In Search of the Miraculous

opinions, and habits are the results of external influences, external impressions. Out of himself a man cannot produce a single thought, a single action. Everything he says,

does, thinks, feels—all this happens. Man cannot discover anything, invent anything.

It all happens.

"To establish this fact for oneself, to understand it, to be convinced of its truth, means getting rid of a thousand illusions about man, about his being creative and

consciously organizing his own life, and so on. There is nothing of this kind.

Everything happens—popular movements, wars, revolutions, changes of government,

all this happens. And it happens in exactly the same way as everything happens in the

life of individual man. Man is born, lives, dies, builds houses, writes books, not as he

wants to, but as it happens. Everything happens. Man does not love, hate, desire—all

this happens.

"But no one will ever believe you if you tell him he can do nothing. This is the most offensive and the most unpleasant thing you can tell people. It is particularly

unpleasant and offensive because it is the truth, and nobody wants to know the truth.

"When you understand this it will be easier for us to talk. But it is one thing to

understand with the mind and another thing to feel it with one's "whole mass,' to be really convinced that it is so and never forget it.

"With this question of doing" (G. emphasized the word), "yet another thing is connected. It always seems to people that others invariably do things wrongly, not in

the way they should be done. Everybody always thinks he could do it better. They do

not understand, and do not want to understand, that what is being done, and

particularly what has already been done in one way, cannot be, and could not have been, done in another way. Have you noticed how everyone now is talking about the

war? Everyone has his own plan, his own theory. Everyone finds that nothing is being

done in the way it ought to be done. Actually everything is being done in the only way

it can be done. If one thing could be dif-

ferent everything could be different. And then perhaps there would have been no war.

"Try to understand what I am saying: everything is dependent on everything else,

everything is connected, nothing is separate. Therefore everything is going in the only

way it can go. If people were different everything would be different. They are what

they are, so everything is as it is."

This was very difficult to swallow.

"Is there nothing, absolutely nothing, that can be done?" I asked.

"Absolutely nothing."

"And can nobody do anything?"

"That is another question. In order to do it is necessary to be. And it is necessary first to understand what 10 be means. If we continue our talks you will see that we use a special language and that, in order to talk with us, it is necessary to learn this

language. It is not worth while talking in ordinary language because, in that language,

it is impossible to understand one another. This also, at the moment, seems strange to

you. But it is true. In order to understand it is necessary to learn another language. In the language which people speak they cannot understand one another. You will see

later on why this is so.

"Then one must learn to speak the truth. This also appears strange to you. You do

not realize that one has to learn to speak the truth. It seems to you that it is enough to wish or to decide to do so. And I tell you that people comparatively rarely tell a

deliberate lie. In most cases they think they speak the truth. And yet they lie all the

time, both when they wish to lie and when they wish to speak the truth. They lie all the

time, both to themselves and to others. Therefore nobody ever understands either

himself or anyone else. Think—could there be such discord, such deep

misunderstanding, and such hatred towards the views and opinions of others, if people

were able to understand one another? But they cannot understand because they cannot

help lying. To speak the truth is the most difficult thing in the world; and one must

study a great deal and for a long time in order to be able to speak the truth. The wish

alone is not enough. To speak the truth one must know what the truth is and what a lie is, and first of all in oneself. And this nobody wants to know."

Talks with G., and the unexpected turn he gave to every idea, interested me more

and more every day. But I had to go to Petersburg.

I remember my last talk with him.

I had thanked him for the consideration he had given me and for his explanations

which, I already saw, had changed many things for me.

"But all the same, you know, the most important thing is facts," I said. "If I could see genuine and real facts of a new and unknown character, only they would finally

convince me that I am on the right way."

I was again thinking of "miracles."