Lies are not something to be taken lightly. I see lie after lie around me. I see a world that is one enormous lie. And perhaps I see it so clearly now because I am beginning to stop lying to myself. And the more clearly I see it, the more I avoid getting caught in its nets, the more I avoid taking part in its absurdity.
As I have told myself more truth, I have begun to understand what I really want and which of those supposed desires were absurd lies. I have come to realise that the things I want are very simple: more freedom, more power to decide, nothing telling me how to live my life or how to use—or waste—my time. For my only concern to be living more fully in the present, rather than having my head full of problems with neither meaning nor solution. For my only concern to be sharing myself wherever I am welcome.
What a joy it is to give and to have what you give wanted! I want my life to be just that and nothing more. A freedom that can only be reached by letting go. Letting go of old ideas, absurd beliefs, beliefs that oppress. Letting go of my own falseness and the mask I have worn to please someone who does not care about me in the slightest. Someone who does not care about my dreams or concerns. Someone who cares only about what they can get from me, or sees me as a yardstick against which to measure their mediocrity.
In a world sustained by lies, genuine interest is often conspicuous by its absence. Just as it is obvious that, in that same world, few will have the courage to champion the truth, their truth. But you cannot hide under a stone: part of the work of being here is learning to deal with those lies.
Sometimes you will be inclined to condemn them; at other times, they will simply seem like a joke. Endorsing them certainly will not help anyone. What would I do, then? Respect the person who chooses to lie to themselves—in other words, respect their decision without supporting it.
Someone will tell you a lie that you recognise perfectly because you will have reached a point where you could no longer lie to yourself in that way. In that moment, you will be tempted to expose it, which that person may perceive as a direct attack, setting their entire defensive system in motion. Through it, they will generate even more lies to justify or conceal the one you tried to expose. Something that will lead you nowhere except into conflict or mutual discomfort.
Your other option is to listen, recognise it for what it is, and ignore it. Let it be, let it pass. Those who want truth will ask you for it, for that will be their desire. And those who do not want it will evade it at all costs.
We must respect another person’s decision to lie shamelessly to themselves. In time, truth will meet truth, and those who cultivate truth within themselves will also seek it beyond themselves. They will seek authentic relationships and loathe those in which they are habitually lied to, finding them utterly empty and tiresome. They will grow weary of hearing lie after lie and loathe them as much as they loathe the many forms of unhappiness that arise from them.
These days, whenever I see a little truth, I find it deeply motivating. It is a ray of hope breaking through so much absurdity. Something I contemplate with joy.
How beautiful are the truths that are like clear water!
How beautiful the fluttering of their wings!