The Finger Pointing At The Moon

I do not consider myself a Buddhist, but I admire the directness of Zen. I love one of their admonitions, "Do not mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the Moon.

Throughout our history, men have tried to deal with the Divine in countless ways. We have gathered in beautiful Cathedrals and isolated ourselves in caves. We have stared at crosses and statues, at icons and mandalas. We have prayed to countless gods and goddesses and to a single God. We have chanted and prayed, meditated and contemplated, danced and beat ourselves. We have consulted spirit beings and oracles and channeled the dead. And, we have swallowed and smoked just about every chemical imaginable.

We have tackled the issue with logic. Just read the tortured, twisting logic found in the epistles of Paul and some of the Buddhist texts. Our scientists have used pure logic and describe a Universe that seemingly is almost irrational and filled with a fantastic array of weird particles that zip about with little rhyme or reason.

And, still, we search. We become convinced that the path we take, the methods we try, are the only way. In fact they give no answers; they only raise more questions. What is worse, they divide us more and more, as we defend our little paths out of fear that if we admit that they are lacking, we will be lost. We would rather soldier on, down a dead end road, than admit we were wrong and that we have wasted time.

The prime and obvious example of this began in the Middle East where Jews, Muslims,  and Christians, all professing a belief in the same God, have been fighting for centuries over silly bits of dogma. All of their battles are just a way of saying, "Daddy (God) loves me best." It is stupid and childish and is threatening the World, spreading bloodshed and wanton destructiveness everywhere.

All of the methods I noted have their uses. Each can show you a glimpse of the Divine mystery, but only a glimpse. You cannot see the whole, the unity that underlies all the diversity and is the source of it all, by just looking at the parts. Staring at your toenail tells you nothing of the rest of the foot and it certainly cannot bring you in touch with the whole body.

Just accept that we know very, very little, that it is all a grand mystery and get on with your life. Do that, and slowly, bit by bit, you will get glimpses of the Divine, little peaks behind the curtain. You will learn at the pace you are ready to learn. First though, stop mistaking the pointing finger for the Moon.