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If you have come
to listen to a man
who it is thought transmits wisdom
you have mistaken your way
for true wisdom is not communicated through books or speeches;
true wisdom is found in the depths of your consciousness,
just as true love is found in the depths of your heart.
If you have come at the urging of slanderers and hypocrites
to listen to this man
so that what you hear today may later be used against him
you have mistaken your way
because this man has not come here to ask anything of you,
or to use you,
because he does not need you.
You are listening to a man
who does not know the laws that rule the Universe,
who is not privy to the laws of History,
who is ignorant of the relationships that govern the peoples of the world.
this man addresses himself to your consciousness
far away from the cities and their sick ambitions.
There in the cities,
where each day is a struggle a hope cut short by death
where love is followed by hate,
where forgiveness is followed by revenge;
there in the cities of the people, rich and poor
there in the immense fields of humanity,
a mantle of suffering and sorrow has fallen.
You suffer
when pain bites your body.
You suffer when hunger seizes your body.
But you suffer not only
because of the immediate pain of your body,
because of the hunger of your body.
You also suffer from the consequences
of diseases of your body.
We must distinguish between two types of suffering.
There is the suffering that is produced in you
thanks to illness,
(and that suffering can recede thanks to the advancement of science,
just as disease and hunger can recede
but thanks to the empire of justice).
There is also the suffering that does not depend on the sickness of your body
but yet derives from that sickness:
If you are disabled,
if you cannot see,
if you cannot hear, you suffer.
But though such suffering derives from your body or the sickness of your body,
that suffering is of your mind.
There are many other types of suffering
that cannot recede even with the advance of science
This type of suffering,
which belongs strictly to your mind,
retreats before faith,
before joy in life,
before love.
You must understand that this suffering
is always rooted in the violence that exists in your own consciousness.
You suffer because you fear losing what you have,
or because of what you have already lost,
or because of what you desperately long to reach.
You suffer because of what you lack,
or because you fear in general...
These, then, are the great enemies of humanity:
fear of sickness,
fear of death,
fear of loneliness.
All these forms of suffering pertain to your mind,
and all of them reveal your inner violence, the violence that is in your mind.
Notice how that violence always stems from desire.
The more violent a person is, the more gross are that person's desires.
I would like to tell you a story that took place long ago.
There was once a traveler
who had to undertake a long journey.
He tied his animal to a cart
and began the long journey
to his faraway destination,
and with a fixed limit of time.
He called the animal "Necessity"
and the cart "Desire";
one wheel he called "Pleasure",
and the other "Pain".
So, the traveler turned his cart to right and to the left,
but always toward his destiny.
The faster the cart traveled,
the faster turned the wheels of Pleasure and Pain,
connected as they were by the same axle,
and carrying as they did the cart of Desire.
But the journey was very long,
and our traveler grew bored.
So he decided to decorate his cart,
and he began to adorn it with many beautiful things,
and in this way he continued.
But the more he embellished the cart of Desire
the heavier became the load for Necessity to pull.
Such that on the curves
and steep hills of the road,
the poor animal grew too exhausted to pull the cart of Desire.
And where the road was soft, the wheels of Pleasure and Suffering
became mired in the earth.
One day, our traveler grew desperate because the road was long
and he was still very far from his destination.
That night he decided to meditate,
and in doing so, he heard the neighing of his old friend.
Comprehending the message, the next morning
he began to strip the cart of its ornamentation,
relieving it of all its burden.
Then he set off once more toward his destination,
with the animal pulling the cart at a brisk trot.
Still, our traveler had lost time that was irrecoverable.
The next night he sat down again to meditate,
and he realized, thanks to another message from his friend,
that now he had to undertake a task
that was doubly difficult because it involved his letting go.
At daybreak
he sacrificed the cart of Desire.
It is true that in doing so he lost the wheel of Pleasure,
but he also lost the wheel of Suffering.
He mounted the back of the animal Necessity
and began galloping across the green fields
until he reached his destiny.
See how desire can trap you.
There are desires of different qualities.
There are more gross desires, and there are more elevated desires.
Elevate desire!
Surpass desire!
Purify desire!
In doing so, surely you will have to sacrifice the wheel of Pleasure
but you will also become free of the wheel of Suffering.
The violence in a person
spurred by desire,
does not simply remain like a sickness in the consciousness of that person,
it acts in the world of other people
and is exercised upon them.
And do not think that when I talk of violence
I am speaking only about the armed act of war
where some men destroy other men.
That is one form of physical violence.
There is also economic violence.
Economic violence is that through which you exploit another;
economic violence occurs when you steal from another,
when you are no longer a brother or sister to others but a bird of prey feeding upon them.
There is also racial violence.
Do you think that you are not being violent
when you persecute someone who is of a different race than yours?
Do you think that you are not engaging in violence when you malign someone
for being of a race different from your own?
And there is religious violence:
Do you think that you are not engaging in violence
when you refuse work to,
or close your doors to,
or dismiss a person,
because that person does not share your religious beliefs?
Do you believe that it is not violence
to isolate through defamation those who do not share your principles
isolating them within their families
isolating them and their loved ones,
because they do not share your religion?
There are other forms of violence
that are imposed by the philistine morality.
You wish to impose your way of life upon others;
you wish to impose your vocation upon another...
But who has told you that you are an example that must be followed?
Who has told you that you can impose a way of life because it pleases you?
Where is the mold and where is the model for you to impose on others? ...
This, then, is another form of violence.
Only you can end the violence in you
and in others and in the world around you,
with internal faith and internal meditation.
There are no false doors to end the violence.
This world is on the verge of exploding
with no way to end the violence!
Do not choose false doors.
There are no politics that can solve
this mad urge for violence.
There is no political party or movement on the planet
that can end the violence.
There are no false doors that lead away from the violence in the world...
I have heard that all over the world young people
are turning to false doors to try to escape the violence and internal suffering.
They turn to drugs as a solution.
Do not choose false doors to try to end the violence.
My brother, my sister, keep these simple commandments,
as simple as these rocks, this snow,
and this sun that blesses us.
Carry peace within you, and carry it to others.
My brother, my sister if you look back in history, you will see a human being
bearing the face of suffering.
look at that face of suffering, but remember it is necessary to move forward
and it is necessary to learn to laugh,
and it is necessary to learn to love.
To you, my brother and sister, I cast this hope
this hope of joy,
this hope of love
so that you elevate your heart and elevate your spirit,
and so that you do not forget to elevate your body.