Daily Meditation: Monday, April 1, 1996

Consider someone who is handicapped, who cannot reason, …

04/01/1996

Consider someone who is handicapped, who cannot reason, whose speech is impaired, who is unable to express himself. Is it because his (or her) spirit is disabled? No, his spirit is in all ways similar to a virtuoso who has been given a defective instrument – an ill-formed brain, through which he has no means of showing his true capabilities. As soon as he receives a good instrument, he can demonstrate all his genius. We must not confuse the instrument, the physical body, with the entity living within it. For people to be thus handicapped means this entity has been punished: for certain reasons it is not allowed any self-expression, and cannot give anything. But this state does not last eternally. Consider the case of prisoners, for instance, who have been placed in terrible conditions of filth, ugliness, and confinement. They are not suited to live in such conditions. They may have sensitive minds, aesthetic tastes, and they suffer, they are miserable. But they must serve out their punishment because they have violated various laws. The same applies to people born with a disability, it is only their body that is at present malformed. But in their next incarnation, when they are given another body, they may show themselves to be geniuses.