It is amazing how easily most people adopt theories, beliefs, worldviews, novelties of all kinds and immediately start professing them. A deep and instantaneous perception of the truth being spoken does not seem to justify most cases. What then? It seems that such a reaction can only be justified in those unaccustomed to finding meaning in words, who finally come into contact with a discourse they understand. Is that all there is to it? Perhaps there i also something of an innate inclination to repeat. But while this inclination can sometimes prove fruitful, at other times it only reveals a gigantic susceptibility to manipulation.
There Are No Words to Describe the Feeling…
There are no words to describe the feeling we experience when, appreciating the peace that emanates from a Hindu text, we remember the barbarities described by Oliveira Martins committed on Indian soil. It is astonishing. To imagine the Portuguese, precisely in this land where peace is sacred, arriving like demons, robbing and ravaging, setting fires, stealing, murdering and subjugating. And, even in the less violent landings, corrupting by the unbridled exercise of the grossest vices, of the most radical materialism. The thought of Indian cities being transformed into the receptacle of those astonishing perversions, the destination of the greatest earthly ambitions, the paradise of depravity… it is best not to continue.
In Order to Know How to Respect…
If I am not mistaken, it was Nietzsche who said that in order to know how to respect, one must know how to despise. And that is why iterated praise seems hollow. Although it is much more pleasant, it is also necessary to exercise criticism, so that praise, when it comes, is valued. Rejection and appreciation are, in short, complementary and inseparable manifestations.
It Is Really Difficult to Reconcile…
It is really difficult to reconcile inner peace with the unpredictable daily demands that sometimes seem to aim to destroy it. That is why it is necessary to come up with a conscious plan to sustain it, the primary action of which is to continually remind oneself of one’s need for it. That is exactly what refuge and inner peace are: necessities. Otherwise, one cannot achieve sobriety in one’s thinking, much less the tranquillity necessary for fair reflection.