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Brian Wilcox 'Diamond Snow ~ Euphorbia'
Note - In this writing, I use "truth" and "the Truth" differently. "Truth" is reality. To speak the truth is to speak what comports with reality, and to see the truth is to see what is real, to see clearly. The Truth is Reality understood in a nontheological sense (i.e., Dharmakaya in Buddhism) or as God. Truth or the Truth transcends belief - idea, opinion - in both the nontheistic or theistic teaching. While belief is part of Eastern and Western wisdom traditions, the East has stressed more direct experience, or realization, than has the West. However, these categories apply generally, not just religiously. I can look at a glass of wine and never realize the taste of the wine. I can champion democracy and never know democracy, only theorize about it or assert ideas about it or demand my own version of it. Hence, a transcendence of belief is the direct encounter of what a belief points to - truth.
This transcendence applies in creating unity among ourselves and with Nature. We do not know what anyone or anything is in its particular expression of Truth - so, the truth of it, him, her -, without a direct meeting - this is why we cannot be separate and know, we must be with to know. This with is not about physical proximity but intimacy - among humans and humans with other sentient beings, heart-with-heart.
Martin Buber, in I and Thou: "All real living is meeting."
* * *
in the head
we become divided
in the heart
we become united
* * *
A friend of the Sage, a pastor of a local church, came for advice. He told of a dispute among his congregates over church doctrine. The friend asked, "Could you give me advice on what to do?" "Yes," said the Sage, "why not ask them that of all the blessings Jesus spoke, did he ever say, 'Blessed are those who are right'?"
* * *
Mara, the evil one in Buddhism, was walking, disguised as a man, down a road. Alongside him walked a skeptic. The skeptic saw something on the way and picked it up; he tucked it in his pocket. Mara asked, "What was that?" "A piece of truth," said the skeptic, "I didn't want anyone to find it." To this, Mara said, "Put it back down on the way. Someone will come along, pick it up, and make a belief out of it."
* * *
Kakua is recalled as the first Japanese to go to China to study Zen. In China, he meditated, living on a remote part of a mountain. Whenever people found him and asked him to preach, he would say a few words and move to another part of the mountain where he would be less likely to be found.
The emperor heard about Kakua when the latter returned to Japan. The emperor asked Kakua to preach Zen for his edification and that of his subjects. Kakua stood before the emperor in silence. He took a flute from the folds of his robe and sounded a short note. After bowing politely, he left.
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