"That is the true therapy. 'To know thyself' is the condensed meaning of therapy. The function of the therapist is not to teach you who you are, but to create situations in which you start discovering yourself.

"The first condition is creating self-respect in you – which all the religions are against. They all condemn you. They create a sense of guilt, and that is a wound that goes on growing within you. Whatever you do, something is wrong in it. You can never fulfill the expectations of others for the simple reason that you have a unique individuality. And that was the basic approach of Socrates – the uniqueness of the individual; each one has to discover his own truth.

"The function of the teacher, of the master, of the therapist, of the educationist, is to create just the right atmosphere so that you gain self-respect, and to give you an acquaintance with the methods for going inwards.

"All educational systems take you outwards. Listening to the person – it will look strange, because the teacher's function is to make you listen to him. The Socratic method is listening to the person respectfully, patiently, so that he can open up. He need not repress anything, he need not inhibit anything; he can be utterly naked and yet remain dignified.

"If a therapist can do that – help a man to be utterly nude, open, with no secret, hiding nothing – the therapist has succeeded, because in this nudity one realizes one's innocence. One is born again. This nudity is symbolic. Just as a child is born nude, you are born again – now spiritually nude.

"Socrates was punished because he was teaching the truth. He had a school – that was his commune – where the whole function was to be respectful to everyone who comes to the school and help him decondtion himself, deprogram himself so he becomes again an innocent child.

"Socrates has nothing to teach. He simply cleans you and leaves you to yourself, to grow according to your own potential. He does not give you even any guideline, because nobody knows what is hidden in your seed, what kind of flower is going to blossom in you."