Someone once asked Helen Keller “What could be worse than being Blind?” Her response was “Having no vision!”

The old adage contains at least some truth: “There are none so blind than those who will not see”.

Hakuin Zenji (1689-1769) the Buddhist Zen Master of the Rinzai School, (who is credited with saving Zen) asks a question: “What is true Meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong into one single Koan.”

Hakuin was famous for his Koans, especially “the sound of one hand clapping.”

As many of you know, I am rather fond of writing: “Meditation is not what you think!” I also like: “You are not what happens to you!” The reason is simply because we are each much, much more than what comes across our Path; the hurts and pain that exists to be turned into wisdom, if we but allow life to come full circle.

We are then most assuredly not what we think, for we are “Mondo Beyondo” (thanks Bette) far more than thoughts could ever express. Thoughts are only a small portion, a wee manifestation, a mere form of the consciousness, and not our total being, thus we are not what we think. The Old Sage said “indeed…for we don not even think about what we think about”…a source of much trouble in and of itself!

There is another book of the Bible that contains much wisdom and much help for us along the trek over our respective Paths; “The Gospel of Thomas”. The crux of this Book of the Gospels is a record of things Jesus said to those He knew during His brief life on Earth.

One of the Key’s (as they are called) to life that Jesus shared “is the ability to remove ourselves from judgment, the cultivation of a kind of “neutral consciousness”, somewhat along the Taoist line of thought, or those listed above from Hakuin. The words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Thomas read:

“When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside, and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, And when you make the male and the female one in the same, then… you will enter the kingdom.”

        The Gospel of Thomas (Wisdom of the Twin) Page 51 By Lynn Bauman (White Cloud Press)

HUH? What was that that is being said?

Well, it is only when we can “see beyond” the differences that we tend to judge, when we dissolve the polarities that have made things separate in the past, that we create for ourselves the state of being that allows true Light and Life. When you and I can ‘move beyond’ the right and wrong, and move beyond the so-called good and bad of what life shows us, then that will be when we find our greatest power, to become…more.

We  need to move beyond clever thoughts and mind constructs to a “feeling in our hearts”…mondo beyondo. Only then can we lay down in Rumi’s Field; that field which is beyond judgment!

It struck me, that even before we begin our Prayers, we must first dwell in that Stillpoint, with our hearts and minds (Hsin) prepared… suspending our judgments, fears, hurts and pain; for it is from this neutral state, this 'neutral consciousness' that we may accept Rumi’s invitation of Peace, and unconditional acceptance.

“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing,There is a Field.I will meet you there”.

(‘Soul, Heart, and Body One Morning’ (From “Rumi, the Book of Love) By Coleman Barks, Page 123)

It is life’s huge riddle, that we must die before we die, dissolving into the Heart. I know I am moving towards surrender more quickly! …

Friends, let us dissolve and release all that we don’t need, that isn’t true or real , so we can be beyond judgmentalism; and our hearts (hsin) can allow something else to break-in upon our pain, our hurt and our confusion, and transform it into wisdom…that we can make it all One.

As the Ancient Taoist Sage would say: “Knowledge is not enough, unless it leads you to understanding, and in turn, to wisdom!”

“Wisdom is not the same as reasoning” the Old Sage quipped. “Sheep and goats, oxen and buffaloes, camels and asses have reasoning, but not wisdom!”

Blessings

Fred

 Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites