The real will never be something you can be conscious of — Lao Tzu

“When people see something as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.”
~ Lao Tzu

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Sir, we know this, as soon as the world regards something as beautiful, ugliness simultaneously becomes apparent. As soon as the world regards something as good, evil simultaneously becomes apparent. We see in media and television and everything that this is. We all are tuned into becoming one way or the other, without realizing the sacred text.

Acharya Prashant: You see that’s what Lao Tzu is saying.

He is saying, the moment man starts talking about beauty, ugliness has already crept in. Is beauty a concept of man’s mind? Can a man talk of beauty without contrasting it, comparing it, without having an environment of ugliness? The thing with the mind is that it operates in dualities. It cannot call something as good, without calling its opposite as bad. And hence, bad is necessary if you are to call anything as good.

It cannot call anything as white without having a background of black. It operates in pairs of dualistic opposites. Lao Tzu says, leave the essentials from your definitions — spare them! You start talking about love, only when love is receding.

Real love is when you do not even know that you are in love.

If you are calling something as love, then you are calling it as love only because it is subscribing to, matching with, confirming with your image of love. And often what starts mattering more to us is the image rather than the substance.

Real Silence is one when you do not even know that you are silent.

If you know that you are silent, this knowledge itself is noise. You see this? And hence, the real, the essential, would never be something that you can be conscious of.

You see this? And hence, the real, the essential, would never be something that you can be conscious of.