The Emperor's new clothes

Imagine an "imaginary world" where all people base their importance on their clothes. They are always talking about them, always discussing them, comparing them and envying each other, competing to see who has the better one, sometimes even to see who has the poorer one, who is therefore the bigger "poor man in need of saving" from the "beauty queens". Some have their clothes too tight and condemn others who have them too loose and vice versa. Some believe in the power of the colour red, others in the combination of blue and yellow, but all have become accustomed to looking more in their hand mirrors than at the world as it really is. Their scientists have devoted decades to studying new materials, using techniques they have developed to do so, they say they can explore even the smallest particles of matter. Their psychologists, in turn, have developed a variety of mirrors in which they search for meaning hidden in the folds of clothes. Many of these beings have imperfections in their clothes that they carry with them from the past - various tears, rips, holes and abrasions, some of them patching them up honestly, others artfully hiding them from others and themselves. In this world, people meet each other and can no longer even look at each other as human beings because they are preoccupied with the clothes that cover their true nature and their own reflection, which they obsessively keep looking at. The knowledge of the true meaning of clothes, which is primarily to protect against the vagaries of the weather, has been completely lost among people. People have forgotten even the weather itself, the Natural Rhythm of Life, they ignore it because they fix their attention only on clothes and their needs. And imagine if someone in this world suddenly Wakes up and sees the madness. He sees the foolish beings parading around like the Emperor in the fairy tale The Emperor's New Clothes, only it's the other way around from the fairy tale: everyone but the Emperor (the Awakened One) is naked, and yet they're acting out the spectacle of having some clothes. They support each other in their madness, so they can't even be truthful anymore, because they wouldn't be able to stop the reaction of those around them. And that's why when you tell them that they have nothing, that it's just their thoughts they're dealing with and that they're suffering needlessly, they get angry at you. How can you know, they say, if you don't know me at all! Well, you can, because what you are saying is not a criticism of their dress, as these people are accustomed to understand such language, you are merely describing the tendencies of EVERYONE who suffers from the idea of having some dress, whatever it may be. It is a Universal Experience. It's not even an attempt to humiliate or abuse them, as they may interpret it, because they are used to such treatment from their loved ones. You are telling them this because you wish them happiness, because even though they may not admit it out loud, they suffer greatly from the fact that somewhere in the depths of their being they know that clothes don't exist, but they can't handle it. With this knowledge, there is no going back to the game of the emperor's new clothes. So what to do? You can go jump off a bridge, you can grow bitter and stay away from the madmen, you can live out your days in peace somewhere, because you know that it doesn't matter anyway, that one day, maybe when the being in question has tried on millions of dresses, he will come to the same experience you have come to and leave the mad game. Every being will come to that point, it's inevitable. And then there is the possibility that you will fix your clothes to make them simple and functional at the same time, and you will go among people and say: it is so and so and don't pretend you don't see it... Many will be angry at what you have allowed yourself to do and will try to silence you, but there will be a few who will see through it and thank you. None of the options: jumping off the bridge, going into seclusion, or speaking up are better or worse with your Knowledge of the Void, yet you know that if you Love, you will do the last.

Let all beings make their own awakening

With love and respect

Tomáš Merlin Ježek

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