Experiences

They are more convincing than explanations

November 30th 2024

Lived experiences are always more convincing than explanations.
For example, I go into a house during winter. In order to save on heating, everything is tightly shut and airless, and this close atmosphere has made the inhabitants of the house so muddled that their thoughts and feelings are adversely affected. I could explain to them that this way of life is unhealthy, but I know that my time would be wasted in interminable discussions. Instead, I invite them to come for a fifteen to thirty-minute walk in the fresh air. Then we return to the house and no sooner do we open the door than they exclaim out loud, wondering how they could have put up with such an atmosphere: meaning – because this little story is an allegory – with such stale ideas and stifling philosophies. They understand immediately, without the need for words, because the contrast is obvious. Perhaps they had not quite realized, when they stepped out, how marvellous it is to breathe pure, fresh air, but when they return and suffocate in the stale air, they understand.*
* Related reading:

Freedom is the privilege of the spirit: when it rules in us then we can claim to be free. For this we must learn to reestablish the true hierarchy within us and become king of ourselves. It is through the light of our mind that our feelings, thoughts, instincts and desires are then obeyed.