The Finger is not the Moon

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Each religion, each philosophy can only be considered a means of assistance, a "finger that points to the moon," as the Lankavatara Sutra says. It´s like the trap we use to catch a fish. Once the fish is caught, we no longer need the trap.

You make a big fuss about all of the different ways and methods of acquiring something that you´ll never be able to gain. Zen Master Huang-po therefore says: "That there is nothing which can be attained is not idle talk; it is the highest truth." You seek something that you´ll never be able to find because you´ve never lost it. It´s just like the old Indian parable about the man wearing a headband with a pearl on it who suddenly thinks that he has lost his pearl. He runs around from place to place, from town to town, from country to country, searching for his pearl until finally he looks in the mirror and realizes it was with him the whole time: He´d never lost it. It´s just a matter of realization, not a matter of attainment.

Really look, leave everything just as it is, stop running about like frightened chickens, and see things the way they are! When you leave everything just as it is, you no longer try to make everything fit into the mold of conceptual fixation, the mold of your old accustomed way of viewing things. You no longer distort situations and things with your recollections, with the contents of your memory of a dead past, and you no longer mistake your projections for the things themselves.

Say one night in the moonlight you spot a rope lying alongside a path, and in a state of panic you project the thought of a snake onto it. Overcome with fear, you turn and run away. Yet the next day in the sunshine you pass along the same way and you see the snake was only a rope. The sunlight of unobstructed realization shows you the truth and enables you to see things as they are. Nothing is projected, everything is clear, and everything is good. "Every day is a good day," says Zen. Every situation is a wonderful situation because every situation is the revelation of divine reality.

Even one thought of grasping and you are caught by desire. Even one thought of rejecting and you are filled with anger and hate. That´s why I say again and again: The true attitude of mind is one of inner equanimity. You abide within yourselves while moving about in a world of supposed multiplicity, and you leave things just as they are. In other words, it´s incorrect to conceptualize the world and to categorize it in terms of good or not good. It´s incorrect to believe that the world is a hindrance to following the "spiritual path." It´s incorrect to believe that the world amounts to chasing after material possessions, fame, prestige, and success; and that therefore these must be avoided. That´s one perspective. However, a perspective is only a single point of view to the exclusion of other points of view. It means looking through the end of the drinking straw of contracted consciousness. The vast expanse of the Mind of suchness is contracted into a microcosmic partial aspect – the point of view of the ego.

The world, meaning every situation in which you find yourselves in life, is neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong. Your conditioned perspectives cause you to project all possible notions onto that which you see, onto all that you encounter. You project your old worn-out recollections, the ancient contents of a lifeless memory, onto the situation and react in an accustomed manner with favor or disfavor, convinced that things really are as they appear to you. Take the following example: You see a young woman, beautiful and pure as a flower. However, feelings of lust cause you to project sexual desires onto that person, and in the end all you see is a sex object. That´s not the world as it is. What you experience is not suchness, but yourself in your ego-delusion.

The ego projects and puts together it`s own world. The world of the ego is no more than an endless coming and going of wishes and fears, thoughts and feelings, and is therefore the cycle of birth and death that we call samsara. The cycle of birth and death is merely a psychical projection of consciousness. In order to be able to recognize realitiy as it is, you first must awaken from your habitual misinterpretations and the resulting misperceptions. Then you will become the tathagata, the thus-come one, who sees things the way they are.

Getting to this point requires the spiritual guidance of an enlightened master. When you begin your search for a master in today´s giant maze of spiritual paths, you will encounter thousands upon thousands of self-proclaimed masters. Such pseudo-gurus only parrot what they have read or heard form others. Only one who has awakened to the original condition of his being is a true master; only he has the authority to teach. Whoever presumes to talk about enlightenment without having experienced it himself is like a blind person attempting to describe Michelangelo´s ceiling painting of the Sistine Chapel.

Some of you might be thinking: "If there are really so few real masters, then most people must be lost." Keep in mind that there are also many upayas (aids), as they are termed by Buddhists. These are preparatory teachings that may also be taught by unenlightened teachers who act as guides and can at least bring students as far as they have come themselves. Then the student must find another teacher who has an even deeper understanding, until finally the student is adequately prepared for a true master. There are few, however, who are really ripe for the encounter with a master.

Many people have encountered a master and then turned away because they weren´t able fully to realize that a true enlightened master stood before them. That´s the way it is today, and that´s the way it´s always been, even back in the times of Christ and Buddha. Many people saw Buddha and turned their backs to him; they heard his wonderful teachings and said: "What non-sense." Many heard Jesus and said: "Who`s that egomaniac who says he`s the son of God? He`s not clear in the head. What blasphemy; he can´t be a true master." You must be ripe for a master. Meister Eckhart therefore urges us, "Climb higher, friend." This is how one surpasses the "double-tongued masters," as they are called in Zen.

Now let´s go back to the beginning of our discussion. All philosophical and religious systems are only means of assistance and thus have little to do with reality itself, no more than the finger that points to the moon. All cerebral acrobatic speculation has nothing to do with reality, nothing at all!

What is it then? What is the truth? A logical question. The mind always thinks logically, and thus the answer it finds is logical, too. And precisely because the answer is logical, the answer is wrong, for all conceptual thinking is erroneous belief – we can spare ourselves the effort. Anything that can be conceptually expressed has nothing to do with reality, which is nameless and formless. The intellect thinks solely in terms of pairs of opposing concepts and says: "If it´s not this, then it must be that. If it´s not yang, it must be yin; and if it´s not yin, it must be yang." Or, "If it´s not movement, then of course it must be stillness." But it´s neither one nor the other. That´s why Buddha says of the absolute: "One cannot say that it is, and one cannot say that it is not. One cannot say that it is and is not, and one also cannot say that it neither is nor is not." This is the fourfold Buddhist negation. Zen Master Mumon expresses it his own way. He sweeps everything aside so that the only thing remaining is mu, nothing :

MU MU MU MU MU

Nothing is real, nothing exists, everything is a dream without the slightest reality. Still you cling to the notion that behind this nothing is something, a perceiver, an observer behind the experience. Your clinging is precisely what causes you to obscure this observer behind all experiences, your true self, without your even knowing. You believe that what you perceive right now is your true self, but it´s really only the ego. The ego is not a thing, a person, or a being; the ego is an occurrence, a process. Specifically, it´s the process of identification, of grasping. It´s also called ahamkara, which means "the process of ego-projection, the ego-maker, or ego-delusion." Because this is so, the ego is not something to which you can give a deathblow.

There is much talk these days about killing the ego, but because no ego exists, there is nothing to kill. The sole thing you could and should put to death is the delusion of an ego. And this can only be accomplished by putting an end to the process that gives rise to ego-delusion. But just what is this process? It´s the process of constant, perpetual accepting and rejecting, the process of discrimination. According to the biblical tradition, this process began in the Garden of Eden. God told humankind not to eat from the tree of knowledge – of discrimination between good and evil – or he would run them out of paradise. And so it happened, which is why you´re sitting here right now. Nevertheless, you still are in paradise. Nothing ever happened. It´s just that the veil of acceptance and rejection has been draped over the pure perception of suchness, and you can only see the projection of your ignorance while believing "This is how the world is." "When thoughts arise, then do all things arise," says Huang-po, "and when thoughts vanish, then do all things vanish. When thoughts arise, then do all problems arise; and when thoughts vanish, then do all problems vanish. Imagine for a moment that you have a problem – any problem, whatever it may be. Then suppose that while you are mulling over your problem, you suddenly get shot in the leg, and you now have a bullet lodged there. Are you still thinking about your problem?

Zen Master Pai-chang, Huang-po`s master, gives us a wonderful remedy. He says: "When your mind moves, do not follow it and it will detach itself from the movement. And when your mind rests upon something, do not follow it and it will detach itself from that upon which it rests." If you truly want to enter the realm of enlightenment, then it is necessary for you to clear out your mind so that it is as empty as a vacant room. Detach yourselves from your old views and from all grasping. Stop trying to understand reality through the use of conceptual thinking, and your false ideas and suppositions will dissolve of themselves. If you follow these instructions, then you are on the path to enlightenment

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