Man is conscious of possibilities. Only man can be untrue. That is a growth! That is evolution! Man can be untrue and that is why he can be true. Man can choose. Animals are bound to be true; that is their slavery, not their freedom. If you are true, that is an achievement because you could always be untrue. The possibility is open, but you have not chosen it, you have chosen the other. It is a conscious choice.

Of course, then man is always in difficulties. Choosing is always difficult, and the mind wants to choose something which is easy to do. The mind wants to have the thing with the least resistance. To lie is easy; to be false is easy. To appear loving is easy; to be loving is very difficult. To create a facade is easy; to create a being is difficult. So man chooses the simple, the easy, which can be done without any effort and without any sacrifice.

With man freedom comes into existence. Animals are just slaves. With man, freedom comes into existence, choice comes into existence – then difficulties and anxieties. With man, the untrue, the false, enters. You can deceive. Up to this point it is a necessary evil.

Man cannot be simple and pure in the same way as animals, but he can be more simple and pure, and he can be more impure and more complex. He can be more simple and more pure and more innocent, but he cannot be simple and pure and innocent just like animals. That innocence is unconscious, and man has become conscious. Now he can do two things: he may go on with his falsities, with his falseness, and constantly remain a divided being in conflict with himself. Or he may become conscious of the whole phenomenon of what has happened and what is happening to him, and he may decide not to be false. He may leave all that is false. He may sacrifice, he may choose to sacrifice whatsoever can be gained by being false. Then he becomes again authentic.

But this authenticity is different, qualitatively different from the authenticity of an animal. The animal is unconscious. He cannot do anything – he is forced by nature to be authentic. When a man decides to be authentic, no one is forcing him; on the contrary, everything is forcing him to be inauthentic – the society, the culture, all that exists around him is forcing him to be inauthentic. He decides to be authentic. This decision makes you a self, and this decision gives you a freedom which no animal can attain and no false man can attain.

Remember, whenever you lie, deceive, are dishonest, you are forced to do that. That is not your choice, not a real choice. Why do you lie? Because of the consequences, because of the society: you will suffer if you say the truth. You lie and you escape suffering.

Really, the society has forced you to lie; it was not your choice. If you say the truth, it is your choice, no one is forcing you to say the truth. Everything is forcing you to say a lie, to be dishonest. That is more convenient, safe, secure. Now you are entering danger, insecurity, but this is your choice. With this choice, for the first time you attain a self.