Self-awareness is arduous, and since most of us prefer an easy, illusory way, we bring
into being the authority that gives shape and pattern to our life. This authority may be the
collective, the State; or it may be the personal, the Master, the savior, the guru. Authority
of any kind is blinding, it breeds thoughtlessness; and as most of us find that to be
thoughtful is to have pain, we give ourselves over to authority. Authority engenders
power, and power always becomes centralized and therefore utterly corrupting; it
corrupts not only the wielder of power, but also him who follows it. The authority of
knowledge and experience is perverting, whether it be vested in the Master, his
representative or the priest. It is your own life, this seemingly endless conflict, that is
significant, and not the pattern or the leader. The authority of the Master and the priest
takes you away from the central issue, which is the conflict within yourself.
