Truth

It is not enough to believe, we must study, verify

October 20th 2024
It is easy to explain why human beings hold certain opinions or behave in certain ways. It is even easy to understand that they make mistakes and do all kinds of stupid things. But to claim that their opinions and actions correspond to the truth is another matter. Individuals form their opinions depending on their faculties, capacities, temperament and needs, that is all. How presumptuous they are when they say, ‘I believe this… I don’t believe that’, as though they were proclaiming an eternal truth! As though their belief or unbelief were enough to make it true or untrue!
The important thing is not to believe or disbelieve, but to study, to verify, for this is how we get closer to the truth. Do those who say, ‘I believe’, know why they believe? What has inspired their belief? Human beings believe a great many things because it suits them, because it is to their advantage – it corresponds to their needs, their sensibilities or their interests. Well, they can believe whatever they like, they have the right to do so, but they must not imagine that what they believe is the truth. Above all, they should stop trying to impose their beliefs on others!*
* Related reading:
Random meditation Today's meditation Alphabetical index