Truth is an experience, not a belief.

Truth never comes by studying about it; truth has to be encountered, truth has to be faced. The person who studies about love is like the person who studies about the Himalayas by looking at the map of the mountains. The map is not the mountain! And if you start believing in the map, you will go on missing the mountain. If you become too much obsessed with the map, the mountain may be there just in front of you, but still you will not be able to see it.

And that’s how it is. The mountain is in front of you, but your eyes are full of maps–maps of the mountain, maps about the same mountain, made by different explorers. Somebody has climbed the mountain from the north side, somebody from the east. They have made different maps: Koran, Bible, Gita–different maps of the same truth. But you are too full of the maps, too burdened by their weight; you cannot move even an inch. You cannot see the mountain just standing in front of you, its virgin snow peaks shining like gold in the morning sun. You don’t have the eyes to see it.

The prejudiced eye is blind, the heart full of conclusions is dead. Too many a priori assumptions and your intelligence starts losing its sharpness, its beauty, its intensity. It becomes dull.

Dull intelligence is what is called intellect. Your so-called intelligentsia are not really intelligent, they are just intellectual. Intellect is a corpse. You can decorate it–you can decorate it with great pearls, diamonds, emeralds, but still a corpse is a corpse.

To be alive is a totally different matter.

1. 

   Snowman Japan says:

   September 8, 2007 at 6:54 am

   Hi Charlie
   I know exactly what you mean. I have met many people with MBAs, PhDs, JDSs, MDs, etc., who are so full of themselves, that they think they know everything there is to know, and therefore have no motivation to re-examine themselves, every day. Some of the worst “teachers” whom I have ever met, often have MAs or PhDs, and spent all of their time doing “research” so they can write another book, or thesis. They consider the times when they must teach classes, as a waste of their valuable time. Phuck them. They are missing the point. Face to face, one on one. That’s how it really works. By the way, who wrote the calligraphy in your photo of ShinJitsu? It looks really beautiful.
   Norman D.
2. 

   Charles Hamel says:

   September 8, 2007 at 11:44 am

   Hi Norman

   The Kanji was found on Google Images again!

   The URL is http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.notestomyself.net/photos/calligraphy/041120_calligraphy_shinjitsu_truth.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.notestomyself.net/photos/calligraphy/041120_calligraphy_shinjitsu_truth.html&h=500&w=500&sz=37&hl=en&start=1&sig2=Xn3cPgZmOwqjuks0rhz-Qw&um=1&tbnid=Qt8l4wqiPvRQaM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=130&ei=WhrjRtnLLqWAggLql_GkDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcalligraphy%2Bshin%2Bjitsu%2Btruth%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
   I would much rather have Wisdom than Intellectual Smarts. To learn from experience is the true way of learning.

   See ya soon
3. 

   deb says:

   April 11, 2009 at 7:29 am

   Jesus said “I am the way, the TRUTH and the life..nobody gets throught the Father, but by Me.”

   Jesus is the Truth.