Sandals

In 1893 Mahatma Gandhi went to South Africa, intending to stay there for only a few months. He ended up living there for 21 years as he took up the struggle to restore the dignity and rights to a subdued, disarmed, and enslaved Indian community.

During those years, his chief political opponent was General Ian Christian Smuts who, as the Colonial secretary and later the Secretary of the Interior was responsible for implementing some of the discriminatory laws against the Indians.

When Gandhi finally left South Africa in 1914, Smuts wrote, “The saint has left our shores,

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Are we sovereign in our own minds?

How do you know anything about anything? How do you know your own self? These questions cut right down to the core of who we are as individuals.

The one means of consciously knowing anything are your thoughts – the almost constant stream of awareness that shapes your self-identity and determines your conduct. Note here that all of your conscious thinking is wrapped in language (try to think a thought – any thought – without it being expressed in words; it’s almost inconceivable).

Your internal monologue also gives you the experience of what being you feels like. It feels like a totally individual, sovereign experience: in your own mind, you perceive your own truths, think your own thoughts, freely craft your free will and choose your conduct. That, anyway is what the experience feels like.

But that feeling is an illusion… in part, at any rate. As it turns out, we are not alone in our minds; our thoughts and actions are easily influenced from without. I’m not talking about good advice a piece of information here: thoughts and desires can quite literally be planted in your mind from the outside without your consent or even awareness.

Tell the truth (even if it leads to your death)!

A simple thought with the power to make us better people and the world a better place.

Funny how a few words strung together have the power to profoundly affect your outlook. Two or three years ago I saw Ridley Scott’s film “Kingdom of Heaven” (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it). In one scene, a French knight (Liam Neeson) initiates his son (Orlando Bloom) into his order; as part of the initiation rite, the father admonishes his son: “always tell the truth, even if it leads to your death.” These words never quite left my thoughts since.