Kamakura Buddha
I’ve been accused now and then of being a sage in so many words, and otherwise. Granted, I am ‘lao tzu’ (老子 – father, old man), but a sage? As they say, he who points one finger of accusation has four other fingers pointing back at him. As I see it, whatever we see ‘out there’ is nothing other than a reflection of what is ‘in here’. We only see what we want to see; we only understand what we already know. In this case we can say, it takes a sage to know a sage. Now while that may be flattering idea at first glance, further pondering shatters that. For example, I am sure those who followed Hitler thought him a sage (although not in so many words).
Baby Hitler
This is an interesting effect of the dominant social/tribal sense we feel. It really binds people together and together to their leaders. It continues to amaze me why this is not more obvious to us. Perhaps we are blinded by our innate social need (drive) to see hierarchical structure (i.e., love our heroes, loathe our villains). What’s more, the greater the need we feel, the less objectively we observe the experience. As they say, love is blind.
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