There was once a man who went to a lecture hosted by a saint.
A couple of hours into the lecture, he nudged the guy beside him and asked, "Why is this man lying so much?"
The other guy, clearly not impressed by his choice of words, reprimanded, "That man is a saint. You should be ashamed of yourself for saying such utterances about him. Why do you suppose he's lying anyway?"
He replied back with a smile, "Brother, there isn't that much truth in the world. He's been on and on for two hours now, surely he's had to lie!"
-------------------------
For me, this little story always hits home. There is something about its simplicity that is glaringly meaningful.
We tend to lead very busy and complicated lives as it is. And to top it all off, even our philosophies about life have become extremely complicated. There's something about the modern man which, though almost laughable, is also almost a very commonly accepted reality. And that is the idea that truth can not be simple. It has to be complicated. It has to have all these twists and turns and ups and downs, it has to come to us through all a lot of trouble and hard work and sacrifice. I feel that is so because we're so used to this idea of fighting for and only then attaining things that we just assume that whatever is simple, is just wrong in some sense. And that the man who's giving us a philosophy which appears simple must have really missed something out.
A wise man once said, "Simplify, simplify, simplify."
You don't need to sit through lectures from some saint to learn The Truth.
You don't need to read all the books in the world to learn The Truth.
You don't need to read blogs to learn The Truth.
All you need to do is relax, and observe your own veils that you've erected on top of reality. Your biases, your beliefs, your ideas of good and evil, your likes, your desires, You - they are all that stand in your way of realizing The Truth.
What's The Truth, you ask me?
Well, there's an old Zen saying I'd like to propound here. Goes something like "All that can be said cannot be true. That which can be said will not be true. And the truth cannot be said. Only this much can be said, and only this much is true."
In other words, or rather going with the theme of this discourse, in simpler words, "The truth cannot be learnt."
Do not expect to learn The Truth. If anything, unlearn all that you've assumed to be true. What's left will be true.
Suggested further reading - Who am I?
In all honesty, I prefer having personal chats rather than back and forth in the comments' section. If you feel like you want to have discussion with me regarding the content on my blog or anything else, please connect with me on my Instagram here: Chetan Narang - Instagram
Well simplified TRUTH
ReplyDelete