Own Truth

The Zen teacher’s dog loved his evening romp with his master. The dog would bound ahead to fetch a stick, then run back, wag his tail, and wait for the next game.

On this particular evening, the teacher invited one of his brightest students to join him – a boy so intelligent that he became troubled by the contradictions in Buddhist doctrine.

“You must understand,” said the teacher, “that words are only guideposts. Never let the words or symbols get in the way of truth. Here, I’ll show you.”

With that the teacher called his happy dog. “Fetch me the moon,” he said to his dog and pointed to the full moon. “Where is my dog looking?” asked the teacher of the bright pupil.

“He’s looking at your finger.”

“Exactly. Don’t be like my dog. Don’t confuse the pointing finger with the thing that is being pointed at. All our Buddhist words are only guideposts. Everyman fights his way through other men’s words to find his own truth.”

Know Yourself

Zen master was saying to the brightest students that to find the real you need to drop all your knowledge. Like a dog if you are stuck to the finger you cannot see the real moon which is there at this moment.

Jesus says, “Truth liberates.” But how to attain truth? It is not a question of belief, but a question of meditativeness. And what is meditation? Meditation is emptying your mind completely of all belief, ideology, concept, thought. Only in an empty mind, when there is no dust left on the mirror, truth reflects. That reflection is a benediction.

What Is Meditation?

Meditation is a simple process: Of watching your own mind. Not fighting with the mind. Not trying to control it either. Just remaining there, a choiceless witness. Whatsoever passes you simply take note of it. With no prejudice for or against. You don’t call it names. That “This should not come to my mind.” That “This is an ugly thought and This is a very beautiful and virtuous thought.” You should not judge. You should remain nonjudgmental. Because the moment you judge. You lose meditation. You become identified. Either you become a friend or you become a foe. You create relationships.

Meditation means – Remaining unrelated with your thought process. Utterly unrelated, cool, calm. Watching whatsoever is passing. And then a miracle happens: Slowly slowly one becomes aware. That less and less thoughts are passing. The more alert you are, the less thoughts pass. The less alert you are, the more thoughts pass. It is as if traffic depends on your awareness.

When you are perfectly aware. Even for a single moment. All thinking stops. Immediately, there is a sudden stop. And the road is empty, there is no traffic. That moment is meditation.

Slowly slowly those moments come more and more. Those empty spaces come again and again. And stay longer. And you become capable of moving easily. Into those empty spaces with no effort. So whenever you want you can move. Into those empty spaces with no effort. They are refreshing, rejuvenating. And they make you aware of who you are. Freed from the mind you are freed. From all ideas about yourself. Now you can see who you are. Without any prejudice. And to know oneself. Is to know all that is worth knowing. And to miss self-knowledge is to miss all. A man may know everything in the world. But if he does not know himself. He is utterly ignorant. He is just a walking Encyclopedia Britannica.

And that is where only very few people have succeeded – a Jesus, a Lao Tzu, a Zarathustra, a Buddha. Just a few people. Who can be counted on one’s fingers. They have really lived in freedom. Because they lived out of awareness.

That has to be the work for every seeker: To create more and more awareness. Then freedom comes of its own accord. Freedom is the fragrance of the flower of awareness.

Learning from the story Own Truth: Know Yourself

Experience Learning

For the Buddha, ultimate reality is a process of self-realization. Nobody is going to save you. The only person that can liberate you from your own pain and suffering is yourself, and the only person that is going to take the consequences of your own bad acts and misjudgment is also yourself.

We might think that knowing ourselves is a very ego-centered thing, but by beginning to look clearly and honestly at ourselves, we begin to dissolve the walls that separate us from others.

The journey of awakening happens just at the place where we can’t get comfortable. Opening to discomfort is the basis of transmuting our so-called “negative” feelings. We somehow want to get rid of our uncomfortable feelings either by justifying them or by squelching them, but it turns out that this is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. According to the teachings of vajrayana, or tantric, or Buddhism, our wisdom and our confusion are so interwoven that it doesn’t work to just throw things out.

By trying to get rid of “negativity,” by trying to eradicate it, by putting it into a column labelled “bad,” we are throwing away our wisdom as well, because everything in us is creative energy – particularly our strong emotions. They are filled with life-force.

There is nothing wrong with negativity per se; the problem is that we never see it, we never honor it, we never look into its heart. We don’t taste our negativity, smell it, get to know it. Instead, we are always trying to get rid of it by punching someone in the face, by slandering someone, by punishing ourselves, or by repressing our feelings. In between repression and acting out, however, there is something wise and profound and timeless.

If we just try to get rid of negative feelings, we don’t realize that those feelings are our wisdom. The transmutation comes from the willingness to hold our seat with the feeling, to let the words go, to let the justification go. We don’t have to have resolution. We can live with a dissonant note; we don’t have to play the next key to end the tune.

Curiously enough, this journey of transmutation is one of tremendous joy. We usually seek joy in the wrong places, by trying to avoid feeling whole parts of the human condition. We seek happiness by believing that whole parts of what it is to be human are unacceptable. We feel that something has to change in ourselves. However, unconditional joy comes about through some kind of intelligence in which we allow ourselves to see clearly what we do with great honesty, combined with a tremendous kindness and gentleness. This combination of honesty, or clear-seeing, and kindness is the essence of maitri – unconditional friendship with ourselves.

This is a process of continually stepping into unknown territory. You become willing to step into the unknown territory of your own being. Then you realize that this particular adventure is not only taking you into your own being, it’s also taking you out into the whole universe. You can only go into the unknown when you have made friends with yourself. You can only step into those areas “out there” by beginning to explore and have curiosity about this unknown “in here,” in yourself.