"Finding a Piece of Truth"
March 10, 2013
Q&A from a Philosophy Class at College of the Siskiyous, Weed, CA.
One day Mara, the Evil One, was travelling through the villages of India with his attendants. He saw a man doing walking meditation whose face was lit up on wonder. The man had just discovered something on the ground in front of him. Mara’s attendant asked what that was and Mara replied, “A piece of truth.”
“Doesn’t this bother you when someone finds a piece of truth, O Evil One?” his attendant asked. “No,” Mara replied. “Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it.”
This has been a funny scenario for me and even saying that is similarly funny, because there is no “me.” But since there has been a learning, since apparent birth that there is a “me,” then it can be quite challenging at times to see that there is not. It is truly all a matter of what the attention is on, whether it is a presumed “me,” or on the Stillness that one is In.
How does that relate to the above Zen Teaching, because “me” is the belief and even saying “no me” creates a belief. So one’s hands are tied in a sense to being able to share anything about truth. However, one can continually point and this is Known to work because “I” have been continually pointed and one might say “well who has been continually pointed?” and you might smile or you might frown … it depends on whether you are going to try and figure it out or whether you will direct the attention towards who you Are.
Words are like a balloon around air and you can use the example of Air being Truth … without the balloon/words … there would only be Truth/Air that includes all thoughts/balloons.
One of the funny things that have come to “me” to do (in a sense but not really) is to find ways to point … just like the Zen Teachers … all pointing must be away from understanding and yet it is understand that leads the Student to the Teaching … so eventually the Student must begin to see that although their understanding led them to the Teacher/Pointer, their understanding is now the block to the Teaching.
This is what surrender is … that the Teacher knows you because the Teacher knows theirSelf and all things that come from the Teacher (no matter how you interpret to understand them) are for the Self, to steer you (in a sense) away from who you thought you were, to the Awareness of who you Are.
So the Zen Teaching above is perfect in that the minute you think “ah ha I got it” is the instant it is gone. Who would get it? “Who?” is the wind blowing through your ears and the answer to all questions. Who? :o)
How does that relate to the above Zen Teaching, because “me” is the belief and even saying “no me” creates a belief. So one’s hands are tied in a sense to being able to share anything about truth. However, one can continually point and this is Known to work because “I” have been continually pointed and one might say “well who has been continually pointed?” and you might smile or you might frown … it depends on whether you are going to try and figure it out or whether you will direct the attention towards who you Are.
Words are like a balloon around air and you can use the example of Air being Truth … without the balloon/words … there would only be Truth/Air that includes all thoughts/balloons.
One of the funny things that have come to “me” to do (in a sense but not really) is to find ways to point … just like the Zen Teachers … all pointing must be away from understanding and yet it is understand that leads the Student to the Teaching … so eventually the Student must begin to see that although their understanding led them to the Teacher/Pointer, their understanding is now the block to the Teaching.
This is what surrender is … that the Teacher knows you because the Teacher knows theirSelf and all things that come from the Teacher (no matter how you interpret to understand them) are for the Self, to steer you (in a sense) away from who you thought you were, to the Awareness of who you Are.
So the Zen Teaching above is perfect in that the minute you think “ah ha I got it” is the instant it is gone. Who would get it? “Who?” is the wind blowing through your ears and the answer to all questions. Who? :o)
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