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GOSSIP
Keep this philosophy in mind the next time you either hear or are about to
repeat a rumor.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the
great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and
said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about one of your students?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied. "Before you tell me I'd like you to
pass a little test. It's called the Test of Three."

"Three?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my
student, let's take a moment to test what you're going to say.

The first test is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are
about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not.

Now let's try the second test, the test of Goodness. Is what you are about
to tell me about my student something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him even
though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. "You may still pass though, because there is a Third
test -- the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my
student going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither True nor
Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and left, ashamed.

This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high
esteem.

 

THE RECORDS THAT COUNT

The basic problem we seem to be facing is that we are too involved with trying to prove something, which is connected with paranoia and a feeling of poverty. When you are trying to prove or get something, you are not open anymore, you have to check everything, and you have to arrange it "correctly." It is such a paranoid way to live and it really does not prove anything. One might set records in terms of numbers and quantities -- that we have built the greatest, the biggest; we have collected the most, the longest, the most gigantic. But who is going to remember the record when you are dead? Or in one hundred years? Or in ten years? Or in ten minutes? The records that count are those of the given moment, of now -- whether or not communication and openness are actually taking place now....In the sacred writings, you never read stories of the bodhisattvas, the great practitioners of mahayana, receiving medals. And quite rightly so, because there is no need for them to prove anything. Their action is spontaneous. It is the open life, open communication, which does not involve struggle or speed at all. From "The Open Way," in CUTTING THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATERIALISM. Chogyam Trungpa. pages 102 to 103.