The New Dawn

Description

And because the personality is false, all its promises are false, all its commitments are false – it
says something, it does just the opposite. It says something, it means something else. To watch two
persons, just as an observer, you will be surprised: nobody is hearing anybody, and yet both are
pretending that they are not only hearing, they are understanding, they are responding. And what is
their response? They just catch a word, and they jump in and start talking. It seems to be related,
because they have caught a word from your talk. But they are not responding to you; they have
been preparing what they are saying without hearing you.
I have heard … An old man is sitting in a railway compartment and a young man in front of him asks,
”Can I know the time?” The old man has a watch, but the old man thinks for a while. The young man
thinks, ”It is strange, I have just asked about the time – what is he thinking? Perhaps he is deaf, he
is old.” So he shouts loudly, ”I want to know, what is the time?”
The old man said, ”Listen, young man, I am not deaf. I have heard that you want to know what the
time is, but I was thinking whether to tell you the time or not, because life is such a puzzling affair,
and I am so experienced.”
The young man said, ”This is such a simple question. You have a watch, you can just tell me the
time; there is no problem, no puzzle, nothing.”