"The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new."
~Pema Chodron
James's comment: I think that too often we as "Buddhists" cling to the idea of being a "Buddhist" rather then just being and sitting in the clear light of universal truth.
We sometimes also get hung up in the trappings of "Buddhism." We think that we are close to enlightenment or that we are advancing because we "do" all the "right things." We light incense, we bow to a Buddha statue, we ring a bell, chant mantras, shave our heads and wear the right robes.
However, these things are simply fingers pointing to the moon and not the moon itself as the Buddha taught.
Being too caught up in these symbols of the dharma we begin to become so entangled up in them that we can easily forget that there are many other fingers that are capable of pointing to the moon as well. The five fingers on ones hand are like different religions that all point to the same universal condition or truth. Taken by themselves they appear to be seperate and different but when we look deeper we see that they all blend down into the same hand of ultimate truth. Without the thumb for example we can not have a full hand or full truth in our example.
The thumb is no better or no less then the other fingers.
It is important to look outside "Buddhism" to appreciate other shades of the same, interdependant truth so that we might eliminate any feelings of seperateness from other people and their faithes.
I hope I made sense and didn't just get entangled in too many words which is something I need to avoid as one of my last posts taught me.
-Peace to all beings-
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