Amid the dark dwelling of afflictions, There's always the sunlight of wisdom.
*Huineng (China, 638-713). The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teachings of the Sixth Patriarch. Trans. Tony Chen.
* * *
A story is told of a rabbi esteemed as an expert in interpreting the Jerusalem Talmud, a collection of civil and ceremonial law and legend dated before the later Babylonian Talmud. Someone asked the rabbi how he understood it so well. He said, "Because I know the Source of the Jerusalem Talmud."
* * *
In spiritual life, insight and its inner verification are essential. Until wisdom is verified within, it is an idea or opinion. One cannot borrow or adopt insight from anyone else. Truth witnesses to itself.
Buddhism's first of the Noble Eightfold Path, right view, or right understanding, is gained from a relationship with the Source of the teaching. All spiritual teaching points us beyond the teachings and all the teachers.
Some scriptures indicate this. For example, from the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament, Jeremiah 31.31ff. (NRSVUE) -
The days are surely coming, says the Lord [YHWH], when I will make a new covenant [treaty, agreement] with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - a covenant that they broke [violated], though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law [Torah, "law, teaching, instruction"] within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, "Know [from Hebrew yaday, intimate relationship, know by experience; same word used for sexual intimacy] the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
* * *
Jesus quotes from the Book of Isaiah of the Hebrew Scripture, or Old Testament, explaining to his students his teaching method to the masses. Gospel of Matthew 13.13 (NLV) - "This is why I speak to them in picture-stories [parables, analogies]. They have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear and they do not understand." Jesus says we cannot comprehend spiritual truth through a grasp of human language.
* * *
What happens with a lack of spiritual discernment is we stop short of allowing the teaching to lead us back, so to speak, to Wisdom, which is the Fount of the teaching. We turn the teaching into conceptual learning. We pull down the guidance from its higher order to the level of the ordinary mind. Wisdom is demoted to data. Hence, subtle truths are often domesticated because teachers and institutions pull down the teaching into the consciousness from where they interpret all reality, not just sacred wisdom. Thereby, the wild truth is tamed, denuded of its transformative power. The Lion of Truth is turned into a purring housecat lying softly, snuggly in the lap.
* * *
In Hinduism, the Sat-Guru is essential to spiritual insight. Sat-Guru can read "Teacher of Truth" or "Truth-Teacher." And "guru" is often literally rendered "Dispeller of Darkness [spiritual ignorance]."
Sat-Guru parallels the Christian teaching of the Holy Spirit being the Truth-Teacher, the outer teacher being only a means to inspire one to open to subtle, nonconceptual wisdom - Gospel of John 6.12-13 (NLT) - "There is so much more I [Jesus] want to tell you [his students], but you can't bear it now [can't tolerate it]. When the Spirit of truth comes, he [it] will guide you into all truth."
* * *
The rabbi's words signify the conceptual mind, adept at everyday matters, and outer teaching, no matter how grand the teaching or adept the teacher, cannot offer insight into the wisdom sacred teaching points to. Thus, the desire for truth leads us to the Truth. All such insight is a reflection of Wisdom. With an open heart and open mind, we are given understanding. Our role is to be receptive and remain closely aligned with Source - call it Buddha, Buddha Nature, Sat-Guru, Inner Teacher, Truth, Sophia, Holy Spirit, ...
We can be encouraged, knowing, as the Zen patriarch Huineng says, "There's always the sunlight of wisdom." And, "Where?" Right here in this world of emotional and relational afflictions, the Light shines. With eyes to see, we see. Without a heart to see, a thousand eyes will not see. Let us see in compassion for ourselves and everyone, and, by seeing, be a healing salve in our profoundly wounded but, also, profoundly lovely and loving world.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
