Stonecutter

Unique Individuality

Each man is born with a unique individuality, and each man has a destiny of his own. Imitation is crime, it is criminal. If you try to become a Buddha, you may become an imitation Buddha. You may look like Buddha, you may walk like Buddha, you may talk like Buddha, but you will miss. You will miss all that life was ready to deliver to you.

Because Buddha happens only once. It is not in the nature of things to repeat. God is so creative that He never repeats anything. You cannot find another human being in the present, in the past, or in the future, who is going to resemble you exactly. It has never happened. Man is not a mechanism. He is not like Ford cars on an assembly line; you can produce millions alike, exactly alike. Man is a soul, is individual. Imitation is poisonous. Never imitate anybody.

The first step is: accept yourself as you are; drop all shoulds. Don`t carry any ought on your heart! You are not to be somebody else; you are not expected to do something which doesn’t belong to you – you are just to be yourself. Relax! and just be yourself. Be respectful to your individuality. And have the courage to sign your own signature. Don’t go on copying others signatures.

Don’t bother whether you become a world-famous artist or not; that is not the significant thing. But create something – a beautiful song, a little music, a dance, a painting, a garden. And when the roses blossom… you cannot say that life is a drag with so many roses blossoming. A beautiful painting… you cannot say life is a drag, because this painting has been created for the first time in the world and for the last time. Nobody has done it before, and nobody will do it again; only you were capable of doing it. Express your uniqueness in whatsoever you do. Express your individuality. Let existence be proud of you. Life will not be felt like a drag; it will become a fragrance.

Unless a person decides that ‘Whatever the cost, I want just to be myself. Condemned, unaccepted, losing respectability – everything is okay but I cannot pretend anymore to be somebody else’… This decision and this declaration – this declaration of freedom, freedom from the weight of the crowd – gives birth to your natural being, to your individuality. Then you don’t need any mask. Then you can be simply yourself, just as you are. And the moment you can be just as you are, there is tremendous peace that passeth understanding.

The ordinary, unconscious human being has no individuality; he has only a personality. Personality is that which is given by others to you – by the parents, by the teachers, by the priest, by the society – whatever they have said about you. And you have been desiring to be respectable, to be respected, so you have been doing things which are appreciated, and the society goes on rewarding you, respecting you more and more. This is their method of creating a personality. But personality is very thin, skin-deep. It is not your nature. The child is born without a personality, but he is born with a potential individuality. The potential individuality simply means his uniqueness from anybody else – he is different.