Saturday, July 25, 2026
Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi, and Muhammad were “best in show.” Not in their own minds, but in the minds of those who looked up to them. History labeled them “masters.” But personally, they felt vulnerable, living in awe and deep humility. Internally, they served.
Why do we transform the ordinary into the impossible, leaving individuals stranded on the highest shelf of a mental hall of fame? Those we hold in high esteem do not feel that highness that is projected onto them. They know themselves to be humble and loving—traits belonging to all of us. They experience the quiet exhilaration of disappearing into the irreducible epicenter, not into a spotlighted performance.
When someone practices diligently, they draw something seemingly extraordinary out of themselves. They practice so faithfully they eventually become “a natural.” But when you are a natural, the world puts you on a pedestal. You are exalted. To others, your dedication suddenly seems unnatural and unattainable.
St. Francis couldn’t keep it real. He envisioned a non-monetized monastery with zero assets. When the Franciscans acquired wealth, he stepped down as head monk. Gandhi, too, wanted to keep it real. Money poured into his ministry, forcing his associates to scramble to give it away. As the saying went, it was incredibly expensive to keep Gandhi poor.
If you successfully “keep it real,” others will shine a spotlight, build a monument, and hoist you up. What is actually real, present, and ubiquitous is systematically turned into an impossibility for “mere mortals.”
This is the unworkable nature of religion: the deification of a single human, turning them into an object of an externalized, performative “act” of worship.
As for the rest of us tussling to keep it real, our creative sub-mission is simply covert: freeing the mind from this Self-Inflicted Nonsense (SIN)—crushing the illusion that a Santa-Clause figure hovers over, looks down from “upstairs,” and capriciously selects her one and only “best in show.”