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Buddha of Love
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Laura Burges lay Zen Teacher -
When my daughter, Nova, was about eight, I was tucking her in one night, and she asked me, "Mommy, why are people born to suffer and die?" I replied, "Well, that's a question that human beings have asked since the beginning of time." She thought for a moment and said, "You know, that doesn't really help."
It startled me to hear my little girl ask me her question, but it made me remember that I had wondered, when I was little, why we are all here. I remember thinking that we must be here to help each other—but that didn't make sense, because if we weren't here, then there would be nobody here to help.
*The Zen Way of Recovery.
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Walking the Way, engaging a daily spiritual practice, and associating with spiritual companions, we come to a place where we no longer feel a need to make sense of why things are the way they are. The suchness of things is that they are.
We can understand some things. And sometimes, knowing why is essential. If you are in pain, it might be helpful to understand why. So, I am not advocating abdicating understanding. A brainless life is not what the Way is about; it is about integrating what we can and cannot know. We already have enough ignorance and its resultant foolishness in our world—read or view the daily news. We need reasoning and intelligence. Spiritual life is not a dumbing down simply because some things are unknowable.
Let us distinguish between the little and big questions. Little questions can be answered, at least partially. Answers to the big questions, no one knows. Many people use "mystery" or "Mystery" for what we cannot put into words.
We get comfortable living with the big questions. We befriend what we do not and cannot know, and that way of being becomes humorous.
What is 'God'? If there is a 'God,' why all the pain and suffering? What happens after we 'die'? Did we live before this life? How did this whole show of creation get started? What is love? How did pine trees come to be? Why do roses smell like roses? Of course, different spiritual paths and often science give answers to big questions. Still, one may realize how traditions shape these answers, and science has biases and limits. We can learn from these sources and need to, but we can also wisely hold their conclusions on the big questions lightly.
Something arises when we let go of demanding the answers to the big questions. Certainty. This certainty has been called pure faith, an inner certainty not based on explanation. It arises free of needing to know definitions and descriptions. Here, you know. The knowing has no object, like belief does. We grow into this. But we cannot tell another what this knowing is. We can invite them to it. The knowing has always been there, waiting underneath all our false certainties, our insistence on our beliefs and opinions.
Knowing is effortless, yet coming to this grace takes a lot of effort. When you know, you are a knower; thankfully, you are no longer a believer. You will know when believing has lost its hold on you; it slowly fades. For example, there is a big difference between I believe in 'God' and I know 'God.' Then, someone could ask, "Well, what is 'God'?" "Well, I know, so I don't know how. So, I have no answer for you except 'I know.'" The spirit knows, for Spirit knows.
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*(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.
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