A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

“A thief just ran in this direction,” the sergeant said. “Do you know where he went?”

Kabir chuckled, continued weaving and said, “He’s hiding in that little hillock of cotton.” And he carried on singing the couplets.

The soldiers exchanged glances among themselves. Dismissing him as a madman, the men went away in search of the thief. After about five minutes, Kabir asked the thief to come out of hiding.

“Are you crazy,” the thief said. “You nearly had me killed!

Why did you tell the truth?”

“Because, my friend,” Kabir said stopping his wheel, “only truth could save you. Truth knows no fear whereas the king’s men would have seen through my lies.”

The thief went away transformed and legend has it that he became an ardent follower of Kabir.

In this day and age, it is not easy to be truthful. It has never been easy because truth is mostly punished. Most people don’t even want to hear the truth, they are happy living in a cocoon of lies. Sometimes, there’s no way of sugarcoating the truth. Especially in a situation where the other person doesn’t want to handle the truth, it doesn’t matter how gently you tell them, they will react unfavorably. This is the single most reason why most people tell lies countless times every day. It’s easier to get away with a lie than handle truth.

Someone calls you and you don’t take their call because you don’t feel like it. When you call back that person, you can’t say, “I didn’t want to speak to you.” You lie saying that you were either busy or the phone was on silent mode and so on. The other person knows too that you are most probably telling a lie but they don’t want to hear the truth either. Truth would hurt them more.

In walking the path of meditation, however, liberation comes from the strength that only truth can bestow. It’s a virtue unlike any other. On January 1, 2011, I vowed to never tell a lie again. It’s been one of the most rewarding and most difficult vows because most people around you don’t want to hear the truth, and you can’t always speak the truth because it hurts them. Sometimes, you have to choose whether you want to speak the truth and hurt the other person or wish to keep quiet and bear the brunt.

Between truth and compassion, I personally choose compassion.

That is not to say that I would tell a lie but I would rather hurt myself than hurt the other person. You may think it’s unusual but if you reflect on even your own life, you would find innumerable instances where you chose to hurt yourself out of compassion rather than hurting the other person. It’s not uncommon. Most of us do it. When you make a commitment to lead a virtuous life, you see yourself doing it more often. Putting the other person before yourself, that’s what compassion is. Truth on the other hand is putting your principle before the other person. Sometimes that is more important.

I once read a quote that said, “Some people are so brutally honest that it almost seems they enjoy more being brutal than being truthful.” Being truthful doesn’t mean that you have to be brutal. Buddha was known for speaking the truth. He put forward six profound conditions that should be evaluated to determine the right time of breaking the truth to someone assuming it should be spoken at all.

Once, Prince Abhaya asked Buddha if he ever spoke harsh and disagreeable words. At first, Buddha said there was no categorical yes or no answer. However, when pressed by Abhaya, the Venerable One, referring to himself in third person as Tathagata (the one gone beyond) spoke:

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be un-factual, untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), un- endearing and disagreeable to others, he does not say them.

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, un-endearing and disagreeable to others, he does not say them.

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, but un-endearing and disagreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them.

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be un- factual, untrue, unbeneficial, but endearing and agreeable to others, he does not say them.

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, unbeneficial, but endearing and agreeable to others, he does not say them.

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing and agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has compassion for living beings.39

It’s hard to find a better and clearer teaching on truth. If our words are true, factual, beneficial but not endearing or agreeable, we should think a million times before stating such truth as it’s unlikely to accomplish anything at all. It’ll hurt the other person and won’t benefit them in any way.