When Galileo first created the telescope and the microscope—
instruments through which distant things could be seen
and near things became infinitely magnified—
the news spread like wildfire.
People said, “This man is deceiving us.
How can this be possible?
Things are exactly as large as they are.
If a stone is three inches wide, it is three inches wide.
How can it appear a thousand inches wide?
And if it does, it must be a trick.”
They said, “Stars are visible to the naked eye.
If a telescope shows stars that the naked eye cannot see,
then surely there is deception somewhere.”
Great scholars and university professors refused
to even look through Galileo’s telescope.
They said, “Your instrument can deceive us.”
Those who did look quickly stepped away.
They said, “There is some manipulation here.”
For the face that appeared beautiful and charming to the naked eye
looked, through the microscope,
like rough, uneven terrain.
When a face is magnified,
tiny pores become deep craters.
Even the most beautiful woman appears
like a journey through rocky mountains—
disturbing, unsettling.
But now the telescope and the microscope are accepted.
And a deeper difficulty arises.
Which is true?
What the naked eye says?
Or what the telescope and microscope reveal?
Is the face truly beautiful
as the eye perceives it?
Or is the microscope more truthful,
because it sees deeper,
sees more than the eye,
extends the very capacity of vision?
And if so,
is the face revealed by the instrument
the real face?...
~ translated from Nirvan Upanishad by Osho (Hindi Discourse), Discourse 3
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