No Middleman!
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The foundational viewpoint of Buddhism is that there is no middleman. No one, no person, higher power, deity, or institution, can do it for me. I have to realize the Truth for myself. Yes, they may be able to guide me but cannot do it for me. And that also means that no one can take the Truth away from me, except myself. Only I have power to delude myself. The more I create divisions (based on color, race, religion, status, beliefs, etc) and perceive them as real, further I get away from realizing the Truth. We are all One and we breath the same air! Zen Master: “We want you to learn these teachings so deeply that they lie upon your heart.” Student: “why don’t you put them in our hearts?” Zen Master: “That’s not our job. We just place them on the surface. Then when your heart breaks, they fall in.” Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the East from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not am not an entity in this world or in the next, origin story. My place is placeless, a trace I belong to the beloved, have seen the two first, last, outer, inner, only that ~Rumi (From Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks) |
