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Gladiolus
Inn Along the Way/Chapman Farm
Damariscotta, Maine
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Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,
Or haters, one to another,
Far worse is the harm
From one's own wrongly directed mind.
Neither mother nor father,
Nor any other relative can do
One as much good
As one's own well-directed mind.
*Gil Fronsdal. The Dhammapada
And I pray your love may flourish more and more, with knowledge and all insight, so you may demonstrate [or discern, recognize] what is excellent and, so, be pure and innocent for the day of Christ.
*Philippians 1.9-10
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A student asked ..., "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" Suzuki Roshi answered, "It doesn't matter."
*David Chadwick, Ed. Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki.
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For many years, I was inspired by a passage in the Holy Bible. The saying is a wisdom teaching, Proverbs 3.5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding; instead, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will prepare the way before you [image is of preparing the way for the visit of a king].
Later, I learned an added aspect of this wisdom. Trusting and acknowledging the LORD refers to a presence already part of us - even if we often ignore it. That he will prepare the way alludes to the wisdom within us. This wisdom is not a he, she, it, or thing. It cannot be located, for it is ever-present. A theist can easily see this by understanding whatever the "LORD" signifies is fully present with us, not somewhere outside and beyond us. As the Psalmist, in Psalm 139.7-10 (NLT), penned -
I can never escape from your Spirit [wind, breath, spirit]!
I can never get away from your presence [face]!
If I go up to heaven [the skies], you are there;
if I go down to the grave [land of the dead], you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
* * *
Some early churches linked the historical Jesus with wisdom. I Corinthians 1.30 has, "But God has brought you into union with Christ Jesus, and God has made Christ to be our wisdom." "Christ" is our wisdom - or the Buddha, Krishna, anyone, or anything - indicates becoming our wisdom that we may become the wisdom. Any means of wisdom is the same wisdom.
This diversity of means raises the question, "If there are diverse means to wisdom, and we cannot say wisdom is, for example, in one tradition or one holy book, how do we know wisdom from foolishness?" And, "How do we discern a wise teacher from a fake or teacher of falsehood?" In the Gospel of Matthew 11 (NLT), Jesus says to the people, "For John [the Baptist; lit., Baptizer] didn't spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, 'He's possessed by a demon.' (v. 18). Jesus continues, "The Son of Man [i.e., Jesus; lit. Son of Humanity], on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, 'He's a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!' But wisdom is shown to be right by its results [lit., children; so, fruit]. (v. 19)." The fruit tells you what kind of tree; the child carries the parent's genes, so to see one is to see the other.
There is no such thing as an unenlightened spirituality. A crude - possibly - way of saying this is, "God does not spawn foolishness." That there is so much delusional thinking in the name of religion and spirituality is simply a fact, however, for we as humans choose ignorance. This choice is often automatic, for the mind is programmed to choose, yet, we say, "I chose." Part of our ignorance is our attachment to views. When we cling to a view, it blocks the capacity to consider the potential truth in other, apparently contradictory views. So, right view, a Buddhist teaching, entails clinging to no view. And, having believed and, so, acted unwisely, is training in living more wisely.
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The Light - so, what enlightens - is already available and present, meaning, as intimate as we are to ourselves - possibly, more so. Right here, now, we can choose the excellent. We can bless others and ourselves by attuning the mind with truth. This truth is beyond thought yet comes to us in thought and other means.
We have the innate capacity to transform ignorance into wisdom - grace does not waste anything, even delusion. In Buddhism, the bodhisattva Manjusri symbolizes this capability. The sword he wields connotes insight - the ability to cut through fantasy. Often, Manjusri's blade is aflame. Fire can indicate transformation or illumination. The fire of prajna [Sanskrit, wisdom, insight, discrimination] does not eradicate ignorance, it transforms it.
With understanding, we can differentiate between right and wrong, skillful and unskillful, and helpful and unhelpful. At a fundamental level, we learn to see what does not matter and what does. We avoid useless speculating. We are interested in what makes life here, now workable and a blessing for others and self. Spiritual insight spontaneously assesses what comes before it.
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A challenge is to allow the thinking mind to rest so wisdom can arise. Buddhism uses an analogy for this - water obscured by mud. Stirring the water in an attempt to clear it keeps it muddy. Non-action seems counterintuitive. We think, "I must do something." So, we go into problem-resolving mode. Likewise, with insight, we try to get it.
When anxious to gain insight, we often begin an asserted effort - what I often call "effortfulness" - to get it. This exertion, as noted above, obscures the natural clarity of mind. Hence, mindfulness, or being fully present, is relaxing the mind, leading to receptivity. We relax, discovering that as water is naturally pure, wisdom is not alien to us. With the ceasing of our thinking, thoughts reflecting insight can arise into conscious awareness. As Buddhist teacher and author, Ken I. McLeod, says of this unveiling of wisdom, "Something unknown and unnamable lets go. A door opens" (Reflections on Silver River: Tokmé Zongpo's Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva).
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What is this discerning mind? "Mind" can refer to the brain as means of thought, for thought, or the capacity for thought. Nevertheless, there is a subtler aspect behind the brain and, so, thought. An analogy based on the movie via film is this aspect - Mind of God, Sophia, wisdom, the Light, Holy Spirit, consciousness - is comparable to the light shining through the film and producing the story played out on the screen. The light is not the story. The story appears due to past causes. The Light, spiritually, is uncreate while making possible even delusion. Delusion, thereby, is merely the absence of truth. Delusion, being an absence, has no positive value.
The Light - by whatever term you name it - makes possible everything the brain is the means of. The mind is preconditioned for certain characters and stories to play out. Yet, the truth resides not in the brain or its thoughts. The Light is absolute, all else is relative, even thought in alignment with the Light. The Light is the source of all thought reflecting wisdom. Hence, we intend to attune the mind by and with the Light.
The question naturally arises, "What ultimately is this wisdom, if not wise thought?" The Light is wisdom. To unite with the Light is to unite with wisdom. Therefore, in yielding to the Light, one yields to all the Light is, even that of the Light unknown to the one who yields in trust. This means there are no wise ideas or thinking unless such reflects wisdom. Only the Light is wisdom, all else is participative or not.
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Hence, to say we need to rest the mind for insight to arise means to relax thinking. Thinking is the willful production of thought - the thinker takes control, blocking the Light from coming through clearly. Confusion, not clarity, arises. The more the thinker thinks, the more confusion there is.
So, mindfulness, or contemplation, is a relaxing of the mind amid thought arising. In this sense, if the mind means the habitual activity of the thinker, which it often does, mindfulness is mindlessness - the absence of the thinker and thinking. I wrote "thinker and thinking" because there is no thinking without the thinker, even when thought arises, and without a thinker, there is no thinking, even when thought arises. Wisdom can appear spontaneously, then, whether through intuitive understanding, enlightened thought, or both. Again, the natural clarity of water shows itself when the stirring stops. This revelation is as natural as opening your eyes to enjoy the sunlight or placing your nose next to a rosebud.
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I recently talked with someone about the much-used, often misleading, term "enlightenment." We discussed how vague its usage is. What does it mean? Is there even such a thing? He said, "When I get alone and get clear, to me, that is enlightenment." Another way of saying that, in line with what I have written above, is, "When you get alone and relax, breathing mindfully, being fully present, wisdom shines forth." The good news, however, is it always shines, and we do not have to hide away somewhere to breathe mindfully and welcome the truth to show itself. We can stop anywhere and anytime to acknowledge and welcome the Light.
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and notation of title and place of the photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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