R. Buckminster Fuller Quote on Truth and How It’s Completely Spontaneous

“Truth is completely spontaneous. Lies have to be taught.”

R. Buckminster Fuller, Sunbeams (Page 23)

Beyond the Quote (Day 387)

I suspect that most people overthink the act of being—and it’s easy to see why. Think about everything that we’re exposed to on a daily basis. All of the advertisements, the images, the messages, the conversations—and think about how each of them communicate a different way of being. You can be the person who does this; who buys that; who believes this; who supports that; who interacts here; who chooses to go there; who speaks up about this; who follows people like that; who dresses like this; who spends their time doing that… the possibilities for becoming are, quite literally, endless.

And then we’re hit with a phrase like, “Just be yourself.” And while the advice is sound, it almost feels unhelpful because of how convoluted the situation is. It’s like, “Okay, great, but who even am I?” And why wouldn’t that be the immediate response? How to know for sure? There’s so much information to process. There’s so much influence to sort through. There’s so much crap to remember. And it’s not like the incoming information is slowing down—if anything, it’s constantly speeding up! It can feel overwhelming, exhausting, and frustrating. And so we continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated by what we’re exposed to, carry on trying to remember everything we can, and proceed to act despite knowing who we really are.

But, what if “being” isn’t about a presence of more worldly influences? What if “being” is actually about an absence of them? What the Fuller quote suggests above is that truth—your truth—will flow from you completely spontaneously. There is nothing to remember, nothing to learn, and nothing to figure out. It’s everything that we’re manipulated to do that embodies the fake; everything that we force ourselves to remember that makes up the facade; everything that we’re constantly layering over ourselves that becomes the mask.

The way of “being,” therefore, shouldn’t be thought of as an accumulation of, but a stripping away of. It’s a peeling back of all the extraneous layers of muck that have been accumulating over your authentic way of being since you were a young child. At your core—under all of the advertisements, peer pressure, media influences, etc—lies who you really are. And the further you deviate from that self, the more you’ll find your mind running—to remember, to keep track of, to impress. Being is freedom from thought. It’s the antithesis of thought. It’s the easiest thing in the world—so long as you don’t overthink it.

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