What can a human being do-what can you and I do-to create a completely different society? We are asking ourselves a very serious question. Is there anything to be done at all? What can we do? Will somebody tell us? People have told us. The so-called spiritual leaders, who are supposed to understand these things better than we do, have told us by trying to twist and mould us into a new pattern, and that hasn't led us very far; sophisticated and learned men have told us and that has led us no further. We have been told that all paths lead to truth-you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door-which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd. Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to-then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are-your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Truth cannot be reached by following a fixed path or relying on leaders; it must be lived.
- In plain terms
- No single path leads to truth; you must find it yourself.
- What can you take from it?
- Truth is discovered, not taught.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Are you following a path or finding truth?
- What authority do you trust?
Another view
Some paths provide useful structure.
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