One man, traveling through wild places, met a group of animals holding a competition in eloquence. The judge was a lion, who invited the man to join as a spectator. The man accepted the invitation.
The fox stood up and made a smooth and intelligent speech. To summarize his speech in a nutshell, he argued that the moon is larger than the sun.
The next speaker was the elephant, whose voice sounded powerful and authoritative. His speech included the thought: “Summer is colder than winter.”
Then the tiger spoke, whose eloquence greatly impressed everyone. One of his statements was: “The river flows up the hill.”
The man who observed all this remarked to the lion:
- They are all excellent speakers. However, I'm puzzled. They all make statements that are patently false. But not only that: the audience either doesn’t notice it or doesn’t care. Why do your speakers make false statements?
“It’s just a bad habit, don’t worry,” said the lion, “but the audience is more interested in performance than in enlightenment or enlightenment.” Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to point out that we've picked up this bad habit from you humans.
Priests, politicians: they are great, excellent orators; they are great thinkers, they weave and spin very complex theories and philosophies, but they are not sincere towards religion. Religion, at best, is their profession. And the audience is not interested in enlightenment, it is looking for entertainment. Whether you go to the cinema or to the theater, to dance, to church or to a temple, you are always interested in the same thing: you are looking for a place where you can forget yourself. You are looking for entertainment.
Enlightenment is something completely opposite. You will have to find a place within yourself where it becomes impossible to forget yourself; where, even if you want, it is impossible to forget yourself; where the process of remembering oneself becomes a constant flame.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru