Osho quotes Rabia al-Adawiyya as saying: “The heard is the lie and the seen is the truth.”
Somebody asked Rabia al-Adawiya, ‘What is the difference between truth and a lie?’
And Rabia said, ‘Four inches.’
The man was puzzled. He asked again, ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’
She said, ‘The difference between the ear and the eye is the difference between the lie and the truth. The lie is all that you hear from the ear; the heard is the lie and the seen is the truth.’
Truth is your own experience, your own vision. Even if I have seen the truth and I tell you, the moment I tell you it will become a lie for you, not a truth. For me it was truth, for me it came through the eyes. It was my vision. For you it will not be your vision, it will be a borrowed thing. It will be a belief, it will be knowledge – not knowing. It will come through the ear. And if you start believing in it, you will be believing a lie. Now remember it. Even a truth becomes a lie if it enters your being through the wrong door. The truth has to enter through the front door, through the eyes. Truth is a vision. One has to see it.
Osho, Sufis, the People of the Path – Talks on Sufism, Vol 1, Ch 11 (excerpt)
Series compiled by Shanti
All excerpts of this series can be found in: 1001 Tales
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