Truth Happens to Individuals
"Son, I just know that you will
do the right thing by this little girl," said the preacher, "You just marry her
and you will be at the end of your troubles."
So he did the right thing and he
married the girl. And about six months later, when he saw the preacher again, he
tried to murder him.
"You miserable liar!" shouted the young man, "You told me
if I married her I would be at the end of my troubles. Well, I married her and
she has made my life miserable!"
"That may be true, son, but you can′t blame me," replied the minister, "I said
you would be at the end of your troubles, but I never said which end."
The only way to be in contact with
life, the only way not to lag behind life, is to have a heart which is not
guilty, a heart which is innocent. Forget all about what you have been told -
what has to be done and what has not to be done - nobody else can decide it for
you.
Avoid those pretenders who decide for you; take the reins in your own hands. You
have to decide. In fact, in that very decisiveness, your soul is born. When
others decide for you, your soul remains asleep and dull. When you start
deciding on your own, a sharpness arises. To decide means to take risks, to
decide means you may be doing wrong - who knows, that is the risk. Who knows
what is going to happen? That is the risk, there is no guarantee.
With the old, there is a guarantee. Millions and millions of people have
followed it, how can so many people be wrong? That is the guarantee. If so many
people say it is right, it must be right.
In fact the logic of life is just the opposite. If so many people are following
a certain thing, be certain it is wrong, because so many people are not so
enlightened and cannot be so enlightened. The majority consists of fools, utter
fools. Beware of the majority. If so many people are following something, that
is enough proof that it is wrong.
Truth happens to individuals, not to crowds. Have you ever heard of a crowd
becoming enlightened? Truth happens to individuals - a Tilopa, an Atisha, a
Nanak, a Kabir, a Farid.
Truth happens to individuals.
Be an individual if you really want truth to happen to you.
Take all the risks that are needed to be an individual, and accept the
challenges so that they can sharpen you, can give you brilliance and
intelligence.
Truth is not a belief, it is utter intelligence. It is a flaring-up of the
hidden sources of your life, it is an enlightening experience of your
consciousness. But you will have to provide the right space for it to happen.
And the right space is accepting yourself as you are. Don′t deny anything, don′t
become split, don′t feel guilty.
Rejoice! And I say to you again, rejoice as you are.
Read also:
- Benedict Anderson: a Nation is an Imagined Community