll keep and I'll give a new one back to our book sales, and add another to our church library. That will leave six for Christmas presents. Perhaps Mister God, This Is Anna has been circulating at our book sales for years, passed on from one to another. If so, it's because Anna's feisty, deeply questioning, spontaneous, chatty, forgiving, widely embracing, crazy about science & math, outrageously heretical, and definitely self-generated religion appeals to UUs, even if most of us don't have Anna's continual conversations with God (and some doubt his/her/its existence). Personally I'm a student of Process Theology, or Panentheism, so I tend to agree with a great many of this little genius tomboy girl's ideas. The most popular UU adult education curriculum, ever, is called "Building Your Own Theology"--and that's what Anna does, building her own theology throughout this inspiring and glorious book! It's listed as nonfiction, but I don't know how much of it contains the real ideas of a small child awash in innocence and love, how much are novelistic devices and speculations of the author, Fynn--a pen name. Did someone named Anna really live in a slummy section of London and die at age 8 just before Britain entered World War II? Or did Fynn end it there, knowing how difficult it would be to juggle the narrative with the drafting of young men his age and the exile of children to far away villages during the Luftwaffe bombing? Who is, or was, Fynn? If he's still alive he'd be very old. It doesn't really matter. Anna's personality and ideas are what touch the reader. I love this book, and Fynn, and Fynn's mother, and the shopkeepers, and Anna's prostitute friends, and her boredom in the parish church that preaches what she considers crazy ideas about God. I especially love Anna. She creates love, leaves it in her footsteps.If you want more details on Fynn and Anna, Fynn's age when he met Anna, hints of his career (not the one I'd envisioned), then read "Anna and the Black Knight, with Anna's Book", also available from Amazon.

Great read!

I love this book and remembered it fondly as much for its cover art as for the story itself. The book itself is in very good condition, but I was expecting it to have its dust jacket with the cover art as that is how it was shown on the purchase page. If a book is to be sold and shipped without its cover art, that fact should be represented in the photo advertising its sale.

I read this wonderful book many years ago and several times through the years. Anna is a fascinating young child who will give you a new understanding of life and God. I highly recommend this short book.

not what I was expectingIn that way it is a perfect model of life, my life and what I see of yours. I heard about this book many years ago and decided, from the description I was given that it was not for me. It is not like what I heard described at all. I am not like what I was then, either. At the perfect moment we, the book and I collided and were perfect for each other.

Received in good condition

I read the book the first time when I was about 14 years old.Now I'm 52 and it's still awesome

The son of one of my closest friends told me as a child 'Dear Mister God This is anna 'was hid favorite book but it went missing somewhere along the way and now, as an adult he had no idea what ever happened to it. I too, remembered reading this book as a teen and can see why it was his favorite. I remember it by heart like it was yesterday even though, I am now an old lady. It is a powerful, beautiful bitter-sweet story that you can never forget after reading it. It is one of those books that stick in your soul and never leave again. Sweet little Anna will make you love her, make you laugh and then...cry your eyes out time and time again throughout this book and sob like a baby at the end. Without giving the end away...The end is not a happy ending. The end is horrifyingly sad and I remember crying like a teensy baby when I closed the book. Despite the sad ending...I highly recommend this book. It's a perception changer. I bought this book to surprise my friend's son...he is thrilled to have his childhood favorite back again. Thank you...made three people's day brighter today receiving this book in the mail.

WOW WOW this book was totally amazing, thought invoking, with Inspiring words. i was glued, yet will reflect, revisit and reread again

Avevo già letto questo libro in italiano e mi aveva entusiasmato e commosso a livelli insopportabili.Ho voluto leggere anche le versione in lingua originale che non ha fatto altro che rinnovare il mio affetto per questo libro, che vorrei regalare a tutte le persone che so lo apprezzerebbero; purtroppo in italiano è praticamente introvabile se non a prezzo esorbitante