1929
All men desire to discover for themselves, with certainty, what is the purpose of life. This discovery can only be made by living and not by mere intellectual theorizing. After the discovery of that purpose they can work for it one-pointedly. But to do this they must be rid of all philosophies, dogmas, creeds, religions, particular rites -everything, because no one can, for a single moment, discover his true purpose in life, or life itself, with all these encumbrances. When man has completely detached himself from all unessential things, he can begin to discover what it is that he is seeking. It is as an individual, that he must make the discovery.
Each man is seeking to free himself from sorrow. Desire is life, and that desire is constantly battling against limitations. It seeks to be free. In search for happiness it is constantly breaking away from limitations.
Men are all the time looking for perfection. Imperfection is a limitation, and the individual life, which begins in limitation, which goes from corruption to corruption, is ceaselessly seeking incorruption and freedom. So long as there is limitation there is sorrow, and it is from sorrow that all men would escape. They are trying to find a way out of suffering, out of their entanglement in the wheel of sorrow and pain. In the attainment of perfection is liberation to be found, and in nothing else.
Seek perfection therefore rather than philosophies, theories, dogmas, religions and objects of worship -which are all unreal, childish, unessential. Men, distracted by all these, do not attack the one problem which lies at the root of all that suffocates them, which creates havoc in their self-expression, in their individual growth.
Do not waste time with shadows, which vanish as the morning mist.