Value of Values
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Therefore, the whole education or inner maturity of a human being is not in knowing what is right and wrong, which we all know, but in knowing what I lose when I do the wrong thing. This I should know. What will I lose? How much will I lose? If I know this very well, it is not possible for me to go for the bargain. This is what is to be understood here.
When you tell a lie, you are speaking and, therefore, you are a doer, a performer, an actor. You are doing the action of speaking and, as the actor, when you tell a lie you are saying something that is not true to what you think. Therefore, the thinker is one and the actor is quite another. You know one thing and, by the time it comes out of your mouth, it is entirely different because what you say and what you think are not the same. This means there is already a split in you. As a speaker, a doer, who is telling a lie, I behave in such a way that I create a split in myself, like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The thinker and doer split
Once I create a split in myself, then, as a doer I am different from the one who knows, who thinks. If this split has taken place, do you think that you can succeed in life? Even with money or whatever else, you cannot. Because the person, you, is already split. As a thinker, I am entirely different from the performer, the one who does things, the doer. There is only one ‘I,’ and when I see myself as a split person, then, I cannot enjoy what money buys. I will be worried all the time.
You cannot do a wrong thing without a conflict and every conflict naturally creates a split in you. The conflict itself is the split and the split creates conflict. The more conflict there is, the more split the person is. This is not a conflict of choice. It is a conflict between me, the knower and me, the doer. The split is in the very personality, the very person, so that the mind is unable to enjoy the pleasures that money has bought. If a person already has a split between what he or she thinks and does, how can there be enjoyment of anything, whether it be food or a beautiful house? Being in conflict, the person is also potentially moody. You have to determine whether or not someone is in a good mood before you can talk to the person and good moods come only occasionally! When you say what you have to say, the person may feel so bombarded that he or she gets into yet another bad mood. Thus, the person is nothing but mood, potential mood, all due to split, the conflict between the thinker and the doer.
By analysing such situations, we find that this split, which is the basis of all psychological problems, has something to do with our rubbing against the law of dharma. Just look at yourself. When you are in conformity with the order, there is always freedom. There is harmony, joy, and a certain composure. Whereas, when you rub against the order, you get rubbed in the process.
No one can rub against something without getting rubbed. If you rub against a rough bark of a tree with your bare body for five minutes, you will see who gets rubbed—and this knowledge will stay with you for at least ten days! That you never rub against anything without getting rubbed in the process needs to be well understood.