Mirror of Zen Blog

No Claims of Consistency

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897 – 1981)


Question: Do you smoke?
Maharaj: My body kept a few habits which may as well continue till it dies. There is no harm in them. 

Question: Do you eat meat?
Maharaj: I was born among meat-eating people and my children are eating meat. I eat very little — and make no fuss.

Question: But meat consumption involves murder.
Maharaj : Yes, obviously. I don’t justify the logic of the behavior. I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute consistency is possible; prove it by example. Don’t preach what you do not practice.


Excerpted from I Am That (1973)

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