This talk started with a joke, which was followed by a series of questions for the group, and a discussion.
My mom sent me this book Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. There is one I really like. Most people have heard it. A version appears in the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, where it is described as a true story that came from a Frank Koch writing in Proceedings, the magazine of the US Naval Institute. The Navy denies that it ever happened, and I have to believe them, as versions of the joke go back a hundred years or more. I quote the Seven Habits version here:
Two battleships assigned to the training squadron had been at sea on manoeuvres in heavy weather for several days. I was serving on the lead battleship and was on watch on the bridge as night fell. Shortly after dark, the lookout on the wing of the bridge reported, "Light, bearing on the starboard bow."
"Is it steady or moving astern?" the captain called out.
Lookout replied, "Steady, captain," which meant we were on a collision course.
The captain then called to the signalman, "Signal that ship: We are on a collision course, advise you change course 20 degrees."
Back came the reply, "Advisable for you to change course 20 degrees."
The captain said, "Send, I’m a captain, change course 20 degrees."
"I am a seaman second class" came the reply. "You had better change course 20 degrees."
By that time, the captain was furious. He spat out, "Send, I’m a battleship. Change course 20 degrees."
Back came the reply, "I’m a lighthouse."
We changed course.
Is there an Absolute? Yes, you can tell by the words used by me and others to describe it (Google some of these phrases):
Unimaginable beauty and perfection
Wisdom and love supreme
Inconceivable unity
Peace that surpasses all understanding
Unspeakable grace
It is intrinsic nature. It is the true self. It is ultimate reality. Call it God. Call it the Absolute.
In the ordinary world, is there any sign of it? This is the point of these beachhead talks. Is there anything we can find in our ordinary life, living in our story-mind world, that is of the true self? Is there something that can help us find a beachhead on that other shore?
In the first talks we came up with two things:
The Sense "I AM". Nisargadatta calls this the one bridge to our true nature. In itself it is not it, but it is the thread to follow. Deeply follow the sense of "I AM".
Bodily tension. People seem to relate well to this one. Bodily tension is a true measure of our suffering, and our suffering is the true measure of our distance from that other shore. It is like a built-in GPS locator.
With this talk, however, I want to bring up a third possibility: that this lighthouse, the light of the Absolute, is directly visible in ordinary life.
This is dangerous territory! Look at the history of religions. Most claim that the word of God came to someone long ago and was recorded in some book that is gospel. Most claim that there is some living authority, person or body, that is the ordained interpreter of the gospel and God’s will. And the punishments and wars have followed.
Zen, of course, tells us to look within for this light of the Absolute. So we are off to a good start.
If the Absolute is apparent in ordinary life, how can we recognize it? What is the light of the Absolute?
The light of the Absolute is a wisdom that is not separate from love. By love I mean that love that is impersonal and unconditional. A love that is impersonal and unconditional is beyond personal safety.
We can all name figures in history that have exhibited the wisdom that is not separate from this brave love. As some of you know, one of my current favorites is Sarah Chayes, who gave up being a war correspondent for NPR in order to start a small factory in Kandahar. Yeah, Afghanistan. She saw that what the people really needed was work, and so she started a small factory.
But Zen is not about anything outside of oneself. The light of the Absolute shines within each of us.
I think many of us have found it at the time when we needed it most. At times like a major illness; the end of a relationship, perhaps through death or divorce; or the loss of a job. You didn’t know where to turn! And, finally, you turned within, with a call for help, and there it was. The answer. The gracious solution, along with a peace, and a knowing that this is the way forward. Wisdom, not separate from love.
With each of these encounters comes a growing faith, a faith that this light of the Absolute is there to guide you in your life. A faith that it will be there when you need it, that it will never let you down.
And as that faith grows and you live more and more by that light, there can come a time when you know, for sure and certain, that what you are is that light, and that there is no better life than to just let that light shine forth.
Sam Gabriel, San Diego, CA
http://home.roadrunner.com/~clothespin
sam_gabriel@yahoo.com