Are you always honest with yourself? On the cushion, and off the cushion?
Self honesty and honesty with others is absolutely fundamental to progress on the path in my experience. However, our upbringing and cultural niceties teach most of us to be dishonest on a regular basis.
For example lets take the simple question "How are you?" in english or "Comment ça va?" en francais. How many times a day, worldwide do people lie in response to this question? Do you lie in response to this question?
I wrote a short poem about the subject in French:
Ça va?
Comment ça va?
Ça va.
Bah oui, il faut,
Mais, si non?
Quoi faire?
Sois honnête ? Dit « non » ?
Non. Ça ne va pas.
Lais-moi te dire quelque chose,
Très importante.
Si tu ne veux pas ecouter une vraie réponse,
C’est mieux que tu ne pose pas la question
English version:
How's it going?
How's it going?
I'm OK.
Well, yes, have to be don't you,
But what if it's not OK?
What to do?
Be honest? Say "No"?
No. That won't do.
Let me tell you something,
Very important.
If you do not want to hear the real answer,
It's better not to ask the question.
It's a very simple question and most of us probably lie in response to it on a frequent basis. I think this is important in regard to treading the path, this simple every day dishonesty we are so accustomed to.
What do you think? Are you honest 100%?
In the Dhamma,
Matthew
Here is what google does with a german translation. Stefan ....
Wie es geht?
Wie es geht?
Ich bin OK.
Nun, ja, müssen Sie nicht,
Aber was ist, wenn es nicht in Ordnung?
Was ist zu tun?
Seien Sie ehrlich? "Nein" sagen?
Nein Das geht nicht.
Lassen Sie mich Ihnen sagen, etwas,
Sehr wichtig.
Wenn Sie nicht wollen, zu hören, die richtige Antwort,
Es ist besser, nicht zu fragen.
