God is not a syllogism

Like light, spiritual enlightenment cannot be seen but can still be experienced

O“Don’t just

learn, experience.” author, The Light in the

Heart nce Gautam Buddha visited a small village. All the villagers came to visit him, including a blind academician who arrived there with his friends.

His friends told Lord Buddha, “Our friend is a great scholar and logician. We told him about the existence of light, but he refuses to believe us. We cannot prove light. Either you can see it or you can’t, but there is no other proof.”

Just then the blind man cut in, saying, “If light exists, then, Sir, make it available to me so that I can touch it, taste it, smell it or hear it. Then, I will believe it.”

So it was clear that it would be very difficult to convince this man that light exists because light cannot be touched, tasted, smelled or heard.

“You have brought him to the wrong person,” Buddha replied.

“He needs a physician — it is not a question of convincing him, though it is about curing his eyes.” Saying so, Gautam Buddha recommended the blind academician to his own physician.

The blind man visited the physician and within six months, he was able to see. He was ecstatic. He came dancing to meet Buddha again and fell at his feet, saying, “I was wrong. There is light but I couldn’t see it and so didn’t believe it. Your argument worked.”

Buddha replied, “It was not an argument. If I had argued, I’d have failed because there are things that cannot be argued about but can only be experienced.”

So here’s wishing that you, too, understand you need to experience certain things to comprehend them. For instance, God is not a syllogism. Spiritual enlightenment is not an argument — it is an experience. Unless you experience it, there is no way to understand it. You need to be cured of your spiritual blindness to experience it.