The Two Extremes - Set in Stone or Wishy Washy. Don't Lose Sight of the Truth.

There's two extremes when it comes to belief (in anything, any view, any religion, any whatever). The first extreme is when a person believes everything is black or white, right or wrong, undebatable, can't vary depending on perspectives or opinions or situations, completely set in stone. The other extreme is when a person believes that the grey area is so grey, so challengable, so open to interpretation, that they can't distinguish right from wrong anymore and they lose their direction in life, lose sight of their own standards and morality, and forget the truth.

Apply that to Sikhi.

The first type of extremists won't see that amongst the different beliefs and ways of life and amongst the different methods of following Sikhi, there are different paths to the ultimate truth. They won't accept that certain things aren't set in stone, that certain things are open to interpretation, and that in those cases a person has to follow what he or she genuinely believes will direct them closer to the truth. They deny that Sikhs can follow slightly different paths and still be Sikhs. They reject the idea of gradually becoming more and more absorbed with Sikhi and instead they jump into the rock solid stuff head on. The fact that even the most disciplined, most faithful and most devoted Sikhs have slightly differing views is not visible to them. They no longer are capable of forming their own opinions. They just regurgitate statements. They get so caught up in this black-and-white hype that they lose sight of what's important.

The second type of extremists start off normal enough, but then they get so scared about becoming the first type of extremist and get so determined not to become one that they reject the concept of right and wrong completely and become completely spineless and mushy. They open their minds so much that anyone can walk past and put any idea in them, and they'll just accept it without examining it or making the decision for themselves whether they agree with it or not. They become so wishy washy that they stop being able to have their own beliefs and opinions because they can no longer make up their minds. Because they're not willing to reject any ideas at all, they get so caught up in the whirlwind of interpretations that they lose themselves. They become so obsessed with the idea of 'the grey area' that they forget the truth.

The one thing that both of these extremists have in common is that they're too busy listening to other views (first extremist only listens to one type of view, other extremist listens to all of them) that they can't decide for themselves what's right or wrong for them. They can no longer form opinions. They can no longer make any necessary judgements. Extremist number one is scared of anything that isn't set in stone. Extremist number two is scared of anything that isn't set in stone. Extremist number one is too scared to challenge anything because they think everything is right or wrong, black or white. Extremist number two is too scared to challenge anything because they think nothing is right or wrong, everything is the same colour of grey. Both extremists are scared. Both lose sight of the truth... the teachings of Dhan Dhan Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee Maharaaj.

My point? Don't be either type of extremist, don't lose sight of the truth, and don't forget what's important - Vaheguroo.