Money, food and work were plentiful, and there was a vast getting and spending. The streets were like canyons between the tall buildings, and there were no trees. It was noisy; there was the strange restlessness of a people who had everything and yet nothing.
A huge church stood amidst fashionable shops, and opposite it was an equally big bank; both were imposing and apparently necessary. In the vast church a priest in surplice and stole was preaching about the One who suffered for the sake of man.
The priest intoned and the congregation responded; at last they rose and went out into the sunlit streets and into the shops with their array of things. Now it was silent in the church; only a few remained, lost in their own thoughts. The decorations, the richly coloured windows, the pulpit, the altar and the candles — everything was there to quiet man’s mind.
Is god to be found in churches, or in our hearts? The urge to be comforted breeds illusion; it is this urge which creates churches, temples and mosques. We get lost in them, or in the illusion of an omnipotent state, and the real thing goes by. Truth, or what you will, cannot be found by the mind; it cannot be bought through worship, prayer or sacrifice. If we want comfort,consolation, we shall have it in one way or another; but with it come further pain and misery. The desire for comfort, for security, has thepower to create every form of illusion. It is only when the mind is still that there is a possibility of being the real.