All the teachings, whatever the tradition or religion, point to something. The same thing in fact. And we, the students, are a bunch of dogs staring at the finger doing the pointing.
Try pointing something out to a dog, it will look at your finger, then you, your finger, you, your finger, etc. Oblivious of the thing you are trying to point at.
We are the same. We come across some teaching that seems to help us take a step and we immediately grab hold of our newfound truth and the teaching that brought us there. We wrap our ego around it and we are now followers of this tradition or that.
We fail to see that, helpful though it may be, it is just a new method, just a model, merely a signpost on our path. Useful perhaps, but no more, or less, true than any other tradition. And definitely a new obstacle once clung to.
Tread lightly, hold even lighter, and just move along your path taking whatever you can from whatever tradition you want, but always keep on going.
There really are only a few injunctions that you need:
- Figure out for yourself what you know to be true
- Keep going
- No really, keep going
Don’t be a dog staring at the finger pointing the way.