NEVER TRUST YOUR EYES
The village nestled in the dense African jungle. Life was slow and leisurely and very little changed from day to day, year to year. There were two people who exemplified the harmony of the village. They had been best friends for forty years and lived in two houses on the opposite side of the central street. These friends had never quarreled. All their lives, they loved the same songs, the same food, the same hobbies.
The village also had a notorious trickster who was determined to make them fight. He pondered for a long time how to make them disagree with each other. It was going to be a difficult task because they saw everything the same way.
After many hours of thought, he devised a devilish plan. He made a coat that was different on each side. On one side it was blue, on the other it was red. He walked one way down the street wearing the coat every day. At the end of the road he took off the coat and hid it in a bag. Later he made his way, with coat hidden, back to his house.
After a few days he left the coat at home and went to the first neighbor: "Did you see a strange man come by here wearing a strange coat?"
"Yes, actually I did," said the man. "He passed by for several days and I was wondering why."
The trickster, who had only exposed the blue side of his coat to the man, said, "Yes. And wasn't it an awful garish red he was wearing?"
"Red? No. It was blue."
"No, no. Your eyes should be fixed. He was wearing red. You should ask your neighbor across the road."
The other friend was only exposed to the red side of the coat, so of course when the first neighbor asked him what was the color of the strange man's coat, the neighbor replied that it was red.
"No, said the first friend. "It was blue."
The two friends had never disagreed before. Not in all their forty years. The sensation was new and it frightened them. Something was wrong with the universe. They always agreed with each other about everything. It was part of how they always knew they were right. Now, each friend thought the other was crazy. Each friend wanted desperately for the other man to agree with him. They had relied on each other to agree about everything their whole lives. Not agreeing with each other was scary. Soon their fear became anger. The men began hitting each other. Hitting became wrestling, right in the middle of the main street of town.
"The coat was red!" shouted one.
"It was blue!" shouted the other.
"No, no. Your eyes should be fixed. He was wearing red."
"I have witnesses. My family saw it. He was wearing blue."
"Nonsense. He was wearing red." And on, and on.
The trickster's plan was successful. He had made the two friends see the same event differently. And they had fought. Soon folks in the village who had not seen the man in the coat were taking sides, and they too were fighting. Only the trickster knew the truth that they were each half-right.
This African wisdom tale illustrates how human arrogance caused this tragedy. The two friends could never have imagined that both were, in fact, correct. We always think that our perception is the truth, which leaves no room for anyone else's truth.
But Truth, which is God, is beyond duality. Truth is paradoxical to the unawakened mind, because it holds opposite ideas simultaneously.
"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love."
-Mother Teresa
