If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not

"If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself." Thus declared Rollo May, the voice of existential psychology, whose words cut to the marrow of the human struggle. His teaching is this: the greatest treason is not against another, but against oneself. To silence the voice within, to bury one’s gifts in the earth of conformity, is to live as a shadow and die without ever having truly lived.

The ancients too knew this truth. Socrates, before the judges of Athens, chose death rather than the betrayal of his own soul. He could have forsaken his questioning spirit, denied his original ideas, and lived in comfort. But he listened to his own being, declaring that the unexamined life was not worth living. His courage was a beacon: better to die in truth than to live in falsehood.

History gives us the story of Galileo. Ordered by the powers of his age to silence his discoveries, he faced the torment of betrayal: obey men, or obey the truth within. Though forced to recant, his heart never forsook the voice of his own being, and his whispered "E pur si muove" (“And yet it moves”) endured across centuries. His refusal to abandon his original ideas gave light to generations who would one day stand openly in the truth.

So too in the life of artists, prophets, and reformers. Vincent van Gogh, though ridiculed and cast aside, painted the visions of his soul. He would not silence the fiery colors of his being, though the world rejected them. Today, his canvases proclaim that the one who remains faithful to his inner vision may be despised in life, but honored in eternity.

Therefore, let this wisdom be carried forward: do not betray yourself by silence, nor forsake your gift to please the crowd. The voice within is the seed of destiny, the sacred whisper of your own being. To heed it is to walk in authenticity; to deny it is to live a lie. Remember Rollo May’s warning: the greatest prison is self-betrayal, but the greatest freedom is to express your truth, even if the world does not yet understand.