The nun Wu Jincang asked the Sixth Patriach Huineng, "I have studied the Mahaparinirvana sutra for many years, yet there are many areas i do not quite understand. Please enlighten me."
The patriach responded, "I am illiterate. Please read out the characters to me and perhaps I will be able to explain the meaning."
Said the nun, "You cannot even recognize the characters. How are you able then to understand the meaning?"
"Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond the finger, right?"
The mystical aspect of religious belief appeals much more to me than doctrines and creeds as these leave open the possibility of one religious orthodoxy to denounce another religious orthodoxy. Those who think other than the creed are deemed to be heretical - actively choosing another path; the wrong path. The mystical approach seeks to abandon these labels, words, definitions, descriptions and instead connect with the source of existence. I have always been curious as to why there is a need for hierarchy in any organisation when all beings are created and of the same substance as the source. Plato emphasized the Forms - the absolute of Truth, Beauty, the original dwelling of our mind / soul. This earthly existence is about remembering what it is we already knew when we were in the world of Forms. I find it interesting that Knowledge or cognition is key to mysticism. Sufi's say that it is re-cognising that helps us to realize and begin our journey to knowing who we are and ultimately knowing the source of the Reality beyond this veil of ignorance. It's all good and well to describe the finger but look at what the finger is pointing to.
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