Walking the Wall

I finished Pema Chodron’s The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness this morning and I feel like I would be best served to just turn it to the first page and start all over again. There was so much in it that had me nodding my head, underlining, bending pages, and etc.

Beliefs are such difficult things, they inspire so much emotion in people. Chodron writes:

People find it quite easy to have beliefs and to hold on to them and to let their whole world be a product of their belief system. They also find it quite easy to attack those who disagree. The harder, more courageous thing, which the hero and the heroine, the warror, and the mystic do, is continually to look one’s beliefs straight in the face, honestly and clearly, and then step beyond them (35). 

 That is very difficult, and yet I have very good examples of people around me who seem willing to take the hard road. I am lucky in that I have friends of the family, a brother, and a husband who work hard to at least look at a different perspective and expand their beliefs or look and determine they don’t believe something–that they at least look at and discuss before just dismissing–and to, so important, give respect even if not belief. At least three of these people have made comments in the course of various discussions that allude to being careful about just picking and choosing pieces in order to find a belief a person likes, taking the good, but leaving the harder aspects behind. I found myself mulling that over, not wanting to go shopping for a belief just because I don’t want to accept what I deem to be negative parts (like hellfire and damnation). There were also comments that were to the effect that a person couldn’t just go on what they "felt" was right–but this didn’t set right with me, as if I couldn’t trust myself enough to find what feels right at the core of me. One of the things that drew me to Buddhism is that even Buddha said to not take the words of people or books at face value, but to look at it and determine whether it held truth yourself.

I think that people do know truth, core truths, for themselves. We are taught to not trust our instincts, to not listen to the inner workings of our mind that tell us if a thought or a belief or a situation is "right". When I read about the core teachings of Buddhism there is a great sense of rightness that I can’t ignore. Chodron writes about her teacher, Rinpoche, who spoke about shopping (for truth) as "actually always trying to find security, always trying to feel good about yourself," she writes that "you are uncommitted until you actually encounter a particular way that rings true in your heart and you decide to follow it" (88-89).

What rings true in each person may be very different, and that’s okay, in Essential Teachings by the Dalai Lama he said a few things that really struck home about religion:

• Religion, in all its forms, has as its root endless compassion (ix).
• Exchange with another tradition can only lead to enrichment of your own. What is there to fear (xvii)?
• He learned about service from Christianity. "This service to other beings is essential. Buddhists too often think meditating is enough. Meditation is not enough. We must help others. Compassion must be active, otherwise it is lazy" (xviii).
• When asked about a world religion: "No world religion. We have enough religions. Enough religions but not enough real human beings. Religions should learn from each other, respect each other, but keep their identity. Some poeple like tomatoes; some people like bread. People should be free to eat what they want and people should be able to choose what religion is most useful to their growth. Don’t let us talk too much of religion. Let us talk of what is human. . . Our world is forgetting what is essential [love and kindness], what is essentially human (xviii).

So while right now I may not know exactly what I believe about what happens after death, or what happened at the beginning of the world, I do know what rings true to my heart about how to live and believe right this moment, and I’m okay with that, it’s enough. I know I’ve pointed to this poem on more than one occassion, but I’ll do so again because it was probably one of the first things so many years ago that opened my mind to the possiblity of  (as Chodron said) continually looking one’s beliefs straight in the face, honestly and clearly, and then steping beyond them:

Progress

Let there be many windows to your soul,
That all the glory of the universe
May beautify it. Not the narrow pane
Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays
That shine from countless sources. Tear away
The blinds of superstition; let the light
Pour through fair windows broad as truth itself
And high as God.

Why should the spirit peer
Through some priest-curtained orifice, and grope
Along dim corridors of doubt, when all
The splendor from unfathomed seas of space
Might bathe it with the golden waves of Love?
Sweep up the debris of decaying faiths;
Sweep down the cobwebs of worn-out beliefs,
And throw your soul wide open to the light
Of Reason and of Knowledge. Tune your ear
To all the wordless music of the stars
And to the voice of Nature, and your heart
Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant
Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands
Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,
And all the forces of the firmament
Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid
To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.

~Ella Wheeler Wilcox