Truth Passes Through Stages

All truth passes though three stages. First it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, third it is accepted as being self-evident.

(Schopenhauer)

I work in the financial investment business and have learned the hard way that you unfortunately can't always go with the flow. There are times when you have to speak up about an investment idea that is incredibly unpopular - and thus market prices are really cheap. Investing now will give you a handsome return, but for the time being, everyone will tell you in polite words that you are an idiot. But then, for the spiritual traveler the situation isn't quite as bad. We have our idiosyncratic messengers and they tend to walk with us off the beaten path. A spiritual traveler need not go against the flow, but she often finds herself swimming in a different stream altogether.