Great Ideas Begin Alone

Every new idea, every great idea, when it first began was in a minority of one. That man called Jesus Christ—a minority of one. Everybody was saying something different from what he was saying. The Buddha— a minority of one. Everybody was saying something different from what he was saying. I think it was Bertrand Russell who said, “Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy.” That’s well and accurately put. It never occurs to our rigidity that comes from having become dogmatic that there may be a better way. If you haven’t been bumped sufficiently by life, and you haven’t suffered enough, then waking up may require seeing that there is another way.  It is the way of listening.