Read The Trial Of The Man Who Said He Was God for Free Online Page A

me!’ Now I say, ‘Hello there! I like you because I’m unlike you!’ The very same gadget which tricked me into hallucinating a small, coloured, opaque, tightly packed, complex, dying LUMP of a fellow at the Centre of my world now relieves me of him. Taking him clean off me, I’m left free here to be - Myself. And the fellow who was my enemy here is now my faithful companion there, at home in his stuffy glass-fronted house, my good neighbour. A relentlessly inquisitive and housebound insomniac he is, nevertheless nice to have around.
    So this hugely underrated gadget called a mirror turns out to be more eloquent of my Nature, infinitely more direct and convincing, than all the scriptures in the world. It began with a good name: mirror derives from mirari, which is Latin for to wonder at. I gave it a bad name - toy, illusionist, trickster - but it was I who played tricks with it, turning a blind eye to its tenfold illusion-shattering Revelation. And now, every time I compare that tiny and flawed and ageing man-face behind the glass with this immense and immaculate and immortal God-face in front of it, I’m Myself again.
    ‘God hath given you one face,’ says Hamlet, ‘and you make yourselves another.’ By robbing mirrors, I add. Put it like this: there’s a Face, and there are faces. The difference between them is total. It’s essential to find out which of them God has given you. He gave you ten ways of finding out, no less. Get the answer wrong, and you’re not only in every sort of trouble - you’re a blasphemer.
    Here are some who got the answer right:
    Each thing has two faces: a face of its own, and the Face of its Lord. In respect of its own face it is nothingness, in respect of the Face of God it is Being.
Al-Ghazali
    Everyone likes a mirror, while not knowing the nature of his Face… After all, how long does a reflection remain in view? Make a practice of contemplating the origin of the reflection... That cheek and mole come back to their Source.
Rumi
    This is not a task for one whose True Face is not clean.
Attar
    [Lycomedes had a portrait painted of the Apostle John.] And John, who had never at any time seen his own face, said to him, ‘You are mocking me, child. Am I like that?
Acts of John
    The seventeen hundred koan or themes to which Zen students devote themselves are only for making them see their Original Face. The World-honoured One sat in meditation in the snowy mountains for six years, then saw the morning star and was enlightened, and this was seeing his Original Face. When it is said of others of the ancients that they had a great realization, or a great breaking through, it means they saw their Original Face.
Daito Kokushi

Prosecution Witness No. 4
    THE LAVATORY ATTENDANT
    Having carefully explained to the Witness the nature of the charge against me and said a little about my Defence position, Counsel asks him what light he can throw on the matter.
    In reply the Witness testifies that he knows me well by sight. I’m one of his regulars. Also by reputation - evil reputation.
    The Judge warns the Witness that he’s in the box to answer questions about facts, not to moralize unbidden. And certainly not to tell the court about what other people think of me. The Jury are directed to ignore the words ‘evil reputation’.
    WITNESS: All this bull about not really bein’ a man only shows that Nokes is plain bonkers. What incredible swank, what a nerve he’s got! I can’t believe my ears. If he’s not human, why does he visit my Convenience? And what the hell’s he doin’ when he stands there facin’ the wall lookin’ down? I’d like to know what’s divine about that, about what’s goin’ on down there.
    Don’t tell me [banging the witness-box with both fists] don’t tell me the Almighty pees! And farts!
    The Judge calls the court to order, and warns the Witness to moderate his language. Drastically.
    WITNESS: Sorry, guv! But I know all about this perisher in the dock, and I’ve