Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hidden Greatness

Greatness usually surprises us. If we expected greatness, then it wouldn't be great. On the contrary, things that are popularly known as great don't usually turn out to be so. A lot of what we perceive as great is just an illusion. That's when belief in greatness outweighs the reality of greatness.

Specifics? The hype of Hollywood and news from the mass media. Is it me or is the mass media 99% hype? "Come and watch our show," they say. "It will be great!" And it is not. It's the technique of a poor magician.

If you are great, then there is no need to advertise. The people behind the products don't trust our judgment, so they make it for us. That's the commercial world we live in. How much greatness is contained in our commercial world? Not much.

Most greatness is contained in our spiritual world. But we don't "see" people attracted to it because it doesn't advertise. The opposite of advertisement is discovery. Greatness is found from within. Our heart or soul recognizes greatness, and when it tells the brain, the brain realizes its been duped the whole time in the commercial/material world.

These three lines from Verse 45 of the Tao Te Ching inspired today's posting:
Great truth seems false
Great skill seems clumsy
Great eloquence seems like babble

When greatness seems far from it, the advertisers stay away. Greatness is not about image.

No comments: