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have said things about you and you have gathered them. Something your mother said, something your father said, your brother, friends, society, and you have gathered all that. Of course, it is going to be contradictory because of so many people, so many mirrors. Your identity is self-contradictory. You cannot call it a self, because a self is possible only when you have dropped living in contradictions. But for that you have to go within. The first step of understanding is that your self is already waiting for you -- within you. You need not look into anybody else's eyes.
Don't believe in mirrors -- believe in reality.
I have heard, once it happened:
An old clergyman advised a politician to go out into the rain and lift his head heavenward. "It will bring a revelation to you," he promised.
Next day the politician returned. "I followed your advice," he said, "and water came down my neck and I felt like a fool."
"Well," said the old clergyman, "for a first try, don't you think that's quite a revelation?"
If you can understand your foolishness, it is quite a revelation -- yes it is, because from that point begins a journey.
A man who is constantly worried about his impression in others' eyes, how he looks in mirrors, is a fool, because he is wasting a great opportunity in which tremendous experiences are possible. But he has not taken the first step, afraid because he will look like a fool. Don't be afraid of foolishness, otherwise you will remain a fool.
One day or other you have to recognize the fact that up to now you have lived in deep stupidity. And if you go on living this way -- through mirrors, reflections, opinions -- you by and by lose your individuality, you become part of the masses, you lose your soul. Then you are not an authentic individual.
The word 'mass' comes from a Latin root massa. Massa means something which can be molded, kneaded. And when I say you become a mass, I mean that you are being continuously molded by others, kneaded by others. But you allow it, you cooperate with it. You take all sorts of trouble to become a part of the mass, of some crowd, because alone you lose your identity.
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