Good Advice
Come, See For Yourself
The one advice more precious than any other: Come, see for yourself
Gotama Buddha was one of the first to offer this advice. Many a wise man have offered it since, and perhaps many wise men had offered it before him, but who’s to know. To this day, and I’d say especially in this day, it remains the most precious advice you can give your fellow travelers and seekers.
“Take my word for it.” The worst advice ever given, and one far, far, far too commonly swallowed and followed. Oh, he said it so it must be true. That’s spiritual suicide, that is hell.
The Buddha pointed at the moon. Look for yourself, he said. Don’t look at my finger, he said, look at the moon.
Insight, said Ayya Khema, is understood experience.
And in order to have something to understand, axiomatically: yes, you have to experience. Personally. Directly.
Like Christina Feldman says about meditation:
“Meditation is inherently experiential. It cannot be learned as a purely scholastic subject nor simply taught as an intellectual exercise. Meditation is not a new belief system to be adopted nor a collection of information to be absorbed. Whatever style or discipline we adopt its effectiveness is reliant upon our direct personal exploration, practice and experience with it. Meditation introduces us to the life of our mind, body and feelings — on a moment to moment level we increasingly see clearly the ways we affect our world and the ways we are affected by it.”
This is diametrically opposed to “Take my word for it.”
The only way to see is to look. The only way to know is to experience. The Buddha knew what he was talking about.
© Wolfstuff
