The problem with information

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Let us say you love reading. And in this case, you love reading spiritual things. Or self help books. You read a lot of them. You hear and read about purity.

These things are informational pieces. This creates problems in many ways. They are helpful, but you must be careful with the information.

1. Always remember this is information. Lets say you read that Jesus was very kind and loving. Ok…great. Now if you are spiritually inclined, with this information, and if you like kindess, it should create love and respect for him. Maybe even shed tears. But when it is your turn to be kind and loving to your enemy – can you? Answer is probably not. So it became an information piece rather than step to God
2. Some people when they read these things, imagine that they are kind and loving. Or without anger. But this is only true in imagination. When it comes to being tested, they quickly fail. Or they pretend. When there are situations that evoke anger, they outwardly dont get angry but inside they are teeming and unable to sleep for weeks.
3. The most dangerous thing is – it creates ego. Lets say, that you read about Karma. Next time you see someone suffering, your mind races, and you are ever so eager to give advise to someone. Based on what? Knowing the theory and you think you it? Do you really know what the person did and why suffers? When you know that, then we can talk about theory of karma. This ego, is always active in giving advise when it knows nothing, endures nothing and is always so selfish

So collecting information has some value but true progress is when you go within, learn to give up all these nasty traits of the mind. It is not so easy